Commentary

Google's NotebookLM: A Conversation With 'Customer Zero'

During a series of discussions about rapid developments of AI and their implications for marketers during this morning's sessions at the Association of National Advertisers' Masters of Marketing Conference, Google Vice President-Global Demand & Growth Marketing for Google Cloud Sarah Kennedy made a pitch that the big marketers in the room give Google's new NotebookLM application a try. So I did. I had it summarize and analyze Kennedy's presentation, including some key question prompts generated by itself, as well as me.

Here are the key takeaways.

NotebookLM's summary

This source is a recording of a presentation delivered by Sarah Kennedy, the vice president of global demand and growth marketing at Google Cloud, in which she shares Google's experience with using AI to improve its own marketing operations and offers insights for other marketers. Kennedy emphasizes the importance of hands-on experience with AI tools and the need to develop AI literacy among marketing teams. She outlines a framework for integrating AI into marketing workflows, highlighting the touch, teach, and tell approach. Kennedy further explores how AI is impacting Google's marketing practices, showcasing specific examples like the use of AI for event calendar management, content creation, and improving team efficiency. Finally, Kennedy discusses future trends in AI marketing, including the growing importance of voice interfaces, the impact of AI-powered agents, and the need for marketers to adapt to a new landscape of automation.

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Question (generated by NotebookLM): What specific challenges and opportunities does AI present for marketers, and how can they overcome them?

Here are some challenges and opportunities that AI presents for marketers, and how they can be overcome, based on the sources you provided:
Challenges and Opportunities Presented by AI for Marketers
The rapid evolution of AI presents an opportunity for marketers to increase efficiency and productivity. As AI tools become more sophisticated, they can automate more marketing tasks, freeing up marketers to focus on more strategic work. For example, AI can be used to generate content, personalize marketing messages, and target ads more effectively.
The constant advancement of AI means marketers need to continuously learn and adapt to stay ahead of the curve. This can be a challenge for marketers who are already stretched thin, but it is essential for staying competitive. Marketers need to invest in training and development to ensure that they have the skills they need to use AI effectively. They also need to be willing to experiment with new AI tools and techniques to find what works best for their business.
One opportunity presented by AI is the ability to create more personalized and engaging customer experiences. AI can be used to collect data on customer preferences and behavior, which can then be used to tailor marketing messages and offers. This can lead to increased customer satisfaction and loyalty.
AI can help marketers to scale their efforts and reach a wider audience. For example, AI can be used to create multiple versions of a marketing campaign, each tailored to a different target audience. This can help marketers to reach more people with their message and generate more leads.
AI can also help marketers to measure the effectiveness of their campaigns and make better decisions about where to allocate their resources. AI can be used to track key metrics such as website traffic, leads generated, and sales conversions. This data can then be used to optimize marketing campaigns and improve ROI.
Overcoming the Challenges
To overcome the challenges of AI, marketers need to embrace a culture of experimentation and learning. This means being willing to try new things and learn from their mistakes. Marketers should also focus on developing their AI literacy by taking courses, attending conferences, and reading industry publications.
Marketers should also collaborate with other teams within their organization, such as IT and data science, to ensure that they are using AI in a way that is aligned with the overall business strategy. This will help to avoid duplication of effort and ensure that AI is being used to its full potential.
Finally, marketers need to be mindful of the ethical implications of using AI. They need to ensure that they are using AI in a way that is fair, transparent, and responsible.
The sources discuss specific examples of how Google is using AI to improve its marketing efforts. For instance, Google is using AI to personalize its search results and ads, and to create new products and services. Google is also using AI to automate some of its marketing tasks, such as content creation and social media marketing.
Overall, AI presents a number of challenges and opportunities for marketers. By embracing a culture of experimentation and learning, collaborating with other teams, and being mindful of the ethical implications of AI, marketers can overcome the challenges and reap the rewards of this transformative technology.

Question (posed by me): How does Sarah Kennedy explain the value of Google's "Customer Zero" approach?

Here is how Sarah Kennedy explains the value of Google's "Customer Zero" approach:
Sarah Kennedy highlights that Google acts as "Customer Zero" for its AI products, using and testing them internally before releasing them to the market. This approach allows Google to gather feedback and insights from its own employees, who use the AI tools in real-world scenarios.
By using the AI tools themselves, Google employees provide valuable feedback that informs product development, ensuring the tools are effective and meet the needs of marketers. This feedback loop helps to refine the AI products and make them more user-friendly and valuable for external customers.
This "Customer Zero" approach aligns with the broader themes of "touch, teach, tell," which Kennedy emphasizes throughout her talk. By "touching the tech," Google's marketing teams gain hands-on experience with AI tools. They then "teach" each other about AI literacy, fostering a culture of learning and knowledge sharing. Finally, they "tell" their stories about their experiences with AI, which helps to spread awareness and encourage adoption of the tools.
Overall, Kennedy presents Google's "Customer Zero" approach as a key factor in its successful development and adoption of AI for marketing. By using its own tools internally and gathering feedback from its employees, Google can refine its AI products and ensure that they are valuable for marketers. This approach also supports a culture of learning and collaboration within Google's marketing teams, fostering AI literacy and innovation.

My takeaway:

I need to play with it more, but NotebookLM seems to be a great note-taking and distillation tool, although you need to utilize a lot of prompts to get the most out of it. And I personally still get better results using my time the old-fashioned way: analyzing my own notes.

That said, Kennedy also showed some impressive stats for the time Google's Customer One approach to AI tools adoption is generating within its own human workforce, and noted that the recaptured time is being used by Google staff in two important ways: producing higher-quality work and servicing clients better (75% of time saved), and generating a better work/life balance (26%).

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About the Author

Joe Mandese is the Editor in Chief of MediaPost. You can reach Joe at joe@mediapost.com.