This article originally appeared in AdAge.
In the evolving brand and marketing landscape, artificial intelligence is not just the hot new fad—it’s a transformative force. Here’s a look at how to apply AI in brand management.
AI is reshaping how we think about the creative process. The next frontier will change how brands are built and managed, and the call to harness new AI tools to power up capabilities is growing. The time to explore what’s possible and pilot new initiatives is now.
From launch to everyday stewardship, there are four primary focus areas where AI will impact brand management and that should be on the radar of every brand leader and AI marketing task force:
Systems that learn your brand
One “single source of truth” via online brand centers and digital asset management platforms has been considered industry best practice. But AI’s implications have us looking forward to the next generation of solutions that do more than just catalog content and standards; they iterate and problem-solve alongside you.
This development, however, raises questions about better aligning brand-building with new AI capabilities. It means evolving traditional brand guidelines with prompt-literate instructions and considering the most effective deployment of automated brand reviews. Major consumer brands are already experimenting with AI for brand imagery generation and bringing forward-thinking AI-led campaigns to market. Think Coca-Cola’s “Create Real Magic” initiative or Nike’s AI-generated models.
This proliferation of new content further highlights the importance of ensuring what’s generated stays true to the brand and its standards.
Meeting creators where they are
If we’ve heard it once, we’ve heard it a thousand times: Brand teams want to influence the development of branded assets.
However, they either can’t handle the volume of brand reviews required, don’t have an effective sightline to downstream execution or their organization’s culture generally rejects brand compliance (no one likes a brand cop).
Imagine enabling content checks at scale that are helpful to creators, allow for efficiencies in the creative development process and actually supports brand cohesion in market. AI can get us there—but to work, it needs to be baked in.
Next-gen brand management AI solutions will prioritize interoperability, integrating into existing workflows and creative tools, even as a web browser plug-in. Getting ahead of late-in-the-game brand approvals not only speeds the path to brand execution but also provides powerful insights into what’s working, what isn’t and how a brand needs to evolve. In other words, brand identity data that matters.
Meaningful brand identity data
Data and insights are essential for anyone looking to understand the effectiveness of their efforts and make informed decisions, brand managers included.
There is an abundance of success metrics tracked in advertising and marketing. But beyond macro brand awareness and health tracking, meaningful data on how your brand identity system contributes to business success is harder to come by.
When there isn’t proof to support the rationale for brand standards—from image style to color usage—brand teams find themselves at the mercy of business leaders who hold the marketing purse strings. It’s a slippery slope to inconsistencies in market that can negatively impact brand cohesion and attribution.
AI-powered brand checks can uncover powerful observations on how particular identity elements drive meaningful value. Today we’re even starting to see solutions that focus on evaluating the quality of campaign creative in real time. Armed with more meaningful insights, brand teams can bring valuable cross-functional perspectives to the table, from customer engagement to influencing decisions on media strategy and investment.
AI-powered brand education
We know that not everyone learns the same way. There are visual learners, aural learners, kinesthetic learners, social learners, solitary learners and others. While many strive to accommodate different learning styles when building internal brand education programs, the resources and investment required to be broadly inclusive and provide the most interactive, in-person or high-production value content can be a barrier to entry. AI can help break that barrier.
New solutions will enable highly customized, intuitive brand learning pathways that get to know the user while letting the user know the brand in their own unique way. Brand training will not only become more specific to the individual but infinitely more scalable. Think: your company’s very own BrandGPT.
Coming hot on the heels of impressive generative imagery capabilities is generative video—and as GenAI continues to evolve, virtual brand assistants will be able to provide immediate answers to brand questions and identify solutions in real time. These advances will make personalized training content and brand dialogue more accessible, opening a world of possibility for engagement and understanding.
The time to lean in is now
AI is fundamentally changing brand management now. Incorporating AI-led solutions into your brand management approach goes beyond just staying current—it serves to amplify the core purpose of managing your brand in the first place: to be both deeply understood while being agile enough to stand out in rapidly changing times.
Lauren Thebault is Group Director, Activation and Brand Management.
