LAS VEGAS – Popular apps such as ChatGPT and DALL-E have showcased the growing capabilities of generative artificial intelligence, but other forms of the technology have been used by media and marketing professionals for several years.
“AI has really been helping us in an everyday context, specifically AI-driven optimizations and pattern detection and performance,” JiYoung Kim, president of WPP’s GroupM Nexus for North America, said in this interview with Beet.TV contributor Mike Shields at CES 2024. “It is allowing our teams to spend more time interpreting why better performance is happening, rather than manually optimizing campaigns.”
As with any new technology, AI requires a degree of experimentation to hone its features and to deliver the right results.
“You have to resist the temptation to let the machines replace human ingenuity,” Kim said. “Our role is to constantly push the platforms and our partners to maintain our ability to extract insights and the underlying causes for why campaigns or components of a campaign perform better or worse.”
GroupM Nexus announced a collaboration with Amazon Ads to co-develop and launch the Amazon Marketing Cloud Maturity Framework, which aims to help marketers identify the most suitable software tools for their brands.
Blockchain and Cookieless Web
CES typically showcases the latest devices that consumers can expect to see in stores by Christmas time, and technologies that shape how people work. Kim said she was interested in an application called Doughnut that uses blockchain, the technology that powers cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, to support privacy-safe consumer identifiers.
As tracking cookies disappear, several companies have been working to develop an identifier technology that protects people’s data privacy while also helping advertisers to personalize brand experiences.
“If you are not seeing a new piece of technology and feeling a little tingle of fear, it can’t possibly be that disruptive,” Kim said. “That is an indication of, in the back of our heads, recognizing how big and disruptive this could be to all of our lives.”
Retail and Performance Media
Retailers that sell advertising are having a significant effect on how brands allocate their media spending. That growth coincides with television becoming more transactional, turning the biggest screen in people’s homes into another interactive channel.
“It’s taking the experience and it’s pointing us in a direction where it’s meant to be immersive and engaging,” Kim said. “It becomes so much more important for practitioners like us to be able to put all of these components together for better business outcomes.”
You’re watching “AI: Powering an Optimized Advertising Ecosystem,” a Beet.TV Leadership Series at CES 2024, presented by DoubleVerify. For more videos from this series, please visit this page.
