As Artificial Intelligence (AI) gradually but continuously makes impact in business activities globally, Nigeria’s marketing professionals have been told to embrace the science to assist them build brands successfully, engage customers and compete in the increasingly complex marketplace.
This advice comes at a time when 85 percent of marketers globally believe that AI will make a significant impact on their marketing activity over the next five years but 54 percent of marketers don’t fully understand AI.
Bayo Adekanmbi, chief transformation officer at MTN, who shared his thoughts on emerging trends and the impact on marketing industry at a recent webinar on “Management in the age of AI”, guided marketers on how to deploy AI and position themselves in the emerging trend.
According to him, AI can be used by marketers to profile effectively beyond demographic, geographic, psychographic and behavioural characteristics. This will assist them to recognise and understand potential customers.
Marketers can also use AI to engage in dynamic nano-segmentation which helps in effectively analysing behavioural intentions, purchase patterns in certain times and certain locations.
Adekanmbi, who has over 18 years of cognitive industry experience and who has written some books on AI, further said that AI can help in mapping with near precision towards creating value. This will help to target the right customer which leads to long-term customer satisfaction and helps to deliver the right message to the right place at the right time.
At the webinar organised by Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON), Adekanmbi said AI helps marketers in the selection of the right platform that is customer-centric.
He recommended various tools such as Delve.AI; Mnenonical; Oberlo.AI; Shopify; Copy.AI; Hypotenuse AI and Xtensions that can assist marketers in the execution of their jobs.
“AI has come to support us. It is not going to replace us. AI has come to give us new frontiers of exploration and it is for us to embrace it,” Adekanmbi stated.
He reminded marketing professionals that things are becoming volatile, unpredictable, complex and ambiguous and therefore advised that in the face of all this, marketers should ask the right questions that will guide them to know what to do.
He stated that fundamentals of marketing will always remain but what will happen is how they evolve and adapt to time. For instance, the expectation of a consumer is now more technology-driven, unpredictable, data-based, real-time, and product development is no longer a linear approach.
He gave the example of how a health insurance company introduced AI tooth brush which allows better teeth cleaning to promote good behaviour with an attempt to reduce indemnity.
Also speaking at the webinar, Lekan Fadalapo, registrar of APCON, said the council intends to hold the lecture quarterly to learn about issues in the IMC industry.
