Earlier this year, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg outlined his company’s vision of a fully integrated ad offering, using its AI as a co-pilot for ad creation. He spoke of a fully integrated
advertising development toolbox, designed to help Meta advertisers create better assets for its ecosystem. It was impressive, and the industry took a deep breath.
This week, Google showed us
its revolutionary take, which takes the Meta idea even further. Agencies, especially those focused on content creation at speed and scale, are on notice (looking at you, S4, and all the content
studios created by agency hold companies).
The bombshell dropped on July 29, when Google announced the full rollout of its project code-named Merlin. It should scare you, as this
isn’t just another AI feature; it’s a fundamental rewiring of the whole Google Ads ecosystem. Marketers can now input a campaign goal, a target CPA, their brand safety guidelines, and a
link to a landing page. From there, Merlin’s generative AI crafts the ad copy, generates bespoke image and short-form video assets, and dynamically allocates budget across search, YouTube,
display, and discovery in real-time. The human role is reduced to one of strategic oversight and approval. Poof -- thousands of jobs and millions of agency fees… gone!
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The difference in
philosophy between Meta and Google is stark. Meta is offering a more efficient content studio. Google created an autonomous agency. It’s a shift from assisting with tactical tasks to automating
the entire tactical pipeline.
Of course, there is advertising outside of Alphabet and Meta (although these two platforms would like you to believe otherwise). But we’re beginning to see
where this is going.
For an owner of a local restaurant, an independent ecommerce store, or a small service business, the biggest hurdles in marketing are a lack of three things: time,
specialized creative talent, and a massive budget. Merlin, and to a degree Meta, solve these issues for their small business clients.
For large enterprises (CPG, Pharma, Automotive, QSR,
etc.), there is no lack of resources. For them, these AI solutions are about managing complexity at a scale that has always been a challenge (I speak from experience).
As an example: A CPG
advertiser isn't running just one ad. The company is running campaigns for different products, targeted at different demographic segments, in hundreds of different cities, with unique retail
partnerships in each. Merlin would allow the company to run thousands of campaign variations, optimizing on the fly to see which ad creative drives the most sales of a 12-pack at Target in Texas
versus a 2-liter bottle at Kroger in Ohio.
The role of the brand manager shifts from approving a single campaign to architecting the strategic rules and guardrails within which the AI
operates. The same would apply to a fast -ood company, or a car manufacturer and its dealers.
The implications for marketers are profound. The value of a marketer is no longer their ability to
review scorecards or direct agencies. Instead, their value now lies in the quality of their strategic input. Can you write a creative brief so sharp and insightful that the AI has no choice but to
generate brilliant work? Can you analyze the AI’s output and provide it with the brand-specific feedback it needs to learn?
The new marketing battleground for performance is the
prompt.