Analog Intelligence
The AI marketing boom is here. And not just for auto-generated creative or campaign optimization.
San Francisco is one of the few places (besides airports) filled with B2B advertising on billboards. Good luck relaxing during a stroll with your iced coffee and Tartine pastry on a weekend, because you’ll walk or drive by dozens of ads for AI HR startups, AI security startups, AI CRM startups. You get the deal.
With billions of dollars flowing into San Francisco-based startups, “a lot of that money will go toward marketing,” reports The New York Times in a story about an out-of-home campaign for the streaming TV ad tech startup Vibe.
Vibe placed a series of billboards around San Francisco that jokingly pitched the ability to target particular tech leaders with ads for your startup or service. One tagline: “Target Elon on TV,” with a picture of a sink.
The idea was that people (or a Times reporter) would look up the company that’s placing strange billboards around town. It’s supposed to be a conversation starter with startups and tech companies who get the references (e.g., the shoulder of a black leather jacket references Jensen Huang, a pointy bald dome for Marc Andreessen).
Vibe can’t directly target Elon Musk, Jensen Huang, etc.
But it can target a class of people, like executives in a particular region, says CEO Arthur Querou.
“A lot of people in S.F. will not understand the joke,” he says, “but the people we want to talk to do get the joke.”
Is Agentic Overrated?
Just because “agentic AI” is in ad trade headlines every day doesn’t mean marketers are actually using it.
… Yet.
Many marketers feel it’s still too soon to fully entrust advertising workflows to agentic AI, Digiday reports. While AI is useful for generating media plans, creatives and reporting, there are certain fundamental flaws in the media and programmatic supply chain that marketers want to see addressed before they feel comfortable letting AI take the wheel.
Some of these flaws are principal trading, fragmentation and a lack of transparency and measurement standardization, just to name a few.
When it comes to agentic AI, “the smart advertisers aren’t rushing to deploy the technology – looking at their current business processes and where AI can genuinely improve them,” says Gerry D’Angelo, a senior advisor at McKinsey and former VP of global media at P&G. “Most of those opportunities are about efficiency.”
In other words, it’ll be a little more time before the robots take over completely.
Under The Influence
Yesterday, we noted the recent embrace of influencer marketing by big CPG brands – but that doesn’t apply to AI-generated influencers. Brands, CPG or otherwise, aren’t into that.
But AI-generated accounts are still cashing in, Business of Fashion reports. Brands are reluctant to work with fake influencers because, for one, generative avatars aren’t great for realistic product demonstrations. And because customers would likely respond poorly if they intuited or found out the brand uses fake influencers.
Still, the generative-AI social accounts can make a living, so to speak, because social networks have established affiliate programs for creators. And AI accounts are welcome there.
The AI-generated accounts sometimes imitate legit influencers, particularly among trustworthy categories like doctors and dentists who give product endorsements or reviews on social media. And seemingly none of the social networks are able to effectively police this subterfuge.
There’s also an even more cynical angle. The US brand Grande Cosmetics found AI-generated accounts that derided its products – by creating fake content that alleged its lash serum causes eye irritation, for example – while consistently promoting a Korean competitor brand called JiYu.
Instead of influencing, AI accounts may also be for sale simply to discredit rival products.
But Wait! There’s More!
Creators eye Snapchat as a reliable income alternative to TikTok and YouTube. [Digiday]
Ring’s “Search Party” feature was marketed as a tool for finding lost dogs – but it plans to expand the surveillance tech beyond pets. [404 Media]
Oops! A bug in Microsoft Office exposed confidential emails to Copilot AI. [TechCrunch]
Facebook is doubling down on creator monetization, and Indonesian creators are leading the way. [Rest of World]
On this new online marketplace, AI bots can rent out humans to do the (physical) labor that a disembodied agent just can’t. [Wired]
James Talarico’s Texas Senate primary campaign – and YouTube – received boosts after the FCC stepped in to prevent a regular interview from airing. [Variety]
Black agency leaders on DEI’s quiet phase – and why courage still matters. [Ad Age]
You’re Hired!
Taboola taps ex-Amazon exec Krishan Bhatia as its first chief business officer. [Adweek]
Roku names former Meta and Snap exec Patrick Harris as its SVP of global media revenue. [Variety]
The E.W. Scripps Company names Oliver Gray VP, network sports and client partnership. [release]
