Upgrade your marketing with machine learning
With each technological leap forward, there is a parallel rise in fear that humanity will somehow be displaced—by Karel Capek’s original android, by 2001’s HAL, or even by the Terminator. It’s easy to think of us in an epic face-off with these machines. But as advertisers in the age of machine learning and artificial intelligence, we do ourselves—and our work—a disservice with this “human vs. machine” mentality. There’s much more to be gained by embracing machine learning as an accelerant for our creative powers.
To take advantage of these opportunities, it’s important to understand what machines do well. First, they identify patterns that can reveal insights and shape our sense of creative possibilities. Second, they automate human tasks at intense speed and scale, saving time and improving outcomes. Finally, they bring together sets of data in ways that open up entirely new kinds of creative expression.
Yet, while each of these strengths can help accelerate our creative capabilities, they also expose what machines don’t do well—and why humans continue to wield a significant amount of creative power. Machines can churn through millions of videos and correlate creative elements with effective outcomes. That lets us answer questions like, “Will the use of this font or color improve creative effectiveness?” This kind of analysis is not expert; it’s a massive application of something called basic element identification. That’s why machine learning has been compared to having “infinite interns”—immense but nonexpert capacity. For that reason, we certainly shouldn’t see it as a quick and easy solution for creating great ads.
Unlocking Potential
Imagine you analyzed hundreds of Youtube ads and identified a factor that was highly correlated to effectiveness—for instance, top-performing ads were all set in living rooms. Would you consequently set all your ads in living rooms? Or edit your existing footage to include more living room shots? Of course not. While machines can surface patterns, human intelligence is required to sort and apply them.
Machines let us answer questions like, “Will the use of this font or color improve creative effectiveness?”
Imagine a world in which machines could reveal the “unknown unknowns”—the questions we don’t even know to ask.
Automation can bring new speed and efficiencies to the creative-development process. Say you want to compare hundreds of different copy lines to find the best combinations. Rather than spending months listening to bored focus groups debate two or three variations over a plate of stale doughnuts, machine-learning-driven tools can use existing data, audience signals, and a library of assets to reveal the best combination.
Think how much more potential we can unlock by teaching machines to answer more complex questions, like what kinds of stories to tell in the first place and how to tell them. Or if machines could tell us what narrative structure is most effective for achieving a certain goal? What if they could tell us how fast certain creative trends are changing, so we could easily understand what’s simply a fad and what is an enduring best practice? And imagine a world in which machines could reveal the “unknown unknowns”—the questions we don’t even know to ask. The possibilities are endless and thrilling.
As technology advances, it’s wise to keep our dystopian fears in check and start embracing the idea that machines are partners that can help us accelerate our creativity.
For more insights, visit thinkwithgoogle.com.
brewed with black currant and salt to supply the electrolytes and sugars that runners typically crave at the end of a race. Repeat is a 3.5% ABV kolsch brewed with bee pollen, which is said to help with muscle recovery.
The upstart brewery has found a thirsty audience. The company has evolved from a tiny, self-distributed operation to a fastgrowing, 13-person outfit that put out around 3,000 barrels of beer in 2018. (Sufferfest does not disclose revenue.) This trajectory caught the eye of veteran craft brewer Sierra Nevada, which acquired Sufferfest for an undisclosed amount earlier this year. With access to its new parent company’s distribution and production network—sierra Nevada makes more than 1 million barrels of beer per year and distributes widely across the country—sufferfest is poised for a healthy future.
The deal is salubrious for Sierra Nevada as well. After years of solid growth, craft beer sales are slowing, and Sierra Nevada is not exempt. At the same time, interest in the idea of “functional” beer like Sufferfest is rising, especially given the continued expansion of the $4.2 trillion wellness industry—which encompasses everything from green juices to yoga, Soulcycle to Goop crystals. Since “wellness” is an around-the-clock state, there’s not much need for that beer or glass of wine (or two) at the end of the day to unwind. Hence the uptick in popularity of hard kombucha and seltzer, along with the launch of several lower-alcohol and “performance” craft beers from Dogfish Head, Harpoon Brewery, and more (see “Beatific Brews,” below).
Sufferfest grew out of Landesberg’s appreciation for what she calls the “camaraderie over a finish-line beer.” After being diagnosed with hypothyroidism, an autoimmune disorder, Landesberg found that reducing gluten helped contain her symptoms, so she phased out her post-workout beers. But she missed being part of that ritual and decided to create a beer that she could drink. She enrolled in a beermaking course at the University of California, Davis, an hour-and-a-half drive away. “If you look at the recipe itself, the grains, malt, and water, it makes sense why athletes crave beer,” Landesberg says. “It’s like a Powerbar you’re drinking, but [you’re] also getting a buzz.”
At Davis, she experimented with brewing methods that eliminated gluten and added ingredients such as bee pollen (which is anti-inflammatory and high in protein) and sea salt (which restores electrolytes), and tested them with her friends. She was working as the head of marketing for Strava, whose fitnesstracking app helps runners, cyclists, and others connect with one another, and found another focus group there. “All of a sudden I had this bootlegged network of sweaty people around the country saying, ‘We need this,’ ” she says. That was in 2015. By 2016 she had left her role at Strava and officially launched Sufferfest.
Now that the brand can take advantage of Sierra Nevada’s production facilities and distribution network, it will become available for purchase in several additional states beyond its current California and Colorado starting in September. But Sufferfest is keeping its spot at the finish line: The company recently cohosted a jogger’s club with fitness apparel company Outdoor Voices and a 10k trail race with REI, and became the official beer of California’s annual Big Sur Marathon.