The Best AI Campaigns of the Year

Happy Tuesday, Collaborators!

Welcome back! Whether 2023 was a fantastic year, or a year you’d rather forget, I hope 2024 treats you better.

This week, we’ll be taking one final look at 2023’s best AI marketing campaigns—and how they can improve your campaigns.

This round-up is late, and I appreciate your patience; it has been a very difficult month. It is wonderful to be back and writing to you.

-Mariah

The superlatives in this email were entirely written by humans.

The Best AI Campaigns of the Year

5. Generating 100,000 unique emails per day with AI (the American Marketing Association)

The campaign: The American Marketing Association (AMA) uses an AI tool to curate unique newsletters for each subscriber based on their engagement data. They achieved a 42% monthly engagement rate after implementing AI.

The takeaway: Treat AI as a value proposition, not a secret. The AMA presents AI curation as the main reason to subscribe to their newsletter.

4. A recliner that generates excuses to get you out of plans (La-Z-Boy)

The campaign: As part of their campaign to “reclaim lazy,” La-Z-Boy gave away three Decliners. The Decliner is a La-Z-Boy prototype that automatically generates excuses to get its user out of any plans they unwisely made. Simply pull its handle, and be lazy.

The takeaway: Unexpected and even funny new applications for AI can boost your marketing campaigns, even for non-tech products.

3. Bringing old masterpieces to life - and crafting new ones - with AI (Coca-Cola)

The campaign: In one of the first of many innovative uses of AI in its marketing, Coca-Cola brought works of art to life to inspire a young artist.

The takeaway: While many companies are looking for ways to replace creative employees with generative AI, Coca-Cola paired AI with artists to create visually arresting campaigns. The best marketing results come from AI/human collaborations.

2. Predicting your chances of fame and fortune with a snarky chatbot (Buzzfeed)

The campaign: Buzzfeed wove generative AI into their (in)famous quizzes, and increased the amount of time users spent on quizzes by 40%. Doubling down, they created an AI chatbot game, Under the Influencer, which tells players whether they can make it as an influencer.

Users spent 4x more time on the game than on quizzes.

The takeaway: Buzzfeed avoided the blowback many other media companies have faced for using generative AI by finding low-stakes, fun pieces of content to automate.

1. The brutally honest printer ad we all needed (The Verge)

The campaign: The top spot goes to a company that wasn’t on our Bingo card—the media outlet with some of the most incisive reporting on misuses of AI. The Verge deliberately misused AI to create a hilarious, and oddly compelling printer review. 

The takeaway: Authenticity builds trust - even when you’re creating it with AI.

What is my biggest takeaway from the past year? Like traditional marketing, AI campaigns perform best when you take a risk, and do something no one else is doing.

Which AI campaigns did you like most in 2023? Do you agree with these rankings? Reply and let us know!