Pod Insights MarTech Podcast ™ // Marketing + Technology = Business Growth How AI is impacting influencer marketing & content About this episode COO at Linqia, Daniel Schotland, delves into the impact of AI on influencer marketing and content. In this episode, Daniel shares his perspectives on the influence of AI on influencer marketing, other ways AI is impacting influencer marketing, and AI versus a human in an influencer marketing campaign. Show Notes Connect With:Daniel Schotland: Website // LinkedInThe MarTech Podcast: Email // LinkedIn // TwitterBenjamin Shapiro: Website // LinkedIn // TwitterSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Transcript 0:00 Speaker 00 The Martech Podcast is a proud member of the I Hear Everything Podcast Network. Looking to launch or scale your podcast? I Hear Everything delivers podcast production, growth, and monetization solutions that transform your words into profit. Ready to give your brand a voice? Then visit iHereEverything.com.
0:25 Speaker 01 From advertising to software as a service to data, across all of our programs and clients, we've seen a 55% to 65% open rate.
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0:53 Speaker 00 Welcome to the Martech Podcast, a member of the I Hear Everything Podcast Network. In this podcast, you'll hear the stories of world-class marketers that use technology to drive business results and achieve career success. Here's the host of the Martech Podcast, Benjamin Shapiro.
1:15 Speaker 04 Welcome to the Martech Podcast. I'm your host, Benjamin Shapiro, and today we're going to discuss artificial intelligence and influencer marketing. Joining us is Daniel Schotland, who is the COO of Linkia, which is a full-service tech-enabled platform that handles campaigns for the world's leading brands, providing calm in the chaotic sea of influencer marketing. Yesterday, Daniel and I talked about how influencer marketing is graduating to the boardroom, and today, we're going to continue our conversation, talking about how artificial intelligence is impacting influencer marketing. All right, here's the second part of my conversation with Daniel Schotland, the COO of Linkia. Daniel, welcome back to the Martech Podcast.
1:56 Speaker 05 Great to be here again, Ben. Thank you so much.
1:58 Speaker 04 Excited to have you back on the show. Yesterday, we talked about how influencer marketing is all grown up and it's all grown up. We've gone from it being this testing campaign that we were thinking about, you know, how can we find people with social media handles that were valuable and maybe they'll create some content for us to like major Fortune 500 companies investing a massive portion of their marketing budget into getting other people to talk about their brands. And now there's a new wave. This is no longer a test campaign. It's core budget and we're also using artificial intelligence to scale our influencer marketing. Talk to me about the influence AI is having on your industry on influencer marketing.
2:41 Speaker 05 It's an interesting world out there, right? Influencers, to some extent, are concerned, some of them at least, that will there be AI influencers capable of creating the same or similar content to what they are able to do, connecting with audiences in a similar way? Are real, human, breathing influencers going the way of the dodo? Probably not.
3:06 Speaker 04 Go carbon-based life forms.
3:07 Speaker 05 Yeah, carbon-based life forms are good. So what's interesting is creator or influencer is really a combination of art and science. Humans provide the art and there's always going to be a need for humans in the equation. It is influencer after all. Started with people attracting audiences because of the content they created, because of their opinions, perspectives, because of their affinities and mobilizing them in some fashion. So they're always going to be there. So how is AI impacting influencer marketing? When you think about finding influencers, every brand, we do a state of influencer marketing report annually and we always ask what the, you know, top challenges are for brands as it comes to or when it comes to influencer. And the top challenge for years
3:51 Speaker 05 and years and years has been finding the right set of influencers. And why is that? Well, there are millions and millions and millions of them. So how do you find the right ones? How do you find the one that's right for this particular activation that has the right affinity towards your product, that has the right content aesthetic, that indexes with the audience you actually want to reach, that it has been brand safe or is brand safe, that hasn't worked with your competitor, whether it's at the product level or the category level in some period of time? Well, geez, that's really hard to do. In order to do that well, you've got to really take a look at every image, every video, every piece of text
4:33 Speaker 05 that influencer has ever put forth out in the public sphere to understand who they are, what are they all about, so that you can match them appropriately. So AI has really made a difference, and we use it heavily, in analyzing content from influencers, understanding by looking at, with computer vision, their videos and their images and all of the text, understanding what they're about, what affinities they have, what is their sentiment towards particular topics, what type of content creator are they, and with that, we're now able to search for very niche influencers or creators to meet the specific needs of any brand, any activation that they
5:13 Speaker 05 want. This is something that oftentimes was, prior to really leveraging AI, you do your best guess to start with a set of creators, and you've got to hunt and pet through their feeds to really rationalize, is this the right creator for me? Now, we can do a quick search contextually with a few keywords, with a real just kind of human description of the type of influencer you want to connect with, and we're able to surface those folks, we're able to show you the actual content from their feeds that matches exactly what you're looking for, and then you get to make a decision. So it's made finding influencers, it's simplified the process, and it's made it much more effective than it has been before. So that's one area that AI has made a huge difference.
5:57 Speaker 04 What I'm hearing from you is I got four different ways where artificial intelligence is impacting influencer marketing. First off, sourcing influencers. You're using artificial intelligence to build your lists, to understand who is relevant to your brand and finding the type of influencers that you want. Two, you're thinking about brand safety. You can look through large archives of content quickly and try to understand if there's something an influencer, because these are people, might stand for that isn't necessarily in line with your brand values. Three, you're doing analysis to understand, in theory, how the influencer has created content for your brand and is it relevant to you and how it's performing?
6:41 Speaker 04 And then the fourth, you originally started off talking about content creation. So, did I miss any other ways where artificial intelligence is impacting influencer marketing?
6:49 Speaker 05 I'd say all those we think about as part of influencer sourcing. It's really just how do we connect with and find the right set of influencers to even work with? The next step would be content creation. So, what is the right content? If I'm a pet food brand and I've got dog food for adult dogs, is the content narrative about dogs in parks being healthier and playing with their owners and other dogs? Is it about feeding the pet at home? Or who knows what? We leverage AI as a means to search for and understand what is performing organically, what are the right narratives, what are their content archetypes and specific content attributes to inform the actual brief. What does this mean?
7:32 Speaker 05 Is that we can tell these creators to leverage a particular narrative, particular content archetype, and actually include specific content attributes when creating their content that are likely to have a more resonant effects or impact on the target audience than not. And so, we're using AI to help with that process, that we are starting off from a much better place when creating that content. So, the thing about it is AI-informed or data-informed content briefing for the influencers. So, that's content creation.
8:06 Speaker 04 Now, before you said, hey, humans have to be involved. And I'm going to use one of my favorite terms as a podcaster. Yeah, but.
8:14 Speaker 05 Art and science.
8:15 Speaker 04 Yeah, but there are influencers that are out there that are not real people, that are revenue generating social media accounts that are probably prompt, I'm assuming prompted by a person, but that are not actually showing real people. Like, there are Instagram accounts showing the same person living this luxury lifestyle, and it's not a real person. AI influencers, that's what we're calling them now?
8:41 Speaker 05 Correct.
8:41 Speaker 04 Terrifying, right? What is real? We are in the post-truth era. And now, all of a sudden, we're looking at images of what look to be real people doing real people things when they're not actually humans. So do you actually need a human to run an effective influencer marketing campaign?
9:01 Speaker 05 I think the answer undoubtedly is yes. But like all things within influence, there's a role that an AI influencer could or can have. We've probably all played around with ChatGPT or other forms of generative AI. It's really good. It's also very clear that it is not a person. And when you see these AI influencer accounts, AI can do a great job creating content. And listen, people like looking at content and they like being entertained. And that has its role in influencer. But is it making a connection with the audience? Probably not. Not the same level of connection that an actual person would make. And so I think that this goes back to where I started.
9:44 Speaker 05 Do people exit the equation here with AI influencers? I don't think so. I think they have a role. If you're looking for very cheap, effective content creation, they are good at that. If you really need to tell a story, if you need to explain how a product works, if you're trying to tug on someone's heartstrings and create that emotive connection, which ultimately every brand is looking to do, you really need actual human beings to be able to do that. Now, you can help inform the type of content those creators produce. You can help them understand what is the best narrative to connect with their audience around that particular topic. But you need them to bring their magic to the table.
10:24 Speaker 04 I'm a big sports fan. Are you a sports fan?
10:27 Speaker 05 Eh, quasi.
10:28 Speaker 04 Who are your teams?
10:29 Speaker 05 I'm more into tennis and mountain biking and snowboarding.
10:32 Speaker 04 I'm gonna go with the thing I know we have in common. You went to the University of California.
10:37 Speaker 05 Go Bears.
10:37 Speaker 04 Go Bears. I'm a big Cal supporter, even though I didn't go to school there. And when I'm in Instagram and I press the search button, I get a feed of sports memes because Instagram knows that's the only type of content that I'm really there for, other than seeing my friends' kits. It's hard to fake friends' kids' pictures, but I have seen a ton of Steph Curry pictures that are created by artificial intelligence in my Instagram feed, and they're getting syndicated by Instagram's algorithm, which means that they are working, that that's what's garnering attention. So that is a person, but it is not an influencer that is creating the content.
11:19 Speaker 04 So that, to me, is the argument, saying, look, do people need to be involved in influencer accounts? If I then took a, and this is totally illegal, a picture of Steph Curry that's generated by artificial intelligence, and I throw him drinking a bottle of bourbon, and it's not the one that he's creating, it's somebody else's brand, now all of a sudden I have an influencer campaign. Talk to me about, A, is this effective? Is it working? Are you seeing this? And B, what are some of the guardrails to stop the sort of fake influencers from taking hold?
11:51 Speaker 05 I do think, as I mentioned before, there is a potential role for AI-based, non-human influencers. I think, though, that as they continue to proliferate, humans and the algorithms are likely going to sort them out, at least some of it. I really don't see it becoming like the mainstay of content that you see. I think there's a place, good, cheap content creation that can potentially provide entertainment value. But I don't think, if you think about like a brand story and a brand arc, being able to describe a new product, being able to talk about a new launch, being able to articulate the values of a brand.
12:34 Speaker 05 AI is not going to be good at for at least a very, very long time. And there's always a need for that from a brand perspective. That's what brands are looking to accomplish. So how well does AI specific content or AI influencer perform? I don't know. It's really hard to know. It's still so new. I'm sure you've taken a look at it, right? Who are the top 10 AI influencers? And they're out there. One or two of them are photorealistic. The vast majority of them are kind of animated in some way. It feels a little gimmicky. We'll see if that transcends above and beyond gimmick to actual kind of value for audiences. Do they come to prefer that over time? I don't think so, but hey, I could be wrong. It's a wild and woolly world out there. We'll see.
13:16 Speaker 04 Yeah, it's one of the things, just like everything else with artificial intelligence. Right now, we need humans to prompt the artificial intelligence and then to serve as editors to make a good piece of content, bit of analysis. Even with influencers and the artificial intelligence content creation, like we've got, let's call them AI models, not like large language models, but like the people on my website are not real people, right? I put them into mid-journey and said, I want somebody that looks like this, having this experience because it's cheaper than stock photography and I can customize them. But it required me to go in and say what I wanted them to be, right? There is a role, a time and a place for using artificial intelligence. And when it comes to influencer marketing, just like everything else with artificial
14:01 Speaker 04 intelligence, we need humans to prompt it. We also need humans to be the guardrails. And eventually, I'm sure the platforms will come in and start to clean house when this becomes more of a problem. But it's something that what brands are thinking about at the end of the day, artificial intelligence doesn't do a very good job of understanding your brand and promoting your products or services. That's really something only a human can still do. Hey, at least we're still useful for that.
14:26 Speaker 05 At least we're still used to that. I should say just real quick on the topic. I don't remember off the top of my head which platforms, maybe all of them, but at least a couple of them of the major platforms have all now said that content that is being produced leveraging. So if you're a content creator and you're using AI to produce your content, you have to disclose it. So similar to kind of FTC guidelines around disclosing that you are in partnership with a brand. If you're doing sponsored content, they are asking content creators to disclose when and how they are using AI with regard to their posts. Now, if you're an AI influencer, well, then that's the entire thing. I'm not sure how that works, but certainly for real humans who are using AI when producing their content, they've asked for disclosure.
15:09 Speaker 04 Of course, they said that. Good luck enforcing it.
15:11 Speaker 05 So good.
15:12 Speaker 04 Yes. In every post, I'm going to have to say, well, this is actually artificially intelligently edited, or the face was adjusted. This is no way are people going to go do that level of crediting to artificial intelligence, because it doesn't help their end goal. But fundamentally, there will be guardrails put into place when problems become out of hand. But there's going to be a balance, and it's going to be something that we're dealing with in influencer marketing, as we are in every other marketing channel. And that wraps up this episode of the Martech Podcast. Thanks to Daniel Schotland, the COO of Linkia, for joining us. If you'd like to hear more from Daniel, you could find a link to his LinkedIn profile in our show notes, or you can visit his company website, linqia.com, L-I-N-Q-I-A dot com.
15:56 Speaker 04 Just one more link in our show notes I'd like to tell you about. If you didn't have a chance to take notes while you were listening to this podcast, head over to martechpod.com, where we have summaries of all of our episodes and contact information for our guests. You can also subscribe to our weekly newsletter, and you can even apply to be the next guest speaker on the Martech Podcast. Of course, you can always reach out on social media. Our handle is @martechpod, M-A-R-T-E-C-H-P-O-D, on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Or you can contact me directly on LinkedIn. My handle is Ben J. Shap, B-E-N-J-S-H-A-P. And if you haven't subscribed yet, and you want a daily stream of marketing and technology knowledge in your podcast feed, we're going to publish an episode every day this year, so hit the subscribe button in your podcast app. And we'll be back in your feed tomorrow morning. All right, that's it for today.
16:40 Speaker 04 But until next time, my advice is to just focus on keeping your customers happy.
17:10 Speaker 00 Thanks for listening to the Martech Podcast and I Hear Everything production. Looking to launch or scale a podcast like this one for your brand? Then visit iHearEverything.com.
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