ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence-powered chatbot developed by Open AI, has left advertising and brand management executives stunned and amazed with its ability to crack briefs, write campaigns and taglines all in a fraction of seconds.
Sample this – This was a prompt given to ChatGPT by Storyboard18 “Write an ad for soon-to-be launched energy drink called Zing targetted at consumers between 25 to 35 years age residing in India.”
The chatbot response – “Introducing Zing, the ultimate energy drink for young adults on the go! Perfect for those between the ages of 25 and 35, Zing will give you the boost you need to tackle your busy day. Whether you’re working a long shift, hitting the gym, or just need a pick-me-up, Zing is here to help. With its unique blend of natural ingredients, Zing is not only delicious, but also provides sustained energy without the crash. Plus, it’s made in India, for Indian consumers, so you can trust that it’s tailored to your needs. Try Zing today and feel the difference! Don’t miss it!”
ChatGPT also suggested a tagline – “Unleash your zing with every sip!”
All in a matter of 10-seconds!
No wonder that the chatbot has set internet on fire by its outrageous speed and accuracy. Storyboard18 reached out to senior advertising leaders, with a background in copywriting, to understand whether ChatGPT will disrupt the industry and its potential threats.
Threat or Aid
Vikash Chemjong, chief creative officer (CCO), Cheil India admits that ChatGPT seems “scary” and “extremely fast”.
“It’s really good. And yes, eventually, it will impact us. I feel scared for all writers, including advertising and non-advertising. It does everything that you know I wish that I could do. However, for now ChatGPT hasn’t been trained specifically on advertising writing but in the future it can be trained to do so,” he adds.
Arun Iyer, founder and creative partner, Spring Marketing Capital, believes that any good technology aids the process instead of replacing it. He exemplifies how Grammarly, a cloud-based grammar-checker and proofreader, aids better writing.
“As long as we stay invested in ideas that ‘no one else can do’ and we stay strong to our cultural roots, copywriters and ChatGPT can win the world together.”
“ChatGPT is an extremely useful tool, but you still need human intelligence to feed the right input and to judge the output,” he adds. “Some companies may choose to use ChatGPT to create content, it’s fascinating that a machine does it. But a lot of what it does is quite generic in nature, right? It doesn’t understand the nuance of many things.”
Iyer emphasises that advertising executives have a critical job of contextualise things for the advertisers which cannot be replaced by a machine.
“A lot of times your job is to contextualise what’s going on in the world, and where the brand sort of can place itself and then we work around it right? It’s not just sitting and writing a ton of words around it,” he notes.
Ankit Mathur, creative director, Dentsu Creative India says that every ChatGPT session has ended with us feeling part-amused and part-intimidated. Neglecting its brilliance would be careless on everyone’s part.
“Remember when social media became our lives and it was predicted that ‘consumers are the new copywriters’? Copywriters took this head-on by giving the world iconic culture-defining lines like “Pappu paas ho gaya” and equally gratifying culture-acknowledging lines like “Aur Dikhao”.What gives us the edge over ChatGPT is the skill to ‘ask the right question’. It’s the foundation to breakout ideas and writing that’s unique,” he adds.
Mathur believes that ChatGPT will take over a big chunk of writing in the future.
“As long as we stay invested in ideas that ‘no one else can do’ and we stay strong to our cultural roots, copywriters and ChatGPT can win the world together,” he concludes.
Better efficiency, creative thinking
Sanket Audhi, creative and founding member, Talented thinks ChatGPT is one of the first steps to democratise access to AI technology for everyday use and it can help creative agencies function better.
“We have been experimenting on different things like scriptwriting, long-form articles, hygiene ideas that one might sometimes forget to include – making us more efficient with the things we come up with. But most importantly, it opens up new avenues for you to think about as a creative. ChatGPT is highly recommended for any copywriter looking to improve their productivity and the quality of their work,” he says.
“Neglecting its brilliance would be careless on everyone’s part.”
Audhi asserts that the only threat to copywriting is mediocrity.
“Before ChatGPT came into being, we’ve been exposed to small AI improvements through Autocorrect, Gmail, Grammarly. Paraphrasing and rewriting websites like Spinbot have existed for over a decade. Unquestionably, it has not impacted the way we look at copywriting because AI as a tool still doesn’t have a grasp over creativity, tone and personality. Since ChatGPT is much better and an all-encompassing upgrade on existing softwares, we see it as a co-creation and an idea generation tool, to think and work better. As a copywriter, ChatGPT has helped more with writers’ block than blocking writers out of a profession,” he shares.
“Advertising executives have a critical job of contextualise things for the advertisers which cannot be replaced by a machine.”
He thinks that ChatGPT can help agencies focus better on bigger creative work than some of the run-of-the-mill jobs that copywriters have to encounter. For example, writing for website banners, SEO-related articles, etc are things one could potentially tackle much more efficiently.
“While working with ChatGPT, one needs to go through a highly iterative process to get you exactly what you want. There are rounds of revisions, tweaking prompts and refining before you’re happy with the result. Agencies will have to devote time and energy to create a prompt playbook to navigate the world of ChatGPT, learn the nuances of prompt engineering, and effectively, open up a world of possibilities for clients,” he concludes.