Recently Linked In asked me the following question: “How can you build and maintain brand authenticity in the age of artificial intelligence?”

Here's my perspective:

Regardless of where I go or which channel I communicate through, I am Frank (by name and nature).

Some people \ clients \ brands really like and respect my approach to MARCOM while others don't. That is as it should be; as an individual, and as a brand, I can't please all of the people all of the time. 

POSITIVE:

Ai can help me find more people who like my approach to MARCOM. 

NEGATIVE:

Ai should NOT be used to create 25 shades of "Frank" to artificially expand my audience because all I'll get is a short-term pop in sales - until my brand-fraud is revealed and all of my brand equity is lost.

Across North America everybody wants more for less – plus a lifetime guarantee. To satisfy this insane and insatiable desire for more cheap food, goods and services, we’ve sent millions of jobs to Asia and India. We’ve also done a wonderful job of teaching our kids that many jobs are not worth doing or having. This mentality has shut down industries and laid waste to cities, towns and individuals all across America and Canada. Where will this end?

When companies do not earn decent profit margins their foundations crumble.

• They no longer can afford to do research and development.
• Without leading edge research and development their managers blindly follow the “best practices” of their competitors, and fail.
• They cut back on staff training and development.
• They cut back on benefits.
• Full time staff is rehired as part-time staff with no benefits.
• Part time staff juggle two, sometimes three, jobs just to make ends meet. No holiday pay, no pension plan, no medical support.
• Because they are just making ends meet, time and money they can't afford to "support" the arts and those who are less fortunate. 
• It impacts time at home and time with family and friends - life in general.
• And on and on it goes - in a giant downward spiral.

A client of mine had his website designed and built in the Philippines to save money. They charge 75% less than I do. Some of the money he'd paid me went back to his car dealership when I needed auto parts or service. The money he paid to the company in the Philippines left Canada and will not be used to buy any of his vehicles, parts or services on Black Friday, or on any other day of the year.

He thought he was smart . . . 

He taught his customers to look for "Fast & Cheap" - not for "Good and long lasting".

He's no longer in business . . . 

He couldn't make up in volume what he lost on margin.

When you charge a fair price and invest the profits in our people, our communities, and industries, we all grow stonger, better and smarter.

Follow this link to the Local News Poverty Map to see how many local media outlets have close, merged, or have been bought up.

https://localnewsmap.geolive.ca

Some of my readers will say – BORING . . . who cares! Those media (local paper, radio, TV, station, etc.) were old school, not keeping pace with the times, blah, blah blah. I can’t afford the price of the subscriptions, or the time. I can grab the local news I want / need on my social media apps for free.

Others, like me see something different. Local media – especially paid local media serve the community. Period. They keep local ad dollars in the community and promote opportunities and services in their home community. The loss of local media cannot be replaced by social media because a small business cannot compete for the keywords needed to promote its business online. Many small business owners do not have the time, money or expertise to do so effectively.

From a consumer \ recipient perspective, all social media channels are competing for a tiny sliver of your free time. In turn the small business’s “news or ad” is competing with all of the other feeds you’re getting from friends, family business collegues – and more. All that competition is exacerbated by the social medium’s proprietary algorithm which determines what you and your (paid) audience will see . . . and what it won’t.

At a time when “transparency” and “authenticity” are all the rage in communications, I find it VERY strange that marketing & advertising managers the world over have willingly bankrupted most local media and moved almost all of their ad dollars to on-line search and social media because online media metrics - PPC - is supposedly cheaper and better.

You will never know the truth.

Online media make billions of dollars with their highly proprietary black-box algorithms. You have no way of knowing if the "Ad Reports" are a fair and reasonable refleaction of reality - or not.

On the other hand all old fashioned "offline media" audience figures are reviewed and reported only AFTER they have been independantly audited and verified.

AI design is being used by more and more advertisers to make their ad campaigns more effective. Here's how:

• Automating content generation: AI can create content such as articles, blog posts, or social media posts based on the information that is fed into them. This can save time and resources for businesses and professionals who create content regularly.
• Improving content quality: AI can produce content that is more accurate and informative than human-written content, by learning from a large amount of data and identifying patterns that humans may not be able to see.
• Increasing content variety: AI can generate different types of content, including text, images, and video. This can help businesses and professionals to create more diverse and interesting content that appeals to a larger audience.
• Personalizing content: AI can generate content that is tailored to the preferences of individual users – which can help businesses and professionals to create content that is more relevant and engaging for their target audience.

AI can also help advertisers with planning, analytics, and creative aspects of their campaigns. For example:

• Segment audiences and target ads: AI can analyze user behavior and preferences to create more precise and effective audience segments. This can help advertisers deliver the right ads to the right people at the right time.
• Measure campaign success: AI can track and evaluate the performance of advertising campaigns across different channels and platforms to help advertisers optimize their budget and media channel allocations.
• Generate ideas and inspiration: AI can use prompts and mood boards to create art and copy that can spark creativity and innovation for advertising campaigns. These can help advertisers to come up with new and original concepts that stand out from the crowd.

AI art and copy are not meant to replace human creativity, but rather to augment it. AI can provide assistance, guidance, and feedback to human advertisers, who can then refine, edit, and improve the AI-generated content. AI can also challenge human advertisers to think outside the box \ web and explore new possibilities for their campaigns.

AI art and copy are still evolving technologies that have some limitations and challenges. For example, AI may not always be able to capture the nuances, emotions, and contexts of human communication. AI content may be biased, inaccurate, or inappropriate. So human oversight and intervention are needed to ensure the quality and ethics of AI-generated content.

In conclusion, AI art and copy have the potential to transform the advertising industry by offering new opportunities and benefits for businesses and professionals. However, they also require careful consideration and collaboration between humans and machines to ensure their effectiveness and responsibility.

Measuring the success of an ad depends on the goal that you have set for your ad. Different goals require different metrics to evaluate the performance of your ad. Here are some common goals and metrics that you can use to measure the success of an ad:

• Brand awareness: This goal is to increase the recognition and recall of your brand among your target audience. Some metrics that you can use to measure brand awareness are impressions, reach, frequency, and brand lift. Impressions are the number of times your ad is shown to your audience. Reach is the number of unique people who see your ad. Frequency is the average number of times your ad is shown to each person. Brand lift is the increase in brand awareness, preference, or intent among your audience after seeing your ad.
• Lead generation: This goal is to collect information from potential customers who are interested in your product or service. Some metrics that you can use to measure lead generation are clicks, conversions, cost per lead, and lead quality. Clicks are the number of times your audience clicks on your ad or call to action. Conversions are the number of times your audience completes a desired action on your landing page, such as filling out a form or downloading a file. Cost per lead is the amount of money you spend on your ad divided by the number of leads you generate. Lead quality is the relevance and value of the leads you generate for your business.
• Sales: This goal is to increase the revenue or profit from your product or service. Some metrics that you can use to measure sales are sales volume, sales value, return on ad spend, and customer lifetime value. Sales volume is the number of units or items that you sell as a result of your ad. Sales value is the amount of money that you earn from the sales that you make as a result of your ad. Return on ad spend is the ratio of revenue to cost from your ad campaign. Customer lifetime value is the estimated net profit that you can expect from a customer over their entire relationship with your business.

These are some of the ways that you can measure the success of an ad based on your goal. Of course, there are many other factors that can affect the success of an ad such as the quality, creativity, timing, and placement of your ad. You also need to consider the context and behavior of your audience and how they respond to your ad. 

You can use tools such as Google Analytics, Facebook Ad Manager, or HubSpot to collect and analyze data about your ads and optimize them for better results.

You can also use that data to inform the design of surveys and focus groups to help refine the campaign effectiveness off and on line.