• by Ray Schultz , February 7, 2020

In a finding that could point to a damper on email marketing innovation, 56% of companies believe AI and automation will hurt branding, according to 2020 State of Branding Report, a study by Bynder.

They fear AI will lead to a decline in creativity, jobs elimination and less brand differentiation. In addition, 23% say branding cannot be automated.

Yet 50% are using technology to streamline administration of content creation, and 58% plan to increase their content production this year by 25% or more.

Moreover, 68% plan to increase the number of solutions they use in 2020. Only 10% expect a reduction. 

The main concern for 42.9% of brands is gaining mindshare. Another 23.5% worry about measuring marketing value, 12.4% are concerned about a lack of brand consistency and 11.5% worry about violations of user privacy.

In addition, they face these challenges:

• A skills gap in the marketing team — 21%
• Data overload — 20%
• Too many options to choose from — 18%

At the same time, 57% claim security concerns and regulations are preventing their branding/marketing from reaching its full potential.

Despite that, here’s how they plan to differentiate their brands this year:

• Improve/optimize user experience — 34.2%
• Increase branded content efforts — 20.6%
• Increase researching and testing efforts — 17.7%
• Active brand advocates — 16.4%
• Double down on machine learning, artificial intelligence and technology-drive innovation — 12.1%

Among channels, 39.4% say social media has the greatest impact on brand visibility and perception, followed by influencers and/or analysts (20.2%), brand-owned media (14.9%), peer-to-peer review sits (14.4%) and press (11.1%).

“Marketing organizations readily adopted technology for analytics, digital channels and other functions that clearly benefit from automation” states Andrew Hally, SVP of global marketing at Bynder.

Hally adds that “the challenge ahead is to harness emerging technologies like AI to maintain creative excellence while satisfying business demand for growing volumes and faster delivery.”

Bynder, a digital asset management provider, surveyed 500 marketing and branding professionals in the U.S. and 500 in the UK.