Tag: AI

Singapore – SleekFlow, a Singapore-based provider of omnichannel conversational AI for customer engagement, has secured US$7m in a Series A+ funding round led by South Korean venture capital firm Atinum Investment, bringing its total funding to US$15 million.

The new funding round is expected to fast-track SleekFlow’s global expansion, targeting key markets in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Europe. The investment will also fuel advancements in AI technology, including enhanced analytics and the development of sophisticated marketing workflows, while expanding communication channels such as calls and emails to better serve its growing international customer base.

The investment round also saw participation from existing backers, including AEF Greater Bay Area Fund, managed by Gobi Partners GBA, and Transcend Capital Partners. Additionally, it attracted a new investor, Moses Tsang, a former general partner of Goldman Sachs Group and chairman of Goldman Sachs (Asia) LLC.

Peter Na, regional head of the Singapore Office and director of Atinum Investment, said, “Being at the front of the rapidly expanding global customer engagement market, SleekFlow meets the evolving needs of enterprise customers. SleekFlow’s localised approaches have expanded it beyond Asia, entering new markets in the Middle East and South America. We are fully committed to supporting its ongoing global expansion and are excited for the opportunities ahead.”

Looking ahead, SleekFlow plans to secure its Series B funding within the next 12 months as it continues to solidify its position. SleekFlow’s solutions have already made significant inroads across various industries, serving prominent clients such as Delonghi, Hilton Dubai, L’Occitane, Shangri-La, Hong Kong Broadband Network, Cellini, Khind, TOTO, 7-Eleven, Kimberly-Clark, Awfully Chocolate, and Audi.

Henson Tsai, founder and CEO of SleekFlow, shared, “Since the appointment of our Chief Technology Officer, Gao Lei, a Silicon Valley veteran, we have significantly increased our engineering efforts to be at the forefront of innovative tech and advanced AI. We are more ambitious than ever, with offerings underway for fully automated sales and support journeys in voice, calls, and emails, to deliver unparalleled value to our customers across industries like insurance, healthcare, telecom, service, and retail.”

India – As part of their ongoing platform for equal parenting, Britannia Milk Bikis has joined forces with Talented for their latest campaign, which empowers dads to use AI to generate heartfelt Tamil stories for children.

Conceptualised by Talented and brought to life by Web Dimension, ‘Adengappa Kadhaigal’ (loosely translated as “Wow! Stories”) is a GenAI-powered storytelling resource designed to help dads become better storytellers for their children. 

The campaign is inspired by the idea that “everything around you can tell a story,” and this unique platform utilises everyday household objects to enhance storytime experiences. By scanning any Britannia Milk Bikis pack, parents can generate stories in both English and Tamil. Each story includes prompts on how to use the scanned object as a prop to engage children in storytelling.

The campaign features a short film that showcases the new storytelling resource platform. It offers a fresh perspective on storytelling and redefines the role of dads as active caretakers.

Speaking on the initiative, Amit Doshi, CMO of Britannia Industries, said, “Britannia Milk Bikis has a deep-rooted relationship with the state of Tamil Nadu spanning decades. This campaign is a testament to our commitment to further the equal parenting discourse and play a part in enabling parents, aided by new-age technology. We’ve trained the AI model to recognise thousands of objects found in households to make stories more accessible.” 

Meanwhile, Samyu Murali, creative, and Balaji Padmanabhan, brand strategy at Talented, shared, “In a state where films are worshipped, they sometimes perpetuate a stereotypical image of moms—where dads are seen as the ‘fun’ parent and moms are relegated to the role of the disciplinarian. Advertising is trying to raise our children differently, starting with showing dads as equal parts storytellers.” 

Britannia Milk Bikis has long maintained a strong connection with Tamil Nadu. Campaigns such as “Britannia Milk Bikis Anaivarukkum,” which celebrates the region’s rich linguistic diversity and pride, and the “Britannia Milk Bikis Flashback Pack,” which honours the affectionate nicknames used in Tamil households, underscore this regional commitment.

Last year, the company also introduced its #GrowthNeedsBoth campaign, featuring Prithi Ashwin and her husband R. Ashwin, along with their two daughters. This campaign highlights the significance of collaborative parenting in fostering the holistic growth and development of a child.

Singapore – HubSpot has introduced ‘AI Search Grader,’ a free tool designed to analyse brand visibility and sentiment across AI chatbots, helping marketers navigate the evolving landscape of AI-driven search.

HubSpot’s AI Search Grader removes the need for AI expertise and simplifies the process of understanding how a brand appears in AI-driven searches. By handling prompt engineering and providing context for a brand’s performance, it streamlines ‘language model optimisation’ (LMO) for marketers.

The free AI search tool offers four essential components to help marketers evaluate their brand’s presence in AI-driven searches: an overall grade, brand sentiment score, share of voice score, and personalised analysis. 

The overall grade provides a quick snapshot of how a brand is performing across various AI search engines, giving marketers and business owners a clear understanding of their visibility in this emerging landscape.

AI Search Grader analyses brand sentiment by examining the language used in AI responses, helping marketers grasp how their brand is being discussed and perceived. The share of voice score compares a brand’s visibility against competitors within the same category, while personalised analysis highlights areas of success and points out opportunities for improvement, enabling marketers to boost brand awareness and sentiment effectively.

In an official blog post, Hubspot wrote, “At HubSpot, we’ve always given marketers the tools they need to connect with their customers and drive growth. We did it with our website grader, which helped millions of marketers optimise for search engines. And we’re doing it today with the launch of AI Search Grader, the first free tool that helps brands understand how they show up in Large Language Models (LLM) and AI search.” 

Nicholas Holland, VP of product and GM of marketing hub at HubSpot, said, “What marketers have been doing for years to attract customers won’t be as effective in the future. People just aren’t using traditional search like they used to. As the tides are turning towards AI search, we want to help marketers stand out and get discovered in this new environment. That’s exactly what AI Search Grader will give marketers—a new, free way to connect with their customers in the AI era.”

HubSpot’s AI Search Grader is free and globally available in English for any marketer to use.

Jakarta, Indonesia – Digibank by DBS has teamed up with the creative agency Digital Sea, a creative agency combining the expertise of FCB and McCann, to launch its new campaign showcasing a heartfelt journey of ambition and achievement.

Titled ‘Dream Unlock: From Office Hustle to K-Pop Stage Rustle,’ the campaign features a short film that follows the heartfelt journey of a Gen Z individual who, after considerable effort, finally meets her idol. 

Based on the concept of ‘Dream Fulfilled: Gen Z & Millennial Story’, it highlights a genuine story of determination and passion, illustrating the lengths to which Gen Z and Millennials will go to fulfil their dreams.

From the challenges of obtaining a pricey concert ticket to navigating the competitive ticket-buying process, the campaign also shows how the digibank Z credit card is the ideal companion for reducing stress and making dreams more accessible without jeopardising cash flow.

This is the second campaign by digibank to employ cutting-edge AI tools. This campaign blends dynamic and vibrant AI visuals with the essence of pop culture, capturing the excitement of fulfilling a dream.

Melfrida Gultom, head of consumer banking group at Bank DBS Indonesia, stated, “Digibank by DBS is celebrated for its innovative digital banking solutions. Our goal is to consistently set new benchmarks in the industry in everything we do.”

Also speaking on the campaign, Risanti Febriana, executive director of marketing and communications consumer banking at Digibank by DBS, said, “With the spirit of ‘A Different Kind of Bank,’ DBS Indonesia positions itself as a bank that is different from traditional banks. We continue to focus on providing a different and better experience for consumers in managing their finances, including helping them to achieve their dreams. We convey this message in a recent and relevant way, ensuring that our communication resonates with our audience.”

Meanwhile, Bellamia Agustina, GM of Digital Sea, shared, “This campaign demonstrates the incredible potential of combining creativity with cutting-edge technology. We are thrilled to collaborate with digibank to tell a story that resonates deeply with the Gen Z and Millennial audiences and showcases the innovative spirit of digibank.”

Singapore – Magnite, an online advertising technology firm, has unveiled its new automated wrapper management feature within Demand Manager, designed to significantly boost revenue and operational efficiency for publishers.

Demand Manager, powered by Prebid technology, provides publishers with advanced yield management tools, insights, and data connections tailored to their business goals. Its machine learning capabilities optimise Prebid Wrapper settings for each impression, potentially improving billions of configurations to boost performance.

Sunil Gupta, vice president of product management at Magnite, said, “This industry-first feature set supercharges Demand Manager so publishers can unlock the full power of Prebid and vastly improve their monetisation abilities without additional development and resource costs.” 

“Today our dynamic wrapper settings can provide optimal prebid timeout configurations, and we have additional optimisations coming soon, including optimal bidding orders and intelligent price floor guidance. Machine learning and automation play an important role in the future of yield optimisation, and Magnite is bringing these approaches to prebid management,” Gupta continued. 

The new automation feature follows significant growth for Demand Manager, which saw a 30% year-over-year increase in spend from 2023 to 2024. Major publishers like Buzzfeed and Disney, along with 13 of the top 50 Comscore-ranked publishers, rely on Demand Manager to manage and monetise their Prebid inventory. 

Meanwhile, Alex Mason, vice president of programmatic sales, yield, and strategy at Ranker, said, “Demand Manager’s Automated Wrapper Management tool provides us peace of mind knowing it leverages extensive historical data to adjust our prebid settings on an ad request basis.” 

“In addition to Demand Manager’s best-in-class A/B testing suite, the new feature takes the guesswork out of determining the optimal configurations. Automated wrapper management maximizes revenue from Prebid while saving us time and resources by reducing the need for testing. Initial results show a 5% increase in ad request CPM on one of our properties, and we expect this to increase once more settings are able to be optimised this summer,” he added. 

Brijesh Chandila, lead for digital and programmatic revenue at Times Internet, also commented, “Having worked with Magnite for 6 years, we’ve been consistently impressed with the impact Demand Manager has had on our bottom line. The introduction of new automated features takes Demand Manager to the next level, enabling us to make decisions with even greater speed and efficiency. We look forward to the enhanced revenue-driving results that these advancements will bring.” 

Nabil Shidqi, senior partnership account manager at Detik, added, “Optimising Prebid settings manually can be a difficult and time-consuming task. We welcome the introduction of automated wrapper management within Demand Manager because we’ll be able to identify the most optimal settings and make more informed choices with minimal time and effort. This feature makes Demand Manager even more of a powerful revenue-driving tool for us.” 

Today, Artificial Intelligence (AI) in e-commerce is pervasive. Big brands, food giants, and fashion labels are leveraging AI to create immersive consumer interactions and highly personalised buying experiences. The success stories are plentiful, highlighting how AI-driven campaigns have developed customer-relevant content, driven up interest, strengthened brand images, and improved engagement and sales.

Hyper personalisation is the buzzword of the moment. According to a 2022 Salesforce survey on customer engagement strategies, 73% of customers now expect companies to understand their unique needs and expectations. This shift towards a digital-first shopping experience is only expected to grow.

The Allure of Hyper-Personalisation

This trend is driving many companies to use AI to meet these expectations. AI powers exclusive playlists based on previous listening choices, specific clothing designs and colours, travel advice, and even lifestyle recommendations. For many, this hyper-personalisation is both interesting and welcome.

Take Shopify, for example. They’re using AI to generate product descriptions. Sephora has integrated voice search capabilities into its online beauty marketplace, and Burger King employs AI algorithms to create visuals and content for personalised advertisements. This level of personalisation is immersive and engaging, enhancing brand recall and boosting business.

Concerns About Over-Personalisation

However, not all customers appreciate this high level of personalisation. Some worry that online shopping will become too customised, leaving them with no real choice. They fear that everything they might need will be served to them on a platter, stripping away the joy of discovery in shopping.

How AI Transforms E-Commerce

In the current fast-changing and competitive e-commerce landscape, AI and Machine Learning are invaluable. They help organisations make sense of vast amounts of data, deliver powerful search experiences, offer relevant product recommendations, and enhance customer engagement. AI learns customer behaviour by tracking their activities on e-commerce sites, using this data to recommend products tailored to their preferences. This creates a tailored, relevant, and often entertaining shopping experience.

AI also boosts productivity by automating repetitive tasks within the e-commerce workflow, improving efficiency and reducing operational costs. These savings can then be reinvested in other areas of the business. Dynamic pricing is another significant benefit, with AI adjusting prices based on real-time customer behaviour, supply and demand trends, and competition. This real-time pricing helps e-commerce companies remain competitive and attract more buyers.

AI’s role extends to product search and customer support. Optimised search engines guide shoppers to the products they seek, enhancing the online shopping experience. AI-driven chatbots and customer service initiatives handle customer inquiries efficiently, providing 24/7 support and increasing customer loyalty and repeat purchases.

The Pesky Problems of AI

While AI-driven hyper-personalisation has many benefits, it also has its drawbacks.

1. Overwhelming the Customer: Imagine walking into a store and being bombarded by salespeople with various products. Similarly, too many recommendations can overwhelm online shoppers, confusing them and potentially driving them away.

2. Losing the Human Touch: AI-driven recommendations, while accurate, can create a sense of discomfort among customers who feel watched and judged. This lack of human interaction can be off-putting, especially for older generations.

3. Eliminating the Brand Discovery Experience: Hyper personalisation can pre-empt consumers’ needs, presenting them with products before they even realise they want them. This convenience can detract from the enjoyment of browsing and discovering new brands and products.

4. Data Privacy Concerns: Hyper personalisation relies on vast amounts of consumer data, raising concerns about privacy and security. The collection and use of this data can make both e-commerce companies and their customers vulnerable to data breaches, cyberattacks, and online scams.

Striking a Balance

AI has undeniably transformed e-commerce, helping consumers navigate the cluttered online shopping space and enabling companies to improve customer experiences, strengthen marketing campaigns, and boost customer engagement. However, when it comes to hyper-personalisation, brands must strike a balance. They need to ensure that customers feel involved in the shopping process rather than being served everything on a plate in a calculated manner.

AI-driven hyper-personalisation offers numerous benefits, but it’s essential to address the concerns it raises and find a middle ground that satisfies both the business and its customers.

This thought leadership is written by Vikram Kharvi, CEO at Bloomingdale Public Relations.

MARKETECH APAC is leading the conversation on the future of e-commerce marketing strategies this 2024 and beyond with the E-Commerce Marketing in the Philippines 2024 conference on August 14, 2024 at Crowne Plaza Manila Galleria. Join us and become an integral part of a dynamic community committed to pushing the boundaries of innovation and fostering unparalleled growth in the e-commerce domain.

Singapore – Web advertising company Taboola has announced the launch of its ‘Taboola for Audience’, a new AI-powered technology that empowers publishers to drive significantly more traffic. 

Taboola for Audience enables publishers to future-proof their audience development goals and navigate significant changes impacting referral traffic from search and social media. This industry-first offering empowers publishers with advanced personalisation and insights from Taboola’s nearly 600 million daily active users and extensive distribution network, including top mobile device manufacturers worldwide.

As a unified audience development platform, Taboola for Audience features exclusive acquisition channels like Android OEM relationships, news aggregators, and personalised notifications to reach users. 

The platform also offers personalised reader experiences, blending editorial voice and AI across the site. It also provides real-time audience insights for editorial and commercial teams to enhance content strategies and attract loyal audiences.

Adam Singolda, CEO at Taboola, explained, “Publishers are facing a new era in which sudden decisions by big tech and changes in consumer behaviour are making it harder to survive. Industry giants like Google are changing rules for search, making it harder for publishers to surface content through organic rankings while adding another barrier to site traffic in the form of generative AI search.”

“Social platforms like Meta have closed dedicated ‘news’ portals from their apps. Today, publishers need the right technologies to adapt to these changes and to find, grow, and keep audiences. Taboola for Audience gives publishers a single solution, with AI built  from years of our successful publisher relationships to thrive in this new era,” he added. 

Mike Braun, senior managing VP and chief digital officer at Gray Media, also shared, “Delivering more personalised and relevant experiences across all of our sites is critical. With Taboola, we have been able to take a truly reader-first approach to personalising our sites, delivering more of what resonates with readers, thereby increasing engagement. Taboola’s audience technologies are allowing us to connect with readers in a more meaningful way.” 

Meanwhile, Christian Broughton, CEO of The Independent, said, “Taboola has been a true strategic partner in helping us grow. There’s no ‘one size fits all’ approach to audience engagement, and Taboola’s ability to power key areas of our homepage, recirculation from within articles, and other sections of our site, their huge amounts of readership data that provide actionable insights, and their valued partnership in working side-by-side with our own editorial team are the unique building blocks of our shared success.”

In the dynamic realm of marketing, embracing innovation and leveraging technology isn’t just a strategy—it’s a mindset that defines the path to success. By embracing change and staying open to new ideas, marketers unlock endless possibilities to engage, inspire, and delight their audiences.

For MARKETECH APAC’s latest Milestone Series, we spoke with Maggie Effendy, associate marketing director – head of marketing for baby and child care (BCC) at Kimberly-Clark Softex Indonesia, to discuss one of her greatest milestones — blending her expertise and decades of experience to push the boundaries of technology and innovation in enhancing the consumer experience.

In this feature, Effendy delves into her illustrious marketing career spanning two decades, her first anniversary with Kimberly-Clark Softex, and her remarkable journey of relentless innovation with new technology. 

A merger of talent and opportunity

In 2020, Kimberly-Clark completed its acquisition of Softex Indonesia, a huge move that drew Effendy to join the company two years later. Attracted by the acquisition–an area missing from her career experience–Effendy saw this as an opportunity to leverage her hybrid expertise from both big local family-run companies and multinational corporations to contribute significantly to the success of Kimberly-Clark Softex.

A year after joining Kimberly-Clark Softex, Effendy had played a pivotal role in leading and contributing to some of the company’s most successful campaigns. Her tenure at Kimberly-Clark Softex has been distinguished by groundbreaking initiatives, including the recent and particularly proud launch of the ‘Sweety Dry Xpert X-Zone’ product.

As the head of marketing for Sweety, Effendy and her team have relaunched Sweety Dry X-Pert with new X-Zone Technology, featuring an X-shaped channelling system exclusive to Kimberly-Clark globally. This innovation allows the diaper to absorb liquid five times faster, keeping the baby comfortable and dry for up to 12 hours, reducing the risk of diaper rash, and promoting healthy skin.

And to top this all off, an extra special innovative feature made it into the creative process behind the product launch. Effendy and her team have integrated AI technology to generate personalised baby images on the packaging. This unique approach allows them to depict a baby that grows with Sweety from newborn to XXL sizes, something traditional photo shoots or image banks couldn’t achieve. 

“I believe we are the first in Kimberly-Clark globally to utilise AI technology for baby image on pack, and we would not be here today without the support from management that values leveraging technology. Our network of stakeholders also helped us to ensure we took all the necessary precautions in this new territory of marketing,” Effendy shared. 

Pushing boundaries and leading with innovation

The idea of using AI for the baby image project emerged from the challenge of meeting a tight timeline. With the help of AI technology, Effendy and her team not only significantly reduced the production timeline but also saved considerable costs per image compared to traditional photoshoots.

Effendy believes that the integration of AI in their packaging not only fosters a stronger connection with shoppers but also demonstrates how technology can enhance the consumer experience.

For Effendy, a successful product launch should aim to exceed customer expectations, even addressing needs that were previously unvoiced or unknown. This is where innovative technology can push boundaries. 

Effendy’s innovative way of answering challenges and providing effective solutions is honed through his decades of experience in the industry. Prior to joining Kimberly-Clark Softex, she was an FMCG international marketing professional working for global QSR companies. 

In one of her previous roles as marketing manager at an international fast-food chain, Effendy’s goal was to drive mainstream traffic to the store. Instead of just creating a better burger, she identified a barrier for group dining: the lack of options for non-burger eaters. 

By introducing chicken and rice to the menu, they were able to break this barrier that hinders the business’ growth. Consequently, the company became the first globally approved fresh chicken menu and operations standard.

Charting the course of the future

AI has played a pivotal role in Effendy’s recent product launch with Kimberly-Clark Softex, and looking ahead, she foresees AI continuing to disrupt the marketing industry, particularly in product innovation and development.

The potential for AI to transform marketing practices excites her, especially in the realms of design, communication, and social media. She, especially, anticipates AI advancements in shopper CRM. 

“I believe AI innovation will help accelerate the growth of smaller niche brands’ products and services, therefore closing the gap in current scale barriers between big mainstream brands and carefully curated ones,” she explained. 

When asked what she foresees shaping the future of marketing in the SEA region, Effendy sees Indonesia playing a pivotal role in shaping future marketing trends, given its vast population and burgeoning consumer market. And with Kimberly-Clark Softex’s global network and local agility, she is also confident in the company’s ability to capitalise on emerging trends in the personal care sector. 

Effendy shared, “I believe Kimberly-Clark Softex is well positioned with both the power of global networks as well as the agility of local movers to capitalise on future trends in personal care in Indonesia.”

Reflecting on a distinguished career

Over her 20-year career in marketing, Effendy has had numerous achievements, from successful product launches to impactful team development. Reflecting on her past works and achievements, she finds it hard to pick which is the most memorable, as there are too many of them. 

From her Mie Sedaap project to Oreo Blackpink and now her work with Kimberly-Clark Softex, each of Effendy’s works occupies a special place in her heart. However, she believes her greatest achievement is best measured not only by commercial success but also by the growth and development of the team during the project. 

“There’s nothing more satisfying for me than seeing a talent grow to their full potential,” she simply said. 

Effendy’s journey exemplifies the spirit of innovation, resilience, and leadership in the marketing industry. Her ability to navigate challenges, embrace technology, and inspire others underscores her role as a visionary marketer.

“After 20 years in marketing, I’m amazed by how much there is still to learn and even in awe of the great leaders and mentors that are always willing to share knowledge out there. I can only aspire to ‘pay it forward’ and continuously partake in building the next wave of inclusive leaders,” she concluded. 

Singapore – A staggering 62% of APAC consumers, compared to 49% globally, express a desire for an AI clone by 2035 to manage shopping, administrative, and communication tasks for them, according to a report from dentsu.

The report also highlighted outsourcing trends, revealing that 88% of APAC consumers, the highest globally, are inclined to delegate work and personal scheduling duties to AI assistants, with several countries scoring notably above the regional average.

As more APAC consumers turn to AI assistants, dentsu’s study also predicts the rise of AI gatekeepers. These AI entities will manage recurring purchases, vet ads, and represent consumers in focus groups, streamlining brand interactions. The report indicates strong support for this trend, with 85% of APAC consumers wanting an AI assistant for these tasks by 2035, compared to a global average of 77%.

Interestingly, 70% of APAC consumers believe that by 2035, relationships with AI companions could be as fulfilling and rewarding as human relationships. This sentiment is particularly strong in India (81%) and China (78%).

With all these shifts, the report states that brands will need to become more perceptive in order to garner consumer attention in the AI-filtered and culturally reshaped reality on the horizon.

Consequently, consumers will increasingly prioritise emotional connections with brands, with 75% stating that their mood significantly influences purchase decisions. The study also reveals that most consumers wish to be more impulsive and actively seek experiences that evoke strong emotions.

Commenting on the report, Dominic Powers, chief growth officer at dentsu APAC, remarked, “Consumer Vision 2035 unveils the dawn of a transformative era across technology, culture, and consumer expectations. As we navigate towards an AI-filtered future, businesses must proactively adapt to meet evolving consumer needs. These insights serve as a compass for people-centred transformation, fostering long-term brand resilience and innovation.”

Singapore – B2B marketing leaders in the APAC region are displaying renewed optimism, with nine in 10 bullish in their teams’ ability to drive revenue in the upcoming year, according to a new research report from LinkedIn. 

The LinkedIn report further reveals that approximately three-quarters of B2B marketers in APAC (74%) anticipate budget increases. 

According to the report, despite 74% of B2B CMOs in APAC finding it challenging to prioritise reaching buyers amidst numerous demands, the majority (91%) affirm that success hinges on relationship building. Hence, fostering “collective confidence” among purchasing decision-makers is deemed crucial for the forthcoming year.

To establish strong connections with the buyer group and maintain a top-of-mind presence, creativity is crucial. The report found that nearly three-quarters (74%) of B2B marketing leaders in APAC are prioritising bolder creative strategies, with 62% noting that these efforts significantly enhance brand engagement and drive conversions.

Marketing professionals globally are also leading the charge on AI adoption and building AI proficiency as they look to improve ROI. 

The LinkedIn report showed that in APAC, two-thirds (67%) of B2B marketing leaders are leveraging generative AI applications in their marketing efforts, reporting significant improvements in productivity (41%), faster content creation (37%), and cost efficiencies (33%).

LinkedIn data also found a 142x increase in LinkedIn members globally adding AI literacy skills to their profiles, with marketers topping this list. ‘Artificial Intelligence’ is the fastest-growing digital skill for CMOs globally, based on the skills CMOs have added to their LinkedIn profiles in the past year. 

To help B2B marketers reach and engage all members of the buying group and build collective confidence, LinkedIn also introduced new products, including ‘The Wire Programme’ and expanded AI capabilities in ‘Accelerate’. 

With video uploads on LinkedIn rising by 45% year-over-year, LinkedIn is piloting the ‘Wire Program’—a new initiative enabling brands to run in-stream video ads alongside content from trusted publishers. The programme is currently being tested with select publishers, including Barron’s, Bloomberg, Business Insider, Forbes, LinkedIn News, MarketWatch, NBCUniversal, Reuters, The Wall Street Journal, and Yahoo! Finance, to help marketers reach the growing audience of digital video consumers. 

The Wire Programme will be available in all languages for global advertisers seeking to sponsor content with these publishers, although EU member targeting will not be available at launch.

LinkedIn is also enhancing its AI-driven campaign creation and optimisation tool, ‘Accelerate’. Marketers can now craft engaging creatives using Microsoft Designer and fine-tune their targeting by excluding specific companies and third-party lists. Additionally, they can receive expert guidance from the new AI marketing assistant. Advertisers using Accelerate are achieving 15% greater campaign efficiency and reducing cost per action by 52% compared to traditional campaigns.

Accelerate’s new features include the integration of Microsoft Designer, enabling marketers to easily build and customise creatives. Additionally, AI will be used to merge brand data, such as customer lists and conversion data, with LinkedIn’s platform data to identify individuals most likely to engage with ad campaigns. The AI marketing assistant further enhances campaign building by offering recommendations, such as adding data sources for better targeting, and assisting with tasks like budget adjustments.

Matt Tindale, head of enterprise for APAC at LinkedIn Marketing Solutions, said, “Cultivating meaningful relationships is key to influencing the buying behaviour of B2B decision-makers. This is especially true for APAC, where decisions involve lengthy consideration and are driven by emotion. To develop this “collective confidence” amongst those involved in B2B purchasing, brand building through bolder creative campaigns will drive success in the year ahead.” 

“Under the pressure of budget cuts and the constant need to prove ROI over the past year, APAC B2B marketing leaders are turning to generative AI and displaying renewed energy in boosting content creation and productivity to push brand building. In addition to improving memorability, this will enable them to uncover new audiences and boost campaign performance,” he added. 

Meanwhile, John Rudaizky, global chief brand and marketing officer at EY, shared, “In a rapidly changing market, brand building, creativity, and confidence are key to influencing buying groups. B2B marketing is no different from consumer marketing in the sense that engaging emotionally and with creativity are essential, with LinkedIn providing the perfect environment to talk directly to clients and talent alike.” 

Sean Johnston, VP for advertising at Closed Loop, also commented, “Accelerate campaigns far surpassed the lead conversion performance we saw from even our best-performing manual audiences for Calendly. The lead form completion rate increased over 3X and delivered a 66% cheaper cost per lead (CPL). The higher conversion rates and more efficient CPLs really convinced me this works.” 

Accelerate campaigns are gradually ramping up for customers globally and will be available to all customers in the coming months. Accelerate is available in all languages in Campaign Manager, but AI-generated creatives are currently available in English only.