Skip to content
Edition #424
On AI as glue, Apple on hard work & brandguard API.
This week we extended an invite to ex Nudge member Gustaf Stenlund. Now head of marketing at Scriptrunner, he has a riff on how AI & integration has the opportunity to improve our work.
Gustaf here, I’m filling in for Ben this week. At Scriptrunner we build products that revolve around three key pillars: automation, integration, and customisation.
Recently I’ve observed that, while the cloud has facilitated the standardisation of many SaaS tools and AI technologies have made software development and service delivery more accessible, they have also given rise to silos of data and functionality. These silos aren’t easily connected, thereby diminishing the potential value delivered to customers.
There seems to be a growing emphasis on intricate integrations and end-to-end systems, powered by AI. Zapier is experimenting, integrating OpenAI to streamline workflows—a promising start.
How do we move from this to AI enabling real business decisions?
Today, AI excels with public data, but untapped private business data holds value.
Two approaches today:
- Build integrations to consolidate data into a single source of truth for AI to draw from. This not only benefits AI but is also usable by humans for analytics on the dataset, etc. Faculty claims to do just that with Frontier.
- Utilise GPT4’s plugins, enabling AI to query data in real time when necessary using APIs (still in beta, with its effectiveness largely unknown).
But the closer you scrutinise, the more chaotic (and less standardised) things become. Many products adopt microservices with a multi-tenant architecture (a single database for all tenants), but there are still services that opt for single-tenant models (creating a fully isolated instance for each new tenant). Good practices exist, but not everyone adheres to them.
Once cracked, what would interconnected systems mean for our industry and beyond?
It would be a dynamic bridge between your diverse data sources. Imagine real-time queries through APIs provide instant, actionable insights, allowing you to adapt campaigns on the fly and stay ahead of trends, perhaps automatically.
In short, your marketing toolkit wouldn’t simply be a collection of tools; it’d be a well-integrated powerhouse. The potential lies in your hands to create campaigns that resonate deeply, to leverage AI for decisions beyond the surface.
Notable stories this week
- Instagram’s paid creator subscriptions are still a tiny business.
- Meta giving creators more ways to earn money on Facebook and Instagram.
- Lightning McQueen will be joining Rocket League.
- Youtube is starting to allow channels to import podcast RSS feeds.
- Greenville was quiet, then a hometown kid became YouTube’s biggest star.
- Introducing the BrandGuard API. <- API to help managed AI content.
- AI asset generation is rolling out to PMax.
- The Verge’s dramatic redesign boosts loyalty even as readership dwindles.
- Meta to require political advertisers disclose AI-generated content.
- Google’s post-cookie ad tech – what marketers and publisher need to know.
- Bryan shares his experience advertising on Amazon.
- The Washington Post names Will Lewis as new CEO.
- Storyhunter rebrands as Glimmer.
- Loved this, someone trained GPT on their Slacks.
- Roblox earnings: Why enticing brands is key to the future of the metaverse platform.
- Simpli.fi launches new tv insights dashboard.
- The case for and against Netflix’s premature venture intro programmatic advertising.
Deals/M&A
- Sports betting media group Better Collective to buy Playmaker Capital for $188m.
- Stagwell acquires fast-growing creative and social agency Movers+Shakers.
- Trips has raised $2.5m in pre-seed funding.
- MIQ acquires Grasp, compliance platform.
Campaign of the week
- Apples you think this is hard work.
View all 2023 best campaigns.
Smartest commentary
- “What’s been made clear by Q3 earnings is that this is the new ad market normal:
— Marketers will focus digital spend on performance (retail/affiliate, social, search) and premium/brand spend on experiential/high-touch opps
— 👍Great for Big Tech
— 👎Tough for premium publishers” –Sara Fischer, Axios
Datapoints of note
- MailOnline is the UKs most prolific publisher with 1,400 stories/day.
- Shorter headlines get more pick ups.
- Netflix is charging $2m to advertise with its live sports event.
- Bloomberg Media tops 500k subscribers.
- ChatGPT has 100m weekly active users.
- Netfix’s most popular video games. And just 5% of Netflix originals would get a bonus under the new deal.
- Disney+ adds 2m ad-supported subscribers.
That’s it for this week.
|
|---|