Artificial intelligence is showing up in many places and one
global luxury brand is tapping it for everything from ad buys to personalized promotions.
Cosabella, a global lingerie brand headquartered in Italy, transformed how it interacts with customers
with AI-driven targeted advertising spending.
Using an artificial intelligence system called Albert, Cosabella increased its global customer reach, identifying new customers in various
countries around the world.
AI creates a lot of efficiencies,” says Guido Campello, CEO of Cosabella. “We applied AI to our ad spend and now we’re focused on how we scale
it.”
(Campello will be discussing his company’s marketing transformation and detailing what an AI journey entails in his presentation at the MediaPost OMMA AI Forum on Wednesday morning.)
Cosabella put Albert in charge of advertising spending and uses AI for personalized
email promotions. “We replaced our email marketing pretty quickly,” says Campello.
Using Albert converted the programs into one of constant evolution.
Now that various
systems are automated via the AI of Albert, Cosabella is essentially re-balancing.
“We’re bringing people back into the process,” says Campello. “It’s about
getting the right mix of people and technology.
“AI needs the human element in our category, since trends and forecasts are not necessarily predictable. There are so many variables and
factors.”
Adding AI into the company processes also drove some internal changes.
“We took the marketing and digital department spends and merged them together,” says
Campello.
Albert has helped Cosabella to buy ads based on identifying and leveraging the best search words, though is somewhat challenged by discovering future words.
“That
requires a mix of human and IA,” says Campello.
The first phase of using Albert was basically to let the AI do its thing.
“I hate saying this, but it’s like having an
agency in a box,” says Or Shani, CEO and founder of Albert. “Brands bring their creative assets, tell Albert the goals and set a budget. But at the end of the day, Albert is a machine and
that machine measures results as it goes.
“In reality, machine learning is only needed with a problem that is so complex, like the synchronization of messaging, that there needs to be
machine learning. Brands come to us not because they want to use AI, but because they want to solve a problem. Five to 10 years from now, everyone is going to use this type of solution.”
Shani views Albert as part of a team rather than simply a tool.
Cosabella tends to agree. Campello said the internal team, being Italian, even refers to the AI engine as Alberto.
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Many aspects of artificial intelligence, including a presentation by Cosabella CEO Guido Campello,
will be featured at the MediaPost OMMA at Advertising Week conference Tuesday and Wednesday. Here’s the agenda.