The New Marketing Equation: Data + AI + Imagination

[00:00:00] Tessa Burg: Hello, and welcome to another episode of Leader Generation, brought to you by Mod Op. I’m your host, Tessa Burg, and today I am joined by Boobesh Ramadurai. He’s the head of Marketing Analytics Center of Excellence at Latent View Analytics. He brings over 20 years of hands-on experience and analytics, digital marketing and data visualization with a proven track record in helping Fortune 500 clients enhance their marketing and capabilities.

[00:00:25] Tessa Burg: He is definitely the perfect person to help us better understand how marketing has evolved in the age of AI. Boobesh, thanks so much for being our guest today. We’re excited about this conversation.

[00:00:39] Boobesh Ramadurai: The feeling is mutual. Thank you so much for having me here.

[00:00:43] Tessa Burg: And it is sort of serendipitous. ’cause as we were saying before we got on the call, we actually met at the Marketing AI Institute Conference, MAICON.

[00:00:52] Boobesh Ramadurai: Yeah. So that conference and, and yeah. It was amazing to meet you there.

[00:00:58] Tessa Burg: Yeah. And great content last year. I’m sure it’ll be more great content this year. And just between then and now, so much has changed. So before we jump into what’s changed, what trends you’re seeing, the guidance you wanna give marketers today.

[00:01:17] Tessa Burg: First, tell us a little bit about yourself and your background.

[00:01:20] Boobesh Ramadurai: Sure. Um, I have been the analytics field for over a couple of decades now. Uh, I started even before analytics become a buzzword. Um, at that point in time we were working a lot with the financial services organization because that is where they had data, they were storing data and they were using data to enable the business decisions. We were kind of building models for them on upsell cross-sell, who are the customers who will pay up in time and who are the customers who lapse and all that. Um, fast forward now every industry has been capturing the data and using the data to drive business decisions, and it has given me opportunity to work across different sectors.

[00:01:59] Boobesh Ramadurai: Lately, uh, for a decade or so, I’ve been based out of Bay Area, so making use of the location and working with a lot of tech lines here. Uh, in fact having a friend row seat in terms of their growth and, um, all the, uh, product innovations that they have been making, especially in the tech sectors. Um, and especially I have been focusing a lot more on the CMOs organization and, and building domain based data and intelligence that can help the CMOs in their AI journey.

[00:02:33] Tessa Burg: That’s awesome that you get a chance to work specifically with tech companies. It’s always exciting when you have like that shared passion with your clients. So when you have this front row seat, how have you seen the role of marketing analytics evolve, especially over the last three years?

[00:02:51] Boobesh Ramadurai: Yeah. The biggest difference that I saw, uh, while working across different sectors and, and more specifically in the tech sectors, is how much they use data to drive their marketing decisions, right? Marketing has always been considered as a very creative function, where they come up with what is the next big campaign, what is an idea to promote their brand, um, and which are the new channels that they can target and, and use to reach to their customers.

[00:03:17] Boobesh Ramadurai: But especially when it comes to measurements, these tech companies, I felt like they are way up there in terms of measuring everything. It is not only the creative function, but also the finance function in a way. Kind of, um, both the, both the creative aspect of it and the number aspect of it comes together and how sometimes.

[00:03:37] Boobesh Ramadurai: Numbers drive the creativity and that we have seen over the years, a lot of different sectors have started using it. Every company is right now having a marketing analytics team that is measuring every initiative that has been done by the marketing function. And that is something that I have noticed over the last decade or so and, and increasingly with the whole AI that is coming in.

[00:04:00] Boobesh Ramadurai: Everybody realizes how much of this data is, is important and how it can actually drive not only the measurements, but also the what kind of campaigns to focus on, or what kind of channels to focus on some of those aspects as well. Yeah.

[00:04:15] Tessa Burg: Yeah, I agree. And that is a very big evolution. I remember, you know, back in the day, that’s what my kids say whenever I’m talking about something longer than five years away, like, uh, creatives.

[00:04:28] Tessa Burg: It didn’t appreciate, I thought it was kind of stifling to put measurement and metrics as goals as to like this campaign needs to do that, or it was even perceived that performance marketing was less creative because it was all focused on call to action. But today, especially with the advent of ai, the type of data you can pull out is more diverse and is inspiring when you can not just see.

[00:04:55] Tessa Burg: This ad got this click through rate and generated this amount of conversion in sales, but you can actually see what type of customers responded to it. What is the overall sentiment around it, what other signals or behaviors can we pick up from the space in which it was delivered? You get a better idea of the context of the customers and that’s, you know, like the holy grail to great creative is understanding deeply.

[00:05:19] Tessa Burg: What is the connection that I’m making and, and what’s the context in which these target audiences and my customers are receiving this message?

[00:05:27] Boobesh Ramadurai: Yeah, no, you are spot on, especially. After this performance marketing came in and everybody starts focusing on the numbers, like how many clicks that I have, how many impressions that I have, how many clickthrough rates that I have, and all of that.

[00:05:39] Boobesh Ramadurai: And they try to optimize it for the near term benefits that the marketing team is able to have. But the important piece of the marketing function where the creative people and people in the marketers who operate as kind of content that can commit with it, right? And we all know content is a king, and 70% of the campaign is successful because of the kind of content that is able to resonate with their target audience. And, uh, that is where the creative part still lies and, and takes a friend seat. And increasingly with, with the advantage of AI, we can see that the creative can be augmented with AI and not really everything has to rely on the responsibility of the human who’s a marketer involved in it.

[00:06:24] Boobesh Ramadurai: The marketer can use a lot of AI right now to come up with the right content, uh, by looking at in terms of what are the past content that has resonated well with the users. What aspect of the content has resonated well with the users and how do I replicate and refresh that a lot more and bring it to my users?

[00:06:42] Boobesh Ramadurai: Right. Um, so I, I think that is where outside of just data being very structured and looking into likes, impression, clicks, and other metrics, it can also augment on the content that can resonate well with the users.

[00:06:57] Tessa Burg: Yeah. And that might be an opportunity for marketers who maybe haven’t taken that step yet, is.

[00:07:03] Tessa Burg: Broaden your definition of data and really start to think about how can you build that bridge from how well campaigns have done back into creative so that they can have a platform to ask deeper questions to better understand the audience.

[00:07:20] Boobesh Ramadurai: Over the last three years, I have seen a lot more.

[00:07:24] Boobesh Ramadurai: Because of, because of the role that I have been playing, I’ve been part of a consulting organization that kind of has an opportunity to work across different sectors and different accounts and, and the clients that that we do, uh, the kind of questions that they have been asking us have drastically changed.

[00:07:39] Boobesh Ramadurai: Before it was all around, Hey, I’m going to run a campaign and I want to know in terms of which is the best channel to, to use. Then more around. In fact, you know what, I have couple of ideas. I want to test out these two ideas and see. Which resonates well more well with the users and can you help in terms of measuring and tracking all of that, then it is more around, I have been having the same campaign being launched in multiple channels and I want to know which is a better channel to focus on.

[00:08:08] Boobesh Ramadurai: To more around now, in the recent times, it is more around in terms of I want ideas in terms of what kind of content resonates well with the users, and can you look into all of the content that we have done in the past and gimme a suggestion in terms of that. That kind goes well with the brand in terms of what is a language that they want to use, what is a color palette that they want to use, and what kind of culture that they want to resonate well with their audience.

[00:08:34] Boobesh Ramadurai: Incorporating all of this can, can you come up with a content recommendation that I can use? Um, uh, and, and which can do an AB testing. Right. So those are some of the interesting questions that is coming in. Um, and there is a lot of that is changing in the SEO space as well and I’m sure that you are aware of some of that. Yeah.

[00:08:54] Tessa Burg: Yeah. So before we jump into, ’cause that’s a major shift, what’s happening in SEO before we jump into that, we’ve, those are some big questions that. I don’t know if people would’ve thought to ask that in the past, or it would’ve ’cause it probably would’ve taken too long. Like give me content recommendations.

[00:09:10] Tessa Burg: What’s performing the best? Like I remember asking those of business intelligence teams and a month later there was an analysis that came back. So how are you using AI to help answer those questions more efficiently and even at a higher quality?

[00:09:24] Boobesh Ramadurai: In fact, that’s a great question. I think every organization have been doing this.

[00:09:29] Boobesh Ramadurai: Every organization has been asking these questions and there is an insights data team, or there is, there is a partner that they work with, as you said. I run a campaign in January, I, the campaign ends in February. I go and ask my data team in terms of, Hey, is this a campaign, a successful or not? What is, what is the overall outcome of this campaign?

[00:09:48] Boobesh Ramadurai: And only in April or May I get to see the results of whether the campaign that I ran in January is successful or not. Which means like I have already lasted three to four months. And then I am this, the camp the, either the success or the failure of the January campaign is not anymore relevant for, because I have gone into Q2 and I’m focusing on in terms of what is a campaign that I’m going to launch in July.

[00:10:11] Boobesh Ramadurai: Right. So there is, there is so much, and especially in this era, there is so much that is changing on a week, on week basis, especially month on month and a quarter on quarter. It’s a, it’s a lot of lost time, which we can capitalize on. That is where there is a lot of, uh, data integration that has come in, a lot of products that is out there.

[00:10:30] Boobesh Ramadurai: And, and, and we have built a solution which can integrate all of this and kind of give you realtime solutions even at a channel level or at across omnichannel level, um, for a particular campaign that has run. And, and especially with the whole advent of AI and, uh, uh, the data capturing mechanism. You’ll be able to see the results of January right there in the first week of February itself.

[00:10:54] Boobesh Ramadurai: Once one, when you are running the campaign, you know, on a day on day basis how the campaign has been performing across different channels, what is the ROI that you’re able to bring in and what at the end of the campaign, you know, what kind of creative resonated to which set of segment of customers, which particular channel, what particular day of the week kind of resonated all of the analytics kind of.

[00:11:17] Boobesh Ramadurai: Packaged in, in one applications right now and, and provided to the users, which kind of cuts a lot of, uh, uh, time delay by going to the data analytics team and they working on the data engineering team and coming back and all of that. Uh, the data is becoming democratized right now, and the marketers can directly go and ask the channels and the performance in terms of how things are being performed.

[00:11:42] Tessa Burg: And I think that’s really important, the democratization of data. I could see where maybe the business analytics team feels like that’s a bit threatening to their job or to their expertise in interpreting data and pulling out the insights. But I know as well as you, the more we have collabor collaboration, consolidation on shared resources where we’re all not using these individual apps, even if they are driven by AI.

[00:12:09] Tessa Burg: The more efficient, the more productive, the better the results. How do you lead that type of change to bring people along so they’re not feeling displaced by necessary momentum forward?

[00:12:22] Boobesh Ramadurai: I think we are, we are, we are still a long way, uh, on that path, uh, in terms of, uh, replacing, um, because the market is evolving rapidly across, even within the marketing function.

[00:12:34] Boobesh Ramadurai: If you think of it, there is, I. There is channels that is getting added on a daily basis. Um, before we used to do a lot of events, uh, which is off channel and then there is a TV and then the whole digital came in and then we started doing a lot of Facebook ad. Then it’s Instagram, then it is Snapchat, Pinterest, there is LinkedIn.

[00:12:53] Boobesh Ramadurai: There is tons of channels. That is still need to be explored. And for the last three, four years, it is all about influencers, marketing, creative economy, uh, those kind of, um, user generated content is a lot more that has been focused on at this point in time by many brands. So there is tons of channel that needs to be integrated and, and especially when an organization or a brand thinks of getting into a new channel, there is a whole body of work that has been involved in terms of getting the data, setting up the platform.

[00:13:24] Boobesh Ramadurai: Putting some advertisement dollars behind it. Deciding in terms of what kind of money needs to put in for the ROI that, that you can, uh, put in, there is a whole framework and there is a lot of work just around the channels. There is a lot of work that can be done in the content perspective, which is still vastly unexplored.

[00:13:42] Boobesh Ramadurai: And where is generally done only by the marketing and the agencies. Right now, there is a lot of things that can be done through AI on the content part of it. Um, so there is, there is enough work which is out there and, and, and when you go into customer segmentation and some of you using the advanced analytics AI on in terms of the next best actions, uh, which are the customers who are just going to have a higher customer lifetime value, there are so much work that is still a to be done for any organization.

[00:14:12] Boobesh Ramadurai: Um, and it is, and AI is enabling us to. Do some of the easier tasks like reporting and dashboarding automated so that the analyst can focus on some of the advanced work that they can enable to bus to move the business forward.

[00:14:29] Tessa Burg: I agree, and I think when companies have a big enough vision and you start to think about what we all need to do to meet that vision, then you’re not as threatened by the use of ai.

[00:14:43] Tessa Burg: And I would say if someone is threatened by the use of ai, go back and say, is there an opportunity for us to drive growth through efficiency? Yeah. And if you have not deeply explored how efficiency actually drives growth and scale for your company, then you’re, you’re missing some opportunities to really level up your career and level up your use of the technology in general.

[00:15:07] Boobesh Ramadurai: Yeah. And, and, and so fair point, and in fact if you think of it, we are still talking about efficiency and productivity gain when it comes to ai. But, uh, there is a lot more, which is, and to be uncovered in terms of the revenue enablement, right? Or the new areas to, to look forward the new innovation that is going to come.

[00:15:27] Boobesh Ramadurai: I think we are, we are still in the space of how do we make this more productive, more efficient. Once we are able to reach there, then we will be able to stay on top of it and look in terms of where are the new revenue generation opportunity that is, that is out there for us.

[00:15:43] Tessa Burg: Yeah, and I, a lot of companies I’ve seen are take that step, step approach.

[00:15:47] Tessa Burg: Like, first we’re gonna become more efficient and we’re trying to automate all this admin stuff, and then we’re gonna go into what cool crap can we do? And then after the coolness, then we’ll think about, you know, what, what does it drive from a growth perspective? But I would. I was at, uh, the Forrester conference and there was a stat that really struck me and it was around why some people are resistant to, to change in AI and then why others aren’t, and it’s simply that they’re becoming overwhelmed and that there is in fact more change happening today than ever before.

[00:16:23] Tessa Burg: Yeah, I think the exact number was 186% more change, and when we. That’s overwhelming. And I think even when sometimes when there’s too many options, it makes us feel like we gotta narrow it down and go step by step. But I would also say that gives us an opportunity to delegate and have multiple initiative tracks run in parallel and that you almost have to, to keep up with the rate of change that the people you’re serving are going through, your clients, your and customers, and.

[00:16:58] Tessa Burg: That’s all people solutions. That’s not ai. So again, we started, I’m going down a tangent here, but like we started with, you know, what happens when analysts or really any role starts to become threatened and what we need more than ever are humans and leaders who know how to navigate change, and certainly is not.

[00:17:19] Tessa Burg: There’s no scarcity and opportunities to step into that role.

[00:17:24] Boobesh Ramadurai: Yeah. No, that, that, that is true too. I think this has been true. Whenever there is a new revolution that is coming in, right, uh, um, I know that maybe by now everybody is aware of that, that, uh, AI is being compared to the internet world. When kind of internet came in when every paper, media or all of the.

[00:17:44] Boobesh Ramadurai: Um, uh, the finance team and they were doing work in, in, in books. They were threatened saying that, oh, this book is being treated into digital format and now I need to learn computer, or now I need to learn, uh uh, a new medium. It is kind of resistant, but the good part now is the AI is not that alienated, right?

[00:18:05] Boobesh Ramadurai: We have all been used to it in some form or fashion. For example, in most of the houses, there is already. Uh, Google Home or uh, uh, Alexa that we have got used to the searches that we are doing. We have got used to it, the YouTube videos that we saw in terms of the recommendation in terms of, Hey, how do, how do it, how do the system know that this is a song that I like and I’m, I’m able to listen to that even before we going and searching.

[00:18:32] Boobesh Ramadurai: Right? So in a way that we are all have gotten used to it. The consumer AI has already been in the mainstream now and slowly and steadily we have been adapted to the consumer AI part of it. As long as it helps me when I’m driving the car, I don’t need to pick which song to listen to or which podcast to listen to.

[00:18:50] Boobesh Ramadurai: It, it knows by itself. Uh, um, you know, while I’m in the kitchen, I’ll be able to ask questions and it is able to provide me answers so that I don’t need to deviate my attention from, from the staff and all of that is, is great. Now, when it is. Kind of hitting the enterprise ai, we all feel like, oh, maybe there is, there is a big shift that’s happening and how do I get adopted to it?

[00:19:12] Boobesh Ramadurai: I’m sure very similar to how we got adopted to the consumer AI, we will get adopted to the enterprise AI as well and all of the shift that is happening at the business. Uh, the good part about that is it is still very early. Uh, it is sup still super early stages, even though we feel like the change is like more than a hundred percentage, but it is going to get.

[00:19:33] Boobesh Ramadurai: Um, standardized over time and, and by the time enterprises start using it, we will all be the masters of AI in a way. And, uh, the baby steps that we have to do is we have to start using it on a daily basis so that we get adapted to, in terms of. How to use it, for what we have to use it and uh, and what are the use cases that it does better than us, uh, better than each individual in a way.

[00:19:59] Boobesh Ramadurai: Right. Um, there are a few things that I know that I am better than ai and there are certain things that I know that AI is better than me for, which I will always go back to.

[00:20:08] Tessa Burg: Yeah. I, it’s. It’s funny ’cause I’ve heard some people say like, it’s not there yet, or This specific app can’t do things as well as I can.

[00:20:15] Tessa Burg: And it’s not about waiting for it to be perfect, it’s about looking at what’s a more effective and efficient way to solve problems and, and come up with solutions. And one solution that has certainly created a problem is GEO or the behavior that consumers have very quickly learned to use. Language models and even just look at the results that Google puts at the be top of the search engine results page that’s generated from AI as opposed to what we’re used to be used to, which is clicking on links and going to websites.

[00:20:51] Tessa Burg: So I know marketers are becoming more and more concerned as. Their traffic drops or they’re not getting as much visibility because you know, there’s this term out there, zero click and what does it mean and how can I measure my influence in zero click? How are you helping marketers navigate this challenge in new space?

[00:21:10] Boobesh Ramadurai: Yeah, no, it’s a great question and in fact it kind of ties back to the question that you asked in terms of how, uh, individuals have got so much adapted to the consumer AI, but not so much on the enterprise ai. Which is what I think that Google is slowly and steadily getting all the enterprises to get used to it.

[00:21:27] Boobesh Ramadurai: So they are not making the shift on, on a single day. They’re saying that, Hey, so far any search that you do, we used to list out a bunch of e uh, links, and these links will give, take you to the respective, uh, website. And now I’m going to start introducing prototyping. The small AI generated information and the AI generated information is going to.

[00:21:50] Boobesh Ramadurai: So some of the questions that you have been asking for and for certain other questions, I’m going to still send you to a respective links, but that is Google. If you, if you go to ChatGPT and do a search, or if you go to publicity and do a search, it is all AI generated that content that is coming in, right?

[00:22:07] Boobesh Ramadurai: You are not really seeing the links for the respective web pages. And in fact, I saw a report where. Especially the Gen Zs, they are using a lot more generative engine than uh, uh, the typical SEO search engine that we have been used to. And even though Google is still a bigger player, um, in fact, there is a report that came out which says that.

[00:22:30] Boobesh Ramadurai: They used to process close to like 5 trillion searches on a, on a weekly basis, uh, which used to be like only 2 trillion. So in terms of the market of search engine, is is increasing. There is, there is still a lot more, uh. Jobs and, and work for all of us when it comes to the SEOs, but how the SEO is kind of changing and adapting AI to it, which is, which is the whole generative engine optimization that kind of comes in and now.

[00:23:00] Boobesh Ramadurai: All the organizations and enterprises are figuring out in terms of how do their brands and their product kind of shows up in this generative engine, uh, summary that kind of comes up either in the publicity or charge g PT or, or in the Google g AI is, is is going to be a upper battle to solve. Um, it is still a very early stages.

[00:23:21] Boobesh Ramadurai: There is a lot of, not a lot of company that have actually thought about this generative engine optimization. Very similar to a search engine optimization, but that is a new trend that you, that we are all going to see over the next six to 18 months in terms of how companies are going to adapt their website and adapt their content and product and, uh, communicating their brand and product in, in this, in this new era.

[00:23:45] Boobesh Ramadurai: It’s going to be a very interesting space to look at and, uh, just like you, I’m, I’m equally excited and seeing in terms of how all of this plays out.

[00:23:54] Tessa Burg: Yeah, I think it will be. It was just a new challenge. Like marketers always have a new challenge. Like you said earlier, there’s always a new social, something launching or a new platform that everyone has to be on.

[00:24:06] Tessa Burg: And if anything, this gives us an opportunity to get creative about how we deliver value to users and not necessarily on our website. And I think it can really, for the better impact the role of the website to elevate beyond just. Pictures and blogs, because I think it was getting kind of boring, optimizing for blogs.

[00:24:29] Tessa Burg: You know, it’s like people who got really good at SEO, I don’t know if all that content was super high quality, or if they’re just really good at SEO and now here’s a new challenge that’s saying, Hey, quality level of engagement. The type of sites that pick up your content, like what type of influence your content actually has is all gonna matter when you’re doing generative engine optimization.

[00:24:50] Tessa Burg: Yeah. And that, you know, is, is a new bar, uh, to kind of, not only reach but leap over when you think about that. You can also use AI tools to help in that, uh, content generation. But to your point, it gets through up to like mediocre. If you just use generative tools to create your content, you are not.

[00:25:11] Tessa Burg: Reaching or exceeding the bar of high quality, high influence, high value, that is where that human power is gonna come in and really starting to think about how it reaches your consumers at a time when, when they need it.

[00:25:25] Boobesh Ramadurai: No, that is, that is very true. I think, um, to completely agree to your point, which is that marketers never run out of challenges.

[00:25:32] Boobesh Ramadurai: There is always tons of challenges that is out there that the marketers feel like, Hey, there is a step up that I need to do in terms of how to reach my content to the right audience. Uh, in fact, one of the recent exercises that we did for one of the client, we figured out that. As you said, there is a lot of emphasis that is on that goes on blogs all this while in terms of how do I make people come into my website through the content that I post in my own website.

[00:25:59] Boobesh Ramadurai: That shift is kind of moving a little. Especially when it comes to the generative engine, where it is not only picking the content from your own websites, but it is also picking the content in terms of some of the marketplaces out there. For example, what is Forbes? Forbes talks about your products and your brand, or what is Wall Street talks about your products and brand, and there may be a lot more weightage that has been given to some of these publications and which is where it might be important for all of us to start working with the PR firms a lot more and say that, Hey, you know what?

[00:26:31] Boobesh Ramadurai: I want my content and, and my brand to be featured in, in many common, uh, um, newsletters and forums that is out there rather than in my own, uh, website. Um, and this, we feel like in the, the initial part of this analysis, we feel like your brands and your product, if it has been featured in some of this, uh, uh, forums and, and blah, uh, articles by the third party that gets.

[00:26:58] Boobesh Ramadurai: A lot more eyeballs when it comes to generative engine than the typical search engine that we have got used to.

[00:27:05] Tessa Burg: Yeah, and I think, I know, you know, we were saying before the call, some of the smaller brands are sort of feeling the pain from that. They’re not getting as much visibility they, but they do have the opportunity to do PR and or, or I would say an or.

[00:27:26] Tessa Burg: What are other channels of influence? Because the reason the bigger brands are getting picked up is ’cause they are doing pr. They are investing in, in getting PR people who know how to get them into those large channels. But I think that’s where, you know, in general, there’s so many diverse channels with so many different levels of influence that sometimes you have to figure out as a brand, based on our values mission and where we need to reach.

[00:27:52] Tessa Burg: All you have to look for is how are we getting external validation? That is why those sites are so important is ’cause they are external sources, validating that what any one company is saying is true or meaningful. And again, that’s another fun problem to try and solve. Like finding your niche, finding your audience, those authoritative sites that can really add those critical points of validation to your brand and your story.

[00:28:18] Boobesh Ramadurai: Yeah, no, a hundred percent. I think we, we are all trying to figure out in terms of how this generative engine by publicity or open ai or by, uh, Google how it is picking up the content. It is still a mystery box for everybody. Uh, but the only way for an, uh, for a organization to know in terms of how to get featured is.

[00:28:38] Boobesh Ramadurai: Through different trial and error, through AB testing and, and uh, learning from the industry experts in terms of how they have been figured out. And, and I’m sure that just like any other search engine or any other recommendation engine, it is going to keep evolving and it is going to keep changing. Uh, that is, that is the whole fun of this role in terms of being a marketer is you, you always need to keep up in terms of what’s, what’s changing and how it is changing and how do we adapt our brands and strategy towards it.

[00:29:07] Tessa Burg: Yeah. Boobesh, we have covered a lot in our time. We started with marketers giving them advice advisement to start building that bridge from their data analytics team into marketing to provide brands more context that really fuels content generation. We talked about how AI is playing a bigger role in that creative content generation.

[00:29:28] Tessa Burg: The better I understand my audiences and the more connected I am to different types of data, I can personalize that content, I can deliver it on more diverse channels using AI diversion. And then we also talked about the challenges. We as marketers are facing, but to find almost comfort in the fact that AI has been here for a while.

[00:29:48] Tessa Burg: We’re using it in our daily lives. And really this is just giving us opportunities that our brands have not had in the past to connect with consumers in more in diverse ways. And of course we talked about GEO and I agree people should be investing in more pr. I always thought PR was like a fantastic tool.

[00:30:05] Tessa Burg: We have an amazing PR department and it’s just, I, it’s all about storytelling, which has always been one of my favorite parts of marketing. Yeah. Is, and that helps you really crystallize the vision and not only add that external validation, but bring other people along, which is one of the most important things in true AI value is that your internal organization is aligned and is using AI in a manner that provides scale and measurable value back to the business.

[00:30:33] Tessa Burg: So, uh, having great PR is more than just like getting on credible sites. It is about. Internal alignment and having that guiding star for all decision making. Before we go, ’cause this has been a lot, but is there, are there any more trends that you’re really looking forward to? As we, I mean, as it’s already April, which is just nuts, but anything else you’re looking forward to seeing in 2025 or beyond?

[00:31:01] Boobesh Ramadurai: Yeah. No, no thanks. This is, this is a great summary. I think you, you kind of, uh, uh. The most important point in, in the last 20 minutes of conversation that we have had, uh, this is great in terms of what look forward is, um. I think there, there is a lot that is, that is going to happen. And, um, in fact, I, I just saw that Sam Alman over the weekend.

[00:31:25] Boobesh Ramadurai: He just said that there’s few more new launches that they are planning and which is going to blow up everybody’s mind. We still need to know what it is. Uh, we just saw from a note from Google, uh, that how the generative engine is changing the search engine place for, for them, even though they are still the market leader.

[00:31:45] Boobesh Ramadurai: Um, uh, especially at the different segment of customers, uh, they say that Gen Z, they are losing it. Um, they are moving into more, uh, different search engines like publicity or OpenAI, uh, search some of that. So that trend has been changing and, uh, brands have started to look at in terms of how AI can help in their content generation, not only in terms of measuring and, and reading out, but more in terms of.

[00:32:12] Boobesh Ramadurai: What are the new ways to create content? In fact, the Adobe Firefly is a great example for that. Um, where, uh, where the brands are able to come up with their own content by, by using some of this. And as you said, it is still, it’s only April and we have another. Good eight months to go in the year and there is plenty of action that is waiting.

[00:32:34] Boobesh Ramadurai: So, um, yeah, don’t get overwhelmed. Start focusing on the small use cases that you are currently working today and, uh, how that can be auto automated and, and used by the agent AI. Um, and take help from the data team. Um, I’m sure we will all see through this.

[00:32:52] Tessa Burg: Yeah. Well, thank you so much for being a guest.

[00:32:55] Tessa Burg: If listeners have questions for you, where can they find you?

[00:33:00] Boobesh Ramadurai: They can find me in my, uh, LinkedIn. My LinkedIn is very simple. It’s, it’s LinkedIn at Boobesh, so you’ll be able to find me just searching by my name. And by God’s grace, my mother has given me a unique name, so it’s, it’s very easy to find me.

[00:33:16] Tessa Burg: Yeah, my name used to be unique and now there’s like a bazillion little Tessas running around such a bummer, but No, I’m kidding.

[00:33:24] Tessa Burg: Um. We will also have this episode on our website. So if you wanna find the spelling of Boobesh’s name or grab the transcript for this, you can visit us at modop.com. That’s modop.com and underneath podcast, which is in The Vanguardian off the menu, we have other episodes that explore the impact of AI, digital transformation, change leadership …

[00:33:50] Tessa Burg: All the tools you need to elevate your company, their measurement and use of data for context and content generation and Boobesh, thanks so much for joining us and maybe I’ll see you again this year at MAICON.

[00:34:03] Boobesh Ramadurai: Same here. Thank you so much for having me.