How Generative AI is Revolutionising Marketing

Every man and his dog is generating images with AI these days. I’ve even dabbled in a few myself; I did a Red Dead Redemption one, among other things.

There are multiple tools you can use to make generative images in AI. Canva, Runway and Chat GPT are pretty good, and now Open AI’s heavy duty image generator, Sora, has just been made available in the UK, too.

So the question now is:

Could generative AI revolutionise marketing?

And if so, what could that mean for marketing strategies, for clients, for suppliers and for society as a whole?

Right now, for instance, big brands are all creating these generative AI action figures; Aldi are doing it, Holland & Barrett are doing it, everyone.

But they’re all using the same prompt. It’s not just about being able to create something – it’s about being able to create clever, well-thought-out prompts to create the thing you want. Prompt engineering, basically.

And what the f**k is that, you might be wondering?

It’s someone who can write a proper prompt, or in other words, enter high-quality information and instructions into whatever AI tool they’re using, to generate content.

If you’ve got a bit of creativity about you, you can create things that you’d never have been able to create before. In fact, you can pretty much create anything you put your mind to; Facebook ads, interactive web content…

The world’s your oyster.

It’s useful at a practical level, too.

We had to reprint our brochures the other week because one of the photos wasn’t high enough definition. So we upscaled it with AI and now it’s sharp as anything.

It took seconds, and it saved us having to source another image.

I’m playing with Runway quite a lot at the moment; you can use it to create little movie scenes even synthesise your voice into a script. I might even use it to finally make an audio version of my book.

So yes, I think generative AI has massive potential.

But that’s also making people quite nervous.

Graphic designers, for instance, are really panicking about AI right now. But if they’re good, there’s nothing to worry about. It will either make them better designers, or it’ll make them brilliant prompt engineers because they’re already creative.

For example, they might take a photo of the Shropshire hills, but then make it into the gothic style of Sleepy Hollow because they’re creating a Halloween poster for a local event.

You need a creative mind to be a good prompt engineer.

Just as you have to be a good copywriter to know if the AI copy is good enough.

And there are so many real-world uses for AI. For example, I’m building out a sales funnel in our CRM system for a new campaign where we’re sending out boxes to our prospects.

With the help of AI, I’ve built a nurture funnel on the other side where when people get the box and three days later, they’ll get the first email and that triggers a series of emails.

To me, it’s insane that we can do that.

But if they click the link and watch the video, it takes them into a different nurture sequence. And then if they book a call, it takes them into another different sequence.

Then, when all these actions have been done, the AI writes them a personal email that’s unique to them, based on how long it took them and what they consumed.

That’s actually mental. It blows my mind.

Recently, I was with a client looking at AI call answering services. You can synthesise your own voice if you want to – even put accents on it.

Because perhaps most of your customers live in the Northeast, and maybe they’d prefer to hear someone with the same accent.

But everything comes with risk.

It’s so exciting to press all these buttons and try all these prompts and come up with all this stuff.

But if you start to rely on it, there’s a real risk of losing – or diluting – your brand voice, and no one knows what you stand for anymore.

This is why you really have to train AI to speak, write, draw and create pictures in a style and format that keeps your brand consistent.

Brand guidelines will have a resurgence.

And it’s not just going to be: “Oh, here’s our logo, this is our colour scheme etc.”

Now it’ll be: “Here are some examples of our brand voice in written and spoken form. These are the synthesised voices you’re allowed to use with our brand” etc.

Another potential risk is the erosion of trust.

I think you need to be very smart in your comms and be clear that something’s AI, because if you’re not, you could start to lose your customers’ trust.

These action figures, for instance. I did one of myself as The Rock, which I’m obviously not, but it was funny. But if you try to make one that looks like you but you’re 50 kilos lighter, you’re not kidding anyone.

As with everything, the strength of what you do with AI relies on the strength of your prompts.

If you’re not using AI right now, start by creating an image.

Go into ChatGPT and ask it to help you write a detailed and intricate prompt to get the best possible image result. Tell it the features you’d like, the style, the colours. Take the prompt it gives you, and create your image.

Then you’ll really go down the rabbit hole.

Another clever exercise you can try.

Give Chat GPT an overview of your business, then tell it to act like a Senior Business Manager who’s looking for flaws in the business. Instruct it to ask you questions that will help it determine what those flaws are.

Recently, I was watching this guy, Simon Squibb. He’s the guy on Instagram who goes up to strangers on the street and says ‘what’s your dream?’. When they do, he offers them money to start their dream business.

He built a marketing agency called Fluid in Hong Kong, and within around five years, he’d taken it to something silly like 400 million.

I was like: “How the f**k did he do that?”

So I used ChatGPT’s Deep Research function. I told it I wanted to understand how Simon Squibb had taken Fluid from nothing to 400 million.

I asked stuff like what strategies they used, how they priced their services, who they worked with, and any other insights.

It gave me a 40-page report, so I told it to reverse-engineer that information. I said: “Imagine that Codebreak’s starting from zero. What steps would we need to take in the next three years to duplicate the success of Fluid?”

And it gave me this unbelievable guide.

That’s what’s possible. That’s where AI can really benefit your business.

But if you just use AI to jump on a trend and create a few action figures in the hope that it’s gonna change your business?

You’re having a laugh.

Don’t miss the next episode of Stay Hungry – we’ll dive into straight-talking insights on business marketing, growth mindset, and the realities of running a business. And if you want to take the hassle out of your marketing, we’ve got you covered with our done-for-you service.