Embrace the future with generative AI in marketing
What was once futuristic is now reality: AI in marketing. Katharina Jäger, Head of Future Innovation & Tech at the German Association for the Digital Economy, reveals how CMOs can use generative AI marketing techniques to develop innovative strategies by combining efficiency, creativity and personalization.
Generative AI in marketing: opportunities, challenges and best practices
From the creation of automated marketing content to personalized customer experiences all the way through to optimizing the whole customer journey – generative AI tools such as ChatGPT and MidJourney are opening up entirely new opportunities for marketers when it comes to creativity and efficiency.
But while big brands like Coca-Cola are already integrating AI-generated content into their campaigns, many companies are left wondering: How can we put AI to good use as part of our strategy? What challenges will we need to overcome? And how can we measure long-term success?
We asked Katharina Jäger, Head of Future Innovation & Tech at the German Association for the Digital Economy (BVDW), to share her thoughts. She outlines the opportunities, challenges and best practices when it comes to using AI in marketing, explains how CMOs can chart their course for 2025 and reveals why people, not technology, are the factor that will determine whether using AI is a success or failure.
How has AI changed marketing over the last 12 months?
AI and AI applications are here to stay. They’re not just changing marketing, but also disrupting entire value chains and business models.
The use of AI in marketing has become indispensable. In particular, AI is being used to enable personalized customer experiences and improve the customer journey. This leads to greater marketing automation and accelerates the creation of text and image content.
In the last year, we’ve seen big brands like Coca-Cola experimenting with AI-powered marketing content.
This innovative approach demonstrates the potential of AI to revolutionize traditional marketing methods and open up new creative possibilities.
Next-level AI: how powerful are AI video generators really?
AI video tools are revolutionizing content production and making it possible to create impressive animations and videos in record time. But how good are these tools really? Read our story to find out which technologies are being used right now, what their potential applications are and how companies can get the most out of them.
Further advancements in the development and application of AI technologies will continue to have a lasting impact on marketing in the future and set new standards.
How can CMOs successfully integrate GenAI into marketing strategies?
Integrating AI into marketing strategies calls for a clear and systematic approach in order to leverage opportunities while addressing the associated challenges. The following steps will help you lay a solid foundation on which to successfully push forward your use of AI:
#1 Form an interdisciplinary team composed of marketing, data and technology specialists to bring together different perspectives and areas of expertise.
#2 Evaluate current AI skills using, for example, the BVDW’s AI Readiness Checker (in German only) to gauge the current level of AI skills among your staff.
#3 Arrange professional development opportunities for your staff to establish a basic understanding of AI and increase take-up. The BVDW is offering some exciting opportunities in the form of its AI Officer Certification course and its AI Basic E-Learning course (both available in German only).
#4 Identify relevant use cases by analyzing your own added value and processes to identify areas where AI applications can add value.
#5 Examine the ethical and legal frameworks to ensure that your use of AI applications complies with the applicable regulations and meets ethical standards.
#6 Initiate pilot projects to test out the use of AI applications in real scenarios and gain initial experience.
#7 Define clear performance measurement KPIs for your pilot projects in order to gauge the success of your AI initiatives and make adjustments.
#8 Integrate AI into the value chain by means of process orchestration, provided that your assessment of the success of your pilot projects yields positive results. It’s important to make sure that AI solutions aren’t applied in isolation, but rather integrated into the entire value chain by means of targeted process orchestration in order to ensure maximum efficiency and coherence
By taking these steps, CMOs can build a strong framework for the successful implementation of AI in their marketing strategies. Continuous adaptation in line with technological advances and a strong focus on collaboration between different departments will ensure lasting success. This way, artificial intelligence can be more than just a tool – it can become a strategic driver with the power to transform companies in the long term.
How are AI tools like ChatGPT and MidJourney changing the way marketing teams work?
AI tools, especially GenAI tools, are revolutionizing how marketing teams work in many ways:
#1 They increase efficiency by automating text creation and image generation tasks and can develop and implement marketing campaigns faster and at lower cost.
#2 They stimulate creativity at the brainstorming stage. AI tools make it possible to gather new ideas more quickly and create innovative content.
#3 They enable the creation of tailored and personalized content that’s customized to suit individual preferences or brand identities.
#4 They offer deeper insights into the behavior of customers, consumers or users so that well-informed strategic decisions can be made more quickly.
#5 They are increasingly taking on routine tasks, making the entire value chain more efficient and productive and allowing employees to focus on more relevant tasks.
However, there are also challenges that need to be taken into consideration:
- While large, well-resourced companies in particular are making extensive use of AI applications and leveraging their advantages, Germany’s small and medium-sized companies are lagging behind by European standards. They often lack resources such as budgets, specialist staff, time and infrastructure.
- The use of generative AI in marketing also raises ethical and legal questions about data protection, copyright and potential discrimination that need to be addressed and answered. The complexity of these factors often still prevents companies from integrating AI applications.
2025 will be a year filled with potential when it comes to use cases, and German companies can play a meaningful role on this front.
How can we make sure that AI-generated content is consistent with brand identity?
We at the BVDW are ourselves an example of the successful integration of AI into brand identity. As part of our rebranding initiative in August 2023, we worked with the brand agency Mutabor to develop a bespoke visual universe, which is created using an image-generating AI tool and reinforces the BVDW’s new brand identity (article available in German only).
By using this AI-based tool, we ensure that our AI-generated content is always appropriate to the context and in line with our corporate design, that it strengthens our brand identity at all times and is used consistently in customer communications.
To achieve consistency with brand identity, the following elements need to be in place:
- Clear definition of brand identity: First, all values, the vision, the objective, the tone of voice and the visual elements of the brand must be documented in detail to ensure consistent communication.
- Training of AI models: Whether developed in-house or externally, the AI tool needs to be trained with brand-specific data so that it generates content in the desired style and tone of voice.
- Human review: A QA and review process must be set up in order to check the brand compliance of the AI-generated content before its publication. It’s also essential that the training data is continuously adapted and updated.
How can CMOs measure the long-term ROI of AI in their marketing strategies?
Using GenAI in marketing can optimize processes and offer innovative solutions. Determining just how successful companies are at doing this is becoming increasingly important. However, without suitable ways of measuring performance, the actual benefits often remain unclear.
The first point to keep in mind is that the measurability of generative AI’s impact is still in its infancy. Although AI tools have made impressive progress in a very short space of time, systematically and accurately evaluating their performance remains complex.
Nevertheless, CMOs can combine a number of methods and KPIs to measure the success of AI-driven marketing strategies:
#1 Success in numbers: CMOs should continuously monitor their AI models in terms of accuracy, precision and other metrics, especially in applications such as text generation or language processing.
#2 User feedback: End-user satisfaction, measured by net promoter score (NPS) or usability score, provides insights into the acceptance and benefits of AI-powered marketing solutions.
#3 A/B testing: By directly comparing different versions of AI models, CMOs can determine which variant leads to higher conversion or click-through rates, indicating a direct contribution to ROI.
#4 Business metrics: By monitoring growth in revenue, reductions in costs and increases in productivity, companies can see the direct economic impact of their AI use. With this data, they can accurately assess ROI by comparing financial outcomes with AI expenditure.
#5 Qualitative assessments: In creative fields such as advertising and design, experts should evaluate the content to gain deeper insights into the relevance and aesthetics of the AI-generated content.
#6 Technical efficiency: By monitoring computing time, energy consumption and other technical performance indicators, CMOs can ensure the efficiency of AI systems and identify opportunities for optimization.
However, to measure ROI in the long term, CMOs must also consider the challenges involved, such as insufficient data, the complexity of AI models and the need for customized solutions. Measuring the performance of AI, especially generative AI in marketing, is therefore a complex task. Companies need to develop innovative and flexible strategies in order to meet the challenges and uncover the true added value of AI.
“For those of us involved in the digital economy, the need for action is clear. Industry-wide standards and best practices are required to ensure consistent and transparent performance measurement. This calls for collaboration and dialogue between companies and research institutions. However, it’s not only the performance of the systems that we need to measure. More importantly, attention must also be paid to the employees tasked with shaping this transformational change. The goals must be to reveal the true value of this future-oriented technology in the long term and use it in a way that benefits people and business.”
Generative AI in marketing: key to future-proofing the industry?
GenAI is revolutionizing marketing by taking efficiency, creativity and personalization to a new level. Although it offers enormous opportunities for CMOs, it requires a strategic approach in order to realize its full potential.
Automated marketing – from content creation through to customer journey optimization – paves the way for innovative ideas that can strengthen a company’s competitive advantage. At the same time, ethical, legal and technical challenges mean that the use of AI must be planned and implemented carefully.
CMOs who get to grips with the possibilities and limitations of the technology at an early stage, build interdisciplinary teams and define clear criteria for success will establish the foundations for integrating generative AI into their marketing strategies in the long term. With this approach, AI can be transformed from a mere tool to a strategic driver capable of future-proofing brands.
Don’t miss any important news from the world of digital marketing, both nationally and internationally! Subscribe to the new DMEXCO newsletter “Digital Digest” and receive the latest information directly in your mailbox every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
