Working with a nonlinear purchase journey
Hall returned for the second day of the series to talk about how marketers must find ways to get their products recommended by AI platforms, using Iced Media’s client, Moroccanoil, as a real-world example.
Hall hit on the fact that the “purchase journey is not linear,” explaining that a consumer may discover a product via social media and then go to an AI platform for more information, or vice versa.
“The most important thing that brands can do is make sure they have enough content that will reach the consumer at all stages of those journeys,” Hall explained. She added that TikTok and TikTok Shop are becoming top sources for large language models.
Freed agreed, adding that consumers are trending toward AI recommendations that are “validated by real people.”
“That combination of how you make sure that your data is structured in a way that is machine-discoverable and then how you make sure that you have content that is ready for human validation is really super important,” Freed said.
A new POV on creator partnerships
On the third and final day of the series at Brandweek, Freed introduced Alex Yang, co-founder and president of Boost Engine, to talk about the importance of creators.
Yang shared how Bissell, a Boost Engine client, allowed creators to “explore their creativity” and move beyond the traditional “before and after-type” of content that’s become cliché in a crowded home-cleaning category.
“For creators, if you really want to activate them and drive growth, having this mindset of exploring content in different formats and finding the winning format for your brand, for your audience profile will be crucial to success,” Yang said.
