AI is making us worse advertisers

I have been impressed by AI. I have built software, and I believe this tool is incredible.

But if you use this tool incorrectly, your skills as an advertiser and marketer will collapse.

I am writing this newsletter from the heart.

I am seeing a lot of bad stuff out on the internet and when I interview candidates to hire.

So much word slop and the art of writing and critical thinking is dying.

I think there is a right way to use AI and a wrong way.

Let’s get into it.

We never wanted your 8 page PDF in the first place

If not controlled on what you want, AI will start to build a document that you never asked for.

All you wanted was a video script and instead you are getting so much more extra words and sections to justify the script.

And it is just vanilla.

But it looks like you have done way more work than is true.

You didn’t try to write all of that…

Since it was cheap and easy to just generate, you let it happen.

What is worse is when you go to do a task - you just ask AI to do it.

Oh, I need a script for a video, AI MAKE THIS FOR ME.

The focus is on the output - getting it done.

It isn’t about the craft.

People a shipping off ideation and thinking to AI.

I ended up reviewing documents that say a whole lot of nothing.

No true insight - just words in the same looking document and format.

Yes you can make prompts better than others, but for the most part, you are going to get a lot similar output if the thinking is left up for AI.

AI is really good at iterating and copy.

AI is built on rules and following them.

When it comes to new, generative ideas - it gives basicness.

So when I have candidates do a test project and I get the same answers…. No matter how they prompted it, we ended up with the same output for the most part.

YIKES.

The problem is that a few years ago, without AI, we wouldn’t have this happen on the same test.

You were forced to think and write.

It would have been closer to chance that I get the same thing… now it will be most likely I get similar answers.

If you want to be great in marketing, you cannot ship your creative process and thinking to AI.

You will never ship anything meaningful this way.

How do we use AI the right way - let’s keep going.

You can never beat pen and paper

The creative process should be MESSY.

It should be a struggle, not easy.

People mistake hard for bad.

Hard is good.

The process to come up with ideas is the hardest part of the job - lean INTO this, not out of it.

Here is my process on how to ideate and also use AI.

Know your product and audience

AI can help you dig up research, check out the competition, and pull all the data you want, but facts alone don’t move people.

People buy with their emotions, not just their heads.

The best ads take what’s true about the product and tie it to something that hits you right in the feels, whether that’s through a killer image or a story that just sticks.

Use AI to help find a clinical study if you need it, but take the time to sit and think about the viewer.

I like to write down notes on a pad of paper.

Taste isn’t something you get from a textbook; it comes from being out in the world, soaking up content, and figuring out what actually stands out.

So spend time in the world observing.

Ask the questions from the ideal customer’s view.

What are their problems?

What content are they watching?

Go be human.

Find stuff that inspires you, have real conversations, and escape from behind a screen chatting with AI all day.

This is going to help you come up with ideas.

This can take a day - two weeks - even longer.

The best ads were not made from efficiency.

Write on paper

If you get into a flow state, you can genuinely write more, better, and faster than AI.

Most people are just afraid of the blank page.

Once you start, you can just keep going. It is a beautiful feeling.

While you are waiting for AI to generate that 8 page pdf slop, my hand is burning from just writing.

I like to just write, no structure, just to find words or images that I think can work.

My ideas are from me.

I am trying to get something unique.

Where AI comes into play

I usually have a pretty good idea of what I want to see in the ad and what it should say, but the editing process begins - that is where AI comes in.

I will take a picture of my notebook, transcribe that into AI, and start to edit from there.

I have a document about the brand so it can fact check, add disclaimers, and anything else specific to the brand.

I can then ask it for refining and things like that to tighten up some of the language.

The idea is still mine. It will stand out.

AI just helped me refine and get it into brief ready mode.

Ideas are better and faster

I find that my ideas come to me faster and are better because I am away from the screen.

I am in the world of my customers.

I am sensing them.

I am listening to them.

I am speaking to them.

I am inspired by them.

This process is messy, but it is human.

And a human process is what you need to stand out in the world of content.

Don’t get me wrong - if you need to copy, iterate, etc - I would use AI for that.

When you want something new, AI won’t give that to you.

I think that many people are hoping to get ideas from AI which won’t happen.

A great creative strategist knows the rules, and knows when to break them.

AI follows the rules.

A great creative strategist knows how to link two separate ideas to communicate something powerful.

AI struggles to connect varying ideas unless prompted.

Get back to thinking

I want people to be great advertisers and marketers.

I am seeing how AI is hurting most people versus helping them.

Organizations and ad funnels are slowly moving to the middle.

The winners will be the ones who know how to be outliers.

They know how to be creative.

They know how to write and ideate.

They have a process to see the world and find new ways to communicate their product in this world.

Embrace the hard.

Embrace the messiness of the creative process.

Don’t ship your brain to AI.

AI is a tool. It can be used well and poorly.

Learn how it fits in the creative process or else you will end up shipping 8 page PDFs no one asked for.

Keep creating!

Matthew Gattozzi

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My team and I create hassle-free creatives for consumer brands. If you are thinking about getting content, let’s set up a chat.

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