Generative AI for marketing: 10 tools for app growth

It’s the ultimate fantasy. Inspired by Star Trek’s Jean-Luc Picard, we’ve always dreamed of the ability to literally speak reality into existence. And while we don’t have a Holodeck and we’re not quite there yet for “Tea, Earl Grey, hot,” (atoms are hard!) we’re actually been given shockingly impressive powers with generative AI. Text, images, video, Python code, trip itineraries, sweet sentiments for significant others on Valentine’s day, entire apps (I’m seriously not joking here) … all of that is possible with generative AI for marketing today.

It’s probably not perfect, but it is available.

Sometimes it’s shockingly good. And we’re just getting started.

A storyteller I interviewed uses generative AI to create images and video and audio for interactive podcasting. She compared our present era to the first phones with onboard cameras. Kodak laughed at the poor quality of the 1.5 megapixel images and dismissed camera phones as toys.

That’s precisely where we are with generative AI right now: the crappy 1.5 megapixel smartphone camera era.

And yes, that’s kinda the scary part. It’s now as bad as it ever will be. It will only get better from here.

There is a lot you can do today with the current state of the art in generative AI to help with marketing. Just yesterday I used GPT-4 to auto-create a summary of a podcast episode. It took 10% of the time and 2% of the cost that doing it manually (humanly?) would have.

Before I share a few tools that can help you, however, let’s see what the big machine in the cloud says first. Because … there simply has to be some generative AI in a post about generative AI, right?

ChatGPT: what generative AI says about using generative AI for marketing

Why yes, I did ask GPT-4 for its opinion on using generative AI for marketing. Here’s what GPT-4 “thinks” about the potential.

Generative AI, like GPT-4, has the potential to revolutionize the marketing landscape in various ways. While some of these implications have already been observed, more applications will likely emerge as the technology evolves. 

Here are some ways generative AI can impact marketing:

1. Content creation:
   Generative AI can create high-quality, engaging, and contextually relevant content at scale, including blog posts, social media updates, and email campaigns. This can save time and resources for marketing teams, allowing them to focus on strategy and analysis.
2. Personalization:
   AI-powered marketing tools can analyze customer behavior and preferences to create personalized content and offers, enhancing customer experience and increasing conversion rates. This technology can make recommendations based on a user’s browsing history, previous purchases, or other interactions with a brand.
3. Ad copy and design:
   Generative AI can help create and optimize ad copy and design elements, testing various combinations to identify the most effective messaging and visuals. This can lead to better performing ads, higher click-through rates, and improved return on investment (ROI).
4. Chatbots and virtual assistants:
   AI-powered chatbots and virtual assistants can help brands engage with customers in real-time, answering queries, offering support, and providing personalized recommendations. This not only improves the customer experience but also frees up human resources for more complex tasks.
5. Market research and analysis:
   Generative AI can analyze vast amounts of data, identifying patterns and trends that can inform marketing strategy. This can help brands understand their target audience, stay ahead of competitors, and identify new opportunities.
6. Social listening and sentiment analysis:
   AI can monitor social media platforms, news articles, and forums to gauge public opinion and sentiment about a brand, product, or service. This information can help marketing teams respond to customer feedback and adjust their messaging accordingly.
7. Predictive analytics:
   Generative AI can help marketers forecast customer behavior and demand, enabling them to optimize pricing, inventory, and promotional strategies.
8. Influencer marketing:
   AI can help identify suitable influencers for a brand based on the influencer’s audience demographics, engagement rates, and other factors. This can help brands form more strategic and effective partnerships.
9. Creativity augmentation:
   AI can assist marketing professionals by generating creative ideas or providing inspiration for campaigns, allowing for more innovation and outside-the-box thinking.

A bit vanilla, sure. Maybe less personality that we might like, and perhaps a bit short on details and links, but not a bad summary. So: where’s the beef? What are the tools you can use today to help you grow your apps?

Here’s short list that I intend to keep adding to over time …

Generative AI tools for app growth and marketing

Generative AI for objects or people in your game

You would typically need some skill for game asset generation. With PixelVibe, you let the machine do all the work for you. And yeah, that can be people, props, concepts, environments, weapons, skins or clothing … even graphical user interfaces.

From Rosebud, the company behind Pixelvibe:

“Rosebud is building the AI Roblox. We will make it 1000X easier for a community of game devs to create and enjoy the games of their dreams … we believe all media creation will be done via generative methods in a few years.”

All is a big word. But maybe …

Pick a “potion model” to select the types of objects you want, enter your prompt, choose an image size and the number of images you want. Here’s “ancient city crumbling into the desert” at 512×512 pixels. It’s not for a hi-res game, but it’s pretty cool. You can pixelate it, “re-vibe” it for a different look and feel, or remove the background:

 

 

Generative AI for marketing copy

Writing copy for 500 different variations of my so good most awesomest app ever is soul-crushing. But only humans have souls, fortunately. Microsoft says AI can do it, thanks to its multi-billion dollar investment in Open AI and ChatGPT.

Via AdWeek:

“Microsoft has begun to integrate models like GPT-4 and image generator Dall-E 2 from OpenAI, in which it has heavily invested, into its Azure enterprise cloud computing services. Microsoft has also partnered with Adobe to supply its language AI to help write marketing messages and photo captions within the latter’s marketing platform.”

In other words: there’s startups, and there’s enterprise. Both are building AI tools to automate marketing tasks.

Or you can just use OpenAI’s ChaGPT right from the source. Here’s ChatGPT in response to my “give me an exciting and persuasive marketing blurb for my spaceship shooter game” prompt:

“Prepare for liftoff, Captain! Step into the cockpit and unleash your firepower in [Game Name], the ultimate intergalactic spaceship shooter that will ignite your senses. Battle through explosive galaxies, face relentless alien forces, and customize your ship with cutting-edge weapons. Whether you’re seeking epic boss fights, immersive cosmic landscapes, or the thrill of becoming the galaxy’s greatest pilot, [Game Name] delivers heart-pounding action that keeps you on the edge of your seat. Ready to conquer the stars? Your mission awaits—download now and become a legend of the skies!”

It’s not horrible. And it’s perfectly easy to edit to exactly what you want … without the stress of staring at a blank sheet of paper for hours wondering what to say.

 

Generative AI for personalized calls to action

Getting some of your revenue via ads is great, but it also impacts your gameplay or app user experience. In-app purchases and especially subscriptions promise bigger rewards, but you need to appeal to people persuasively.

From Persado, the “Generative AI Platform to motivate every individual to engage and act:”

“Determine the messages that drive the highest levels of engagement and conversion through advanced decisioning and machine learning experimentation … uncover the nuanced narratives that resonate with your customers in specific scenarios across the entire journey … optimize the messages each customer receives with powerful set-and-forget adaptive technology.”

Almost scary, but very intriguing.

Persado will build an LLM just for you with the right language, tone, and emotion, which you can then feed into your mobile CRM or live ops solution.

 

Generative AI for new app and game ideas

Coming up with creative ideas for new games is HARD. I mean, how many times can you do a merge meets battle meets puzzle meets dating game mashup? (Once was more than enough, apparently.)

So ask ChatGPT for new ideas for a unique game.

I just did, and the hundreds of thousands of GPUs at OpenAI came back with this super-geeky nerd gem: The Quantum Quest, a “puzzle adventure game that takes place in a world where players can manipulate the fundamental forces of quantum mechanics to progress through the game.”

Sweet.

(Interestingly, GPT-4 thinks “cut scenes” should be “cutscenes.”)

Definitely nerdy, but not too bad, either. Rinse and repeat until you get an option you love, then get some help coding it from 

 

Generative AI for user and customer journeys

Figuring out and mapping customer journeys is complicated and tiresome. Get AI to do it, with Adobe’s Sensei platform.

From Adobe:

“Get AI-enhanced capabilities in Adobe Journey Optimizer that are trained on customer journeys, offers, and experience events to increase engagement with customers. 

Perhaps more enterprise-y, but will certainly have applications for dev ops tools and certain to hit tools like Braze and CleverTap soon enough. Probably best for those who are cross-platform with web, apps, and other channels that they need to synchronize messaging across.

 

Generative AI for copywriting that makes money

There’s a lot of story in some games. And a lot of times, you want to encourage users or players or customers to do something, click on a button, and part with some juicy cash.

So make copy that converts with AI.

From Jacquard, formerly Phrasee:

“Technology like Phrasee is to copywriting what Photoshop was to design.”

Plus, of course, you can use something like this for ad copy generation. The key thing you get from Jacquard: “hyper-personalized brand communications.”

 

Generative AI for videos

Videos can be hard to make and they cost a lot of money and time and focus. Make them instantly from plain text with generative AI. 

Sure, these could be for marketing. But they could also be part of your app: sarcastic congratulations from Master Chief in a space battle game, soothing, calming, gentle and positive support in a meditation app, in-your-face screaming yelling Tony Robbins for a tech bro motivation app.

Think something like this:

From Synthesia:

“Our mission is to empower everyone to make video content – without cameras, microphones or studios. Using AI, we’re here to radically change the process of content creation and unleash human creativity for good.”

Deepfakes are some scary tech. But you can use them for good for characters you create in your apps.

That’s one option. I’ve seen HeyGen do some absolutely incredible things as well: train it on you, and it generates almost-fully-believable video with “you” speaking on-screen. Very impressive.

Runway is also doing some incredible work:

• generative video
• generative audio
• lip syncing
• super slo-mo
• depth of field
• and much more …

 

Generative AI for music

A game without a soundtrack sucks. But musicians are expensive, and copyright-free stock riffs are pretty much that: stock. So create some cool jams with generative AI for music.

Maybe you can even generate a soundtrack that has always unique style to your game or app, but also adapts to individual players’ or users’ progress, actions, and success or failure.

From Musico:

“Musico’s engines can generate infinite melodies, beats and harmonies, blending autonomy and responsiveness to the creator’s input … we’re exploring the relation between music and narrative to develop a next generation soundtrack plugin for storytellers, game, and cross-media developers.”

A unique sound for your app that isn’t just one track endlessly looping? Novel idea, and one whose time has come.

 

Generative AI for clothes in a fashion or social game

Wearing the same thing all the time gets old fast, even in the metaverse. Give your in-game avatars more choice and more creativity with generative AI that’s completely free.

From ClothingGAN, a free repository on GitHub:

“ClothingGAN is able to generate clothing images and mix these images. While mixing, you can control which structure or style that you want the clothing to copy. Additionally, you can edit the generated clothing with several given attributes such as dark color, jacket, dress, or coat.”

In-app purchases, anyone?

HeyGen also offer capabilities like this, as does Ready Player Me.

 

Generative AI to create entire levels or worlds

There’s already procedural generation for infinite-scale games like No Man’s Sky. Upleveling that to full generative AI is the next step to making virtual spaces bigger, more detailed, more real, and more responsive to both game developer and user desires. That makes generative AI a key cog in enabling metaverse-style instant rooms, spaces, planets, or pretty much anything for MMORPGs.

Ready Player One isn’t going to build itself … or is it?

From a session at GDC 2023 with Roblox studio chief Stef Corazza:

“Roblox envisions a future where anyone can create anything, anywhere … the next step in this journey is leveraging AI to help professional game development studios push the limits of what’s possible on the platform—with high-fidelity experiences that reach a massive global audience of millions in seconds.”

In fact, we’ve interviewed the chief scientist at Roblox, and he’s convinced people will be able to create entire games via voice prompts.

See this:

There’s so much more …

There’s so much more. I’ll be adding more here over time as I see more (and let me know if there’s a key one I’m missing.)