As industries evolve alongside technology, new capabilities are often required. What do marketers need to learn to get the most out of AI, for example, and how will it change their jobs?
In the middle of a discussion about the fundamentals of marketing and the notion of generative AI tools being just that (tools), we recognize new challenges and new potential pitfalls.
Paul Davies, Managing Partner of Econsultancy, spoke to three marketers at the Marketing Capability Leaders Forum last week and asked them how they hone their AI skills.
Questions the Average Marketer “Has Never Faced Before”
“(Beyond the fundamentals), there is (still) a need to learn things. We need to know how to learn the tools,” said Kate Narborough, global brand director at Nomad Foods, Europe’s largest frozen food company and owner of brands such as Birds Eye and Goodfella’s.
“There is language that we haven’t historically considered when we think about technology. Is it open or closed? What data do we include? Do we own this data? Can we delete this data? Is this data training someone else’s tool?
“These are questions that the average marketer on our teams has certainly never faced before, and (everyone) needs to be familiar with (AI) at all levels if they want to have fun use it, either as a keen enthusiast or because the company suggests they do,” Narborough added.
The frozen food industry already had a “technology triage” process in place, according to Narborough, but is “putting a lot of processes in place to ask people questions about what platform they want to use and why.”
Education around intellectual property is “very important”
Digital asset management is an area that Nomad Foods is currently investing in, with Narborough sharing its plan to build a closed system using generative AI.
As part of this project, Narborough emphasized the importance of “understanding intellectual property rules and regulations.”
“This level of education is really very important and cannot be underestimated,” she said.
“There will be a big improvement in skills… because there is no point investing in technology if everyone can’t use it in the best possible way and some people might turn out to be natural engineers and responsive, but there will be a lot of people who are not, and sharing the knowledge gained… will be really important,” Narborough added.
The investment will “happen”, but how quickly?
Sophia Angelis, senior vice president and director of global marketing excellence at wine and spirits producer Brown-Forman (owner of Jack Daniel’s), told Econsultancy’s Davies that there was “enthusiasm and fear” around AI in many sectors.
“From a marketing or knowledge worker perspective, I think it will fundamentally change the way we do things, but I’m excited about it because if it means you take the heavy lifting out of what we do as as marketers – these processes take time and have very little value. This frees up time to do more critical thinking, creativity or long-term strategic thinking,” Angelis said.
I think this will fundamentally change the way we do things.
However, Angelis was also realistic, saying that “it remains to be seen whether this investment and effort will come to fruition – in infrastructure, in data, in technology, in people. …He will it will happen, (but) how quickly will it be properly integrated? »
This point, that the potential of AI is slightly unclear, was echoed in comments from Kay Etherington, director of the Marketing Academy at Lego:
“We don’t know yet what it’s going to be,” Etherington said, comparing AI to the early commercial Internet. “I think we have no idea of the enormity of what this can do and (companies are) not willing to put our money where we are not sure,” she added.
This mixture of distrust and enthusiasm has undoubtedly been palpable in 2024 and was addressed in the Econsultancy report. 2024 Trend Forecasts Last January, we highlighted generative AI’s position at the top of the “peak of inflated expectations” in the hype cycle. The authors write: “The key advice here is, of course, to be wary of the hype and focus on use cases that deliver real business value. Be realistic about what to implement and why.
Could AI accelerate some marketers’ access to new specializations?
One of the biggest workplace concerns around AI is whether it risks eliminating some people’s jobs. This is actually the question asked by a member of the audience to the panel of marketing managers.
Nomad Foods’ Kate Narborough offered a counterpoint, saying that while the technology is not “pervasive across the business” and is only used in limited testing and pilots, some junior members of her team have it. seen as “a real opportunity”. “.
If you want to become the specialist, you can…
“One of the things that fascinates me is that there has always been a hierarchy (in our industry), to some extent, in terms of experience or superiority. Your boss tends to know more about production than you, for example. And that’s not the case today, if you’re using an AI tool for production, for creating images, for example,” Narborough said.
“It creates, in my team, a sort of meritocracy in that if you want to become a specialist, you can, and you can then bring that into the company.”
“The global vision of marketing has changed”
When Davies asked the panel about how they were building new capabilities, Lego’s Kay Etherington said: “One of the key things for us (is) having a more holistic view of what marketing is. »
“Global marketing isn’t just about looking at the situation while you’re running a campaign. (This is how) you envelop your audience in an experience (with) the digital tools that we develop; how you will track and measure your campaigns more effectively; how you can (achieve) rapid time to market, over time (changes), what AI tools help us do it much more efficiently; experiment with more ideas, so we can make sure what we’re doing is truly effective.
Throughout the discussion, Etherington highlighted the value of AI for interrogating data and said that “the ability to analyze data effectively and quickly” is a key skill “that we are looking for.”
Marketers Need Resilience, Too
Highlighting an important point to close the discussion, Brown-Forman’s Sophia Angelis offered some perspective on the core skills marketers need to navigate change.
Alongside the new “language, nomenclature and governance,” Angelis said, “there’s just a human element to change management and the ability for us to help build the resilience of a discipline that is becoming increasingly complex in a rapidly changing world.
“As a human being, having to navigate this change is incredibly taxing. So how can we improve this experience for marketers? »
