The Business Record asked local marketing professionals about trends in their field over the next year, and many referenced the way artificial intelligence is posing potential changes or challenges. 

Among the industries discussing the potential effects of generative AI, a main focus for the marketing sector is ensuring the technology’s influence stays outside the creative process, according to the responses. 

See more of what was shared below.

What do you see as the biggest trend or insight in marketing for the year ahead?

Movement toward generative AI solutions within the creative process. Our industry has relied on AI solutions within the areas of media placement, market research and analytics. Those solutions are most often engineered into existing platforms, and are certainly here to stay. But when it comes to the contest of ideas, we believe human-centered creativity wins and the move toward AI-based solutions here is a mistake. Profound ideas that capture the essence of a brand, for example, come from understanding the human experience at its deepest level. That human experience is applied to each brand in a different way and through a unique context. There is a tremendous amount of nuance in that process. Understanding nuance is a uniquely human experience. We are focused more on training our creative teams to immerse themselves continually in the kind of human experience that drives genuine connection to the mindset of our target audience.

— Paul Schlueter, president, Flynn Wright

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AI-powered personalization is probably the most interesting and will be the most valuable trend for 2024 and beyond. Principal is largely a B2B shop, targeting the decision-makers within companies interested in offering new or additional benefits to their employees, such as retirement plans, dental or vision coverage and short-term disability, to name a few. These products help business leaders attract talent and retain the talent they need.

We are experimenting with AI across several use cases. Some of the most interesting are the applications using AI to trigger campaigns with intentional messages based on how a visitor interacts with our website or digital advertising. In this case we are testing how messaging evolves based on audience engagement. We are also exploring ways to use AI to vet, score and prioritize leads by segmenting buyers based on hundreds of data points. Some data points are based on what they tell us. Others are based on their digital behavior across channels. AI will also provide intelligence as we offer certain platforms to enable our sales teams. Our goal is to share with sales compliant, real-time advertising and thought leadership content to share across channels such as social media.

— Beth Wood, executive vice president and chief marketing officer, Principal Financial Group

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Companies are realizing that they’re spending too much of their budgets on short-term performance marketing efforts and missing out on the power of brand marketing. A well-established brand is seen as more trustworthy and credible. 

As much as we like to think our customers are very serious people that only make data-driven decisions, emotion plays a key role in the purchase decision. The eternal desire to belong, elevate our status, or reflect our self-image impacts our choices. This is particularly true in the B2B space, where credibility is on the line and large buying committees are involved in decision making. Branding provides a shortcut in the minds of your audiences to simplify decision-making and reduce perceived risks. 

At Two Rivers Marketing, we work with clients to hone their brand story and align brand marketing and demand generation efforts to deliver a cohesive message to customers. And we make sure the communications we develop appeal to both the head and the heart. 

— Joe Boswell, senior marketing strategy director, Two Rivers Marketing

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There’s been a lot of buzz about AI lately, but many of our clients are looking to us to help with challenges that are a little more … human. It’s all about connecting with people. Several of them work through distribution networks or with agents in the field. Helping them build trust with people on a local level is critical for their brands, especially in the face of hurdles like continued supply chain issues. Strategies such as account-based marketing and hyper-local targeted media campaigns give them the brand recognition they need to make these connections. Even on the digital front, we’re building strategies for one-to-one messaging between a brand and a customer across all platforms — social media, website, apps and virtual assistants. As we plan for clients’ futures, we’re building digital architecture that helps them deliver communication where and how their customers want to receive it.

Building trust in their brands is also important to our clients when it comes to workforce challenges. We know how vital company culture and values are to attracting talented people. So we’re helping our clients identify ways to invest in their cultures, talent development and recruitment efforts — and creating messaging to help them communicate all this to prospective employees.

— Tom Flynn, president and CEO, Lessing-Flynn

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It’s nearly impossible to escape the machine learning trend. As an agency, we view AI as a tool to inspire – not replace – human creativity. In the coming year we will continue to explore the value this technology offers, while also recognizing the risk it poses to authenticity and originality as its use becomes more commonplace. Despite the recent buzz surrounding AI, we tend to lean “counter trend” and focus more on the human elements of creating unique and meaningful connections through our brand work. This means pushing for the emotional component in what we create, ensuring we always differentiate ourselves and our clients.

— Xan McNelly, president and CEO, ZLR Ignition