The Potential of AI in Marketing | Andrew Davis

Ann Kraus: Hello, and welcome to Simpli.fi TV, the web series and podcast for agencies, brands, marketers, and media buyers. I'm Ann Kraus. My guest today is Andrew Davis. He is a bestselling author and keynote speaker. Before building and selling a thriving digital marketing agency, Andrew produced for NBC and worked for The Muppets. He's appeared in The New York Times and on the Today Show. He's crafted documentary films and award-winning content for tiny startups and Fortune 500 brands. Today, Andrew teaches business leaders how to grow their businesses, transform their cities, and leave their legacy. Andrew, welcome to Simpli.fi TV. Andrew Davis: Thanks, Ann. It's so nice to be here. Thanks for having me. Ann Kraus: Absolutely. So, we are not living in a very patient time in society, yet you encourage agencies and brands to step back and look at smaller actions that have bigger impacts. How can you convince marketers that this is a good strategy and maybe there's an example you can share on that? Andrew Davis: Yeah, sure. Well, I think we're always excited about getting our brand name out there and making people aware that we're out there and in the hopes that awareness is going to really drive the bottom line. And yes, it can, but I think we spent a huge amount of time forgetting about the customers we actually have already acquired and we don't do enough to market to them. So, there are simple things we can do like raise anticipation for the next product or service that you have coming out, or you can maximize their honeymoon phase. Reviews and ratings are such a big part of the consumer world today that we've got to really get people when they're most excited. An easy example actually is Rent the Runway, for example. Rent the Runway knows that the big difference between what they do... If you're not familiar with Rent the Runway, by the way, for those listeners or viewers out there, Rent the Runway basically allows you to get a gown for a special occasion, and essentially they send it to you and then you send it back, so you don't have to buy a designer gown for a wedding or a rehearsal dinner. Anyway, what they do is they know when you go to that event, they know the exact event date. They know that you're going to be most excited about the gown you rented the day after, the morning after, so they email you the morning after and they say, "Hey, I bet you had a great time last night. I hope you have some wonderful pictures." You can imagine that woman scrolling through her phone looking at the amazing pictures in her gown last night, and they say, "Please, would you take a second to review the gown you wore and maybe upload your favorite picture of how you looked in it?" All of a sudden, they get five-star reviews with glowing emotional language. This is very different than someone, say Nordstrom, if you had bought the dress at Nordstrom or any other department store, they don't know when you're going to wear it. We have to maximize the honeymoon phase as much as possible. These little things can make a huge difference. I know we're really excited about branding and building our business, but don't forget about the customers you already have because they can make a huge impact in that next purchase for someone else. Ann Kraus: I love the phrase, honeymoon. The honeymoon stage. That's so true. Of course, the pictures are going to be amazing. She's going to be so excited to send those pictures in. Andrew Davis: Exactly. You're like, "I look amazing." They actually call it- Ann Kraus: "I look so great." Andrew Davis: They call that moment, that time where they try to get the review, they call it “the after party glow moment, and they're trying very hard to predict when they will be at the peak of their enthusiasm, so the reviews are amazing. If you read them, you'll see that people who had a bad experience, I mean honestly, they'll say, "The dress was too long, and it didn't fit very well, and I had to use some tape to hold it up appropriately," but then they'll still give it five stars and say, "It was the best dress I ever wore, and I got so many compliments, and check out the picture." Ann Kraus: Okay, so they know what they're doing. Andrew Davis: Yes. Ann Kraus: So transforming a city, transforming a city- Andrew Davis: Yes. Ann Kraus: That seems like a big ask for brands. What do you recommend as a first step? Andrew Davis: Oh, the first step is really easy. Any brand today can actually differentiate themselves by telling us where you do business, because I know we live in a global marketplace where you can buy stuff from anywhere, but one of the easiest ways to differentiate what you do, and who you serve, and how you do it, and how you build it, and how you buy it, is to tell people where you're based and why you are there. Here's the challenge to everybody today. I would go check your about page for your business, go down the long list of stuff, your vision, and your mission, and your core values, and your team, your executive team. I know that's all there, but do you tell people why you do business where you do business? If you have multiple locations, tell us why you are there. It actually can make a huge difference in leaving a legacy and making people proud that you serve not just their community, but the communities that you're in. Ann Kraus: That is great advice because, you're right, we're so global that I'm always scrolling down to the bottom of a site saying, "I wonder where this company is." Andrew Davis: Exactly. And I'm always wondering, why are they there? This can add a huge amount of cachet to the business you do. If you're based in Minnesota, it's the origin of where flour was invented. Flour, F-L-O-U-R. So, if you're a bakery, tell us you're based there. And yes, you ship all over the world, but it's because there's a historical precedence for greatness in baking that came out of Minnesota. That's the kind of thing that will transform your brand. Like beef jerky. The beef jerky capital of the world is Minong, Wisconsin, and there's a reason they are there. They just need to share the story. It can create a real emotional branded attachment, not just to the brand, but the place. Your diehard consumers, they will want to come visit. It will transform the place you do business, but also the business you do. Ann Kraus: Let's move on to AI in marketing. I'm going to ask you a quick question: friend or foe? Andrew Davis: Friend. A hundred percent. I'm a huge advocate. Let me just quickly say, Ann, I think the emotional rollercoaster you go on when you try AI, it essentially starts with like, "Oh my gosh, it's magic." Right? Then you try to do something that you really want it to do and you're like, "Oh, it's so stupid." Then all of a sudden, it'll deliver a stroke of genius where you're like, "Wow, that's better than I could come up with in a 10th or a millionth of the timeframe," and you're like, "Oh my gosh, there's no room for creativity and marketing anymore. My job is going to be taken away." You kind of go through this cycle constantly where you're amazed and then you think it's stupid, and then you're like, "It's going to take over the world, and the robots are coming," and then you're like, "It's magic." It's vacillated, but I've gotten to the point where I do love it and I find that it's magic most of the time if you use it the right way. Ann Kraus: How would you recommend to marketers to kind of, I guess, get to know it, to use it the right way? Andrew Davis: Well, okay. There are two things. The first mind shift you need to have is to not treat it like Google. You don't need to engineer the perfect prompt and try to get it to do what you want it to do in one big statement. I think that's false, right? I've had the most success by actually biting off really small tasks just to write a video script of a very specific type or write an intro paragraph for a blog post. Then I've given it lots of samples. You have to kind of feed it samples of how you want it done and how you've done it in the past, and then have it evaluate the way it does it and you do it and those differences, and then have it try again. Remember, AI learns. I think you can make yourself a more valuable asset to your organization by tasking it out with squirrel-sized tasks. I say squirrel-sized because the size of ChatGPT-4 today is about the size of a squirrel-sized brain. Think of your task as very small tasks and really train it to do things the way you do it. All of a sudden, you become a more valuable asset because you've got a bunch of AI you've trained to help you do your job better and faster and more efficiently, but with your intellectual property at work. I kind of envision a future where it's not going to take our jobs, but when you're hiring someone, for instance, you're going to be hiring them plus the AI that they've trained and they own to do a better job faster and even invite more creativity because I think my digital doppelganger, that's what I call him, his name's Drewdini, and I've trained him to be the best, most supportive, creative partner ever. He's constantly saying, "Yes, And, that was a great idea. Yes, keep it going." Ann Kraus: It's like a BOGO when you hire somebody, right? You buy one, get one. You get the hiree, and then their extra AI intelligence. Yeah. Andrew Davis: That's right. Yeah, that's right. I think there's a future there that just makes us much better at what we do. AI today just spits out I would call it C-minus work. It's not great work, but when you train it to do the work the way you do it, using your tone and mimicking your style and imitating you, all of a sudden you can get it to do your version of A-plus level work pretty efficiently, as long as it's squirrel-sized tasks. Don't try to get it to write a book for you. Even if you train it, it's pretty difficult. I've tried. Ann Kraus: You've tried? Andrew Davis: Yeah. Ann Kraus: I'm going to look at squirrels totally different now. Andrew Davis: Yes. Ann Kraus: Squirrels, I'm going to be like, okay, I understand now. Andrew, I know that you are published yourself and you do all kinds of keynote speeches and everything, but do you have a podcast or a book or something that's been instrumental in your success? Andrew Davis: Yes. This is the book, The Wizard of Ads. If you haven't read The Wizard of Ads, it's turning words into magic and dreamers into millionaires. Anytime I'm uninspired, I open it up to a little chapter and I find just sheer wisdom. I've had it for 20 years. It's by Roy H. Williams. If you haven't read it, read it. Ann Kraus: You pulled it right out there. Perfect. Now, what is the best way, because I know people are going to want to get to know you a little bit more, what's the best way for viewers to learn more about you? Andrew Davis: Well, you can find me on LinkedIn. Just search Andrew Davis and then look for the headshot that has an orange bow tie on or blue bow tie, depending on the week. Or you can check me out at AKADrewDavis.com, like also known as Drew Davis dot com. Those are the two best ways to find me. Ann Kraus: Andrew, thank you so much for being my guest on Simpli.fi TV. This was fun. Andrew Davis: It's been such a pleasure. Thank you, Ann. Ann Kraus: And thank you all for watching. Simpli.fi TV is sponsored by Simpli.fi, helping you to maximize relevance and multiply results with our industry-leading, media-buying, and workflow solutions. For more information, visit Simpli.fi. Thanks for joining us today. I'm Ann Kraus, and I look forward to seeing you next time.