The future of marketing has many faces. While the possibilities remain endless, right now, the advent of AI, user-generated content, and short-form content is at its forefront. As founder of Chicago-based marketing agency WGA, Ryan Hernandez foresees that brands will soon see their version of the perfect campaign become a product of the public more than ever before.
This line of reasoning began when ChatGPT was first released to the world in 2022. Everyone is figuring out how to use this goldmine, from high school students to multinational conglomerates. AI is finding its way into the most minute operations of every business, in every industry— and marketing is no exception.
For example, a full-service agency like WGA has seen a massive optimization of its processes. AI tools have reduced their time in the preliminary research phase by 70% to 80%. This crucial component, which includes industry research, market trends, and strategies, has been streamlined through the tool. “AI helps gather detailed insights about our clients and their verticals. It accentuates our strategies, scrolling through the available information much faster than humans can,” explains founder Ryan Hernandez. “AI becomes especially useful in its ability to show us information that we wouldn’t have even thought to ask about.”
For content creation, a more involved process, Ryan has seen at least a 40% reduction in their workload. With AI responses serving as a jumping-off point, WGA can get started on their campaigns much faster while maintaining their high level of quality and performance. As an early adopter of an AI-integrated communication platform, WGA has built tailored chatbots for each of their clients, enabling outputs that exactly align with their client’s needs. This level of accuracy would have been impossible merely two years ago. Today, WGA has implemented the latest AI models into their tech stack so thoroughly that the chatbot is essentially an additional assistant.
AI’s accessibility has enabled WGA and other businesses to easily integrate it into their operations. As large companies adopt AI, it functions as an endorsement for other businesses to follow suit. “Since most of the economy is comprised of small businesses, the precedent that larger companies set is incredibly important. The Walmarts of the world aren’t shying away from AI, and it has a trickle-down effect throughout,” says Hernandez.
The second is the holy grail of user-generated content (UGC), which refers to original content that people create unprompted — like TikToks and Instagram Reels — about services and products they’ve used. For e-commerce businesses, user-generated content is a costless mode of marketing that is often better than self-proclaimed statements on the quality of a product. It’s equivalent to a five-star testimonial for service-based companies. “Potential customers will be comparing multiple businesses with similar offerings. So, the decision often comes down to what they have to show: previous work, success stories, referrals, and testimonials,” Hernandez explains, “So, the fact that people choose to create videos about your products simply because they enjoy it speaks volumes.”
It’s similar to the software-as-a-service (SaaS) industry, except user-generated content in this space looks less like a review and more like YouTube tutorials and educational videos about the software’s uses. It shows that there is a close-knit community of users who appreciate the tool to the extent that they will sit down in front of a camera to share their experiences with it.
Hernandez’s experience leveraging user-based content for his clients coincides with the rise of short-form content in both traditional and new media. Between the ’60s and late ’80s, the so-called “Golden Age of Advertising,” television commercials could run for as long as two minutes per advertisement. The rule of thumb used to be: If you’re not on television, you’re not worth buying. Now, in the streaming and internet age, advertisements are pushing the limit if they are longer than 15 seconds, which shrinks down to 5 seconds with internet ads.
As the demand for cable television diminishes, connected TV (CTV) has changed the model— from paying for minutes-long commercials in prime time to the cheaper option of running 15-second commercials across devices. “Now, we pay pennies on the dollar by connecting to CTV partners. We have shifted from a position-based advertisement strategy to a frequency-based one,” Hernandez adds. Additionally, today’s attention economy means that people don’t choose to click on videos that are entirely dedicated to advertisements. Instead, Hernandez observes that paid sponsorship segments within influencer videos and user-generated short-form content are the way to go.
However, a common problem that his clients face with sponsoring influencers is a lack of control over what the final product looks like. Often, an influencer’s style may not mesh with the brands they advertise. “To mitigate the power imbalance between brands and influencers, businesses can now simply build frameworks for their ad campaigns through AI. This solves both the uncertainty for businesses and the added effort on the content creator’s part to write and produce a segment on their own,” he advises.
With thousands of sponsorship requests cramming popular influencers’ inboxes every day, AI tools can be used instead to optimize quality workflows. The option for brands and influencers to instantly generate specific aesthetics, visuals, and scripts can save a lot of time and heartache on both sides, ensuring that everyone reaches their desired outcomes.
“I believe that the marketing industry is going to be AI-supplemented to the bone. It simply helps us get more ideas out. It helps businesses get their preferred branding out into the world. And, it saves a huge amount of time and money for scriptwriters, video editors, graphic designers, influencers, and the entire value chain,” concludes Hernandez, “The future may be uncertain, but AI’s involvement in it, is not.”
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