AI is Cool and All, But It Has Some, erm, Limitations.
We can’t lie, watching AI generate ideas using only a few, simple text prompts is insane. Obviously, it’s a far cry from the T900, but it’s still spooky.
We’ve been thinking about its implications on the creative world a lot lately. And, as always, we have some thoughts when it comes to AI usage in marketing and advertising.
The first is this really fun word that is way overused in the industry, BUT it’s still important, we swear: differentiation. To oversimplify, if you’re doing everything that everyone else is doing, you aren’t standing out in the crowd. And if you aren’t standing out, you can’t reach new people, spread your key messages, or convert. That is bad.
Imagine for a moment that we live a world where every agency and creative team uses (or is replaced by???) AI. Everything’s gonna look and sound mostly the same, right? It’s just white noise. With scary-looking hands.
People who do things differently almost always find a way to leave a lasting impression. On social, Wendy’s Twitter and Duolingo’s TikTok come to mind right away. Their approaches were so weird. They felt wrong, like there was some unwritten rule they were breaking. But here we are, thinking about them.
Another thing about AI: it can’t really take you across the finish line. It can get you really freaking close, but it can’t bring it home. So, that’s another place where creative thought is needed. And maybe that’s how you’re using it, which is great! Don’t change. We’ll just say that we don’t trust anyone who passes on an AI generated piece of creative as a final product. It feels a little slimy.
A few more issues. Really tiny things. Like, super small. You’d hardly even notice them. Um, so, AI by nature is not technically a creator. It’s an aggregator. It observes logic and patterns, then attempts to create whatever you’re asking for using all available information. Which is what most strategists are doing anyways. Except most AI tools can’t pull very modern data—they’re usually capped around 2021. That’s not awesome. AI can also generate misinformation (knowingly or unknowingly? You’ll never know). But I think we can agree, that’s kind of a red flag.
We’ve torn AI apart. We’ve pointed out everything we can think of that’s wrong with it. So, you might assume that we’re strictly anti-AI, and that’s actually not true! We use it daily, and you should too. It’s just important to know the limitations of your tools before using them, that’s all.
This still feels like a hot topic, and we’d LOVE to hear your thoughts! Just reply with whatever’s on your mind.
What’s Happening in Social This Week?
Oh, you know, just a few things.
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AI is making commercials aaaaaand our jobs are safe. For now. You’ve gotta see these spots, though.
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Bluesky is a thing. It looks, uh, exactly like Twitter. Which makes sense—it’s backed by Jack Dorsey (formerly @jack). But is it a Twitter replacement, as some are suggesting? Nope—its user base is a fraction of Twitter’s, and it’s still in beta. So, don’t rush over there just yet.
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The Twitter app is using a ton of phone battery, like 30% according to our iPhone energy usage reports. Anyone else notice this?
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A Stroke of Genuis: Twitter will now allow media publishers to charge users to read their articles through the app. Thought paywalls were annoying before? Buddy, you have no idea.
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Bans are SO hot right now: some Senators are proposing a social media ban for kids.
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BeReal is dead :/ but this is a really cool opinion piece on why it (and so many other new platforms) struggled to stay alive in a chronically-online world.
Are You Using YouTube Shorts?
We think you should. If you’re already making vertical content for TikTok and Instagram Reels, let that content work even harder on a platform that pretty much invented the concept of SEO for video. It’s a great way to reach your people while they’re using what’s technically the world’s second-largest search engine.
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