GenAI in marketing: Is slop content killing your campaign?

Generative AI has become content marketing's darling. Agencies and PR departments love the new technology's efficiency boost. But consumers are less enthusiastic. Are we, as an industry, collectively on the wrong track?

Hardly any other industry uses generative AI as intensively as the communications sector. GenAI is used to quickly create texts, images and videos that would otherwise take hours to produce. This is not surprising, as PR as a scene has always been open to new technology. Additionally, the potential efficiency gains of using AI are too good to ignore. But how do consumers feel about AI content in marketing? Spoiler: not as enthusiastic.

In this article...

• we explain how good consumers are at recognizing AI content,

• we reveal how consumers react to AI-generated content and what factors influence their attitudes; and

• provides useful tips for using AI content in content marketing.

Consumers recognize AI content in 50 percent of cases

According to a study by Bynder, consumers recognize AI content relatively easily, in around 50 percent of cases. US citizens are even slightly better at this (around 10 percent). Millennials, that is, the age group between 25 and 34, are best at recognizing AI content. Preliminary scientific studies are coming to similar conclusions: People do not always recognize AI-generated content, but they still do so to a significant extent.

Regardless of whether they recognize such content or not, consumers expect companies to be honest about their use of it. Almost 63 percent of respondents wanted AI content to be labeled as such.

Younger target groups prefer human-generated content

Attitudes towards AI content are strongly age-dependent. The Bynder study found that participants prefer AI content in 56 percent of cases if they do not know in advance whether it comes from an AI or a human. Among 16 to 24-year-olds, however, this ratio is reversed. A slight majority (55 percent) prefer human-generated content.

Does AI content damage brand image?

According to Bynder, if consumers know that they have AI content in front of them, this influences how they feel about the associated brand. For example, 26 percent say that AI content on a website makes a brand seem 'impersonal'. 20 percent consider the use of such content to be 'lazy'.

The same applies to social media. Here, 25 percent stated that they found AI content impersonal. In addition, it is also considered lazy (20 percent), untrustworthy (20 percent) and uncreative (19 percent). Corporate chatbots also often make brands seem impersonal (30 percent). These results raise the question: is the use of AI content possibly damaging to companies’ brand images?

It is still too early to answer this question authoritatively. However, preliminary scientific studies currently do come to similar conclusions, for example regarding the use of AI images in charity campaigns, the use of AI-generated user reviews or even the presentation of food articles. In each case, people prefer reality and 'manual work' to AI-generated content.

Consumers want authentic communication

One driver for this rejection could be that consumers miss the communicative component in AI content, a sentiment that echoes the current rejection of AI in other business practices, such as recruiting, for example. A first case study of this phenomenon may be the short-lived promotion (and quick fall from grace) of AI-generated travel influencers. Following the first hype surrounding AI, some marketers in the tourism sector thought it a good idea to use AI-generated 'people' to advertise their locations. However, public backlash came fast. Obviously, when it comes to travel, consumers demand authentic experiences - something that AI content will never be able to offer – by design. As a consequence, the 'AI influencer' business model has been more or less vaporized. 

AI content marketing and slop

Another reason for customer dissatisfaction: AI content is often simply slop. There is no fixed definition of what slop is (and what it is not). Like most terms that trace their origins back to online slang, its use is heavily dependent on context or 'vibe'. Put simply, slop is the little brother of spam. The term refers to AI-generated texts, images, music or videos of low quality that appear unsolicited in your feed and are perceived as unnecessary, annoying or even repulsive. The results range from mediocre AI 'art' such as uninspired lo-fi songs to engagement hacking absurdities à la Shrimp Jesus. The slop term was probably coined by the British programmer and blogger Simon Willison. 

Not all AI marketing content is on the same level as these clickbaiting exercises. But: far too often, they are still not particularly far from it. The negative reactions to Coca Cola's AI-generated Christmas ad, for example, which caused a mixture of laughter and disgust online, are proof of this. 

Four principles for the successful use of GenAI

For us as communicators, these observations should be a warning signal. Are we as an industry collectively on the wrong track? Is slop content killing our campaigns? The answer, as so often, is a resounding: maybe. 

It would be illusory to believe that we should (or could) turn back the clocks and completely abandon the use of generative AI. This technology is here to stay. Nevertheless, it is worth establishing clear rules for its use. We have summarized the four most important principles here: 

1. be transparent: If you use AI-generated content, label it as such. Don't risk your target group having to make assumptions by themselves - and possibly become suspicious. 

2. be discerning: AI is currently one thing above all else: fast. But the quality of its results often leaves a lot to be desired. However, that doesn't mean that you should lower your standards regarding quality. If an AI asset is not good enough - discard it (or invest in appropriate post-production). 

3. set yourself limits: Generative AI is not equally good or equally bad at everything. While it still struggles with the lifelike representation of living beings, it may generate other content at a high level. Get to know your AI's skillset - and employ it with the tasks it can handle. 

4. don't lose sight of your goal: ask yourself with every job: what emotions do I want to convey? Is it just about the result being colorful and fun? Or does authenticity play a role? If the latter is true, you should rely on human handiwork instead of AI. 

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