Marketing Procurement

There’s more to marketing procurement than meets the AI

Driving Savings And Sustainability

“Not everything is going to drive savings as well as sustainability. “Things may appear expensive now but we need to invest in them to drive costs down over time. Just like virtual production.”

It was a packed agenda at the inaugural Marketing Procurement iQ conference in April 2024, with no fewer than 19 sessions on Day 1, and a further 15 on Day 2. Conversation went practically from dawn at London’s Oval cricket ground to well beyond dusk at the drinks reception. There was more insight than we can possibly hope to condense into two articles* rounding up the event – but we’re going to give it a try so, buckle up. 

Top Topics from Day 1:

• AI – how to use it, when to use it – should we use it? 
• Buying tech and services – conversations first, purchasing after
• Production as partner – cost savings, greater efficiency, more sustainable, what’s not to love?
• Sustainability – Reduce, reuse, recycle. Halt the pattern of waste and invest in the future. 

Artificial intelligence – so near and yet so far

First, the technological elephant in the room. Of course, the discussion was dominated by AI. How could it not be? In an industry populated by effectiveness experts and detail-oriented procurement professionals, who regularly come up against creative thinkers and out-of-the-box strategists, its impact and potential meant it was always going to be a hot topic. 

Sponsors Havas kicked off proceedings with Mark Whelan, Chief Creative Officer and Chairman, Havas Village London, noting that AI does have a role in democratising creativity, although there is a significant risk of developing a “sea of sameness”. Whelan suggested that it might enhance creativity, rather than replace it. His rather nifty comment was “Better with AI, but better than AI”.

Jack Threlfall, head of content at SPRING Production, noted that generative AI is still very much in its infancy (if, indeed, it can ever grow out of it) when it comes to content creation. A former English teacher, he notes Gen AI’s tendency to come out with ‘word salad’. It has a tendency to throw all sorts of purple prose at a prompt, without delivering anything of substance. This leaves most content creators to spend twice as long editing as they would have done writing from scratch. To twist that well-known lyric: “you say it worst, when you say nothing at all” (sorry, Ronan Keating)

Havas’ Whelan, like many others in the conference, noted that AI’s particular benefit is in improving efficiency, rather than as a brand tool. There remain important questions around ethics, inbred bias and its limitations.

Of course, hardly a presentation went by without mentioning the speed with which marketing is evolving overall. AI may have its issues, but few can afford to sit back and watch developments. Active participation is essential. 

Speaking to the challenge of knowing when and how deeply to integrate AI, panellist Charles Ping, Managing Director, EMEA, Winterberry Group, noted that “whenever you come into a new paradigm, you end up using a greater range of suppliers because you’re in an experimentation phase. You’re going to have to work out how you learn and streamline from that.” 

Jillian Gibbs, CEO and Founder, APR (Advertising Production Resources), added “it’s very important to introduce new companies to your ecosystem, or that your agencies are introducing new companies. You have to spend time with them. You want them to be successful.” 

Above all, perfection is the enemy of progress and panellists accepted that mistakes will be made. It’s learning from them that counts. 

Does your tech stack up? 

Of course, there’s far more to martech than AI and the debate around the Goldilocks Stack rumbles on. 

There’s no doubt that the right tools have enabled marketers to reach further, faster than they ever have before. As Erica Scott, Procurement Manager for Reckitt, stated in her panel “[martech integration] has come on leaps and bounds.” However, she added “the idea that we can do it in silos anymore is completely gone.”

A lack of coherence was frequently identified as a hurdle to best practice martech procurement and integration. Systems and teams doubling up, departments with separate agendas, varying levels of skill and engagement – these all need to be in place before the tools can begin to fulfil their promise. 

There’s also the question of making the best of what you’ve already got. “What tools and existing processes can you feed [new solutions] into? There’s a lot of stuff out there you can plug into existing apps,” said Tom Bird, Strategic Partnerships Director at SPRING production. 

Consistency is key to making the most of technology, as well as simply being good practice. Much discussion during the day also revolved around a lack of communication – be that between systems, departments or people. Bronson noted that there are so many individuals with their own interpretations of customer need, which leads to problems down the road. Martech must also be instrumental in delivering a real single view of the customer to all parties. 

Bronson Smithson, Global Chief Strategy Officer, Havas Prose on Pixels, revealed: “If everyone’s working off their own, nuanced variance around customer understanding, there’s a real missed opportunity to land clear insight on how best to connect. When everyone’s contributing to and drawing from a cohesive audience profile, there’s a much cleaner line in the development of content.” 

Fresh produce

With that communication would come a much more effective use of tools such as virtual production, something that many suggest could be a turning point for costs associated with creativity, as well as brands’ ability to be reactive. After all, in a social media-first age, every second counts. 

“Social media is so challenging because a great volume of content is being produced and you want to respond to what’s going on in the market,” says Lindsay Hong, CEO of SmartAssets. “But you still want a consistent global brand. We can automate making sure the basic elements of execution are in place, but also best practices such as ensuring eye contact with the viewer which pushes up engagement.”

APR’s Gibbs noted that this complexity in the media landscape drives brands to work with multiple partners which increases complexity in creative production. There was general agreement across panellists that production should be involved much earlier in the creative process. 

“The place for production is throughout the content supply chain. It must be released from this box in the middle. When work is developed throughout the supply chain, we are more effective,” Smithson insists. 

Not only are they able to give more concrete insight into the realm of the possible, they can help solidify the varying creative approaches different partners may take to the same problem. 

With communication comes centralisation, something at the heart of many strategies. With virtual production comes the need for a great number and variety of assets. Centralised asset management systems are now all but essential: “The asset lifecycle management is what happens to creative elements, not the finished content, that are used to make content and are going to be needed by all those AI tools,” Gibbs insists. 

Larry Byrne, founder and CEO of Lakehouse Partners, LLC, noted the power of an internal centre of excellence for data which allows for greater flexibility in partnerships. “Once you have a centre of excellence that’s cross-functional and integrated, then you have the option to move around and try different partners.” Byrne also warned against having a single holding company relationship, but the complexity in managing those multiple handovers could only be mitigated by the client having complete control over data, historical interactions, assets and more. 

Waste not, want not

Others such as Havas’ Bronson noted that communication was just one small way to begin addressing the huge issue of waste and the question of sustainability in the industry. He pointed out that simply making sure everyone has a single view of the customer stops delays, misunderstandings and wasted campaign material that failed to land. “Every produced asset should work as hard as it can. With that, we reframe production as a growth driver and value creator,” he notes.

The Advertising Association’s CEO, Stephen Woodford, made an impassioned case for the move to AdNet Zero by 2030, outlining the Association’s five-point action plan: One, to measure manage and reduce the carbon footprint; Two, to manage production; Three, understand the advertising supply chain; Four is to reward excellence and Five is accelerating change.

Carbon calculators can put a figure on behaviour for the balance sheet but many panellists agreed that what was good for the planet, was good for business. From reducing travel to essentials, to automating processes to make them faster and use less energy or resources, there are many tactics that amount to little more than common sense that can move the industry forward. 

Jo Fenn, Global Director at We Are AdGreen explained: “It’s redistribution a lot of the time, depending how you want to tackle the ‘easy wins’. If you decide to use a local crew, for example. That means fewer flights and accommodation. But we’re looking to see demand for more sustainable services – rechargeable power for example.” 

Not everything is going to drive savings as well as sustainability. “Things may appear expensive now but we need to invest in them to drive costs down over time. Just like virtual production.” For procurement professionals, the fact that the majority of these actions will eventually drive cost and efficiency benefits can hardly be a bad thing. 

To say this is a romp through the day is an understatement – there was a wealth of insight and information that we simply don’t have the column inches to share. Our advice? Pop over to Marketing Procurement iQ conference Europe to view the conference agenda and make contact with some of the esteemed speakers to find out more. Or read what they have to say elsewhere on this site.

*Day two round-up coming shortly