By Girish Ramachandra
The K-Pop band eternity recently dropped their latest single “DTDTGMGN”. This has become a hit number for an entirely different reason – none of the members of this band are real. Using AI generated stars, the band is blurring the lines between the real and virtual where they are using software generated avatars swapping in for real performers.
While this is surely interesting, this application of AI is not entirely new. Back in 2021, Cadbury Celebrations ran an interesting AI powered campaign where they got actor Shah Rukh Khan to feature in digital ads as an ambassador individually for more than a hundred thousand local shops across India.
This is a good example of blending AI to amplify human creativity. Cadbury Celebrations found success in this campaign not because of its use of technology, but for how it leveraged AI for the larger cause of helping small businesses which were finding it hard to recover from the pandemic induced slow down.
In a world where technology continually reshapes the way we live, work, and play, it comes as no surprise that the advertising and entertainment industries are transforming massively using AI. From personalised marketing campaigns to creative content generation, AI is revolutionising how businesses connect with their audiences and how we consume entertainment.
Personalisation at scale
AI has the potential to eliminate generic ads that fail to address anyone in particular. Leveraging AI to match content customised to specific audiences and contexts can help marketers activate personalised conversations at scale. This level of personalisation can improve use experience, and also build loyalty and trust with users. Essentially, the ability for brands to make a million people feel like they are one in a million.
Creative content generation
AI is making a big impact in the world of creative content. From tools that help writers generate ideas, headlines or even full articles. AI is also helping generate art – paintings, illustrations and even music. For advertisers, this transforms how they generate creative ideas for ads based on the brand and its products. AI can help with visuals for ads such as images, videos or animations based on product pack shots and other official brand content. AI can also be an useful antidote for the classical “writers block” – it can help generate optimised copy for ads, including headlines, taglines and product descriptions.
The power of predictive analytics
A very good use case for AI is predictive analytics – the ability to use large data and algorithms to make predictions on events such as the likelihood of a person paying attention to an ad in her newsfeed, the odds of her clicking the ad and making a purchase and hence, the overall effectiveness of an ad campaign. Combined with automation, media buying and campaign management will also be more efficient. AI can also help create a useful feedback loop to optimise ads in real time and make them more effective. Done well, this has the ability to reduce the ad fatigue that most consumers deal with, and quite likely to have ads that delight them with information that they find useful and timely.
Ethical considerations and challenges
While AI’s influence of the ad and entertainment industries offer numerous benefits, it also raises important ethical questions and challenges. Generative AI is often limited by the data set that it’s trained on – so if the training data has inherent biases and prejudices like race, colour, gender and other factors. When these biases are reflected in the generated content, it can lead to perpetration of stereotypes at scale which can be quite negative for brands that endeavour to be diverse and representative.
Furthermore, the rise of AI-generated content has sparked debates about intellectual property rights and the role of human creators in a world where machines can replicate their work. It’s crucial to establish ethical guidelines and regulations that ensure fair compensation and recognition for human creative efforts.
The future of AI in advertising and entertainment
In the world of advertising and entertainment, AI surely promises to bring about exciting changes. Advancements in AI-powered content are on the horizon, with an ultimate goal of seamlessly blending human creativity and machine intelligence.
With the technology and data infrastructure for AI becoming more accessible, one should not be surprised if multilingual productions like KGF and RRR become more of a norm! And as AI’s ability to interpret real-time data continues to improve, one can also anticipate an elevated level of personalisation powering meaningful brand conversations that users love to join.
To be successful in this new landscape, creators and businesses alike must embrace this technology as a transformation opportunity, and be thoughtful about the ethical and societal implications.
The author is founder and CEO of Shopalyst.