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[kaleav]

The End

Throughout this semester in Trendspotting, I learned a plethora of different things relating to the media industry. Some of the most fun being the K-Wave, the idea of cartographers thinking that California is an island ( oops! ). But I also took a lot away from this course regarding the ups and downs of trends within the media. I think as a graduate student being mixed in with undergrad was a fun experience and I really enjoyed being able to give my input on their projects and see the process they went through to come to the conclusion they came to! I definitely feel that I learned how to better predict incoming trends and lows within the industry (relating to the K Wave). I learned a lot about the AI trends in the industry and how they are shaping everything from digital media to becoming wearable fashion. AI was probably my favorite topic within this course because I feel that it will become a partner within the advertising industry and I will be using AI to better the future of advertising! Huge thanks to Professor Branagan for bringing in an abundance of speakers that were a huge eye-opener. Specifically my favorite was Volha Paulovich and her work with Pentopix. Trendspotting was definitely a course outside of my wheelhouse but I am so glad I took it and got exposed to all the new information I am now armed with!

[kaleav]

Having a type of full circle moment, I want to revert back to the Customer digital marketing lifestyle. As you can see its an ever-evolving circle of purchasing, awareness, and selection.

A step not listed in this diagram that I find quite important is Advocacy. While this is loosely tied to word of mouth, this lifecycle is somewhat dependent on Advocacy.

It's important to understand the customer lifecycle so that consumers and businesses are able to market to customers at the right stage in this lifecycle, and provide them with the best possible business experience.

[kaleav]

As you can see, this infographic shows the 5 utmost benefits within AI in digital marketing.

The personalization of marketing campaigns- allowing corporations and businesses to craft their content exactly to their target audiences liking

Predictive Analysis - using a business based algorithm to predict the analytics of a consumer

Improved customer service - spoken upon in depth on the previous post

Optimization of Ad Campaigns- Things like, strategically showing campaigns to a corporation or businesses ideal audience , but not limited to this

The Automation of Marketing Tasks - automating these tasks ensures that there is a variable in place for all tasks, managing a system that takes away the need for a human to do such mundane tasks

[kaleav]

Chatbots as Customer Engagement

The importance of Chatbots lies within the way people act. The human attention span has decreased to about 8 seconds. The idea is to get their work done as quickly as possible, which we all want to do right? Having chatbots doesn't just improve the customer experience, it saves business time and money. 

Customer service requests fall within the billions every year, which in turn costs businesses money to deal with these requests. 

Chatbots have the ability to do the following things for customer engagement, and more.

Encouraging the customer to understand the product

Keeping the consumer hooked with different methods of ideals

Sending images, videos, and audios to customers during service requests

Tracking Engagements

These methods along with a multitude of other reasons aid in the advancement of the consumer- chatbot experience.

[kaleav]

AI marketing- Broken Down

This infographic truly speaks for itself, but let me touch on a few elements.

The image highlights the core elements of AI marketing, those being:

Learning - the collecting and analyzing of consumer data to learn about a consumer preference

Big Data - touched upon previously, the datasets that train and incorporate machine learning algorithms

Powerful Solutions - how AI is offering a multitude of powerful tools to assist businesses and corporations in the automation of tasks, customer experiences and results

A different section of this graphic highlights a favorite part, the sections with the highest AI adoption rates. Which are as follows,

Financial Services at 48.7%

Telecommunications at 47.6%

Technology at 46.9%

Manufacturing at 45.2%

Retail at 44.1%

In previous posts I have talked about how BMW is incorporating Ai within their manufacturing of cars.

[kaleav]

AI Fraud

AI has obviously shown that it is capable of doing almost anything. New advancements have shown that its abilities have the power to detect differences in keywords, monitor activity, and assign fraudulent ideals to fitting content. This leads to the ideals of preventing click fraud and accounting hacks in different ways. 

According to Emeritus, these are the ways that AI can detect fraud: 

AI algorithms can detect anomalies like multiple clicks from the same IP address or flag any sudden spikes in account activity. 

Predictive modeling: AI algorithms can use machine learning to identify fraud patterns like IP addresses, locations, and device types. These algorithms can then predict fraud and prevent it. 

Natural language processing: AI algorithms can identify fraud-related keywords and phrases in chat logs and email conversations. 

Real-time monitoring: Businesses can detect and respond to fraudulent activity in real-time using AI algorithms. An AI algorithm can alert the account owner when an account is accessed from a new location. 

Fraud scoring: AI algorithms can assign a score to each transaction or activity based on the likelihood of fraud. This scoring system can help businesses to prioritize their response and focus their resources on the most high-risk transactions. 

This future of AI withholds a more advanced algorithm that has the ability to analyze real time differences, ensuring more accurate detection of said fraud activities.

[kaleav]

Broad Use

Maintaining the theme of AI within digital marketing, how are other companies making use of it in a more generalized way? 

Companies can use AI in a slew of ways, brainstorming, data analysis, content creation, and more. 

Using AI to brainstorm ideas is a universal experience across all companies. Ideas for content, recommendations, headline suggestions, and even writing outlines. One huge way the optimization of AI has manifested across all companies is the data analysis. 

Using AI for data analysis allows companies to gain an edge against similar corporations by uncovering their current marketing positioning, their specific keywords, or even the competitor tactics they use against these similar companies.  

Recently, companies like Adobe have incorporated AI into their programs. Adobe now has an AI generation system where you input a description of what you are visualizing, and create it to the best of its ability. I have personally used this feature, and it popped out exactly what I had visualized in my head but wasn’t able to create myself. 

Another AI improved personalization is similar to the use of AI in Amazon. Different websites use an algorithm of data collected by AI to suggest items or services you may be inclined to purchase based off previous purchases. 

This all goes to say what we already know about AI, its making its mark and certainly isnt going anywhere anytime soon.

[kaleav]

BMW Big Data

BMW has entered the AI arena. While AI is being harnessed within the power of self driving cars already, BMW is incorporating it into its whole manufacturing process. 

BMW uses Big Data to harness its power of design, sales, customer service and engineering processes. They incorporate the use of predictive analysis into creating the cars of the future. BMW is already on the playing field, having an AI enhanced sports car. This car learns about its driver so easily that it adjusts features within the car for an individual experience for each driver. 

BMW has also launched the use of an AI personal assistant in the car. This feature allows the driver to talk to the car. Including predictions about travel itinerary, alerts, and voice activated questions. 

BMW ensures the use of AI is something that will be staying around and making a more prominent scene within the automotive industry. Establishing vehicle control systems, rapid in -car networking, and technological transfers from car to car are only some of the things BMW is aimed to do in the future.

[kaleav]

Full Stop, Nike? Again

Doing a 360, we’re going to chat about Nike and their use of AI in their digital marketing efforts. Nike has always been involved in the technological advancements of sports, beginning in 2006 with the Nike+ sensor tracker. As we talked about, Nike is known for their innovative marketing for an apparel store. 

Recently they launched a customizable system that allows consumers to create their own design in the store. While this process itself isn't AI fueled, it allows for consumer data to be collected and used for future product or algorithm functionality. 

Nike has also acquired the body scanning system Invertex. A system that leverages 3-d scanning to create mass customization product lines. Which will potentially allow for the improvement of the Nike experience at every touch point.

[kaleav]

AI Again?

Another company using the strategy of incorporating AI into their digital marketing efforts is Starbucks. 

Starbucks uses their rewards program, loyalty card, and mobile app to analyze consumer data and behavior. Incorporating what purchases are made, what days, and what time of day. To customize the Starbucks experience to each individual consumer. 

I have personally experienced another one of their advancements within AI marketing. When approaching the area of my usual Starbucks shop, I get a Siri notification on my phone that says something along the lines of “Place your order?”. Now I usually use the Starbucks app to make my purchases, then pick it up through the drive-through window. So the app doing this did not surprise me. Starbucks keeps track of your most ordered items, while suggesting things you may like based on their algorithm. Suggested items are aimed for the idea of making you increase your average spend. 

I’d say this has worked wonders for Starbucks, using the data from over 90 million transactions per week, and analyzing it to find prime locations for new stores, and which products to continually offer.

[kaleav]

The Umbrella of Marketing

I want to move into another topic within the world of digital marketing. The use of AI within marketing content. Who’s doing it? Is it working? 

The first company noted to be leveraging AI within their marketing efforts is, unsurprisingly, Amazon. Their incorporation of AI generated content lies within their personalized shopping recommendations. Amazon uses specialized algorithms to remember your searches and purchases, and created a recommended page around things they believe you would purchase. 

Amazon has also expedited the use of AI when it comes to their pricing strategy. When products are in high demand, there's an algorithm that automatically raises the price of said product. On the other hand, the algorithm will lower the price of a product if more sales are needed. 

Amazon has also pioneered the lead of checkout-free stores. These stores have AI generated carts that scan an item when it is deposited into your cart, and maintain a running list of your products. When ready to check out, the consumer simply leaves, and the items in your cart are charged to your Amazon Go account. 

Advanced within AI use in digital marketing is something I personally love, and will be delving into more companies pioneering these strategies for the next few posts.

[kaleav]

AirBnB

AirBnB has gone through quite the revitalization as of late. Their digital marketing strategy aims to engage consumers ( travelers ) and hosts towards their platform rather than hotels. 

AirBnB relies heavily on user generated content to entice consumers and sway travelers that they are the way to travel versus the standard Marriott. AirBnB offers various types of content within their digital advertising efforts, including guest pictures of properties for rent, to hot-to videos for people who have a property that they want to list on AirBnB. 

For a different class this semester, I wrote a paper about how AirBnB has drastically over-taken the hotel industry. With more than 15% of travelers choosing to rent an AirBnB over a hotel room for a multitude of reasons. AirBnB offers customizable pricing, long-term stays, and the ability to pick specific accommodations. Want a hot tub inside your property? AirBnB probably has it. Accommodations that hotels don’t normally offer is where AirBnB creates its profit. 

AirBnB has mastered the idea of creating demand for their product by using already existing topics that relate to their business, and they’re doing it well.

[kaleav]

Nike!

Let's dive into Nike. As a whole they are a company known for many things. We did an assignment in this class about companies that are acting as a digital marketing company, while I didn’t use Nike for that assignment, I feel it fits very well. Nike sells abundances of products I'm sure we all know about. But they have become the center of advertising campaigns more and more in the past years. 

Their collaborations with famous athletes being the forefront of most of their advertisements, it leads unknowing consumers to view Nike as a moonlighting digital media company rather than a sports store. Whether that is intentional is something the consumer side will never know. 

Nike’s efforts to remain in the forefront of media have proved worthy. Collaborations with athletes like LeBron James (from Cleveland, like me!) Serena Williams, and a limitless list of more, have allowed Nike to be seen from an influencer marketing standpoint. 

Nike remains an industry leader, and stands as the most valuable global apparel brand for the 7th consecutive year as of 2022. They hold the largest share of sportswear at 15%, and exceed a 33 billion dollar value as of 2022.

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Red Bull is usually known for their “ Red Bull Gives You Wings” catch-phrase, but they also do a multitude of other campaigns and events to ensure their audience is engaged. 

Red Bull Flugtag Events consisted of human crafted air vessels, have the chance to fly. The idea was for consumers to create a large flying machine out of household items. They are set to fly off a 30 foot deck and into the Ohio River (I’m from Ohio!). 

Participating in this even aims to maintain the sight of Red Bull Gives You Wings, attempting to fly something not necessarily designed to fly based off creativity and how bad you want it. 

As the target audience is adventurists and daredevils all alike, anyone can come compete in this event sponsored by Red Bull. It ignited a competitive spirit and entertaining all audiences. Red Bull also pulls on the assistance of brand association in this campaign, mimicking Red Bull’s energy, adventure, and extreme activities they are known for.

[kaleav]

Heineken

Keeping in theme with successful digital marketing campaigns, Heineken came out with their version of the Dove Real Beauty campaign. Although along different lines, this campaign aims to show that men drink other things than beer, women can enjoy a Heineken, stressing that the stereotypes portrayed within the alcohol realm can also be broken. 

The Cheers to All campaign promoted Heineken beer to women, while attempting to address the representation issues within the beer industry. 

This digital media campaign allowed all Heineken consumers to see the level they believe beer should be within the alcohol industry. Showcasing the variety of people that consume Heineken past the stereotype that “only men drink beer”. While I feel the industry has taken strides to rid of most stereotypes, this one has lingered. 

Its purpose came from attempting to appeal to all consumers within the sports fan industry while previewing for the Soccer World Cup. Primarily targeting women soccer fans, and addressing gender biases. 

In addition to this campaign, Heineken launched a mobile webpage called Fresher Football, to address common questions asked about the UEFA Championships. They aimed to capitalize on the growing interest within women's sports.

[kaleav]

Old Spice , W+K

Another personal favorite within the digital advertising industry is Weiden + Kennedy’s portrayal of Old Spice's “ Smell like a Man, Man”. This campaign starred a man that centered around confidence and masculinity. 

The success of this campaign was based around humor to promote Old Spice’s products. Becoming a cultural phenomenon and being able to connect to a new audience but maintaining the appeal to their current audience as well. 

The ability of W+K to portray Old Spice in such a way while targeting multiple audiences, maintaining their brand image, and promoting their products. This campaign focused on the utilization of catch phrases, dramatic scenarios and content that's viral worthy.  

The goal of this campaign is to widen and redefine Old Spice’s brand image while maintaining its classic appeal to their usual consumers.

[kaleav]

Sephora!

Let's talk about Sephora and their digital marketing strategy. One of the first things noticed is that they operate under an Omnichannel approach. They excel in integrating online and offline experiences simultaneously. Thus meaning their website, mobile app, and in store experiences all connect and tell a story. Within Sephora’s main focus lies the importance of personalized experiences, this incorporating insights to drive consumer based options. 

One of Sephora’s most notable tactics include the use of AR/VR. Within the mobile app, try on a shade of eyeshadow, or mascara to see if it works with your features rather than buying it and disliking it. Another technique Sephora features is their use of content marketing within their Beauty Insider Community. This is a free rewards program offered to Sephora customers within the U.S. and Canada. This rewards program offers new products, rewards, and early access to products which encourages the consumer to join.  

Sephora also engages with user generated content on their social media platforms, something not all companies do. Their social media team duets Tik Tok, comments on instagram posts, and more to encourage their audience that they aren't just a silent follower. 

Something Sephora does that has dramatically improved their digital marketing is their continuous adaptability and innovation within their space. They are adapting to market trends the minute they happen, adjust to customer preferences, and are sole innovators of new makeup technologies to ensure they will be a leader within the beauty industry.