AI, machine learning and “propensity modelling” are already showing their potential, says Phillip Othen, Senior Writer at Lead Monitor. He should know: one of his colleagues is a “robo-journalist” filing 50 articles-a-week.
Imagine the noble art of marketing as a sporting competition and you quickly understand the need for game changers. Game changers are those exceptional talents who disrupt the flow of the game to make a sudden and decisive contribution.
Companies need game changers too. But it’s not just humans who are capable of making a vital contribution to the success of a business: intelligent technology also has this capacity.
As a senior writer at Lead Monitor – an AI-driven marketing platform by the same company behind such titles as New Statesmen and Press Gazette – I have worked with, and alongside, this technology. I have witnessed first-hand how artificial intelligence, machine learning and propensity modelling all have a vital role to play in “winning” digital marketing.
Everyone’s spending on tech, but they are investing wisely?
We’ve all seen how the adoption of technology within marketing has grown exponentially over the last year. But, even before the vicious pandemic struck, the global marketing technology industry value surpassed US $121bn worldwide, which represented year-on-year growth of more than 22%, according to Statista.
It should come as no surprise that, according to Gartner, 60% of marketing leaders plan to increase spending on technology in 2021, despite budget cuts across industry.
These numbers are all well and good, but if we are obsessed with winning, then surely everyone in marketing is coming to the same conclusion?
Well yes, but the key is in being selective and bold.
In November 2020, we spoke to Abhinav Kumar, who heads up marketing and communications for IT specialists Tata Consultancy Services, about the sheer number of tech solutions available to marketers.
“In terms of using technology inside the marketing function, the sheer number of options available has exploded. Chief Martec, which has been tracking the marketing technology landscape, lists that there are over 8,000 martech solutions available today to marketing departments, up from 3,500 in 2015 and just 150 in 2011.”
Of course a fair amount of these solutions will be very similar in nature, and you will see multiple attempts claiming to ‘revolutionise’ analytics and insights, or ’rethink’ content management and automation.
But there are three broad areas of game changing technology which, in my experience, are worth pursuing, especially as they can all interlock to enhance digital marketing.
1/ Artificial Intelligence
First coined in 1955, the term AI has featured in countless films and TV programmes, been the centre of heated Government debates around the world and is at the heart of most technical innovation.
Simply put, the machines have it better than humans. AI simply mirrors the best parts of our intelligence minus consciousness and emotion.
And, of course, it is only as effective as the algorithms behind the programming which is completed and maintained by – that’s right, you guessed it, human beings.
So you get complex task solving within an artificial environment, which won’t think too much about the meaning of life or sulk off.
I’ve personally worked alongside an AI “robo-writer” named Carmen, or to give her full name: Content Automated by Robots for the Monitor E-publishing Network. Carmen writes, on average, 50 articles a week for Investment Monitor spinning out guides to investing in Ecuador to Morocco, Jordan to France, replete with accurate financial and socioeconomic reporting.
