Establishing Boundaries and Oversight: Safeguarding Your Brand in the Age of AI

In the past, marketing has acted as the “guardian of the brand,” maintaining a consistent message across various platforms. With the introduction of AI, organizations can now create brand assets more rapidly and efficiently. However, this also brings new challenges. Here’s an exploration of how AI reshapes the boundaries and governance of marketing, along with strategies to address these changes.

Guardrails vs. Governance

Although interconnected, guardrails and governance have distinct yet complementary roles within AI-driven marketing teams.

Guardrails encompass the parameters, principles, and guidelines that steer the regular production of marketing content. These could include editorial style manuals and brand standards. They ensure a unified approach, allowing materials crafted by various teams to share a common foundation. Guardrails serve as a “single source of truth,” which helps in settling subjective choices surrounding creativity.

For instance, an editorial directive for a fashion label might outline that the desired tone should be chic and aspirational, rather than casual or comedic.

Governance, on the other hand, pertains to the formal regulations, frameworks, and monitoring systems applicable to marketing initiatives. It guarantees that marketing efforts are ethical, compliant with regulations, and aligned with overarching organizational objectives. Governance considerations in marketing may cover data privacy standards, legal adherence, risk management, and ethical norms, such as truthfulness in advertising.

AI’s Impact on Marketing

AI grants marketers the capability to generate creative materials at an unparalleled scale. Rather than conducting A/B tests, marketers can now test a spectrum of options instantaneously. This expansive capability, however, introduces the danger of AI moving away from established branding, potentially fabricating content that strays from guidelines.

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Certain rules—such as color schemes, font choices, and layout—can be firmly embedded into AI’s programming. Yet, other guidelines, such as tone of voice, are more subjective and open to interpretation.

For example, AI utilized for a luxury car brand must comprehend both technical specifications and the brand’s unique lexicon. It should discern the distinction between “powerful” and “dominant,” or “sleek” and “sophisticated.”

In many respects, however, the fundamental aspects remain unchanged. AI still requires time to familiarize itself with a brand, much like a new writer would. It must be trained in voice, tone, subtleties, and appropriate messaging.

Establishing AI Marketing Guardrails

As AI continues to evolve, it’s essential to regularly revisit and revise guardrails rather than setting them and forgetting them. Continuous evaluation and adjustment of outputs are necessary. This involves routine audits, feedback mechanisms, and fine-tuning to ensure alignment with brand standards and correcting any deviations.

Instead of solely generating content, marketing writers may begin to engage in reviewing and refining AI-generated material.

This process is similar to how a senior copywriter would assess the work of a junior copywriter. In this scenario, the junior copywriter is the AI, and improvements may be made by either editing the content or adjusting the output specifications.

One such specification is “temperature,” which determines how random or predictable the AI’s output is. A lower temperature yields more conventional and predictable content, whereas a higher temperature can generate more creative yet riskier material.

Many marketers are still learning how to effectively train AI on tone of voice. To maximize their AI investment, organizations need to enhance their teams’ expertise in this area.

Templates for Efficient Content Creation

With AI enabling more individuals to produce content, marketers will transition into the role of “stewards of master templates.” These templates, combined with AI guardrails, can be utilized across various departments to ensure compliance with brand guidelines.

This approach can prevent departments like HR or finance from needing to seek outside assistance for content creation, especially during times of marketing team overload. AI-assisted templates minimize redundant tasks for marketers, allowing them to allocate more time to enhancing quality in higher-value projects.

Securing the Brand through Governance

AI governance encompasses the establishment of formal structures and policies addressing the use of AI in marketing, covering issues such as:

• Data Privacy and Security: Ensuring AI tools handle customer data responsibly.
• Ethical Considerations: Preventing AI from reinforcing bias or disseminating harmful content.
• Transparency: Making sure consumers are aware of AI application in marketing communications.

It may be beneficial to form an AI Council responsible for overseeing AI marketing practices. This diverse group of stakeholders should represent legal, data, marketing, ethics, and technology departments.

Challenges in Establishing an AI Council

The AI Council is tasked with defining AI usage policies, ensuring adherence to privacy regulations, and monitoring copyright and other legal aspects.

Given the rapid evolution of AI, swift decision-making is critical. AI Councils must be agile to adjust to the pace of AI advancements and recognize that policies are subject to change and should be updated regularly.

Steps to Establish an AI Council

Start by checking if an AI Council already exists within any division of the organization. If so, join that council when appropriate. Considering the cross-functional nature of such councils, replicating an existing one with overlapping members is unnecessary.

If no council exists, identify potential participants. Seek a diverse range of expertise, including legal, marketing, data analysis, ethics, and tech knowledge. Prioritize individuals with a genuine interest in AI and the capacity for rapid, collaborative decision-making.

Then, draft a charter that outlines the council’s mission—including its limitations. AI is a broad field, so it’s important to avoid becoming entangled in matters like machine learning structures that other departments can address.

Recommended activities for the council include:

• Regularly auditing AI tools and their outputs.
• Creating policies regarding data use, privacy, and security.
• Establishing norms for transparency and ethical AI practices in marketing.

AI governance is an ongoing process. Councils should convene at least monthly and respond swiftly to emerging developments. Their accountability includes reviewing new AI technologies and ensuring the organization’s methods stay current.

Proactive Governance

As AI becomes further woven into the fabric of marketing, the role of marketing teams as “guardians of the brand” will evolve. AI’s ability to produce content swiftly and on a larger scale calls for robust guardrails and governance to safeguard brand integrity while ensuring ethical and compliant AI deployment. Marketers will increasingly be responsible for constructing systems that facilitate the safe and effective usage of AI.

The pathway to success entails ongoing training, monitoring, and refinement of AI outputs, ensuring that the established guardrails remain intact, coupled with a dynamic governance structure that keeps pace with AI advancements.