Turing's Tofu #21

📰 This Week in AI & SaaS 📰

• OpenAI has paused one of their ChatGPT voice options, Sky, after the actress Scarlett Johansson was “shocked, angered and in disbelief” over how “eerily” similar Sky’s voice was to hers. Read more. 

• Google is planning to test Search and Shopping ads on its new AI search feature, AI Overview (which summarizes information at the top of a search results page), for US users, which many feel could defeat the primary objective of making the search process quick, easy, and uncluttered. Read more. 

• OpenAI has dissolved its AI safety team after two key members (co-founder Ilya Sutskever and lead researcher Jan Leike) quit within a week of each other, claiming new AI product launches were prioritized over safety testing. Read more.

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Read of the Week: 

  How Intercom navigated the AI paradigm shift

Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer of Intercom, Des Traynor, and Senior Director of ML, Fergal Reid, share the five key lessons they learned while building AI products so you can apply them to your future product roadmaps.

Read it.

💡 Marketing Moments with Mounier 💡

In this week's edition of "Marketing Moments with Mounier," I wanted to share share insights from my recent appearance on the B2B Revenue Leaders podcast, where we tackled some intriguing topics on AI in growth marketing. Here’s a breakdown of our conversation:

AI in the Workplace: Contrary to common fears, AI isn't poised to take your job but acts as an unparalleled assistant. I emphasized how AI can efficiently handle mundane tasks, allowing professionals to focus on strategic elements that require a human touch. This perspective can transform AI into the best apprentice, enhancing productivity without displacing the workforce.

Using AI Ethically: An important theme we discussed is the ethical use of AI in marketing. While AI can dramatically enhance personalization and customer interaction, it's crucial to avoid 'creepy' oversteps that might alienate customers. Marketers should strive for a balance where AI aids in understanding consumer behavior without compromising privacy or trust.

AI and Creative Storytelling: We also explored AI's role in creative processes. While AI tools like Grammarly assist in refining language, the true art of storytelling still requires a human element. Prompt engineering is emerging as a critical skill, where the quality of input significantly influences the output. This makes it possible to craft narratives that resonate deeply with audiences, provided the AI's contributions are directed and refined by human oversight.

Practical Applications: On a day-to-day basis, I leverage AI to parse through data, predict trends, and even assist in content creation. However, the ultimate utility of AI in marketing lies in its ability to provide detailed insights and automate repetitive tasks, which can be harnessed to fine-tune marketing strategies and enhance user engagement.

Anticipating the Future of AI: Looking ahead, the potential for AI in marketing is boundless, particularly in personalizing customer interactions. Tools that adapt and learn from user behavior can offer unprecedented customization in marketing campaigns, making them more effective and engaging.

👇 Listen to the full episode below :

👾 TOFU Quick Bytes: Uniqodo Teardown 👾

Uniqodo teardown

Launched in 2014, Uniqodo is a SaaS platform that creates, issues, validates, and distributes unique promo codes for e-commerce brands looking to increase sales. 

Strategy overview: Uniqodo was founded to address industry issues such as code leakage, code sharing and general code misuse. They target marketing teams within brands, retailers, and e-commerce businesses–helping them manage and optimize their promotion, sales, and retention strategies and prevent the overuse or misuse of discount codes, therefore safeguarding their margins.

Performance Analysis:

• Uniqodo makes, on average, $1.8M in revenue each year 

• Their estimated revenue per employee is $150,000

• Some of their customers include big organizations, such as OVO Energy (an $8 billion company), TUI Group (a $5 billion company), Samsung Electronics (a $4 billion company) 

How have they achieved this? 

Critical Teardown:

What does Uniqodo do well?

Audience segmentation: Uniqodo segments its audience by industry–Retail, Travel, Telco and Utilities–and targets them with specific messaging that resonates with their individual industry pain points, challenges, and objectives. 

Omnichannel strategy: They ensure their promotions are seamless across all marketing channels–including email, social media, partner sites, and onsite experiences–which helps them maintain a strong and consistent brand presence. 

Use of non-technical language to sell technical benefits: Uniqodo refers to its Promotion Engine as a “combination of smart technology, automated messaging and personalised promotions” to “automate promo codes and perform sophisticated behavioural analysis”, which sounds sophisticated and advanced, without being too overwhelmingly technical which impresses rather than alienates their non-technical audience.

Social media marketing: Uniqodo uses social media not only to promote its services but to also build rapport and forge personal connections with its audience. They do this by posting a variety of content ranging from serious posts and promotions to lighthearted memes and GIFS.

 What doesn’t Uniqodo do well? 

Tracking limitations: Uniqodo relies on cookie-based tracking but users can often block or delete cookies, which can lead to inconsistencies in tracking data plus, Google’s impending sunsetting of third-party cookies by 2025 will require a shift to alternative tracking methods​.

Promotional code security: Although Uniqodo provides unique, single-use codes, promo codes can still get leaked and shared, which leads to lost revenue and dilutes the effectiveness of campaigns​.

Customization limitations: Uniqodo does allow users to add basic customize to their promotions, but to add substantial custom personalizations can be difficult and costly. 

AI integration

Personalized promotions: Uniqodo uses AI to create personalized codes that target customers based on behavior and user interaction data which increases promotion campaign effectiveness by ensuring they’re relevant to individual customers, enhancing engagement and conversion rates​.

Automatic promo activation: The Uniqodo platform uses onsite triggers and customer data, such as exit intent and shopping behavior, to auto-activate promotions which ensures promotions are activated at the most critical moments, reducing cart abandonment and increasing sales.

Key takeaways: 

• Segment your audience by industry and target messaging to their individual pain points, challenges, and objectives. 

• Utilize several marketing platforms but make sure your messaging and branding are consistent across them all, for a unified omnichannel experience that will strengthen brand recognition.

•  If your product is technical try and get a balance of technical and non-technical language so that your audience understands what you’re saying, but still remains impressed with what you’re offering 

• Don’t be afraid to be a little ‘out-there’ with your social media marketing to build more personal connections with your community

• Use customer interaction data to build AI systems that streamline processes, enhance customer experiences, and improve your offering. 

What campaign or content marketing strategy would you like to see torn apart, next? Let me know! 

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