How the rise of connected consumers makes AI vital to marketers

AI has the potential to be the biggest boon to businesses since the invention of mass media, improving everyday advertising experiences for billions of people around the world, while liberating marketers from the rote and frequently complex tasks required for media planning, activation, measurement, and optimisation. 

Nowhere is this more true than in the complex world of digital marketing, where AI has the power to help marketers understand, reach, and engage consumers like never before – consumers who are unlike any before. Connected consumers. 

The connected consumer evolution 

With technology at our fingertips, we’re all increasingly dividing our attention while multitasking on multiple devices. For example, 94% of viewers hold a smartphone in their hands while watching CTV and streaming video at the same time, according to a Facebook IQ study. 

This evolution in viewing behaviour makes sense if we think of the spectrum of digital innovations in consumer technology that have accelerated in recent years - from ecommerce to online travel booking, social media to smartphones and the tidal wave of CTV and streaming services. For the first time, the majority of consumers are experiencing digital environments 24/7, regardless of whether their screen is on their living-room wall, above their laptop keyboard, on their tablet, or in the palm of their hands. 

For marketers, today’s digital landscape can seem overwhelmingly fragmented. But what if this was actually an opportunity? What if advertisers could leverage billions of real-time consumer data points from across this digital ecosystem in order to reach specific audiences with relevant messaging and measure the impact of their campaigns in flight, whatever screen consumers are on and whatever state of the purchase funnel they are in? 

AI brings order to the digital chaos 

The customer journey has always been non-linear, but it is even less predictable in today’s evolving digital world. Audiences are constantly changing, and their preferences often shift rapidly and abruptly in response to real-time events that influence the how, what, when, where, and why of consumer purchasing behaviour. 

To that end, marketers need access to real-time data that can help them to stay on the pulse of people’s evolving mindsets, attitudes, and desires. AI-driven technologies - using deep learning-based language processing capabilities and advanced machine learning algorithms - make it possible to synthesise live data and discern the patterns within it so instead of reacting to stale data, marketers can anticipate shifts in behaviour, interest, and intent. 

AI can process and analyse online consumption patterns of consumers across billions of data touchpoints for a multi-dimensional understanding of audiences, translating attitudinal statements to contextual relevance. Predictive models can react to the most recent events across the internet, analyse trends, and forecast what may happen next. 

With these real-time insights, marketers can understand consumer behaviour in the moment as well as uncover forward-looking consumer intent, enabling them to deliver perfectly timed and uniquely relevant advertising. 

Artificial intelligence brings unrivalled abilities to marketers 

But AI can do so much more than deliver unique insights to marketers – it can help them reach their customers at the awareness and consideration points in their journey in order to maximise site visits and conversion rates. 

With AI-powered targeting strategies, marketers can supercharge high-impact ads to amplify their messaging and achieve audience reach. From the CTV screen to digital display ad formats, marketers can use advanced technology to understand how their brand campaigns are perceived, refine their creative messages, and identify shifts in consumer behaviour - leveraging real feedback from ad exposures across digital environments, including CTV. 

And with speed made possible only by AI, marketers can view granular insights in real time instead of waiting until campaigns are over, so their advertising campaigns can be optimised when it matters most. 

Everything everywhere all at once (a strategy, not just a film) 

This confluence of human ingenuity with technology enables marketers to deliver perfectly timed and uniquely relevant advertising across channels and touchpoints. As digital buyers become everything buyers – everything from CTV to web; brand to performance – AI is the perfect tool to help smart marketers work even more intelligently to connect with the consumers of today… and the audiences of tomorrow.