'Consumer trust is an equity that is consistent irrespective of brand categories'

At the Screenage Conference held in Mumbai, in a session chaired by Shibu Shivanandan, Founder & Managing Director, PivotRoots (Session Chair), 'How AI is Transforming the Art of Storytelling', Ritu Mittal, Head - Marketing and Digital, Bayer Consumer Health India; Reena Jagtap, Lead- Digital Marketing, Henkel; Sujay Ray, Head - Digital Marketing, L'oreal and Shaurya Tyagi, Head of Digital Marketing & Loyalty, Reliance Retail, discussed how artificial intelligence is being used to create compelling narratives in the mobile marketing sphere.

Shivananda began by speaking about the truly transformative powers of AI, and Generative AI, and how we were still on the tip of the iceberg that the changes the technology will bring to all spheres. “There is a lot to experiment, a lot to learn, a lot to look out for. I would like this session to be more about that. In terms of what should we do? How can we start our journey? What are the things to look out for? So, with that, let me start with the first question. How do you guys feel that AI is generally influencing and reshaping the entire storytelling which is happening currently?”

Tyagi said that he felt AI is interesting because it's helping across the content value chain. “It's helping you to cut down on the time that you need to do your secondary research to reach the Insight stage. And from there to understand, how do I take this insight and create multiple content formats around that? So if I have to create a long form content which is three minute, what should I, you know, look at, and if I have to break down a long story into smaller parts, how do I create that? So I think the entire value chain is being disrupted with AI and what benefit it's giving all of us is rapid experimentation.”

He added, “So instead of looking at only one, you know, way to a particular communication problem, or a business problem, I can look at it in multiple ways and you know, sort of test multiple things before I go out in the market. So I think that's the fundamental change that I see. Specifically in you know, content which is, you know, smaller in nature. So your text that you're using on your search engine marketing copies, or the text that you that you're using in your display as the images that you're using in your history, so that I think it's, you know, it's evolving and gives us a lot of time to experiment and find out what will work and what will not work great.”

Jagtap said AI is influencing the traditional ways of storytelling by four main components. “One is the language model. So if you see how it's influencing the way writers used to write, it's reducing dependencies on them. So that is something very critical like today. Anyone can be a content creator if you just open up and give them a command. Right after language models, I would say specifically in terms of image models, so when it comes to creating images, which will, you know, traditionally we were very much dependent on agencies to create content in terms of graphic designers creating images. So you reduce your dependency on editors and you yourself can be an editor. So these are the key components and even the fake AI right you can create an entire environment which was not possible until you had very high production budgets for the shoot. So I think these four are the key elements that are transforming the traditional ways of storytelling. And this gives more power to individual marketers to be a content creator themselves and within just made a commercial.”

Ray chimed in by noting we are in very exciting times nowadays. “The great part is that we have started talking about AI now, but frankly speaking, if you see Turing’s test happened in 1950. So that means AI has been there since then in our lives in whichever avatar or format. It's just that I think, apart from it getting used into high end scientific experiments and other things now, it has been democratized. That's the reason everybody's in one or the other way using it. And that's the reason probably all of us are sitting in this room and talking about it because now we have kind of unleashed the potential of AI and how it can be used in daily lives, how it can be used by brands.”

“And maybe that is one of the aspects which we can touch in today's conversation is what I feel is that the way it is kind of complementing the traditional art of storytelling and so who to communicate to how to communicate to when to communicate to how much to communicate, all those inputs are being governed by those data driven decisions. However, having said that, I'm still a firm believer that it has to be a balance of both man and machine and it can't be like letting go on a machine to figure out what is the coffee and what is the image that needs to be done. But this is something which we'll have to live with. It's a blended reality. It's just that we need to figure out the best way possible to leverage that thing.”

Shivandandan also asked the panel how they thought that AI is able to help be personalized and also add a bit of a human element in the storytelling and the creative narrative that we have been doing so far?

Tyagi responded, saying, “The business that I deal with is b2b commerce. So we are dealing with a grocery store merchant in Patiala, we are dealing with a grocery store merchant in different parts of the country. So, context becomes very important. What also becomes important is the promotions that you're pitching to the consumer. So you have to play with two things. So for example, if I'm running a promotion on you know, the Staples category in the north kind of products will change from north to south, you know, so that becomes very important. So it's not only about the culture, but also the consumption that is happening in that part of the country. And that, I think, can be, merged beautifully with the data that we have from the platform.”

Jagtap added that she comes from an automotive and b2b background and so this is the kind of scale at which we operate by doing a lot of research, seeing their demographics, and online behavior. These kinds of audiences purchase mostly from b2b sites. “So basically, after gathering a lot of insights, tools like Performance Max, Facebook Advantage Plus have really helped basically create the right communication strategies that will resonate with their requirements. So weaving journeys through all the latest technologies, using the right content that resonates with the consumers problems is something that I really worked closely with Henkel and we've seen an ROI this year of 15% for the ad investment that we've made, which is way higher than what was last year, and this is purely after learning a lot of the audience consumer behavior and patterns on our E commerce shop.”

The conversation then turned to privacy concerns and the responsible use of AI when it came to consumer data. Mittal said while we love talking about it and love using it. "In consumer health, the concept of responsibility, particularly in self-care, holds significant importance. It's not just about the use of AI, but rather the responsible use of AI that is crucial. As Reena mentioned, AI involves substantial data exchange, emphasizing the necessity for brands to handle, store, and delete data responsibly. Consumers have the right to inquire about and know how their data is managed. Transparency between brands and consumers is critical for building and retaining trust, which is paramount for any brand. Throughout my marketing career,  I've consistently found that consumer trust is a universal equity, transcending brand categories. It's an immense aspect that must never be compromised," she noted.