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What marketers need to know about ByteDance-owned Lemon8 — and its link to TikTok »»

Reminder: don’t tell anything to a chatbot you want to keep private »»

Seriously: ChatGPT has a big privacy problem »»

While we’re on this, here’s why ChatGPT and Bing Chat are so good at making things up… »»

…and why AI art struggles with hands »»

Meanwhile, AI voice cloning is about to change entertainment forever »»

Speaking of entertainment, Disney named its first ever chief brand officer »»

Commercial real estate prices could crash 40%, a worse disaster than the 2008 global financial crisis, Morgan Stanley warns »»

The US Army has a new logo »»

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A super sunny Spanish town is paying Britons to move there—but there’s a catch »»

Social media creators and generative AI are now doing advertising professionals’ jobs. Or are they?

THERE’S A SNEAKY new social media strategy out there.

— Spotted by social media expert Rachel Karten, and shared in her excellent Link in Bio newsletter, the move is clever.

— Reformation simply finds trending TikToks, and then just pays the creators to remake those very same videos, only this time wearing a Reformation product, for Reformation’s Instagram account.

— It’s fiendishly simple, and, as Rachel puts it, “the content is also almost guaranteed to perform, since the original version was already proven on a different channel.”

— Marketing pros are living in interesting times.

MEANWHILE IN MOUNTAIN View, Meta said they’ll release a generative AI ad-making tool by year's end.

— They’re actually late to the generative AI ad-making party.

— Omneky and HeyGen (fka Movio) are just 2 firms that have been using generative AI to create marketing videos, since long before ChatGPT.

— All of this has ad professionals sweating. But should they be?

THERE’S A TWEET making the rounds about this that “goes hard,” as the kids say.

— It says “you deserve to be replaced by AI if your skills are so lacking that a group of programmers can create an AI that can do your job better than you.”

BUT, HOLD UP. A human being had to come up with Reformation’s sneaky social media remake strategy, right? Right?!

— Probably.

— But think about it for a sec. It’s actually pretty easy to imagine ChatGPT coming up with Reformation’s Reel remake strategy with the right prompt.

OK, WHAT’S THE point here?

— In case you haven’t noticed, the world is changing. Rapidly.

— But, when it comes to high level marketing, I’ve continued to observe a lot of demand for high level human interaction.

— Top tier clients like to understand the rationale behind a campaign strategy or idea, and then build consensus within their organizations, usually by truly discussing the risk reward benefit of certain decisions.

— All of this has to be talked through, and thoughtfully considered, before any sort of high profile campaign is signed off on.

OK, SO DOES that mean that all ad professionals are going to become account managers for creator- and AI-generated ad campaigns?

— For some brands, yes.

— For others, ChatGPT will actually be the account manager too.

— Seriously. Take this Reformation thing for example.

— It’s not hard to imagine a future suite of ChatGPT plug-ins being able to (a) identify a trending TikTok or Reel, (b) DM the creator who made it, (c) negotiate the deal, (d) pay them, and then (e) receive and traffic the new Reel to another social account, without a human on the brand side lifting a finger.

BUT THERE’S LEVELS to this.

— Some brands, especially one person shows, and early stage startups, can and will definitely be built on ChatGPT plug-ins trafficking remade Reels and AI-generated Facebook ads.

— Other, larger, more established brands will need a slower, more thought through, higher-level approach.

ZOOM OUT: SO many other aspects of life offer this kind of choice:

— You can dress in Shein head-to-toe, or you can fill your closet with Cucinelli and Loro Piana.

— You can head to the supermarket on a no name, no logo bike, or in a Ferrari SUV.

— You can eat a 99¢ microwave burrito for dinner, or head to a three star restaurant.

— Those choices are all up to your tastes, your appetites, and your means.

— In other words, founders certainly can build brands by paying social media creators to remake their jokes, and feeding prompts into Facebook’s forthcoming ad generator. Or they can do it with a skilled team of proven professionals.

IT’S CLEAR THAT more and more ad creation is going to be automated. But there’s a serious silver lining here for ad pros.

— If a ChatGPT plug-in can identify a trending Reel, reach out to the creator who made it, negotiate a deal, pay them, and receive and traffic the new Reel automatically, then that will simply push whichever humans are in charge higher and higher up the value chain.

— Meaning, those humans will be able to use ChatGPT or similar to come up with 50, or 100 ideas like Reformation’s remake strategy.

— Then, they’ll be able to leverage their experience, judgment and human relationships to push the best ones to the top of the list.

— This is what they mean when they say, “AI won’t take your job, a human using AI will.”

— Bring it on.

More:

Meta wants to use generative AI to create ads »»

Reformation’s Sneaky Social Content Strategy »»

“You deserve to be replaced by AI” Tweet »»

Written by Jon Kallus. Any feedback? Simply reply.