By Davis Jones, Senior Account Executive at SWC Partnership
The new AI frontier. You’ll have seen it popping up everywhere – but how can it help us in today’s fast-paced digital world? At SWC, over the past year or so, we have been working with our UP There Everywhere colleagues to explore how it can support what we do, and in turn benefit our clients.
AI has emerged as a game-changer for international marketing agencies. Through AI, agencies can explore an additional angle to new creative territories, streamline processes, and develop strategic campaigns that resonate deeply with their target audiences. In this article, we delve into how our agency utilises AI ethically to support our clients, and how AI tools can be used thoughtfully to take creative and strategic work to new heights.
1. Exploring New Creative Territories
AI empowers our creative team to push boundaries. They can produce variations on existing ideas and brainstorm entirely new concepts – at pace. They can also test theories by using AI to research local nuances, for example geographical or cultural differences between regions, which can help to inform a creative brief. AI can distil and analyse vast amounts of data, allowing team members to generate detailed analysis without as much legwork. This means we can offer more specific and well-researched ideas, earlier on in the process, including the identification of emerging trends, bringing real added value to our clients.
Our recent blog #AlwaysAddHuman explored the notion that however advanced or sophisticated AI tools might be – they must not be used in place of the human touch.
Image: An example of a visualisation for a line UP produced for a US client, ‘Venture into the Known’.
2. Creating Mood Boards to Inspire Early Thinking
Mood boards are a cornerstone of the creative process, and AI has revolutionised how we can create them. With AI tools, we can quickly generate and curate mood boards, visually demonstrating early ideas in a way that wouldn’t be as easy to achieve using traditional stock imagery. This approach not only saves time but also ensures that our creative direction considers trends.
3. Summarising or Distilling Information Quickly
In the world of international marketing, speed and accuracy are crucial. AI helps us process vast amounts of information, enabling us to make informed decisions more quickly.
By leveraging AI to summarise background market information, we can focus our time more on strategic planning and creative execution, ensuring that our campaigns are both timely and effective.
Photo description: A human and AI robot sharing the birth of a creative idea
[Photo credit: Adam McNaught Davis, Creative Director at UP There, Everywhere]
Pro tip #1: Ensuring Confidentiality and Handling Sensitive Information
At our agency, the security and confidentiality of our clients’ information is paramount. By always ensuring human oversight, and handling any business information with the utmost sensitivity, we ensure our clients’ trust and compliance with privacy regulations are upheld at all times.
4. Strategising and Producing Tactical Campaign Ideas
AI can be the ace up your sleeve when coming up with tactical campaign ideas. By analysing consumer behaviour and market trends, AI can help us develop targeted campaigns that resonate.
By leveraging AI’s vast knowledge base in the initial stages of a project, we can help you think outside the box, coming up with ideas that may not have been considered before. We then get to work on selecting and building upon these ideas, adding the human flair to the creative process.
5. Copywriting and Content Writing
Content is king in marketing, and AI-powered tools have revolutionised content creation. From generating blog posts to crafting social media updates, AI enables us to produce high-quality content more efficiently. While AI can play a useful role in content production (it helped me write this blog!), human oversight is nonetheless critical as it ensures that the end result maintains a natural and engaging tone.
Pro tip #2: Always Add Human™ and Uphold Ethics
While AI tools are extremely useful and can enhance our creative offering, we believe wholeheartedly that there’s no replacement for human input. This principle is core to our parent company’s policy, #AlwaysAddHuman. We are in the business of creating emotional connections, and our focus is to ensure that your brand resonates deeply with your target audience.
Our commitment to ethics is unwavering; we adhere to carefully considered principles that guide our professional use of AI, without compromising integrity or trust:
Pro Tip #3: Use Call Recording and Transcription Software
Call recording and transcription software is another handy tool that makes account management more efficient. AI tools (such as Otter.ai and Grain) allow us to capture and analyse client interactions, for example providing summary notes after a project status call. This means less time typing up notes, and more time working on your campaigns!
Acknowledging Complexity and Addressing Concerns
While AI offers a plethora of advantages, it’s also essential to acknowledge potential concerns, and maintain strong values when using these tools. Ethical considerations, such as data privacy and algorithmic biases, are factors that we carefully manage. By maintaining a balance between human creativity and AI capabilities, we can ensure that we bring clients the best of both worlds; the very best creative ideas and campaigns, coupled with increased efficiency and insights.
The Future of AI in Marketing
Looking ahead, there will be endless possibilities for innovation. As AI technology continues to evolve, businesses that embrace AI will stay ahead of the curve. Our agency is committed to exploring new AI-driven solutions that enhance our services and deliver unparalleled value to our clients.
At SWC, we are enthusiastic about embracing new technologies based on AI. In fact, we see it as a never-before-seen opportunity to elevate our human abilities. We are already demonstrating that by collaborating with AI, we can achieve new dimensions of creativity, efficiency, and impact in our work.
Ready to see how the combined power of A.I. and humans can take your brand to the next level? Get in touch with our MD, Simon Cristal.
