As marketeers in an ever-evolving landscape, we believe that the future of the industry is shaped in the present.
StrategiQ is committed to ensuring that we are not only present in that future, but in a position to set the standard for excellence within it. The AI revolution is no exception to this rule and in staying true to our StrategiQ values of limitless thinking and acting courageously, we are pleased to announce the launch of StrategiQ’s AI Council.
The council is comprised of enthusiastic individuals from across the agency with representatives from every department, all with the common belief that AI will support us in our journey to becoming a destination agency. Our purpose as we meet on a monthly basis, and our reason for existing is to drive innovation and value across the agency. And our mission, or how we will achieve this, is by striving to unearth the true value of AI in order to supercharge One Team, One Agency and One Strategy.
How will we achieve this?
To put it simply, we already are, with numerous brilliant examples; but we also recognize that this will be a continually evolving initiative shaped by the advancements in technology around us.
Our journey into the world of AI has so far been largely creative led. It all began with our StrategiQ Top Trumps which we unveiled at our September Strategy day. Since then our team has immersed themselves in AI related R&D and completed some boundary breaking client work.
Senior Designer, Sam Burrows says that the integration of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI) tool, Midjourney has already revolutionised our work:
“It’s making the impossible possible. I am now able to do things I would never have considered before and we have capabilities this week that we didn’t have two weeks ago”.
Stable Diffusion and Runway are just a few of the other tools within our creative arsenal.
Elsewhere throughout the agency our team are harnessing tools like GPTs (Generative Pre-Trained Transformers) which are bots that can be trained up to act in a particular way; as client personas for instance, which enables our strategists to role play and test ideas as though in an actual focus group but with less resource requirement.
Chat GPT is used by our performance marketeers to aid with the generation of formulas for value and attribution measuring and the SEO team are using the tool to understand complex topics for niche industries.
Jack Fuller, our Technical SEO Manager says:
“We are essentially using AI to enhance the current great work we do”
It allows our SEO specialists to complete their own, better informed keyword research more efficiently, before employing AI again to crunch data to find topic clusters. The team can then follow our internal processes of briefing and writing the fully optimised content however in the near future we hope to see AI helping with the briefing process also.
Over in HR and Client Services, our team are using tools including Otter and Read AI to help streamline admin processes and optimise efficiency throughout the agency. Sophie Walker, Performance Marketing Executive, aptly summarised AI’s entrance into our lives. She sees it as her “co-pilot” for day to day activities. The speed and efficiency it affords our team leaves all the more room for creativity, innovation and overall value for clients.
We are excited about the developments and hyper personalisation that AI can afford our clients when successfully fused with human creativity both within our existing scope and when we look to our ever broadening horizons as an agency. The development of AI voice generators for instance has allowed us to begin exploring new service line opportunities such as podcast marketing.
“Word of the Year” – for good reason
AI has taken the world by storm and is consistently a dominant theme within the media, Collins dictionary have even crowned it their ‘Word of the Year’. From the actors’ strikes to deep fake scandals, AI headlines are never too far from conversations like:
“But have you seen Black Mirror?”
And
“It’s going to steal all our jobs”
While it is an incredibly exciting tool that, like everyone else, we couldn’t wait to get our hands on, there is much to be said for a considered approach too. That was one of our key motives behind forming the council. So not only are we focussing on the opportunities it can afford us, but also proactively addressing ethical considerations from privacy measures and data security, to compliance with regulations. So watch this space for our formalised integration strategy for ultimate transparency around the process and peace of mind for all parties.
Breaking boundaries, building bridges
This is all a learning curve for us but we know that we are not alone. In fact, we have a reliable global network of like minded agencies at our fingertips through AMIN. As a result of this relationship we are thrilled to have already collaborated with Avidly whose COO, Maria Flemmich Suominen ran a hugely insightful R&D session focussing particularly on productisation and legislation considerations.
Maria was able to highlight that despite AI’s obvious advantages of saving time, reducing costs and enhancing productivity, clients are always keen to retain the ‘human touch’ – something we also feel passionate about. Ultimately, AI should be aiding our humanity rather than stifling it.
For instance, our designers are taking on work that they would never have dreamed of being able to do, at greater pace and higher efficiency. Senior Designer, Sam says:
“To be honest I’ve never been so busy. Now that AI is allowing us to do things we previously thought were impossible, no request is out of the question”
Where AI can also assist with admin processes such as note-taking in meetings we free up valuable minds and calendars for more directly client-benefitting work.
What’s next?
Watch this space for our best practice examples of AI enhanced work as well as collaborations with more agencies. We even look forward to hosting our very own working sessions.
Furthermore, in order to aid our already promising progress and optimally shape the strategic direction of AI throughout the agency and beyond, we are excited to be recruiting for a Head of AI Marketing. This talented individual will be responsible for harnessing the power of the technology and seamlessly integrating its potential into our integrated digital marketing channels.
The future of marketing is here, and it’s powered by artificial intelligence. We invite you to join us on this exciting journey and together we can explore the endless possibilities, redefine industry standards, and achieve unprecedented success. Talk to us today to find out how we can leverage the power of AI for you.
Interested in being the next addition to the StrategiQ team in 2024? Explore our current vacancies here.
