Generative publishing platform combines human and artificial intelligence to enable experimentation, acceleration and improvement of AI as a fundamental element of marketing functions and solutions
LONDON, 20 August 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Omnicom Media Group’s PHD Worldwide agency has Risea publishing platform that provides comprehensive and ongoing exploration of the impact of generative AI on the marketing industry; and how clients and agencies alike must evolve their organizations and offerings to effectively use the technology to drive business growth.
Ascension is a unique, innovative magazine among agency thought leadership platforms, combining human and AI-generated content to capture the latest advances and insights in the rapidly evolving field of AI.
“PHD’s mission is: Intelligence. Connected. – bringing everyone and everything together. And today that includes artificial intelligence,” says CEO of PHD Worldwide Markus Marks. “As a generative publication that evolves as the world changes, Ascension explores how AI will transform marketing – from initial experimentation to full acceleration to ultimate ascension – and provides actionable information and insights to help us and our clients ascend using AI.”
Editorial perspective based on research
To ensure that the content best meets marketers’ needs – and doesn’t just add to an already cluttered and confusing information landscape on generative AI – PHD partnered with WARC to compare AI perspectives by surveying more than 700 senior marketers and agency professionals. The results revealed significant differences between desire and acceptance, as well as perceived and actual AI knowledge, conflicting expectations about functional impact, and subjective interpretations of evolutionary timeline.
In response, Ascension offers a clearly defined editorial perspective: it examines the impact of AI on seven different marketing leadership functions and shows how these functions will evolve in three specific adoption phases.
The Ascension Seven
Ascension identifies the seven different leadership functions required in the day-to-day development of marketing communications:
- Sensor technology: The function of understanding the needs of stakeholders through listening, interpreting and empathizing
- Visions: The ability to identify and articulate needs or opportunities and thus set the course for future growth
- Define: Translating a vision into an actionable strategy, defining parameters, goals and methods
- Generate: The creative heart of marketing, where concepts and content are created
- Development: Building on what has been generated and adapting it to ensure it is well crafted and fit for purpose
- Rating: Decision-making processes that include evaluation, selection between alternatives and control of project direction
- Act: Task organization and project execution, orchestrating joint efforts to meet deadlines and achieve goals.
Research shows that marketers achieve greater impact when they perform the Define, Generate, Develop and Execute functions. Therefore, Ascension will:
- Explore necessary changes in the roles of creatives, strategists and planners
- Discover the essential new skills/roles that will be required to sustain growth in an increasingly AI-driven marketing landscape
- Check Reskilling/skilling strategies critical for effective AI-human collaboration
- Map how all this will develop in three development epochs
The Three Ages of Ascension
Given that marketers need to be able to evaluate AI deployments in the context of broader market developments, Ascension offers a development roadmap from now until the end of the decade, covering three distinct eras:
- The age of AI experiments (2024–2026)
This phase will be characterized by individual use of LLMs and diffusion models, new software with GenAI capabilities, use of existing platforms such as Microsoft Copilot and Adobe Firefly, and early integration of GenAI into enterprise platforms. It will be a phase of pilots and refinement that sets the stage for more profound changes to come. - The Age of AI Acceleration (2026-2028)
After the initial experiments, AI will become a fundamental element of marketing, with more mature applications of GenAI in existing platforms. It will be used by a large part of the workforce, but mainly for efficiency and effectiveness reasons. In this era, the focus will be on replacing and/or improving current features. - The age of AI development (2028–2030)
As the efficiency and effectiveness of existing platforms increase, the focus will shift to developing more intelligent systems that can better guide decision-making. As the burden on individual employees is reduced, attention will shift to developing new marketing capabilities – exploring new marketing opportunities beyond what we can imagine today.
PHD Worldwide Chief Strategy Officer Mark Holdenwho designed and developed Ascension, said: “To grow, you need to think ahead. A key part of that is creating an accurate map of the future. That’s why PHD has always valued thought leadership, most recently with Project Ascension. This comprehensive initiative explores the impact of AI on marketing and offers insights and practical advice to help companies adapt to and succeed in an AI-driven landscape.”
Ascension is the latest addition to PHD’s Thought Leadership Library – a collection that includes seven books that examine significant turning points of the past decade. Access at https://ascension.phdmedia.com.
ABOUT PHD
PHD, an Omnicom Media Group agency, helps the world’s leading brands rethink, outperform and outperform the market with a next-generation network of tools, talent and technology designed for connected intelligence. 6,500 employees in 81 offices in 74 countries work together on the AI-powered Omni operating system, combining data, technology and human expertise to deliver modern media solutions that move brands and businesses forward. Headquartered in the UK, PHD is currently the world’s most awarded media agency network according to WARC Media 100, an independent ranking of campaigns and companies on creativity and innovation. Leading US advertising magazine Adweek has named it Global Media Network of the Year 2024.
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