Dive Brief:
- U.K.-based ad tech firm Unruly used IBM’s Watson AI technology to create what the company described in a company press release as a “cognitive powered psychographic targeting tool” that improves digital video advertising campaigns.
- The tool, called Unruly DNA, taps Watson’s machine learning capabilities along with Unruly’s emotional intelligence tools to “identify and engage” an audience most likely to improve campaign ROI.
- For marketers, the tool creates segments based on profiles of “light” buyers and “heavy” buyers. Academic research has found light buyers are more likely to increase sales because they have greater capacity to make more purchases.
Dive Insight:
Unruly DNA is an example of the importance of targeting and segmentation in digital marketing campaigns, and how AI tech could improve these areas by finding insight within vast amounts of digital data.
AI is increasingly part of the marketing world, both for consumer-facing experiences like chatbots and to support behind-the-scenes techniques like targeting and even ad creation. For example, Salesforce recently launched its Einstein AI tech that is now an integral part of its flagship CRM and Marketing Cloud products. IBM Watson is interesting because it is a technology suited to be repurposed for tools like Unruly DNA rather than locked within a particular vendor’s suite such as Salesforce’s Einstein.
This has been an important year for AI tech in marketing as its role has grown significantly, with much more expected to come.
