New Delhi: The era when brands were used to produce some DVCs (digital video commercials) is gone. Marketers are currently using an armies of over 1 million content creators, aka influencers, to drive around around 6,000 campaigns around the brand.
Vinit Karnik, Managing Director of GroupM India, India, India, highlighted this important insight while building the foundation for future courses in influencer marketing. What is that future course, do you ask? Going forward, Karnik is advocating for the rise of AI-driven influencers in the marketing ecosystem.
Calling it “the next step in influencer marketing,” Karnik described the benefits that AI influencers can offer. “They will adhere to brand guidelines and will absolutely be brand safe. They will work across the funnel and maintain similar voices. Dialects are no longer a challenge for marketers.
In addition to this, AI influencers are also tailored to global trends and popular culture. This allows brand messaging to be seamlessly integrated with current trends in ways that traditional influencers could not achieve and in ways that could be consistently available.
The opportunities from an engagement perspective will be endless. In the launch of GroupM’s Tyny Report, Karnik said:
However, the key point of discussion has missed the spotlight. That was how consumers engage with AI influencers. Maybe that will be discussed later.
The value of influencers is changing with the emergence of AI-powered influencers, but what we are witnessing rapid changes is the metrics of how the impact of brand messaging can be heavier.
Speaking on this subject, Karnik has shown a complete transformation of traditional metrics such as likes, sharing, subscribers, opinions and more. “These traditional metrics aren’t that important,” he said.
The focus shifts to cost per action, highlighting specific outcomes. According to Karnik, the new currency could revolve around actions such as downloads, transactions, and purchases driven by marketing communications.
When the cost per action is directly under the spotlight, influencers are also pushed to create a measurable impact. Unless there is an army of AI influencers at the brand’s disposal.
Kalnik spoke about the rise of “spearable engineers” as it intensifies further into the future. “Large content curation is simplified through rapid engineering,” Karnik said. The core idea is that by providing accurate and relevant prompts to AI systems, it will allow rapid engineers to promote the content narrative. After all, AI is just as good as that prompt, right? Karnik observed that rapid engineering is important for effective AI use. Additionally, things called “two-way listening exercises” also multiply.
“Previously, feedback was limited to binary data sources. Nowadays, with rapid engineering and AI-powered influencers, two-way feedback can be achieved. This system is designed to provide consumer preferences, content, and more. “You can reveal how you will be involved in and what you want to see next. This will allow you to adjust the program based on the feedback you receive,” Karnik explained.
