Many people find using AI in marketing intimidating because they believe it could replace humans and even harm us. Although this is a misconception, AI can enhance marketing efforts, cut costs, and save time if used ethically and creatively. Here are some great AI marketing examples and brand use cases to help you get started.
A deep dive into AI marketing examples
We have some inspiring generative AI marketing examples, with case studies of Nutella, Netflix, Volkswagen, JP Morgan Chase, etc., to help you better understand AI in marketing and how it generates results for various brands in different industries.
1. Nutella uses AI to create packaging
Industry: Food & Beverage
Use case: Design
The idea: Nutella wanted to stand out in terms of packaging and make its products more desirable and brand more talkable. This transformative challenge was given to Ogilvy Italia, a branding agency. They used AI and a dozen patterns to create 7 million one-of-a-kind labels as unique and expressive as Italian people are. And that's how Nutella Unica was born.
Mira los brillantes diseños de botes que “Nutella Unica” creó en Italia. #Packaging #DiseñoEmpaque pic.twitter.com/CqDQuVjTiT
— Soy Marketing (@soy_marketing) June 16, 2017
The result: The 7 million jars manufactured for this campaign were sold out as soon as they hit the market.
How you can replicate this:
AI can be very effective when it comes to design for branding, as you have seen in this example of AI, and if you want to try the power of AI to design your marketing campaigns. There are several tools available for you to try.
Here are some AI platforms for you to explore:
Here's what AI tool users say about their performance on social media posts.
I used @midjourney_ai to recreate @Delta's marketing campaign! 📸
— Chris McKay (@cmcky) April 24, 2023
Here's how creative teams can unlock cost savings, rapidly ideate and create diverse visuals.#AIArtworks #midjourney #Delta#Marketing https://t.co/HeyZgITw7h pic.twitter.com/W1Mt2oNrIG
2. Cyber Inc. uses AI to create video courses at scale
Industry: IT Services
Use Case: Content Creation
The idea: Using AI for content creation? Could this get even more interesting? A great AI marketing example is Cyber Inc. Cyber Inc. made it happen with Synthesia AI, an AI video creation platform that generates videos for its online courses. Cyber Inc. wanted to quickly scale with content creation and expand its global reach by creating videos in multiple languages.
Not only did they use this AI to create an avatar to replace an actor, but they also used it to cut the costs of video production.
The results: As expected, Cyber Inc. was able to create video 2x faster and scale into new markets much earlier than planned in their roadmap by generating content in multiple languages, which would be a time-consuming and costly process without AI. Talk about scalability at a good price!
How you can replicate this:
You can create content at a faster rate and lower costs with AI. It also gives you an advantage in trying content variations without spending too much time. How? You may ask. We have some great tools for you to discover!
💡 Related guide: How to Create a Better Content Marketing Strategy in 7 Steps
3. Cosabella uses AI for ad creation
Industry type: Retail Apparel & Fashion
Use Case: Social Media & Ads
The idea: Social Media and advertising are essential marketing elements, and Cosabella made a big win by letting AI into their marketing operations. As the marketing communication between Cosabella and its agency became time-consuming and difficult, they decided to give an Algorithm named Albert its paid search and digital marketing efforts using creatives and KPIs provided by the brand.
The results: AI taking over the world might be scary, but for Cosabella, Albert taking over their marketing increased its search and social media return-on-ad-spend by 50% and decreased its ad spend by 12%.
"After seeing Albert (AI) handle our paid search and social media marketing, I would never have a human do this again.’’
- Courtney Connell, Marketing Director of Cosabella
How you can replicate this:
The advancement of AI has been a miracle for marketing teams, especially regarding social media and advertising. With AI, you could automate tasks and see the numbers increase, just like Cosabella. Check out these AI tools to implement better ads and social media management:
4. Volkswagen uses AI to forecast buying decisions
Industry type: Automobile
Use Case: Predictive Analysis
The idea: Another great AI in marketing example is Volkswagen. You might have heard Volkswagen automating its vehicles, but have you heard it is automating its ad-buying decisions? Since the ad agency that was working with Volkswagen was giving personal interpretations about the ad buying decisions, the marketers at Volkswagen decided to rely wholly on data for which they decided to trust an AI so that they could invest less in campaigns and upsurge their sales.
The results: Volkswagen cut the hidden costs that the media agency previously charged by better forecasting buying decisions. In addition, Volkswagen dealership sales increased by 20%.
How you can replicate this:
Like Volkswagen, you can improvise your spending decisions and save a lot of bucks. There are tons of AI tools for data analysis that you can try out! We have some good ones ready for you:
Save time with AI-powered email content creation
5. Tomorrow Sleep uses AI to generate content at scale
Industry type: Mattress
Use Case: Content Marketing
The idea: Tomorrow Sleep, a startup, needed help generating organic traffic on its website. What skyrocketed their organic traffic? Well, again, AI happened. Tomorrow Sleep used MarketMuse, an AI-powered tool, to research and generate powerful content that increased traffic quickly and easily.
The results: From organic traffic on their web pages being just 4K per month surged to 400K in just a year. Also, their website gained authority in the eyes of the search engine to gain the featured snippet. Including AI for content marketing was probably the AHA moment they were looking for.
How you can replicate this:
You can use several AI tools in marketing operations to generate organic traffic quickly and efficiently. To get started, here are some tools you can check out:
Content marketing is a great way to get your message out there and reach an audience.
— Marwan Alameddine (@outblogged) April 23, 2023
But you need to keep your content fresh and relevant.
Frase is a tool that will help you easily create high-quality content.https://t.co/FYjZEEgDyG
6. Netflix uses AI to give personalized recommendations
Industry type: Entertainment
Use Case: Personalization
The idea: We all know how excellent Netflix's marketing is, but one thing that stands out is its use of AI for personalization. How do they do it? According to Netflix, ‘’We do this by using the data about what content our members watch and enjoy along with how they interact with our service to get better at figuring out what the next great movie or TV show for them will be.’’
Netflix personalization replaced Cillian Murphy (main character) with Anya Taylor Joy in the box art for Peaky Blinders. Because they know I binged the hell out of Queen’s Gambit. It’s sneaky - but it’s also genius. 😄♟ pic.twitter.com/YtZx88hPHB
— Paul Lee (@BeeBimBop) March 12, 2021
The AI collects large amounts of data and analyzes it to target the audience by recommending shows, movies, and artwork. The product feed that you see is personalized according to the user.
The Results: Now that you know how Netflix always keeps you hooked, let's see how profitable the AI is for Netflix. Drum rolls, please! As expected, Netflix’s recommended engine is worth over $1 billion annually, resulting from the personalized grid of suggestions catered only to the viewers’ tastes.
How you can replicate this:
Personalizing and experimenting with data is much easier with AI now. All you need is a reliable tool; we have some great ones.
7. JP Morgan Chase’s trust in AI for their copywriting efforts
Industry Type: Banking
Use Case: Copywriting
The Idea: When it realized that AI could create better copy than humans, Chase signed a deal with Persado, a software startup, when the copy generated by AI had higher click rates- even double in most cases. In a statement, Kristin Lemkau, chief marketing officer at JPMorgan Chase, said, “Persado’s technology is incredibly promising. It rewrote copy and headlines that a marketer, using subjective judgment and their experience, likely wouldn’t have. And they worked.”
The Results: As Kristin mentioned, Persado did magic on their copywriting. With their help, Chase saw a 450% lift in CTRs on ads, which led Chase to keep Persado by their side for longer.
How you can replicate this:
Copywriting with AI has been too popular lately, and it can automate many of your writing tasks. Wanna get started? Check these out:
8. FARFETCH uses AI to enhance its brand voice
Industry: Luxury Fashion Retail
Use Case: Brand Language Optimisation
The Idea: FARFETCH strives to tailor its communication with millions of users. They shook hands with Phrasee, a tool that generates on-brand content with enterprise-grade controls and content optimization at scale. They made it possible by testing fresh styles, tones, words, and phrases and discovering the language that resonates with its audience in the best way possible. They tried to incorporate this strategy into their email marketing campaigns to target the audience better.
The Results: By giving Phrasee the authority to manage its email marketing copy, FARFETCH saw impressive results, with an increase of 38% in the average click rate and a 31% increase in the average open rate in its trigger campaigns; it captured a unique brand voice and adhered to it consistently.
How you can replicate this:
Your brand language matters a lot when communicating with your audience. Letting AI content in is one way to ensure it's perfect or close to perfect. We have picked some good ones for you:
9. Mastercard applies AI intelligence to tackle competitive threats
Industry Type: Financial Services / Technology
Use Case: Competitive Analysis
The Idea: During the global pandemic, Mastercard Payment Gateway Services (MPGS) faced constant challenges and required intelligence to tackle its competitive threats. Here comes Crayon, an AI-powered platform that MGPS adopted to get the viewpoint of its competitors and predict threats coming their way.
The Results: Crayon made a huge difference in its competitive intelligence strategy. The Director of Global Product Marketing and Sales Enablement, Mike Wienke, says, “Crayon gives participants a clear sense of how each competitor is approaching the market, making it easier to look at Mastercard from an external POV. Not only does this make the exercise much more effective, but it also allows us to bring together people from across the organization and open up a dialogue—one where everyone can contribute valuable ideas.”
How you can replicate this:
Just like MGPS, there's a lot of potential in AI tools for analyzing competitors and revamping your strategies. To closely keep a watch on your competitors, here are a few examples of AI tools that you could invest in:
10. The News Movement uses AI-powered analytics for social listening
Industry Type: Media and Publishing
Use Case: Social Media Management
The Idea: The News Movement, a media platform, wanted its audience to engage and expand as much as possible. For this to happen, they were required to dive deep into data and understand what their audience was thinking and talking about. They use Sprinklers Unified-CXM powered by AI, pull in petabytes of customer engagement data across different platforms, and interpret, recognize, and understand every signal of customer intent.
The Results: With this AI-powered tool, TNM was able to save a lot of hours every week, and they can use their social media data to engage better with their audience on social media, all of this in less than 6 months. It gave them historical data from TikTok that they did not previously have, which changed the social media game for TNM.
How you can replicate this:
Social listening can help you tap into your audiences’ tastes, preferences, and intent. To better understand this, AI-powered social monitoring tools like these can help:
Other applications of AI in marketing
- Amazon uses AI to give better product recommendations based on your previous orders and products searched for.
- Starbucks integrated 'My Starbucks Barista' with Amazon's Alexa to improve customer service. Customers can now place orders, modify orders, and confirm pickup locations over voice commands.
- Lowe introduced a bot to improve the customer shopping experience with personalized suggestions. Also, they used Lowebot to track real-time stock and inventory to understand customer behavior.
Takeaway
In these AI in Marketing examples, you learned how brands, even the biggest ones like Nutella, Volkswagen, Netflix, etc., are winning in their marketing strategies with artificial intelligence. Other popular brands incorporate AI to understand customer needs to get actionable insights in better ways.
With the help of deep learning (machine learning) and AI, companies could utilize product and customer data to target audiences better by understanding customer behavior. Giving AI the responsibility for your marketing activities and operations can make a huge difference and yield astonishing results. If your marketing strategy needs revamping, it's time to incorporate AI. These AI applications in marketing can help you get started with that very well.
To clarify, AI may soon be able to take over business operations. Even popular marketing tools utilize AI to do the heavy lifting for them. So, if you still think it won't be worth your money, think again because you wouldn't want to be far behind the competition.
