Artificial intelligence is here, but is yet to make a big impact on marketing
artificial intelligence) may be the buzzword in marketing right now, but CXOs seem more concerned with rethinking their marketing strategy to be able to measure the direct impact of ad spends and finding the right talent, Stephan Zimmermann, senior partner at McKinsey & Company, said.
Based in San Francisco, Zimmermann heads the consulting major's digital marketing and data analytics team of 1,400, half of whom are stationed in India.
During his recent visit to India, Zimmermann had some 15-odd client meetings, but «nobody mentioned or discussed an AI tool saying they strongly believed in it or asked what I thought of it», he told ET in an exclusive chat.
People are readily using generative AI to optimise marketing, automate repetitive tasks, and accelerate A/B testing. However, «none of the tools have yet transformed company performance», he said.
«A lot of companies spend massively on martech (marketing technology) tools but get only one-third of the value out of it,» he said, emphasising that the next few years will see many of them pick a few core tools to extract maximum value out of them as pressure for measurement mounts on them. A few years ago, digital was less than 10% of the advertising pie in India.
«Today, it's at about 35%, and we expect it to go north of 60% in the next three years, similar to the way it has grown in the US,» said Zimmermann who has spent over 25 years with McKinsey and focuses on online businesses.
Traditionally, companies had separate budgets for brand building and performance marketing, he noted. «The traditional channels for brand building, like print, TV, and outdoor, were hard to measure.
