OpinionThe meteor redefining the boundaries of advertising
Opinion
The meteor redefining the boundaries of advertising
"The digital landscape has always evolved rapidly, but the change brought by the AI revolution is a paradigmatic shift moving at meteoric speed," writes Tal Jacobson, CEO of Perion.
Advertisers and marketers, especially those in the digital advertising sphere, are accustomed to operating in a turbulent and ever-changing environment. However, everything they know is about to change: the near future heralds a revolution that will overshadow all the transformations the advertising world has ever experienced, offering unprecedented opportunities for all market players.
The meteor redefining the boundaries of the advertising world is Artificial Intelligence (AI). This meteor will impact brands, advertisers, consumers, and the platforms they use—both digital and traditional mediums like radio, TV, and even billboards. Ultimately, the AI revolution will transform the way advertisers communicate their messages to their customers.
It’s impossible to ignore the multitude of ways AI will revolutionize and enhance the advertising industry. Here are some key examples:
Context-Based Advertising
AI excels at understanding context, learning locations, analyzing human behaviors, and tailoring advertisements to the right moment and place. For decades, the advertising industry has sought to crack this code, but AI offers something unprecedented: the ability to enhance user experiences rather than disrupt them. AI identifies the ideal moment to deliver an ad without interfering with the viewing experience—and more than that, it aligns the ad with the content being consumed. Loved the style of Emily in Paris? With AI, advertisers can detect your preferences and present you with tailored product recommendations, all while safeguarding your privacy.
Personalized Advertising
Brands will leverage intelligent algorithms to create personalized ads, making consumers feel understood in their needs and desires. These ads will also adapt to users’ locations and platforms. For instance, as you pass by a favorite brand, you might receive an ad tailored to you, highlighting a new collection, new flavors, limited-time deals, and more. Importantly, all this will happen while maintaining privacy, thanks to deeper insights into well-segmented consumer behavior.
Automated Creative Optimization
The AI revolution extends not only to strategic elements but also to the “nuts and bolts” of advertising. The technology can rapidly and accurately adapt creative assets to various platforms. AI automates this process for formats previously deemed unviable for custom creative production. Advertising agencies no longer need to manually adapt creatives for print, Instagram, TV, email, desktop, mobile, and more. AI enables precise audience targeting across multiple platforms while ensuring optimized creative delivery for each medium.
Advanced Audio Capabilities
AI’s capabilities aren’t limited to visual creative; it can also generate and edit audio. Tasks that once required complex and expensive production processes, recording equipment, and studios can now be done automatically with virtually unlimited variations. In the past, audio ads were limited to 6–8 expensive versions. Today, advertisers can produce countless variations with customized lengths, tones, male or female voices, multiple languages, and more—all at minimal cost.
Enhanced Brand and Retail Experiences
AI isn’t just transforming the advertiser’s side; it’s also giving brands superpowers. Stores can analyze both physical and virtual visits to optimize the customer experience with unprecedented precision, maximizing revenue per visit. Moreover, with AI’s learning capabilities, brands will significantly improve their ability to forecast and enhance future campaigns based on past ones. AI technology will unify disparate platforms, enabling cohesive, consistent, and measurable campaigns across all digital media types and channels. The result: highly targeted campaigns and significantly improved ROI.
The Future is Now
These capabilities are not distant dreams; they’re tools becoming reality as we speak. Many are already being used by clients and advertising agencies who see the bigger picture and adopt innovative solutions. AI tools enable them to be more creative, faster, smarter, and more effective. The knowledge they gain creates a significant gap between them and those in the industry hesitant to adopt the technology.
The digital landscape has always evolved rapidly, but the change brought by the AI revolution is a paradigmatic shift moving at meteoric speed. Those who fail to embrace and implement the integration of AI across the advertising and marketing space will be left behind. Those who learn to harness AI’s power and ride the wave will shape the future of the industry, driving a new era of advertising and marketing.
Tal Jacobson is the CEO of Perion.
