4 Items CMOs Need in Their New AI-Driven Digital Creative Playbook

Digital marketing was supposed to continue to perform, but fewer than one-third of CMOs surveyed for Nielsen’s 2018 CMO Report feel confident that creative is doing its job. The truth is, we’ve used data science and AI to optimize everything in marketing except marketing copy and creative. But that can finally change. Marketing AI and Machine Learning have provided a jolt for hundreds of brands.

The New CMO Playbook, available for download now, offers actionable advice from marketing executives who have experienced the frustration of holding digital marketing creative accountable first hand and how and why CMOs must get out of this rut to succeed. Below, we share four of the several critical insights from the book.

Word Scramble

When we talk about how intelligent machines are, and the way marketing teams can leverage that in campaigns, we aren’t saying humans aren’t smart. The average human knows about 40,000 words. But do we use 40,000 different words in our communications over the course of a year? The Persado team put this to the test in 2017 and studied email communications from the top 20 UK retailers. They found that, on average, brands only used 300 unique words in their email campaigns during this time. Machines can recognize and curate content with millions of words — a major differentiator for brands that send hundreds if not thousands of emails per year.

The Changing Role of CMOs

Marni Walden, who served as CMO of Verizon Wireless and later as Executive Vice President and President of Global Media and New Business at parent company Verizon Communications Inc. spoke with us about how CMOs have had to evolve to become more tech savvy. “In the past, a CIO was considered the owner of the data science and the CMO owned the creative,” Walden said. “Today and going forward marketers and CMOs need to be able to apply data and analytics to their work, even the creative work.” Walden said this is most difficult for CMOs who consider creative their “sweet spot,” but, as The New CMO Playbook details, integrating AI into this process doesn’t mean the marketing team will lose its ability to come up with fresh concepts.

Say, What?

Not the hottest of takes, but at the end of the day, most businesses need to drive continued growth to stay alive and thrive. Even artists and writers need to find what works. When asked what the difference between writing books vs. writing marketing copy was, Walden took a different approach. “If I were paying for those books or those paintings and nobody was buying them, I’d have to say we have to do something different,” she said.

AI-Driven Digital Creative Helps CMO Market Marketing

AI doesn’t just help brands best engage with their customers — it can help the marketing team position itself better internally. By being able to show the CFO and CEO actual data to back up marketing copy and creative decisions that are directly driving massive uplift in brand engagement and revenue growth, the CMO earns a strategic seat at the boardroom table and an important driver of the business. For more insights and advice on best practices for CMOs in today’s tech-savvy, AI-driven digital creative world, download the new eBook.