C H R I S PA S HEDITORR
uslanKogan,founderofthehighlysuccessful
Australianonlineretailbusinesskogan.com,
spendsmuchofhisdayathiscomputermakingmin-
uteadjustmentsonhiswebsite.
Heoncetoldme:“We’rea statistics business mas-
queradingasanecommerce
company.Everydecisionwe
make ...isdriven bydata
andanalytics.”
Hisdayis anindicatorofa
trendtoa sweatyreal-time
process,tofindandridedigi-
talwaves,createwinningads,
attractcustomers,makesales.
Andtotrytomasterthis
juggling trick in real-time,
manyareexperimentingwith
machine-createdcopywriting.
CurrentlyAI(artificialintel-
ligence)copywritingis morean
accelerated version of
copy-testingat scale,saysJason
Davey,OgilvySydney’sHeadof
ExperienceTechnology.
“PeopleareusingAItogen-
eratethousandsofvariants
quickly,andthencelebrating
anyuplift fromhighlytraf-
fickedmediumssuchasSearch
ads,”hesays.“It’sa longway
offfromreplacinghumancopywritinginmyopinion.
However,significantprogressis beingmade.”
Someofthemachinecopyisfunnyinthesame
waya child’sattemptsatbeingseriouscanbecute
andamusing.
BurgerKingintheUSusedwhatitcalledan
AgencyofRobots.Someofthelinesthemachine
cameupwith:
“Itis a boybird with crispy chicken tenders from
Bu rger Th i ng.”“Wearenotsorry.Thepotatodeservedthis.”
“The chicken crossed the road to become
a sa ndw ic h.”
“BurgerKing’snewchickenfriesarethenewpotato.”
“The whopper livesina bunmansionjustlikeyou.
Orderyourselftoday...have
it Ur u g u ay.”
But not all attempts at
machine-createdcopyarecorny.
Sometendtomelodrama.
IBM’sWatson,thatamazing
AIboxwhich canmakean
accuratemedicaldiagnosis,
was fed 15 yearsofluxury
brandadcampaigns,manyof
themwinnersofCannesLions.
TheresultwasDrivenby
IntuitionforLexus,a collabo-
rationbetweenLondoncrea-
tiveagencyThe&Partnership,
technicalpartnerVisualVoice
andIBMWatson.
DirectorKevinMacdonald
(TheLastKingofScotland) said:
“WhenI washandedthescript,
themelodrama of thestory
convincedmeof itspotential.The
facttheAIgavea fellowmachine
sentience,placedit ina sortof
combatsituation,andthenhadit
escapingintothesunsetwassuchanemotionalresponse
fromwhatis essentiallya digitalplatform.”
A lessintensive,moreimmediatelypracticalappli-
cationofmachinecopywritingistheriseofAIto
generatelinesofcopyforGoogleadwords.
A programbyDentsuAegisNetworkusesa natural
languagealgorithmtospitoutadlinesata rateofup
to 25 a minute.
Onereportedexample, “Have a suite stay, works
well for a hotel.”The chicken crossed the road to live in a bun
Editor’s Letter http://www.adnews.com.au|September 2019^7