Big brand CMO on AI and marketing

In a feature-length interview with The Drum, Coca-Cola CMO Manolo Arroyo talked about AI, marketing and WPP, among other hot topics. He was also protective of the critical role humans will continue to play in marketing.

Regarding the transformation of marketing at Coca-Cola, The Drum reported:

“Artificial intelligence underpins much of this transformation, but Arroyo is careful to frame its role clearly, ‘It’s very clear that AI has phenomenal, fantastic applications in the whole marketing process, end to end, from insights to creation to production to media planning to media buying to performance tracking.’

Within Coca-Cola’s marketing organisation, adoption is already widespread. Through a combination of formal training and on-the-job learning, 85% of the company’s 2,000 global marketers now regularly use ChatGPT. That figure increases when you consider various other AI tools on its roster.

Arroyo says, ‘You can help our teams do way better and faster marketing if they are really able to leverage the power of human genius and human creativity and AI capability at the same time.’”

LLMS & CHATBOTS

Developments

OpenAI, Anthropic Discuss Data Deals With Biotech and Other Companies (December 17) – The Information (subscription)
Google launches Gemini 3 Flash, makes it the default model in the Gemini app (December 17) – TechCrunch

PLATFORMS

Meta’s AI investments and ads POC

A Financial Times article cast a critical view on Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s decision to go all-in on AI investment. “What will be the outcome of building toward ‘Personal Superintelligence?” seems to be the question of the moment for Meta.

The FT discovered that one solution for an AI POC (proof-of-concept) revolved around ads and AI-enabled chatbots:

“There has also been debate about whether Meta’s new model will be open source, or a closed proprietary model, meaning that consumers will have to pay to access it, with [Meta’s AI leader, Alexandr Wang] pushing for the latter.

Others argue that Meta must show how data from its user chatbot conversations can be fed into its advertising-targeting machine, even if Zuckerberg himself is reluctant to speak on the commercial aspect.

‘Mark needs to find a new version of [former chief operating officer] Sheryl Sandberg who can connect the dots for advertisers on why Meta’s AI products can combine with advertising and targeting,” says Katie Harbath, global affairs officer at Duco Experts and a former Meta public policy director. ‘It’s not cool and sexy [but] if they want to buy themselves some runway . . . it’s the lowest hanging fruit.’”

TECH

NBCUniversal brings AI to “Live”

In advance of CES in early January, NBCUniversal, led by global advertising and partnerships chairman Mark Marshall, announced a new suite of AI-enabled ad tools.

Products included “AI-powered Contextual Targeting in Live”. NBCU’s Ryan McConville explained its benefits, according to Variety:

“As an advertiser that I don’t want to just be in an NFL game, but I want to be at the exact moment that that game-changing touchdown gets scored. So you can start to sponsor these really custom, high impact moments of the highest sort of engagement with the content around the moments that really resonate throughout a live experience,”

Use case: Your screen features a U.S. football game. Someone fumbles the football and the next ad break is for Bounty, “the quicker picker upper.”

Read: “NBCUniversal Unveils ‘Arrival Ads’ for Peacock and Other Ad-Tech Innovations to Capitalize on Investments in Live Sports and Events” (December 17) – Variety

From tipsheet: The AI-enabled enhancements appear to be a boon NBCU’s video and Connected TV (CTV) offerings. As free, ad-supported television looks to monetize, particularly in a “live” environment, AI can “make it make sense” for the broadcaster, marketer and the consumer.

CONNECTED TV

Home screen ads for LG Ad Solutions

Not to be outdone by NBCU, sell-side platform (SSP) Magnite announced what it said was the first AI-generated home screen advertisements for LG Ad Solutions and TV maker TCL.

Read the release. (December 17)

On LinkedIn, Magnite Head of Agentic Product Jonathan Moffie clarified that the core of the new product is from his startup, streamr[dot]ai, which Magnite acquired in early September.

Mr. Moffie provided stats:

“The opportunity is huge:

Viewers spend ~10 minutes on the home screen before deciding what to watch.

– 1 in 3 adults take action after seeing a home screen ad.

– LG viewers are 2.5x more likely to search for a product after exposure.

– By combining streamr[dot]ai with ClearLine’s direct access to home screen inventory, we’re simplifying creative production, reducing friction, and scaling a new class of high-value CTV experiences.”

RETAIL MEDIA

Change happens at Amazon Ads

Amazon Ads VP of Product Jay Richman, who helps guide the company’s Creative Studio product line of AI tools for advertising, discussed AI and automation in a recent episode of the AdExchanger Talks podcast.

Mr. Richman was frank regarding the pace of AI innovation change today saying: “…certainly month to month — if not like week to week — I’m seeing measurable improvement in model quality and creative output in a way that I just don’t remember at any other point in my career.”

Richman was also quick to advocate for the power of AI-generated video creative, which benefits small and large marketers alike.

He offered a use case, according to reporter Allison Schiff, who previewed the podcast on AdExchanger:

“Take Bird Buddy, a company that sells AI-powered birdhouses. It used Amazon’s creative agent to quickly shift from simple, image-based ads to more dynamic video spots, which is something the team didn’t have the resources to do before.

The brand saw a 338% jump in performance for its Father’s Day promotion.

‘I think the biggest risk [with AI] is sitting it out or wading in late,’ Richman says. ‘Your competitors most certainly are going to take advantage.’”

Hear more from Mr. Richman on AdExchanger Talks. (December 17)

From tipsheet: Richman argued that AI is removing the last remaining hurdle in advertising: creative. Richman complimented ads in Instagram and said that he was impressed how ads were integrated into the experience.

SELL-SIDE

Microsoft scored highest in AI licensing

Yesterday, Digiday published a ranking of AI crawlers meant for publishers to potentially use when assessing licensing deals with AI companies.

On LinkedIn, Digiday Senior Editor Jessica Davies explained:

“We took a crack at scoring AI companies based on their licensing deals and crawler behavior, off the back of conversations we’ve had with publishers.

Spoiler: ‘None of them get a really great score’ but it’s definitely a big improvement compared to a year ago!

Perplexity’s crawler seems to be the most unpopular, while Microsoft is the most promising in terms of how it’s approached working with publishers for its AI content marketplace.”