AI and Marketing: A Multichannel Revolution
The 2025 Super Bowl, dubbed the “AI Super Bowl,” marked a significant shift in how technology companies showcase their AI innovations to a massive audience. While these ads aimed to humanize AI and present it as a helpful tool, they have highlighted how, over the next year, we’ll likely see AI’s potential for creating truly personalized marketing experiences at scale. This post examines how AI can enhance multichannel strategies, improve storytelling and create tailored customer experiences, particularly during high-engagement events like the Super Bowl.
Listen to “AI and Marketing: A Multichannel Revolution” Deep Dive.
As the quintessential platform for driving brand awareness since Apple’s iconic 60-second “1984” commercial, the Super Bowl remains the premier stage for brands to launch new products or reinforce core brand messages. With an $8 million price tag for 30 seconds of airtime, advertisers aim to emotionally connect with audiences through high-impact entertainment.
The 2025 Super Bowl earned the moniker “AI Super Bowl” due to the prominence of technology companies showcasing their AI platforms. Google demonstrated its Gemini AI as an interview coach, Salesforce promoted its “Agentforce AI” platform and OpenAI’s 60-second entry presented a simplistic historical timeline for ChatGPT. Other tech giants, like Meta and GoDaddy, also joined the AI showcase. Even the NFL leveraged AI to improve player safety, enhance predictive analytics for tackle analysis, and provide next-gen data analytics for coaches and players to minimize injuries.
While these ad campaigns collectively aimed to humanize AI, portraying it as a helpful tool that improves how we work rather than a threat, the commercials cleverly presented AI as a product to try. I thought that perhaps there was a missed opportunity for how these ideas could extend to other channels as a way to deepen the personal connection between audiences and these brands. The potential for AI to create truly personalized marketing experiences both at scale and speed seemed to be largely untapped
“This closes the gap between AI as a subject of advertising versus using AI as a tool for enhancing advertising effectiveness and personalization.”
When it comes to the evolution of AI for creating personalized marketing experiences, a parallel can be drawn to the rise of Facebook (now Meta) and Twitter (now X). Initially, these platforms were used primarily for driving engagement, likes and shares. Fast-forward to today, where audiences on Instagram can be retargeted based on web page views, searches or clicks on a competitor’s post. It’s no longer far-fetched to envision AI technologies being applied on these platforms to create more interactive and personalized advertising experiences. I recently served as a strategic advisor to a startup whose AI technology did just that. Imagine a user searching for a specific product; the landing page they click through to could be dynamically customized with messaging and content based on their exact search query or previously viewed items. AI’s ability to process vast amounts of user data in real-time is what makes this level of personalization possible, going far beyond what traditional marketing methods could achieve.
This closes the gap between AI as a subject of advertising versus using AI as a tool for enhancing advertising effectiveness and personalization. This isn’t exclusive to consumer or direct-to-consumer audiences, but extends to B2B and not-for-profit organizations. For example, a non-profit could leverage AI to personalize donation requests based on a donor’s past giving history and preferred causes.
Using AI for delivering personalized experiences
Looking ahead to next year’s Super Bowl, I foresee how marketers can further advance AI usage through multichannel strategies that enhance storytelling and customer experiences. AI’s value lies in its ability to create personalized experiences at scale, particularly during events like the Super Bowl, where viewers engage across multiple platforms simultaneously. One study revealed that “the Super Bowl has evolved into a multi-platform experience, with nearly 70% of Americans using an average of two or more additional media platforms to engage with related content. This ‘double-screening’ phenomenon presents a crucial opportunity for marketers to leverage viewers’ engagement across both ‘big screen’ and ‘little screen’ platforms.”
With the majority of these interactions occurring online, there’s an even greater opportunity to use AI for delivering personalized and targeted experiences that are devised against pre-, during and post-event marketing strategies that are aligned with audience preferences. A McKinsey study found that “71% of consumers expect companies to deliver personalized interactions, and 76% express frustration when this doesn’t happen. When executed effectively, personalization can create significant value for brands.”
This AI-facilitated, omnichannel approach isn’t limited to high-profile events like the Super Bowl, Oscars or Grammys. As AI technology becomes more accessible and cost-effective, brands can leverage these strategies for everyday advertising campaigns as well. By integrating AI into their regular marketing efforts, companies can create more cohesive and personalized experiences across multiple touchpoints, regardless of the campaign’s scale. This democratization of AI-driven personalization allows businesses of all sizes to enhance customer engagement, improve targeting precision and maximize the impact of their marketing investments throughout the year. As a result, the line between “big event” marketing and day-to-day campaigns is blurring, with AI-powered personalization becoming the new standard in advertising effectiveness.
“71% of consumers expect companies to deliver personalized interactions, and 76% express frustration when this doesn’t happen.”
The AI Marketing Framework
For brands that rely on mass promotions to drive their business, AI offers a powerful alternative for delivering personalized marketing at scale. The same McKinsey article explains how marketers can use AI not only to engage with audiences more effectively, but also to segment audiences for hyper-personalized offers and messaging, ultimately driving better margins. Here’s the segmentation framework that McKinsey shared:
Discount sensitivity: Offer bigger discounts to customers likely to switch to competitors, ensuring some profit rather than losing the sale
Product preferences: Target promotions to customer groups showing interest in specific products
Channel preferences: Provide discounts through customers’ preferred communication methods (e.g., mail, app, email)
Infrequent buyers: Send offers to inactive customers at a rate matching their past purchase frequency.
Loyalty program members: Provide more personalized promotions to loyalty program members, with discount levels based on membership tiers
The same McKinsey article outlines an effective technology framework for establishing personalization at scale through five key components:
Data: Improving data collection to gain deeper insights into customer behaviors and preferences
Decisioning: Refreshing decision engines with new AI models to develop more robust targeting for content
Design: Ensuring that content is both engaging and relevant to the target audience. This involves creating dynamic content that resonates with individual preferences and needs.
Distribution: Achieving real-time personalization by delivering consistent messaging to the right audiences at the right time, tailored to each marketing channel
Measurement: Measurement: Validating the ROI of personalization efforts through testing and ongoing optimization
Over the course of this year, perhaps even within months, it’s clear that AI-driven personalization will become increasingly prevalent in marketing strategies across all industries. The frameworks and technologies discussed in this post are not limited to high-profile events, but can be applied to everyday advertising campaigns, applicable to all sectors and industries.
The line between “big event” marketing and day-to-day campaigns will continue to blur as AI-powered personalization becomes the new standard in advertising effectiveness, further transforming how brands connect with their audiences across all channels and touchpoints.
As always, thank you reading or listening. Questions? Feel free to email me here.
