Each year, global leaders in the use of AI in marketing descend on Cleveland for MAICON, the Marketing AI Conference. It's a unique event: an opportunity to share ideas, inspiration and learnings with others right at the cutting edge of the use of this fast-moving, transformational technology.
Four's Nan Williams, group chief executive, Luke Alexander, chief digital and AI officer, and Steffan Williams, AI strategy account director, were there to immerse themselves in the latest AI tools and techniques, network with other leading practitioners from around the world, and share some of our own insights.
We've captured some of the team's personal highlights and key takeaways below. But if you're a Four client and have any questions that we haven't covered, please do get in touch.
Why is Four at MAICON?
Returning to MAICON in 2024 was a no-brainer. And not just because we're able to bring back insights, recommendations and connections that directly benefit our clients.
But also because 2024 has been a crucial year in the deep integration of AI at Four.
From the appointment of Luke as chief digital and AI officer in the second half of 2023, to our early partnership with Microsoft to be a pioneer of Copilot at its launch in January, to the upcoming launch of The Difference Engine, our responsible AI-powered, strategic blueprint for campaign delivery that's set to revolutionise agency operations - 2024 is the year generative AI in particular moved from a specialist tool to become deeply ingrained in how we work.
MAICON gave us a unique opportunity to stress-test our strategy among the brightest minds in the field from around the world. And to share off-the-record insights into its future.
And it's fair to say this year it paid serious dividends. With the unexpected drop of OpenAI's highly anticipated new reasoning model, o1 (formerly known as Strawberry) during the final day of the conference, the entire event rallied to the Huntington Convention Centre's Exhibit Hall C for an impromptu discussion led by MAICON founder (and marketing AI guru) Paul Roetzer. Cue hours of testing, experimentation and cross-checking as we put the new model through its paces.
Personal session highlights
Several sessions stood out as highlights for our team:
- The 'zeroth' day of the conference is traditionally a day of afternoon workshops led by experts in three distinct implementation levels: strategy, transformation, and application. This year's were excellent, with the team split across all three, addressing practical challenges in sessions led by experts Jim Sterne, Mike Kaput and Paul Roetzer
- Amanda Todorovich's candid discussion: Luke was impressed by the incredibly honest and insightful discussion led by Cleveland Clinic's Executive Director of Digital Marketing. Todorovich shared the real-life challenges of implementing generative AI technologies in her complex and highly regulated industry, with a clear message to stay problem-oriented and strategic in implementation, resisting the temptation to bounce between newly-announced tools
- Steffan was taken with Rachel Woods' approach on automating expertise. Woods emphasized the power of "playbooking" our processes, allowing us to scale our hard-won wisdom and expertise - essentially using the tools and techniques of effective team development to adapt processes to the productivity-enhancing possibilities of AI
- Nan was particularly impressed by Wil Reynolds' "genius" insights into the transition between traditional SEO and building visibility, consistency, and brand integrity in LLM model searches. This represents a huge new frontier for communicators and marketers, and one which Nan - as one of the UK's most experienced corporate reputation professionals - has had her eye on for some time. Reynold's highly engaging session cut to the core of the issue and gave us some immediate insights we can apply to helping our clients manage the way their brands surface from the underlying data of foundational models
- We also loved Drew Davis on digital doppelgängers. In a very funny keynote, Davis introduced 'Drewdini' to illustrate how AI can evolve from being perceived as "stupid or evil" to "pure magic" when infused with personal style, highlighting the potential for truly personalized AI experiences. Under the humour there were some incredibly useful insights, and for us it brought home the importance of all practitioners in our industry upping their personal literacy and becoming AI natives at speed
- Mike Walsh gave perhaps the most memorable presentation of the conference with a clear-sighted futurist's vision of what's coming not just for marketing but for the world - as companies move from products to platforms and the workplace changes forever
- And among many many others, Liza Adams and Susan Westwater spoke about the resurgence of brand PR and third party endorsement in the new GenAI age. The search for human differentiated and thought- leading content and endorsement will become invaluable
Looking ahead
MAICON 2024 reinforced our belief at Four that the future of marketing lies at the intersection of human creativity and AI capabilities. While AI will reshape many aspects of our industry, the human touch – our strategy, intuition, beliefs, and creativity – remains irreplaceable.
But it's now also clearer than ever that if individual practitioners in marketing, media and communications don't take the time to educate themselves, understand how the underlying technologies work, and become experts (not power users, but pioneers, as speaker Mike Walsh memorably put it), there is a real risk of being left behind.
The overarching message was clear: be prepared. Experimentation and adaptation are key to staying ahead in this rapidly evolving landscape.
As we return from MAICON, we're more excited than ever about the future of AI in marketing. We look forward to applying these insights to drive innovation and results for our clients, always keeping the balance between technological advancement and human-centred strategies at the forefront of our approach.
Keep an eye out for the upcoming launch of The Difference Engine to see exactly how we're putting these learnings into practice, pushing the boundaries of what's possible in our industry.
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