AI To Buy: How Technology Is Helping To Optimise Modern Marketing

Artificial intelligence (AI) transforms marketing and advertising in the digital age, opening new business horizons. From analysing consumer behaviour to automating advertising campaigns, AI is emerging as a pivotal tool for achieving more effective audience engagement and attaining financial goals.

Kirill Baryshkov, Global Business Partner of L'Oréal (innovative project in the field of digital marketing), told our publication about the role of new technologies in marketing and promotion for this year - and beyond!

Kirill, how long have you been involved in marketing, and what innovations have you introduced throughout your various projects?

I entered the marketing field nearly 17 years ago and have grown alongside the industry throughout my career. I experienced the challenges of the severe economic crisis in 2008, as well as the surge in creative campaigns designed to navigate out of the crisis. I also witnessed the birth of digital marketing—a direction that fundamentally changed the game and altered market power dynamics. My expertise in digital marketing was recognised by L'Oréal, where I was invited to work about 8 years ago.

Over the years, I have had many ambitious projects, each characterised by a consistent objective: to employ evidence-based methods to ensure that every dollar invested in marketing pays for itself and yields double the company's profit.

One of my early contributions was exploring collaborative opportunities with key partners to refine marketing strategies and enhance campaign outcomes. By enabling swift adjustments, these collaborations allowed for more effective resource utilisation and greater advertising reach.

What role did technology play in the transformation of marketing strategies?

In 2020, the global shift toward digital channels and the rapid expansion of e-commerce emphasised the importance of adopting innovative approaches in marketing. To remain competitive and effective, I focused on integrating advanced tools and methodologies that allowed a deeper understanding of audience behaviour and preferences.

I focused on leveraging advanced tools to better understand customer interactions and market trends, enabling more informed strategic decisions. This approach supported the development of strategies tailored to meet evolving consumer expectations.

Another critical area of focus was predictive analytics and automation. These tools allowed us to improve the precision of our strategies and adapt to market changes more effectively. Combining these tools with a data-driven mindset made it possible to respond quickly to market changes and optimise results across multiple initiatives.

This work demonstrated how leveraging modern technologies can transform marketing efforts into more effective and scalable solutions. The results reinforced the value of innovation in achieving long-term business growth and delivering meaningful outcomes for both brands and their audiences.

In what other ways can artificial intelligence support a marketing professional?

In my opinion, AI has taken centre stage in today's business landscape. Its prominence stems from its unparalleled ability to handle large data sets, granting marketers many advantages. AI empowers marketers with forecasting capabilities, providing an overview that aids in making informed decisions, identifying trends, and directing budgets more effectively as businesses accumulate more and more data—beyond the scope of human analysis—AI steps in to process this information swiftly. While it might take me 24 hours to analyse data manually, AI can accomplish this in 3 to 5 minutes, allowing me to focus on refining strategies and selecting optimal next steps.

Equally important is the fact that artificial intelligence's applications for marketers are essentially limitless. AI encompasses a wide range of technologies, including biometrics, computer vision, natural language processing, and data analysis. Tools like GPT chat can quickly provide valuable insights about your audience with a simple query—which would be challenging to uncover through manual searches or traditional reports.

When used correctly, AI can reduce the burden of routine marketing tasks, such as creating banners, logos, slogans, formulating search ads, copywriting, and generating leads. AI is also great for analysing and segmenting your audience, ensuring that your messaging and activities target the right customers most likely to engage. The goal of any marketing department is to maximise return on investment through new customers and increased sales. AI is becoming one of the most promising tools for achieving this objective and building stronger and more efficient marketing strategies in a fast-evolving environment.

What are the interests and economic benefits of implementing AI in digital marketing? What examples have already become benchmarks in the industry?

In digital marketing, as with marketing in general, the ultimate goal is to offer the customer a personalised offer. While creativity plays a crucial role in crafting successful advertising campaigns, it is fundamentally supported by a deep knowledge of the client and their needs. AI provides tools to enhance this knowledge, including speech and image recognition, semantic search, and machine learning based on neural networks.

I know many examples where brands that strategically integrated AI into their marketing processes have gained significant advantages over their competitors by adapting content to specific consumer characteristics. For example, AI tools like Google Deep Mind have demonstrated the ability to analyse audience preferences and support more tailored marketing approaches.

Looking at the broader impact, introducing such resources often leads to increased company productivity. For instance, using AI-powered tools has shown significant efficiency gains, streamlined processes, and reduced resource consumption.

Using analytical tools like Amazon AWS and Google Cloud Machine Learning Engine offers economic benefits. These platforms improve data interpretation accuracy and facilitate personalised customer engagement through social networks. Additionally, AI-driven chatbots reduce the need for human resources, allowing teams to focus on developing unique creative concepts—an area where human creativity remains irreplaceable by AI.

What are the potential drawbacks to be mindful of when integrating AI into marketing?

The most apparent drawback is the time and resources—human and financial—needed to implement AI into your processes. This includes the effort required to train the AI platform based on customer preference data.

However, there is a counterargument: once the AI system is up and running, it can save significantly more time on analytics, allowing for more efficient and timely decision-making.

Another critical consideration is the quality and accuracy of the data used to train the AI. The effectiveness of AI tools depends on the accuracy of the data provided, making data quality a key priority.

Additionally, ethical considerations are important. For instance, AI-generated images should not mislead the customer and indicate that they are unreal. This is essential to prevent customers from having unrealistic expectations. Maintaining transparency and providing truthful information is a universal requirement for all businesses.

Lastly, it's crucial to invest additional human and time resources into understanding and complying with existing legislation regarding handling customer personal data. Neglecting this step could lead to reputational damage that outweighs the benefits of AI implementation. However, the economic benefits of applying AI in business notably surpass the potential drawbacks.

Can you share a step-by-step guide for how a marketer can build a competitive and effective campaign using AI tools?

First, I recommend that the marketer clearly define the goals for which they intend to use AI.

• Analyse the effectiveness of past campaigns
• Identify successful strategies and address mistakes
• Determine areas for AI contribution
• Establishing specific KPIs to evaluate the impact and effectiveness of AI implementation

After completing the initial analysis, I recommend engaging a team of specialists with AI and machine learning expertise, as these skills are often not found among traditional marketers. Data engineers, for instance, are well-suited for this role. Evaluating whether hiring these specialists internally is more cost-effective than continually working with external suppliers is important.

Additionally, these specialists will assist in ensuring compliance with the legislation on customer data privacy. Develop procedures to protect personal information during the AI training process. Otherwise, the audience's trust will be undermined, and the legal and reputational consequences will be costly for you and the company.

Once these steps are completed, you can choose the best AI tools for your strategy and campaign. Remember, introducing AI will likely impact your department's internal processes and the broader organisation. This includes changes to data management architecture, client interactions, and interdepartmental relations. Embracing these changes can improve your efficiency and reveal opportunities for your team to operate more seamlessly—ultimately leading to increased sales and improved performance.