Kantar BrandZ, having studied brand growth for over 20 years, now has a front-row seat to how AI is fundamentally changing the landscape.
As we delve into the transformative effects of AI, it becomes evident that these advancements are not merely incremental, but rather seismic shifts that redefine the art and science of building great brands. In this environment, a CMO now has to play the role of a Change Management Officer, leading their organisation and agency partners through this change in marketing and brand building tools, processes and talent.
1. AI for innovation
Traditionally, brand innovation has relied on methodical market analysis, siloed R&D teams and intuition-driven product development. AI has sped the process up considerably by providing real-time trend analysis, facilitating global knowledge sharing and rapidly generating and evaluating product formulations.
2. Rapid activation of insights
AI-powered systems enable marketers to quickly identify emerging consumer preferences and spot opportunities earlier, significantly reducing time-to-market. PepsiCo used an AI tool to analyse millions of posts on social media, in addition to recipes and menus on the internet. The results led to ‘Off the Eaten Path’ seaweed snacks, a process that took less than a year. ‘The cycles of development have been reduced from years to months,’ commented Dr. Athina Kanioura, PepsiCo Chief Strategy and Transformation Officer.
3. Efficient resource allocation
AI tools can do more than just spot new opportunities, of course. It can also help brands allocate R&D research more efficiently and help global teams collaborate and share with each other more easily.
4. Advanced product formulation
AI can even help with product formulation by generating and then evaluating thousands of possible product formulations, with a view toward uncovering innovative combinations and proposing new efficiencies. Mars has partnered with AI startup PIPA to do just that, as part of a push to quickly introduce new plant-based ingredients into its food and Petcare brands.
5. AI for creative communications
Creative communications have traditionally relied on slow, manual content development and broad-based advertising campaigns. AI has made it possible to deploy more personalised advertising, more quickly, at scale and at a fraction of the cost. Marketers and creative agencies have aspired to drive these actions at speed. But it’s only with the emergence of AI that these tools have been put in the hands of marketing and creative professionals in order to do just that.
6. Hyper-personalised end-to-end advertising
The ability to create and deploy ‘hyper-personalised end-to end advertising’ leans heavily on AI’s ability to analyse vast amounts of consumer data to generate (and place) tailored content in real time.
7. Creative ideation
AI tools assist human creativity by generating and iterating multiple streams of creative ideas. Coca-Cola’s AI tools have allowed its creative teams to explore a wider range of ideas quickly and efficiently. Coca-Cola recently used this kind of ‘AI ideation’ for its Y3000 Zero campaign – and earnt some 5.2 billion media impressions.
8. End-to-end creation and efficient localisation
Post-ideation, AI tools now provide the ability to create and deploy in market an almost infinite number of edits and variations of the central creative idea through executions that are specifically tailored to the channel, platform and market. Health conglomerate Reckitt has used AI to explore how it could more efficiently localise global creative campaigns for its brands like Gaviscon and Finish. By using Gen AI to adapt assets for full funnel use and localise them between countries, Reckitt found an approximate 30% reduction in the time needed to adapt and localise ads, with increased consistency in asset quality.
In 2024 Toys ‘R’ Us used Sora to fully create a brand film that received much criticism and commentary since it was premiered in Cannes last year. We ran this Gen AI film through LINK AI, Kantar’s advanced creative development solution trained on hundreds of thousands of ads assessed by real people. It was fairly well-branded and scores okay in most creative metrics. As a brand that’s been liquidated and has come back to life, this is an opportunity for a phoenix-like execution and needs to make its mark. The fact that it’s AI-generated has itself led to lots of PR. The best edits were chosen (presumably by humans) so there may have been some real duds behind the scenes. Verdict: not as bad as you’d think but could be better. It’s clear that AI is getting there.
9. AI and media planning
Media planning is another area experiencing rapid transformation due to AI. Traditionally, media strategies involved fixed plans and static post-campaign analysis. AI has once again introduced new tools for real-time optimisation and predictive analytics, which in the media planning realm, has enabled a new kind of personalised omnichannel messaging to reach target audiences more effectively.
10. Real-time media optimisation
Today, media agencies can adjust spend and placement across diverse channels based on better synthesised performance signals from real-world consumers, as well as AI predictive analytics. Pedigree demonstrated just how powerful these tools could be with its ‘Adoptable’ campaign in New York City. Using an AI machine learning model, Pedigree took pictures of dogs available for adoption and refined them to look great across a variety of out-of-home and digital media formats. From there, Pedigree geotargeted people with ads featuring dogs from nearby shelters. The campaign resulted in six times more shelter visits, with 50% of dogs adopted in the first two weeks – and ultimately won four Cannes Lions.
11. Omnichannel orchestration
AI also ensures consistent messaging across touchpoints based on individual consumer journeys, thus lifting engagement and effectiveness. For example, Omnicom’s ArtBotAI leverages LLMs to assemble clients’ digital assets and create personalised experiences. Paolo Yuvienco, Chief Technology Officer at Omnicom, says, ‘There’s never been a core product that could integrate their creative assets, templates, MarTech, AdTech, AI and first and third-party data. ArtBotAI replaces a messy ecosystem with something simple, beautiful and powerful to serve our client’s content needs.’
Implications for data and insights teams
The journey has just begun, and embracing AI with a clear vision and thoughtful application to specific use cases will be crucial for leveraging its full potential. Think big, start small and start now – the future of AI in brand building promises to be an exciting and transformative era.
And through it all, make sure not to lose sight of these three imperatives:
• Strategic vision: Brands must develop a clear vision for integrating AI into their processes. This involves setting long-term goals and aligning AI initiatives with business objectives.
• Continuous learning: AI tools require ongoing training and adaptation to stay effective. Brands should invest in continuous learning and development to keep up with evolving AI technologies.
• Ethical considerations: The use of AI in brand building raises ethical questions around data privacy, consumer trust and transparency. Brands need to establish robust ethical guidelines to govern AI applications.
And don’t forget, Kantar can support you, your organisation and agency partners through this change in many ways, including:
A. Innovation: ConceptEvaluate AI is the world’s first AI-driven, automated service for early-stage evaluation of product and service development
B. Creative development: LINK AI tests ads at scale, providing rapid and accurate predictions on consumer ratings without the need for actual surveys in as little as 15 minutes
C. Media optimisation: LIFT ROI is an always-on unified measurement platform that provides actionable campaign insights to strengthen marketing and media decisions. It enables marketers to optimise their media budget in near real-time by continuously refreshing data and models in-flight daily.
The 20th anniversary edition of Kantar BrandZ’s Most Valuable Global Brands rankings and report are now available at www.kantar.com/campaigns/brandz/global
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