Social media has revolutionised and democratised marketing. Anyone with a product or service to sell now has access to a global audience and the capacity to produce all their own online marketing content.
However, now there is a new barrier between you and your customers: how do you get noticed in a marketplace swamped by a torrent of messaging from crowds of competing businesses?
The standard answer was to generate a regular stream of high-quality, targeted content that would get you noticed, but this is easier said than done.
Who has the time, let alone the skills, to come up with clever content every day when they have a business to run? And buying the expertise of a marketing agency is beyond the budget of most small businesses and start-up entrepreneurs.
Over the last few years, the solution seemed to emerge – generative artificial intelligence (AI). Tools such as ChatGPT grabbed the headlines by using effective algorithms to mimic human intelligence. With just a few prompts, you could produce a lifelike image, a haiku poem about your pet or an exam essay – instantly and to your exact specifications.
So it was hardly surprising that the potential of this new technology was recognised quickly by the marketing and advertising industry, which also became an enthusiastic early adopter of generative AI. In fact, according to Statista, these sectors have been the most eager to adopt the new technology, with 37% of respondents from the marketing and advertising industry admitting in a poll to using it in 2023.
But now that even the smallest organisation can produce huge amounts of copy, this leads to new problems. With a marketplace inundated with AI generated messages being yelled from every quarter by your competitors, it’s getting harder to be noticed by your ideal customer.
Generative AI also proves that more isn’t always better. The Wall Street Journal reported that generative AI has led to magazine editors being inundated by article proposals from marketing agencies and PR companies, many of them generic and lacking human input, so that the genuine wheat is lost amongst all the chaff.
In fact, this AI generated material has given rise to a new term – digital waste – to describe the masses of online content being produced. It has reached such a state that digital waste is now causing other, environmental, problems.
The problem of digital media waste
Digital media waste is defined as the sum of the out-of-date or junk content sitting out there in the public virtual domain in such vast quantities that its handling is becoming a problem. The long-term consequence of storing this vast amount of information in a digital format (whether that information is raw or processed data, idle or in use) is that it’s becoming a drain on the planet’s resources.
The technology sector’s global carbon footprint is now estimated to be over 2% of all emissions worldwide, which is almost as much as the footprint for the aviation industry.
And a report by the USA’s Natural Resources Defense Council report highlighted concerns that the proliferation of massive data centres in the US consumes around 626 billion litre of water a year. This sum is likely to rise with the advent of more advanced and accessible generative AI technology, posing future environmental risks in the process.
How can AI help reduce digital media waste in marketing?
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a remarkable innovation which is set to revolutionise how we work, expanding not only the limits of creativity but also of efficiency. In the past, reducing energy consumption focused on making devices more energy efficient with better design. However, research is now focusing on design approaches to make software and platforms more efficient.
Of course, digital media waste isn’t just a problem for the marketing industry, as new potential applications for generative AI are discovered, new ways of generating waste will come as more and more aspects of our lives become reliant on digital technology,
However, we believe that anyone responsible for a marketing budget or project should take a lead in reducing digital media waste, from the top down. As well as being a cause of the problem, AI can also be part of the solution:
- Generative AI can be used to selectively collect and analyse data on customer and content consumer preferences and use it to create, for example, more targeted emailing campaigns, avoiding a more wasteful scattergun approach.
- Generative AI can support a marketing effort by producing less, but more personalised, content that is designed to resonate more closely with your specific target audience.
- AI tools can optimise the re-use of visual and written content across multiple platforms.
Personalization has always been the gold standard for effective marketing and that hasn’t changed. It may be tempting to use AI to swamp the attention of potential audiences, but overkill will be self-defeating and expensive in the long run.
The next step in intelligent marketing
We are all responsible for reducing waste and consumption, whether physical or digital. Understanding the impact of our online activities, including the design and use of marketing platforms and running marketing campaigns, on the planet.
At the Ministry of Innovation, we can help clients to harness the power of generative AI to produce less wasteful, more cost-effective marketing strategies that also bring results. If you want to find out more, visit our digital marketing’s page: