Let’s get one thing straight: we’re not anti-AI.
We use it, we play with it, heck, we argue about it on the podcast (latest group episode just DROPPED FYI, watch it here while it’s HOT). Sometimes we’re even indebted to its ability to help us avoid a creative meltdown at 4:59 pm on a Thursday – and we always, always, say please and thank you to it. Because you know, we want to survive the robot revolution, babes.
But here’s the deal:
AI can’t fix bad ideas. And it definitely can’t make your campaign exciting if it was bland to begin with.
So, if you’re out here thinking AI is going to save your marketing, this blog is your gentle (but slightly sassy) reminder to get your man-made shiz together. Are you ready?
It’s the brief, hi, the brief’s the problem, it’s the brief.
Ok, Ms Taylor, soon-to-be-Kelce-Swift, please don’t sue us for butchering a lyric and shoehorning it into our blog. BUT you get the picture.
You can feed your lil’ ChatGPT buddy paragraphs of waffle and ask it to make magic. You can tell Midjourney to cook up something “cool but professional” hit enter, and go make a spicy marg. But, if your strategy, messaging or concept is half-baked, guess what you’re going to get?
A half-baked campaign. With extra beige. (I didn’t make the TayTay link there, YOU DID).
AI can scale. It can speed things up. It can help you articulate ideas more clearly, and it can help the US Government work out a global tariff strategy (ALLEGEDLY). But it’s not a shortcut for creativity. And it won’t solve the fact that you’re trying to sell something without a plan – or a brand personality.
Great creative needs taste. And taste requires people.
Design, copy, animation, an award-winning website – all of it relies on taste, instinct and timing. Three things robots don’t have. They can mimic, sure. But mimicry isn’t originality. AI didn’t grow up learning Buffy the Vampire Slayer lore on VHS, AI never cried over passive-aggressive feedback on a logo design, and AI doesn’t realise that creating a fake crowd for Will Smith’s promo video is embarrassing AF.
AI also doesn’t know your brand voice. Or your audience’s nuance. Or why your client gets the ick when you use the word “solutions.”
But you do. We do. Humans do.
AI should be your creative sidekick, not your creative director.
If we’ve said it once, we’ve said it in at least four blogs now. Let AI assist you. Let it inspire you, and let it help you speed up the boring bits. But please, for the love of Wicked Part 2: Wicked for Good, don’t let it become your entire idea.
(That’s a superb, funny and clever SEO sting by the way, something that Mr. stuck-in-2023-pop-culture-ChatGPT5 could NEVER do).
You still need:
- A smart strategy
- A clear message
- A banging headline
- An original design
Because let’s face it: the world doesn’t need more samey content. It needs stories, connection, relevance and a lived-in touch.
Final thoughts? Use AI, but don’t hide behind it.
In a world full of frozen foreheads and creatin grifters, be a human-led brand that has something to say and believes it when they do.
So, the next time you’re tempted to copy-paste a campaign from ChatGPT and hit publish, pause. Ask yourself: would this make anyone feel something? Would this make anyone care?
If not, maybe it’s time to stop asking AI to fix your bland ideas and start asking teams like us to help you come up with better ones instead.