| Welcome to Make It Click, a blog exploring all things digital marketing. This blog explores ideas, trends and conversations shaping the world of marketing and digital media. Through industry insights and real-world examples, Make It Click aims to make digital marketing easier to understand. |
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is everywhere now, especially in digital marketing. It seems that more and more brands are using AI to produce copywriting, generate social media content, analyse consumer behaviour and create comprehensive advertising campaigns within minutes. According to Davenport et al. (2020), AI is drastically changing how marketers engage with their audiences by improving efficiency, personalisation and decision-making. This means faster turnover for production, lower costs and greater productivity. However, as more companies make the switch to AI, more people are asking if AI has improved digital marketing or has it created a great disconnect between the brands and consumers?
We can’t deny that AI has changed the marketing industry. Businesses can now automate customer service, personalise email campaigns, predict consumer behaviour and create content at a scale that was previously impossible. Small businesses, in particular, have greatly benefited from AI, as it provides access to tools once available only to larger companies with larger budgets. Huang and Rust (2021) argue that AI is valuable when it supports strategic decision-making and improving customer experience rather than replacing human expertise. Using AI allows marketers to spend less time on repetitive tasks and focus on developing and generating creative campaigns.
The problem with AI begins when brands rely on it to replace creatives. Marketing isn’t just about producing content, but about communicating the brand’s personality to its audience to create an emotional connection and build trust with its consumers. While AI can generate marketing assets, it often struggles to replicate the authenticity that the public naturally responds to.
This has been particularly evident in visual advertising assets. Platforms such as Midjourney, Adobe Firefly, and ChatGPT give anyone the ability to create campaign imagery within seconds, removing the need and demand for creatives. Despite these visuals being sufficient, many consumers will describe it as feeling unnatural or emotionally empty. This response connects and resonates with the psychological concept of the uncanny valley, where something appears almost human-like but contains subtle imperfections that make it feel unsettling. In marketing, this can distract and take away the consumers from the brand’s messaging and reduce the emotional impact of the campaign asset.
A well-known example of this is Coca-Cola’s AI-generated Holidays Are Coming Christmas campaign released in 2024. The campaign recreated one of the company’s iconic advertisements using generative AI rather than using the traditional production methods. While the campaign demonstrated the great capabilities of AI, many viewers said it lacked emotion, nostalgia, warmth and the emotional storytelling that made the original advertisement so memorable. Instead of encouraging the festive spirit, many focused on how fake and artificial it felt, with audiences describing it as “soulless”. This demonstrates that successful marketing is not just about generating visually captivating content, but it is about creating communication that audiences can connect with and build trust, relate to and remember.
AI is not changing digital marketing for the worse because of the technology itself. The challenge lies in how businesses and brands are using it. Verma et al. (2021) suggest that while AI can assist with improving marketing performance. However, brands that solely rely on AI risk weakening trust and reducing engagement. The future of digital marketing will not be defined by AI alone, but marketers who understand how to balance between innovation and human connection will continue to drive consumer behaviour.
| Davenport, T. H., Guha, A., Grewal, D., & Bressgott, T. (2020). How artificial intelligence will change the future of marketing. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 48(1), 24–42. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11747-019-00696-0 Huang, M. H., & Rust, R. T. (2021). A strategic framework for artificial intelligence in marketing. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 49(1), 30–50. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11747-020-00749-9 The Coca-Cola Company. (2024, December 10). Groundbreaking digital experience and films fuse holiday heritage with cutting-edge tech. https://www.coca-colacompany.com/media-center/groundbreaking-digital-experience-and-films-fuse-holiday-heritage-with-cutting-edge-tech Forrester. (2024, November 19). Coca-Cola’s AI-generated holiday ads approach a creative tipping point. https://www.forrester.com/blogs/coca-colas-ai-generated-holiday-ads-approach-a-creative-tipping-point/ Verma, S., Sharma, R., Deb, S., & Maitra, D. (2021). Artificial intelligence in marketing: Systematic review and future research direction. International Journal of Information Management Data Insights, 1(1), Article 100002. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2667096820300021?via%3Dihub |
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