Forethought has launched BrandComms.AI, a platform to generate on-demand creative concepts that “might or might not bypass strategy planners” as the debate on the use of AI in marketing continues.
Forethought founder and executive chairman, Ken Roberts, told Mediaweek that AI could lead to the people around creatives losing their roles, not creatives themselves.
“A lot of the generative AI results people are seeing in the world is an efficiency play, BrandComms.AI is an efficacy play,” he said.
“It has the efficiency, but our large language model is ingesting the drivers of behaviour. It’s also ingesting the segments, the distinctive assets, and the profile of the buyers.
“It will bypass some folks, it might or might not bypass strategy planners, but that’s what we’ve developed.”
The platform is enabled by numerous Forethought patented marketing science methodologies, which determine specific, curated inputs based on the client and their drivers of success.
The methodologies include Prophecy Thoughts and Feelings, which identifies the rational and emotional levers that will drive market share for a brand, and the Communications Triple Play, an actionable strategic blueprint that uses these insights to determine what matters most for a brand to drive consumer choice and provide a distinctive position in the market.
Roberts said the creative generated is pre-tested and safe, backed by measures to ensure client IP and data are “locked down tight.”
“It is a game-changing leap in marketing effectiveness for advertisers, and it’s not speculative: it’s here, and its operational right now.
“While other businesses may promise AI-driven products that can deliver on the ‘faster’ aspect, we’re confident BrandComms.AI is the only product in market that can actually improve efficacy for marketing communication while also delivering on speed.”
Roberts stated that the purpose of the new platform is not to replace creatives, but to brief creatives.
“Think about a relay race and the baton being dropped,” he said.
“The baton is consistently dropped between research and creative, and it’s because researchers talk in numbers and data. Frankly, folks at creative agencies, it’s not what they’re about.
“So what BrandComms.AI does is it takes all the research findings, expresses it in a pictorial form, and gives it to creatives to do their magic.
“While other businesses may promise AI-driven products that can deliver on the ‘faster’ aspect, we’re confident BrandComms.AI is the only product in market that can actually improve efficacy for the brand themselves.”
Top L to R – Ken Roberts, Isobell Roberts. Bottom L to R – Jaimee Lincoln, Daniel Lord
The development of BrandComms.AI started in July 2023, led by Forethought’s head of digital and communications, Isobell Roberts, Forethought senior data scientist and developer, Jaimee Lincoln, and Forethought partner and head of product, Daniel Lord.
Lord explained that the functionality of BrandComms.AI is simple, but the tech isn’t.
“Insights go in, effective creative comes out. It’s that simple. What’s not so simple is what underpins the whole operation. Forethought’s patented methodologies provide the hierarchy of what is driving consumer choice across categories by understanding consumers’ emotional and rational decision-making. That’s how BrandComms.AI produces more effective creative that drives market share.”
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