Marketing Briefing: How marketers are finding ways to use the latest buzzy AI tool, ChatGBT

By Kristina Monllos

Freelance creative director David Wecal has been testing the capabilities of ChatGBT — the artificial intelligence bot developed by OpenAI that’s been a hot topic among creatives in recent weeks — and posting the results on his LinkedIn.

Often engaging, sometimes surprising, Wecal is one of a number of creatives looking to understand what ChatGBT and similar AI offerings can do and what it will mean for the advertising industry.

So far, Wecal has found it to be “a tool to develop logic” that could possibly help craft social posts or news releases but it “doesn’t bring any style or humanity or a unique perspective,” he said. Industry professionals who have used ChatGBT (which is offering a “free research preview” according to a window that pops up when you sign up) say they’ve used it for brainstorms or to help them get past writers’ block. Marketers and agency execs say that they don’t see ChatGBT taking copywriting jobs but that it will likely be a tool advertisers use to help the creative process going forward.

“Think of it as a powerful jumping-off point that can spur ideas and help you narrow down the focus of what is possible,” said Christina Garnett, principal marketing manager at software company Hubspot in an email. “Initial question prompts that can gradually be expanded upon give creative teams a strong starting point they can either further lean into or deviate from.”

Ryan McDaid, head of strategy at creative shop Mojo Supermarket, echoed that sentiment.

“It can be helpful in early phases of a brief,” said McDaid. “It functions at the level of an intern who can pull information and aggregate info for you. It won’t come to conclusions and won’t give you the insight. But it will be a starting point to help you think about a project.”

Agency execs say that while clients aren’t asking about ChatGBT yet, agency employees have been testing its capabilities to determine how it can be used and what it can do for advertisers. Overall marketers and agency execs say that it is in an experimental and learning phase but ultimately they see it as a tool marketers will likely use going forward.

“ChatGBT is the new crypto… in terms of the hypecycle,” said Brendan Gahan, chief social officer and partner at Mekanism. “It’s here. It definitely has practical applications. It’s just the topic du jour. How it fits into our workflows long term and all its potential applications are [to be determined].”

Gahan continued: “Just like the introduction of Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop, it makes content creation more accessible. Can you imagine being a designer in advertising today who didn’t know how to use those tools? 20 years ago it was possible. But, today it’s the barrier to entry. The same will be true with AI.”

As its usefulness is being determined, some creatives have wondered if it will eventually hurt copywriters as marketers seek to save money by using AI. Marketers and agency execs say that AI has …read more

Source:: Digiday