NEWSLETTER: Using Gen AI to inspire marketing content

Using generative AI to bring insights and marketing research to life is revolutionizing the way we communicate consumer personas and inspire creativity. By leveraging this technology, we speed up and enhance both the strategic and creative processes, offering a more vivid, dynamic, and in-depth portrayal of target audiences.

For over a year, we at Day Kinetics have been using generative AI to illustrate the enriched consumer personas we create for our clients. Traditionally, persona outlines have been limited, often relying on stock imagery that is bland, generic, and uninspiring. These static representations make it challenging for clients and creative teams to truly understand the essence of the consumer—their behaviors, attitudes, and motivations. This can inhibit the creative process, resulting in content that lacks depth and relevance.

In contrast, generative AI enables us to generate a far more immersive and detailed set of visuals that bring these personas to life. Instead of a few uninspiring stock photos, we can now produce dozens of images that reflect the full range of the persona's interests, behaviors, and attitudes. These AI-generated images are not only more dynamic but also tailored to fit the specific demand spaces relevant to the consumer. We can illustrate them in environments that align with their socioeconomic and demographic backgrounds—whether they’re using a product at home, on holiday, or at work. This helps the client and their creative teams visualize the personas more realistically, understanding how these individuals engage with products in real-world contexts.

Moreover, generative AI enables us to capture the subtle psychological nuances of these personas. We can illustrate not only their outward behaviors but also their internal motivations and opinions. For instance, if a persona is someone who values sustainability, we can visually depict their affinity for eco-friendly environments or brands. If a persona is driven by status, AI can generate images that reflect their engagement with luxury goods or exclusive experiences. This level of depth and specificity goes far beyond what traditional methods of persona creation can offer.

One of the most significant advantages of using generative AI is the speed and efficiency with which it can produce these rich visualizations. In a matter of minutes, we can create multiple images that capture various facets of a persona, from their daily routines to their long-term aspirations. This rapid output not only accelerates the creative process but also allows for greater flexibility in exploring different persona iterations. As a result, our clients gain a deeper understanding of their audiences in less time, enabling them to respond more quickly with tailored content and strategies.

The human brain is naturally wired to process visual information far more quickly and effectively than text. By communicating personas through imagery, we allow clients to grasp the full depth of our insights at a glance. This visual approach supercharges the creative process, making it easier for both clients and creative teams to develop campaigns that are more aligned with the consumer’s mindset. Whether it’s crafting targeted content or more generalized messaging, the enhanced understanding of personas through generative AI leads to stronger, more resonant marketing strategies.

In essence, generative AI allows us to communicate the complexity and individuality of consumer personas in a way that is visually compelling and actionable. The technology enables us to paint a more complete picture of the consumer’s world—their interests, behaviors, attitudes, and environments.

This means our clients save a lot of money and time, we can teach how to create these images and give us briefs that are not a bunch of words - which are easily misinterpreted - and instead give us image based briefs with the right look and feel, tone and even start on creative route ideas.

This cuts out 1 to 2 weeks of costs, no mood boards, no back and forth on look at feel, its already done - so our creative team can get on with the ideas and strategists can get on with the strategy.

This all drives faster decision-making, and ultimately creating content that connects on a deeper level with the target audience. Is it doing agencies out of work? Well if an agency thinks like that they are on a slippery slope, instead they need to think about the reality that even though they might lose income on a few steps of the creation process, they should be looking to pick that up with volume and personalisation increases to help improve the performance of their clients ROI.

It takes an adjustment of staff focus and perhaps business model but its essential.