In the face of macro headwinds, many marketing teams have shifted their focus towards efficiency and return on investment (ROI), inadvertently relegating creativity to the backseat. This efficiency-driven approach, while necessary, often results in marketers spending a significant amount of time on routine tasks, leaving less room for creative experimentation. On top of that, marketers may lack the knowledge or access to innovative tools and technologies that can foster creativity. This dynamic presents a unique challenge for marketing teams striving to balance efficiency with creative innovation.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) presents a promising solution to this productivity paradox. Furthermore, AI can provide a canvas for experimentation, sparking creativity by offering new ways to engage audiences and personalize content. And many marketers seem eager to embrace these opportunities. Take for example findings from the recent 2024 Customer Engagement Review from Braze, which found strong support for AI among surveyed marketing decision makers, with 79% specifically applauding its ability to automate routine tasks and free up more time for creative thinking.
Marketers clearly recognize the potential, but the reality is many marketers and consumers are still learning about AI, including how to put it into practice. In a recent Prosper Insights & Analytics survey, over 23% of respondent consumers said they had heard of Generative Artificial Intelligence and were excited to experience it, nearly 36% had heard of it but didn’t understand what it is, and only 19% use it. The complexity of AI technologies coupled with a lack of knowledge about how to effectively use them can be a major barrier to reaping its benefits. Overcoming these obstacles is crucial for marketers to fully harness the potential of AI in fostering creativity while maintaining efficiency.
So, what can marketing leaders do to set their teams up in 2024 for success?
Automate Routine Tasks to Free Up Time for Marketers to Get Strategic
Braze research revealed that a staggering 98% of surveyed marketers identified issues holding them back from being creative and strategic. The obstacles are not singular, but rather a combination of four parallel challenges – and the focus areas aren’t all too surprising. These include an overemphasis on KPIs that stifles creativity (42% of respondents), too much time spent on routine tasks (42% of respondents), a lack of technology to execute creative ideas (41% of respondents), and difficulty demonstrating the ROI of creativity (40% of respondents).
Helping marketing teams execute faster and more effectively is a powerful first step to help them move past these challenges and get back to the work they’re passionate about. Many leaders already call out how they are using or planning to use AI to automate repetitive tasks (47%), and brands plan to invest in these areas. According to the International Data Corporation, by 2027 global enterprise expenditure on generative AI solutions is projected to hit $151.1 billion, marking an almost 8x increase from 2023.
AI’s Role in Achieving Data Agility and Higher Productivity
With more time for strategic work, marketers can tackle challenges associated with breaking down silos across teams to leverage data more effectively and drive business outcomes. Despite the vast amounts of data generated daily, only 24% of brands are currently mapping customer behavior and sentiment, and a mere 6% are applying customer insights to their product and brand approach. A majority (87%) of marketers say data is their company’s most under-utilized asset. This underutilization of data is a missed opportunity, especially considering AI’s capacity to process, analyze, and draw meaningful insights from complex data sets, enabling it to predict customer behavior, preferences, and trends. AI can be the bridge that by enabling businesses to make informed strategic decisions that significantly impact the customer experience, and the Braze research shows marketers are planning to explore these areas. Nearly half of all respondents (47%) said they were using or planning to use AI to enhance data analysis, and 44% were using or planning to use it to personalize campaigns.
By leveraging AI and breaking down silos between teams, brands can achieve higher productivity to gain a competitive and creative edge. As businesses move beyond vanity metrics and aim to deepen first-party relationships with customers, it’s crucial that they can quickly act on data to create personalized experiences in-the-moment and at scale. And doing this can really pay off. Top-performing brands are 36% more likely to pull proprietary data into their customer engagement platform to orchestrate personalized messages such as 1:1 recommendation. Additionally, businesses that use data-driven strategies drive five to eight times as much ROI as businesses that don’t.
Marketers Need Cross-Functional Allies
For teams to be strategic, creative, and maximize their data usage for customer engagement they will need to work more cross-functionally. Unlocking the full potential of AI necessitates a deeper collaboration with teams responsible for data management, including those handling data warehouses, business intelligence applications, CRMs, and other data-rich platforms. The siloed approach of the past is no longer effective in a world where customer touchpoints require stronger alignment and partnership between teams that manage data in order to power experiences across various channels.
The most successful brands are 82% more likely to engage in cross-team collaboration, and have weekly discussions on customer engagement, in contrast to other businesses. This type of collaboration requires a shift in mindset, breaking down departmental barriers, and encouraging open communication–especially as execution moves faster with AI.
“At Braze, we’re using AI not only to help our customers craft creative, personalized experiences, but we’re also experimenting with AI in our own marketing to save valuable time and resources in customer engagement, while increasing our strategic cross-functional collaboration and creativity in social and digital engagement,” said Astha Malik, Chief Business Officer of Braze.
AI is a transformative force that is reshaping marketing. The challenges marketers face today – from the pressure to deliver ROI, the time-consuming routine tasks, to the underutilization of data – are not insurmountable. However, the journey to fully realize the benefits of AI requires not just the adoption of technology, but also a shift in mindset, a commitment to continuous learning, and a culture of cross-functional collaboration. Only then can we fully unlock the creative potential of AI.