According to a recent report published by Brandwatch in the Summer of 2024, artificial intelligence and machine learning remain one of the most prominent trends in digital marketing. Moreover, the industry transitions from plans and discussions to real-world implementations that change how companies operate. In the fall of 2023, 92% of surveyed marketing professionals stated that integrating AI into their marketing will be their top priority. The new report demonstrated that AI and related technologies have become essential to many marketing activities.
The impact of the change is felt by large and small businesses alike, and for the latter it opens new advantages, allowing them to operate more efficiently and providing access to new automated solutions. Andrii Holubenko, a leading digital marketing expert at Optimum Media OMD Group Ukraine, states, that the role of AI-based solutions will only grow soon: “One of the challenges faced by businesses now, is to quickly recognize emerging opportunities and use them to their advantage, before their competitors manage to do the same.” Here are the core ideas that help to get the most out of new technological advancements.
Hyper-Personalization and What It Means
Hyper-personalization is one of the key digital marketing trends of recent years, and the new developments in AI technology gave them a boost. While audience segmentation has always been important, generative AI allows companies to bring it to a new level, presenting users with relevant content tailored to their needs and preferences in a much more precise way. An example of such an approach is programmatic advertising, which accounts for multiple parameters and optimizes the campaign in real time for maximum efficiency.
“To make advertising efficient, the company needs to present users with the content that is relevant to them right now,” explains Andrii Holubenko. “Rough segmentations by demographics or location is not enough anymore: an efficient campaign needs to consider other characteristics, including recent user behavior and shopping activities.” An example of such an approach is the programmatic advertising platform Fusify.io. Andrii Holubenko took part in its development to provide businesses with a tool that brings campaign efficiency to a new level without drastically increasing costs. Currently, Fusify.io operates in Europe, Brazil, Turkey and Ukraine.
Taking Local Factors into Account
The importance of personalization in digital marketing is recognized both in smaller and larger scope. When getting their product to a particular local market, a global company needs to account for local specifics. AI-based analytics provide new opportunities to do just that. As a result, detailed and precise analytical data become accessible to more companies, which in turn leads to more international interactions between markets, with smaller companies getting the opportunity to venture into markets abroad.
Throughout his career, Andrii Holubenko worked with multiple clients, bringing their products to the Ukrainian market. Among them, there are top-level companies from various industries, including PepsiCo, McDonald’s, Henkel, Phillips, and many others. He notes that even for companies of this scale, launching products on a new market can pose a challenge, and the extensive understanding of the local market is of great importance. The recent technological advancements provide companies with more ways to conduct and analyze market research, establishing a base for objective decision-making.
Keeping the Core Values
At the same time, technology, no matter how fast it advances, cannot replace human input in certain situations. For example, while generative AI tools can help drastically with brainstorming and creating content, they lack an understanding of human emotions and the wider context. Consequently, human supervision is required to ensure, that all content correlates well with the brand identity, follows the integrated strategy, and will not cause unwanted user reactions.
“If a company relies on the AI-generated content too extensively in their marketing,” concludes Andrii Holubenko, “their advertising may lack a creative spark, feel too scattered and disjointed, lacking a solid brand image.” This is why building strong creative teams becomes especially important, as they can find the most efficient ways to use generative AI and other technological advancements. For instance, during his work at Optimum Media, Andrii Holubenko has led several successful product launches on the local market, finding the best way to apply the technologies and resources at hand, and combining them into an efficient campaign.
The same is true for using AI assistants as a part of marketing campaigns. At the current level of technology, chatbots can provide customers with detailed information about a product. However, they often lack empathy and understanding of complex human emotions. Sometimes, chatbot interaction causes negative reactions and dissatisfaction among customers. “Companies should not implement innovative technologies for the sake of innovation itself,” comments Andrii Holubenko. “Instead, they need to weigh benefits and risks, as well the impact on the existing processes, thus finding the most advantageous way to use the AI-based solutions.”
He notes that the approach described above is often a key to success. In 2024, while participating in a jury board of Cases and Faces International Business Award, he saw a lot of companies implementing innovative approaches. However, the most successful ones were those who managed to strike the right balance between new technologies, customer needs, and their original values.
