Medtronic’s Senior Paid Media
Specialist writes "The movie Margin Call might offer some of the best advice for marketers, as AI becomes a permanent part of our industry."
The movie Margin Call might offer some of the best advice for marketers, as AI becomes a permanent part of our industry. Jeremy Irons says that there are three
ways to succeed: be first, be smarter, or cheat. Just as important in that quote is the fact that Irons goes on to say he does not cheat so only the first two are available. So, we, too, need to be
first or we need to be smarter to succeed. Let’s talk about what that means and what that would actually look like.
So right here I am going to pull a bait and
switch on you. It is highly unlikely, nay almost impossible, that any of us can be the first to use AI. Because that is the case, I am going to change what I mean by being first to use AI to
differentiate ourselves. Let me ask it this way, are you using AI to truly differentiate your product or service, or are you simply using AI to do what you have always done only with a smaller team?
We cannot be the first to use AI but by using AI we could allow our marketing teams to be the first to do something in our industry. Something like telling a story or making a connection that was not
possible before but could be possible with AI. In essence we are “first” but that first is really a point of differentiation which is what we want as marketers.
The second way to succeed is to be smarter. I will put my cards on the table by saying the smartest people will be the ones who use AI for a goal, not for a task. What I mean
specifically is that the people who are thinking of the ultimate end of their marketing and not the means by which that marketing is accomplished are going to be the ones who are most successful. In
my opinion that will be the smart way to use AI, mainly because I think that is the way to use any marketing tool. I think this applies to any tool we have right now, or any tool we could have in the
future. When we focus on the means, we become lost in the measurement of quantity metrics, metrics that are no doubt important but do not measure actual results. But a focus on ends rightly focuses,
and orients, us on (trying to) measure quality because, it is those quality metrics that more often than not lead to business results.
At the end of all the noise I
think the debate around AI is largely pointless. The best time to talk about the metrics of AI would have been before it was developed, not after. But I do think this debate does do marketing a
service because the debate around AI is a debate around marketing fundamentals. As Jeremy Irons also says in Margin Call things move in cycles, almost everything we have seen
has probably been seen before and it is the people that anchor themselves in fundamentals that are able to endure. So, the marketers that ground themselves in the fundamentals of marketing will endure
and be able to successfully use any tool that comes along.
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