Once Glam, Then Gone - Ad Agencies Undone by DIY AI Tools for Creating Ads, Campaigns

 In pop culture, the way to symbolize glam in a creative field had been to feature ad agencies. In addition to "Mad Men" there have been "The Hucksters," "What Women Want," "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying" and much more.

But the front lines of pop culture might have to come up with another kind of symbol. Soon enough the ad agency as we've known it probably won't exist. The cost-efficiency movement + AI are what can wipe out that icon in US creativity. 

Platforms on which businesses place ads - Amazon, Meta, Comcast - have been developing DIY AI tools to actually create those ads and entire ad campaigns. Yes, that's automated ad creation through AI.

The Wall Street Journal reports:

"Amazon has released a chatbot-style creative assistant [updated Creative Studio] designed to help advertisers produce and distribute multimedia ad campaigns almost entirely with artificial intelligence."

Essentially you don't have to be a technology super expert to work with that system. It could be analogous in some ways to other user-friendly DIY platforms such as Typepad for blogging. 

With Typepad, there were fundamental concepts to learn to operate the system and then to keep improving to increase reach. But the motivated who stuck with it became as it was called back then "We the Media." They got their content out themselves for less than $10 a month. If they had a feel for how to get attention they competed with legacy media. (Typepad is closing down at the end of this month.)

Right now the targeted markets are small- and medium-sized enterprises. They can save money and have more control by cutting out the middleman, that is the ad agency. But also eyed are the "tail" brands of big corporations. Those are the ones not part of the core portfolio.

If you understand American capitalism you recognize that the Amazons probably have no intention of playing in a limited sandbox. It's likely just a matter of time until they convince major players to bring the ad creation/campaign totally in-house via the AI tools they make available. Customer service is among the functions which no longer need to be outsourced. AI facilitates handling the whole continuum in-house. 

Think about it: In 2008, new chair at law firm Paul, Weiss Brad Karp introduced transactional to the previous all-litigation menu of services. Rapidly the firm established dominance in key transactional practices such as M&A. 

In 10 years, those under 15 years of age likely won't understand the memes in "Mad Men." No aspect will be relevant any longer. For example, why was a tobacco company not doing its promotional strategy, content and distribution in-house? 

Thrown off your game, maybe the first time since you started working? You made all the right moves and then the world moved in another direction.

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