“We’re spending less on photographers, image banks, and marketing agencies, our in-house marketing team is HALF the size it was last year but is producing MORE!”
This is definitely a bad omen. AI cannot replace the human eye and what they see, but in the name of saving money, they will AI it. Shucks how many graphics guys do this?
This makes their brand more valuable. This makes stock holders more rich.
It’s difficult to make a case for “poor creatives” when the job of the CEO is to make the company more efficient and profitable. We can be as angry as we want but it’s really not this guy’s fault. It’s the fault of technological advancement - as it always has been.
If you look at all the creative or manual labor processes that have been taken over by technology, I don’t think many of these jobs have ever really recovered. The alternative has typically been to move to emerging markets where they can’t afford to invest in the technology but that’s very different now.
My first real job was interning at an ad agency (where I later became an art director). My first job was to page through stock photo books that filled a 15x15ft room. It took me hours or days to find a great picture and it was rare that a photo was “perfect” for the project. As an art director, the ability to just ask AI for the picture I want and get it in a few minutes is just mind blowing. At the same time, I can imagine the entire role of an art director could be eliminated and given to the account director. Maybe that job goes away too. This could really turn the entire creative marketing industry upside down.
