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How OpenAI is building its marketing vision<\/p>\n
Elke Karskens, head of international marketing for OpenAI, was brought in six months ago to build out its international marketing function. She tells The Drum that she\u2019s in \u201cbuilding mode,\u201d developing a core team and position to roll out across the globe.<\/p>\n
Awareness and user acquisition remain a priority, Karskens says, but the campaign\u2019s real target is to help users build a \u201cdeeper emotional connection with the brand.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cFundamentally, preference does really matter and it matters to our business long-term as well. It\u2019s a flywheel: the more you use not just this technology, but ChatGPT specifically, the more loyal you stay, the deeper your connection to the brand. This is all very much about deepening that brand love that people feel for ChatGPT.\u201d<\/p>\n
Karskens acknowledges that the \u201ccompetitive environment is warming up\u201d in the gen AI space \u2013 just take a drive down Silicon Valley\u2019s 101 Highway, she says, and you\u2019ll see that it\u2019s \u201cAI company after AI company \u2013 or AI solutions from any other company \u2013 that are currently advertising. Given the space that we\u2019re in and what we\u2019re trying to achieve, I\u2019m not surprised that people are starting to invest in advertising significantly.\u201d<\/p>\n
OpenAI\u2019s approach to standing out in that increasingly crowded market, Karskens says, hinges on authenticity and \u201cexpanding the narrative of how AI and ChatGPT are being used.\u201d Recent research, she says, finds seven out of 10 adults under 45 reporting that AI is helping them achieve their life goals; the campaign is a first step in exhibiting how users are \u201cunlocking small moments of possibility of growth, of discovery and creation as well as productivity and efficiency. That\u2019s very much what we\u2019re trying to do with this work: to really shine a spotlight on those everyday moments.\u201d<\/p>\n
With that largely organically-grown userbase, OpenAI is of course embarking on its advertising journey from a running start. \u201cWe\u2019re in a fantastic position from a brand perspective \u2013 we\u2019re obviously super well-known. The job to be done here is going much deeper into that preference phase.\u201d<\/p>\n
As for Karskens, her own vision for her new department is to expand its global marketing with grace and nuance. A Netherlands native, she says that she\u2019s \u201cpersonally always felt a lot of frustration when I still lived in the Netherlands in how brands and companies showed up. It\u2019s almost like you\u2019re not being taken seriously\u2026 It doesn\u2019t feel right and I take it super, super seriously\u2026 It\u2019s my own personal responsibility as a marketer in a position like this, at a company like this, at a phase like this, to make sure that the work that we ship really, deeply, connects and resonates with people, by taking that culture into consideration and being thoughtful of what matters to them.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s my personal mission as a marketing leader: that my team develops the best possible work and that it shows up in the most locally relevant way.\u201d<\/p>\n
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