Infinite Imagery
Why Generative AI puts us, as marketers, on the hook more than ever.
I’ve been experimenting with Generative AI – specifically Image Generating AI – the last few months and have started to change my perspective on how it impacts our roles as marketers.
Initially, I thought that Image Generating AI platforms could let us off the hook a bit:
Didn’t capture a certain shot during a photo shoot? AI ✔
Need an asset ASAP that isn’t in your library? AI ✔
Looking to use a specific image that doesn’t exist in stock libraries? AI ✔
But the more I’ve explored and thought through the topic, I’ve come to believe that Generative AI puts us, as marketers, more on the hook than ever before. Here’s why:
In the old world, when selecting images to use in consumer-facing materials, our job was to comb through brand assets and stock libraries to find the image that best fit the use case. If you wanted an image of a car parked on a city street, you could browse what was available to you, make the best selection, and move on.
But in the new world – a world with infinite imagery – it’s not about picking the best from a set: it’s about creating the best possible image to resonate with your audience.
It’s no longer “a car”: we’re on the hook for knowing if our audience resonates better with a coupe, a sedan, a van, or a truck. More still – what color the vehicle should be.
And it’s no longer “a city street”: we’re on the hook for understanding if the street should be busy or calm, if it should be sunrise or sunset, if it should be a wide or tight shot. More still – is a city street the right scene? Perhaps for a subset of your audience – but when we apply segmentation – it may be that a city street works better for a subset and a rural street resonates better for another.
The permutations are, literally, infinite.
This requires a significantly deeper understanding of our consumers and of our brands. Generative AI gives us infinite optionality – and we’re on the hook to harness it.
So while the space is rapidly evolving and we’re all figuring out how to step into a world with new tools – keep the first thing first: the audience. And when you uncover the power of infinite, you’ll find that we’re on the hook more than ever before to create connection.
Thanks for spending time with me in my workshop,
Eric
