AI sets new standard for marketing effectiveness

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the next great technology shift to hit Western Australian businesses, and society at large. Many organisations are worried about the implications of AI, but one Perth agency is diving deep into the opportunities it presents.

At Bonfire Digital, a Performance agency headquartered in Subiaco, AI is being leveraged to produce deeper insights, develop more sophisticated strategies, and boost productivity.

“AI is allowing us to be more efficient and do more with the same budget and scope.” Matthew Elshaw, Head of SEO at Bonfire said. “We can now focus on strategic thinking and problem-solving because the time required for the more manual tasks has been halved.”

AI features heavily in Bonfire’s existing technology stack, and the team has doubled down on the technology since the rapid advancement of Generative Artificial Intelligence in the last 12 months.

“We’ve had content generation technology for years, but it’s never really been good enough to rely on.” Mr Elshaw said. “Now Generative AI is at a point where it’s helping our strategists deliver results much faster.”

One example of how AI is delivering results at scale comes from the world of eCommerce. A typical eCommerce client may be operating across hundreds of product categories at any one time. Before AI, the traditional process was to optimise each category, one at a time. That process was time-consuming which extended the time it took to see results.

“Now with AI, we can say ‘Let’s get a base-level of optimisation across all 50 categories and finetune them later.’ We’re starting to see ROI at scale.” Mr Elshaw said.

Bonfire’s Performance Media Manager, Cameron Antonio, is also investigating ways AI can improve campaign performance. “We’re exploring tools that allow us to track the effects each channel has on another, and how they all interconnect.”

These tools will allow Bonfire to run omnichannel analysis in near real-time to identify where advertising budgets are best spent. This type of analysis was possible prior to the introduction of AI, but not at the speeds the team is seeing. 

“I couldn’t physically do that in the time that AI can.” Mr Antonio said. “Not only does it help us uncover insights, but it allows us to proactively respond to changing market conditions and maximise the spend of our clients.”  

The promise of AI-enabled technologies isn’t without its challenges, however. “There are always considerations.” Sam Gabell, Head of Innovation at Bonfire said. “When it comes to new and evolving technology, the things you implement now might be superseded in three months’ time. I think that’s absolutely true of AI at the moment.”

“It’s certainly not a deal-breaker, but you need to go into any AI technologies with the mindset that this probably won’t be a permanent solution.” 

New technologies also have a tendency of interrupting the current way of doing things. “We’ve developed business rules, automations, workflows, using our current technology stack, that we’ll have to re-evaluate now.” Mr Elshaw said. “When you think of it in those terms, the training that we need to go through, the testing to make sure things don’t break, it’s quite a big shift.”

Privacy and data security are also aspects of AI technology that have some businesses asking if the risks as worth it. 

“There are definitely risks in terms of data security and privacy when it comes to AI.” Mr Antonio said. “Ask yourself, ‘Would I be concerned with people outside of my organisation seeing this data?’. If the answer is yes, you need to consider if it’s appropriate to use that data with AI.”

Despite the challenges, Bonfire is committed to operationalising AI in a safe and effective way.

“Based on what we’ve learnt, my advice to other organisations would be that you need to dedicate time to understanding what’s available for your business.” Mr Elshaw said. 

“What’s appropriate for your business and what tasks are you doing that AI could assist with?”. 

Mr Gabell recommends starting with the tools you’re currently using. “If you can embed it in your existing toolset, on things your team is already familiar with, that’s the best way to ensure it sticks and is successfully utilised.”

“It’s an exciting time to be alive. Don’t wait until AI technology matures because you’ll miss your opportunity for competitive advantage. Start now, start learning and you won’t be left behind when AI becomes the standard in business.” 

Bonfire Digital is an award-winning Performance agency based in Subiaco, Western Australia. Visit their website to learn more.