Freelance creative director David Wecal has been testing the capabilities of ChatGPT \u2014 the artificial intelligence bot developed by OpenAI that\u2019s been a hot topic among creatives in recent weeks \u2014 and posting the results on his LinkedIn. <\/p>\n
Often engaging, sometimes surprising, Wecal is one of a number of creatives looking to understand what ChatGPT and similar AI offerings can do and what it will mean for the advertising industry.<\/p>\n
So far, Wecal has found it to be \u201ca tool to develop logic\u201d that could possibly help craft social posts or news releases but it \u201cdoesn\u2019t bring any style or humanity or a unique perspective,\u201d he said. Industry professionals who have used ChatGPT (which is offering a \u201cfree research preview\u201d according to a window that pops up when you sign up) say they\u2019ve used it for brainstorms or to help them get past writers\u2019 block. Marketers and agency execs say that they don\u2019t see ChatGPT taking copywriting jobs but that it will likely be a tool advertisers use to help the creative process going forward.<\/p>\n
\u201cThink of it as a powerful jumping-off point that can spur ideas and help you narrow down the focus of what is possible,\u201d said Christina Garnett, principal marketing manager at software company Hubspot in an email. \u201cInitial question prompts that can gradually be expanded upon give creative teams a strong starting point they can either further lean into or deviate from.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ryan McDaid, head of strategy at creative shop Mojo Supermarket, echoed that sentiment. \u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt can be helpful in early phases of a brief,\u201d said McDaid. \u201cIt functions at the level of an intern who can pull information and aggregate info for you. It won\u2019t come to conclusions and won\u2019t give you the insight. But it will be a starting point to help you think about a project.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Agency execs say that while clients aren\u2019t asking about ChatGPT 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cChatGPT is the new crypto\u2026 in terms of the hypecycle,\u201d said Brendan Gahan, chief social officer and partner at Mekanism. \u201cIt\u2019s here. It definitely has practical applications. It\u2019s just the topic du jour. How it fits into our workflows long term and all its potential applications are [to be determined].\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Gahan continued: \u201cJust 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\u2019t know how to use those tools? 20 years ago it was possible. But, today it\u2019s the barrier to entry. The same will be true with AI.\u201d<\/p>\n
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 a long way to go.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would heavily encourage copywriters to use it to stay up-to-date and make their work more efficient,\u201d said Garnett. \u201cCopywriters will be impacted by AI the way mathematicians were the calculator. Use it as a tool to improve your work and expand your impact with the efficiencies it creates.\u201d<\/p>\n
For what it\u2019s worth, Digiday tested out ChatGPT for this article. The first few times we tried to log on the system was overloaded. When we were able to get on, it gave us headline suggestions \u2014 we used a shortened, edited one \u2014 that were as one editor put it, \u201cbetter than I thought they\u2019d be.\u201d<\/p>\n
As a DTC business, how has Fresh Sends navigated all of the changes over the last year?<\/strong><\/p>\n It\u2019s been a crazy year. We\u2019ve been extremely fortunate from the get-go to have tons of organic traction. But on top of that, we had some really early success on TikTok. We were there from a young age and [we were] actually coined the TikTok flowers early on. This year has been really the first year we\u2019ve had to dive into building out a more detailed marketing strategy because it\u2019s been so fortunate that things have gone our way up until then. It\u2019s definitely been a tumultuous year, especially toward the end of the fourth quarter. We spent more on digital paid advertising than we ever had and didn\u2019t see a huge uptick.\u00a0<\/p>\n Given digital ads haven\u2019t offered much of a return on investment, what other tactics is Fresh Sends leveraging?<\/strong><\/p>\n Last year, [we] hired a content creator\/ambassador manager to start creating organic content. [That] has been a big push for us, creating authentic content that speaks to the mission of Fresh Sends, making people feel seen and loved. She\u2019s working really hard with a handful of creators, creating organic content [and] a bunch of UGC. That\u2019s been a big push.\u00a0We\u2019ve finally this year hired an agency to help us start to put together a better marketing plan going forward in the paid space, leaning on some of those tried and true stuff, such as search and organic search.<\/p>\n What\u2019s the plan for 2023?<\/strong><\/p>\n Creating content in general is really going to be [a focus]. All of the attributes on TikTok advertising have been lackluster in my opinion. So using our creator and having her manage a whole team of content creators throughout the country is one of our big pushes. We\u2019re hoping that will be an organic, authentic way we can gain traction on what Fresh Sends actually is and the mission that we\u2019re trying to accomplish. \u2014 Kimeko McCoy<\/em><\/p>\n Advertisers are experimenting more with in-game advertising to reach the gaming community, an audience largely considered under utilized. Gamers, however, prefer ads that don\u2019t interrupt game play,\u00a0according to recent research from Frameplay,<\/a>\u00a0a video game ad platform. Key findings from the report can be found below:<\/p>\n \u201cMost publishers are sitting on a vast amount of rich first-party data, and as privacy regulations continue to tighten, operating with first-party data will be a significant and powerful advantage in the future. With this, you can build more accurate audiences and discover new sources of revenue, all through privacy-compliant methods.\u201d <\/p>\n \u2014 Freddie Turner, EMEA md at programmatic agency MiQ when asked about Schibsted making its first-party IDs widely available in the open market.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\nBy the numbers<\/h2>\n
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