Entry Details

About the Entry

Category: 
All Content > Case Study > Northeast

Title of entry: 
Helping Our Readers Understand AI Without The Hype

Issue or Publication date:
September 5

Publication name: 
AdExchanger

View Website home page:
https://adexchanger.com/

Links to entry URLs

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Entry URL(s), if applicable:
Please enter a URL that will direct judges to the entry: 
https://www.adexchanger.com/ai/how-omnicoms-ai-virtual-assistant-does-the-campaign-grunt-work-for-planters/

Entry Essay: 
There’s a lot of bluster in the advertising industry about artificial intelligence. Our inboxes are filled to the brim almost daily with pitches from vendors, agencies and PR firms extolling the virtues of this or that revolutionary and groundbreaking use case.

It’s our role to wade through the deluge of information – and the boasting – and decide what deserves coverage, not just because it sounds interesting, but because it’s real. Our readers want to understand the latest innovations, but they don’t want to read about unrealistic technology or futuristic applications.

The newest writer on our team, who started with us over the summer, therefore has a very hard job. AI falls under the beat of our Associate Editor Victoria McNally .

Omnicom – one of the largest ad agencies in the world – reached out to us shortly after Victoria joined our team with a story about Omni Assist, its new generative AI virtual assistant. Omni Assist provides insights, notifications and recommendations to help with campaign workflow, including planning, activation, measurement and optimization.

It sounded cool, but at AdExchanger we have a policy. If we write about a technology, we always want to speak to a client about their experience of using it. Not only does that paint a more interesting picture for our readers, but it’s a litmus test that shows us the technology isn’t vaporware.

But it can be a very difficult task getting brands to speak publicly about the technologies they use. This case was no different. But Victoria diligently pursued Omnicom until they were able to put her in touch with Hormel Foods-owns Planters, a BBDO client that used Omni Assist to support a recent campaign.

Being able to talk to Planters brought this story to life. Victoria clearly and crisply explains – with examples – how Planters used Omnicom’s virtual assistant as an automated “chief strategist” of sorts to develop bespoke marketing KPIs and analyze thousands of data attributes to create new audiences.

Victoria details in easy-to-understand language exactly how these AI agents work. As AI becomes a more integral part of marketing and advertising, we think it’s very important to explain how these tools work and to provide real examples to back it up.

There’s nothing easier than using the term “AI-powered.” We’ve all read articles about “AI-powered platforms” or “AI-powered tools” that have lots of hype but not much detail. We don’t want to be part of the hype machine.

We talk to real brands, like Planters, that can demonstrate the “how” and not just the wow.