Anthony Robison is the Senior Designer and Brand and Creative leader at Greenlight Guru, an industry leader in QMS and clinical data capture software for MedTech companies. Indiana-grown designer with over 15 years of experience in the field, Anthony has led creative projects for notable brands across sectors, including higher education, high-growth tech, and advertising. His roles have encompassed creative leadership, brand management, and graphic and web design. Anthony’s educational background includes an MFA in web design and new media from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, and his passion for design traces back to a sixth-grade project that won him grand champion at a state fair.
Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:
- [0:21] Anthony Robison shares the changes he’s witnessed in design
- [1:59] The powerful impact of well-crafted designs on audience engagement and ROI
- [5:11] Anthony’s approach to evolving with the rapidly advancing AI technology in creative work
- [6:54] Text-to-image AI generators and their benefits within Anthony’s creative process
- [11:48] Insights into AI’s role in enhancing efficiency and productivity in creative roles
- [14:46] How Adobe’s AI tools have revolutionized audio editing and design workflows
- [18:33] Case study: an experimental AI ad campaign that outperformed typical ads
- [25:47] The importance of embracing AI for improved work quality and productivity
- [31:48] Anthony’s top AI tools
In this episode…
AI is redefining the design and creativity landscape, heralding an era where the fusion of technology and human ingenuity unlocks new possibilities. However, this synergy between AI and creativity evokes both excitement and skepticism among professionals. How will AI reshape the creative landscape, particularly image generation?
Senior Designer Anthony Robison unveils how AI has revolutionized his workflow as a creative leader. From humble beginnings with a sixth-grade magazine cover to leading brand strategies at Greenlight Guru, he shares his fascinating journey and adaptability to change. Anthony emphasizes the importance of embracing AI in graphic design, illustrating its transformative potential in tasks ranging from sales strategy to campaign analysis. His insights reveal AI’s role in generating ad visuals, analyzing campaign data, and enhancing motion graphics, pointing towards a future where AI tools not only augment the creative process but drive significant advancements in marketing strategies.
In this installment of Proof Point, Stacie Porter Bilger chats with Anthony Robison about leveraging AI in design and marketing. Anthony highlights how to harness AI’s innovations and shares his experience with the evolution of design, exploring AI’s boundless opportunities for enhancing creative professions.
Resources mentioned in this episode:
- Stacie Porter Bilger on LinkedIn
- Proof Digital
- Anthony Robison on LinkedIn
- Greenlight Guru
- Adobe AI
- Midjourney AI
- DALL-E
- Microsoft Bing Copilot
- ChatGPT
Quotable Moments:
- “I buy products for the brand a lot. If you go into a store and the branding and the graphics are on point, I’m probably gonna buy that one.”
- “Everything needs to be super quick, super easy, super legible…I think some of it comes back to the belief of the user and usability and the UX.”
- “I believe that as you go up the career ladder, within design in the creative space, AI will just super enhance that job and make things so much quicker.”
- “AI serves to enhance the designer’s job, make it easier, sort of like the introduction of what Adobe did back in the day.”
- “Embrace AI, play with it every day like find something to do. Don’t be afraid of it.”
Action Steps:
- Familiarize yourself with AI tools: Discover AI’s capabilities and integrate them into your workflow to reduce time and increase efficiency.
- Stay agile with industry changes: Keep learning and evolving with new technology to maintain relevance and competitiveness.
- Leverage AI for competitive analysis: Use AI to analyze competitive campaigns and refine your marketing strategy for better performance.
- Expand your AI toolset: Explore and adopt various AI tools to enhance different aspects of your creative work, from design to audio editing.
- Embrace AI as a creative partner: View AI as a collaborative partner that can bring additional creativity and strategy to your work.
Sponsor for this episode…
This episode is brought to you by Proof Digital.
We are a strategic and creative performance marketing agency partnering with organizations to create data-fueled marketing engines that drive growth and deliver a tangible ROI.
Founded by Stacie Porter Bilger in 2012, Proof Digital employs a strategic marketing approach by blending today’s marketing tools like SEO, PPC, and paid social ads with traditional sales funnel processes.
Ready to get results? Visit https://proofdigital.com/ to learn more.
Interview Transcription – The Secrets of AI Image Generation
(0:02 – 0:16)
Welcome to the Proof Point Podcast, where we decode digital success, one click at a time. We share key takeaways fueled by data and insights that your team can implement today to drive growth. Now, let’s get started.
(0:21 – 0:45)
This is Stacie Porter-Bilger, your host for the Proof Point Podcast, where I feature B2B marketing and D2C businesses and thought leaders sharing marketing, data tactics, sales strategies, and leadership insights that kickstart your growth in this rapidly changing digital space. This episode is brought to you by, excuse me, Proof Digital. Proof Digital is a strategic and creative performance marketing agency.
(0:45 – 1:04)
We partner with companies to create data-fueled marketing sales funnels. Visit proofdigital.com to learn more. Before I get started and introduce our guest today, I want to do a shout-out and thanks to my colleague, Kelsey Batten, who first introduced me to Anthony.
(1:04 – 1:43)
Kelsey and Anthony have known each other for many, many years, my understanding, and met and worked together in the marketing field in the community college. Our guest today is Anthony Robison, and Anthony is a senior designer, brand, and creative leader for Greenlight Guru, the leading supplier of quality management system and clinical data capture software from the MedTech industry and companies. He has over 15 years of experience in the creative field, leading and crafting some of the most recognizable brands in their industries.
(1:43 – 2:00)
He has served in a variety of roles that include creative leadership, brand management, graphic web design, and more. His journey has spanned across diverse sectors such as higher education, high-growth tech, advertising, and more. Anthony, thank you for coming.
(2:01 – 2:03)
Thank you. Thanks for having me. I’m excited to be here.
(2:03 – 2:11)
Awesome. Well, tell me a little bit about your career road here a little bit and what your passions are. Yeah.
(2:11 – 2:20)
So, I’ll go way back. I like to always go way back. My first introduction into the world of design and creativity came in sixth grade.
(2:21 – 2:34)
I actually, they introduced a new, I don’t know what you call it, competition, I don’t know, into the state, into the fair, the 4-H fair called Computer Graphics. And my brother was an artist and did design. I’m like, hey, this sounds fun.
(2:34 – 3:00)
So, I got in, made a magazine cover. I believe it had Britney Spears on the cover back in those days, ended up winning Grand Champion. And that kind of kick-started my love for the design world, kind of like an art, kind of stayed with a little bit, wasn’t huge into it, then never really saw it as a huge career necessarily.
(3:00 – 3:13)
So, when I went into college, I decided I was just going to go for business management and marketing. Started that route. Also played in a lot of bands and I made our music in college.
(3:14 – 3:40)
And that really got me back into wanting to design, kind of sparked my creativity once I got back into college again. And so, I saw my freshman year, an ad for ad designer at the college newspaper. I’m like, hey, this is kind of goes along with that, right? So, I submitted an application, ended up getting that job.
(3:40 – 4:12)
That job completely changed the directory of my life, I would say, because I ended up switching my major, went into graphic design, graduated Indiana State with an undergrad in graphic design, did odd and end jobs from then out of college, how it usually is. Worked for a small marketing agency, insurance agency doing marketing for a while, worked for a real estate company doing some of their website design. They got absorbed by a larger company.
(4:13 – 4:30)
So that ended, lucked out right after that, getting a job in higher ed at Ivy Tech Community College in Terre Haute, Indiana. Did that for about four years, thought, you know, like, this is great. I love what I do.
(4:30 – 4:44)
But like, I really feel like in order to take my career to the next level, I need to expand my knowledge. I’m always wanting to learn. So went, got my Master of Fine Arts at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco.
(4:45 – 5:05)
Did that mostly online while I continued to work. Moved to Ivy Tech in Indianapolis, did the brand, graphic design, advertising campaigns, video work, motion graphics, everything for there. And then moved to Greenlight Guru, where I am now, where I really, I was the first full-time in-house creative.
(5:05 – 5:15)
So, I’ve really built that brand and taken that on and really seen that come to what it is today, which has been exciting. Yeah, I’m sure. I’m sure.
(5:16 – 5:23)
Absolutely. What I know, one is that’s not my gift. I have other gifts, but design and creative is not mine.
(5:24 – 5:54)
But I admire it so much. So when I see your work or I see other members of our team’s creative and how it impacts user experience, getting people to say yes, tell a story, it’s such a vital piece to overall marketing and getting people to engage with a brand. I’m sure you’ve seen that across either working for the university standpoint or building the brand for your current company.
(5:55 – 6:03)
Yeah. And I think I know personally, I mean, I buy products for the brand a lot. Like I think we all do.
(6:03 – 6:16)
Like if you go into like packaging design, you go into a store and like the real, even if something’s a little bit more, but man, the branding and the graphics are on point. Like I’m probably going to buy that one. It really has that.
(6:17 – 6:37)
It does. And we AB test all the time images. And recently we were working on a campaign for a shoe company that we work with out of Seattle and we just changed up the images and the ROI and the row as on those increased by significantly just by changing out the series of the images and the words matter on those images too.
(6:37 – 6:46)
But just the color changes, the, the, the different setup of the image. It was significant. So that’s important.
(6:46 – 6:56)
We test imagery all the time and it’s just crazy about how much it increases row as by having the right graphic. Yeah. It’s pretty incredible.
(6:56 – 7:08)
And like you got to think about, especially in the digital world where we all work in today, like stopping the scroll. Right. And usually, text isn’t going to stop the scroll text will drive the message home.
(7:09 – 7:27)
They might finish the deal, but it’s that visual that’s going to stop that scroll and get them to know what the text is even saying. So yeah, it’s incredible. And with people reading less, it’s even more important to stop the scroll as a great way to put it.
(7:27 – 7:54)
And it is that eye-catching creative and I’m sure you’ve seen it change quite a bit since you got your degree out of the San Francisco art school. What are some insights that you’re seeing as, as, as has design changed since you’re, you started your career? Yeah. Well, I just think I was kind of, that was still kind of back in like grant-heavy days, like, like digital was really coming along.
(7:54 – 8:05)
Right. And how crazy that’s expanded in just the last few years. But just, I think the world of digital has enhanced some things about design.
(8:05 – 8:25)
And it’s also, I’ll just be honest, it’s bored design a little bit in some ways. Okay. I just think some of the biggest changes I’ve seen recently is like everyone you’ve probably seen it, people talking about online that like logos are all starting to look the same or this is coming to look the same.
(8:26 – 8:41)
And I think honestly, a lot of that, at least it’s my belief comes back to the belief of the user and usability and the UX, everything needs to be like super quick, super easy, super legible. Like, and like people just have taken that overboard. I got it.
(8:41 – 8:47)
Yeah. Gone to the extreme. And so now everything’s just like text flat, easy to read.
(8:48 – 8:55)
I think honestly, like, I know that might not have been the angle you put on that question. No, that’s fine. We hear about perspectives here.
(8:55 – 9:22)
I think I’ve seen lately or in the last like four years, like, and then it started in this, the web industry and then to like digital design. And now I think it’s even fallen into places like restaurant design where you’re seeing like this design as a whole become very simplistic. And so we might look back one day and call it a movement or was this, but I think a lot of it comes back to like the heart of making things for those screen.
(9:22 – 9:32)
Yeah. I mean, that’s a really interesting point. I can remember years back when flash was a thing, it was too much distraction to, you know, too much everything.
(9:32 – 9:45)
And I don’t know where to go. And so when you have somebody who’s a data nerd like me, it’s okay. What problem do I solve? How am I going to make your life better? And then how do I get you to say yes as quickly? And how do you engage with me? And that engagement is simplicity.
(9:46 – 10:03)
However, you have to rethink a little bit more because I mean, there’s a lot of noise out there. There’s a lot of things out there. So the way to get attention to your point is how can you tell your story graphically and to make eye-catching images.
(10:03 – 10:23)
I just gave you that example of the shoe company that we work with. But it was because we kind of backed away and said, okay, let’s make this a little bit more eye-catching. Yellow, actually, was a color we added to the design and it just popped on Facebook.
(10:24 – 10:37)
And so you have to think, it was still clean, still very clean, but it still was eye-catching. And so I think really thinking through how you do both. Yeah.
(10:37 – 10:53)
And I think we’re into that point now where you’re starting to see it go back the opposite direction. People are starting to like it went, sometimes it’s got to happen, right? It’s got to go so far one way and then, okay, now let’s pull it back and now we’ll hit the sweet spot, maybe. And I think you’re starting to see that a lot.
(10:53 – 11:09)
A lot of companies are doing that, especially now with the use of AI. I think that even accelerates that and it’s giving new ideas, allowing people to play more and test more and do more things that was not possible just a year ago, to be honest. Absolutely.
(11:09 – 11:39)
Let’s just jump into that. Let’s jump into the AI because it’s crazy fast changing and it will be for a long time, but it is not unlike other times in history that a particular innovation changes the way we work, live, develop content, develop creative. All those things are pretty significant and you use it, I use it a lot.
(11:39 – 11:59)
And so why don’t you talk a little bit about your thoughts about AI first as a starting thing and we’ll kind of jump into some examples and some thoughts. Yeah, sure. So I think I was probably with a lot of people right off the bat, it’s kind of like your first initial thought is like, oh, like, what’s this going to do to like the career? What’s it going to do? Right.
(12:00 – 12:14)
And then like very quickly, I decided like, all right, well, it’s happening, right? No matter what. So the train is going, it’s going and it’s not stopping. And so my first thought was, let’s figure this out.
(12:14 – 12:36)
Like I tried to jump on board quick and I’ve tried to explore as many different things as I could. I really believe that AI is going to enhance a designer’s job, make it easier, sort of like the introduction of work, the computer court and Adobe did back in the day. Right.
(12:37 – 12:52)
It’s a tool. It’s a tool. Like at one point, like they’re like designers were setting letters on a press to put it to print it and then suddenly or like copying and pasting things and setting them on the paper to make the design.
(12:52 – 13:03)
And suddenly, wait, I can do this like 20 times faster on the computer. It definitely changed their job. It changed how they did their job, but it didn’t take their job.
(13:04 – 13:15)
So that’s really how I view AI. And it’s like. Just trying to hold on for the ride, right, and learn and soak in as much as you can, because I can’t say I want to learn it.
(13:15 – 13:35)
I want to learn everything. I learn AI because I know it’s going to be completely different in six months from now and completely different in a year from now. But I believe that, like, especially as in as you kind of go up the career ladder within design and the creative space and a lot of the spaces, it’ll probably like enhance your job more.
(13:36 – 13:44)
I could see like jobs really changing, like entry-level. Like it’s usually those entry-level jobs that change or really what they’re doing is changing. But I think like.
(13:45 – 14:01)
For more leadership, creative, strategic roles, it’s just like super-enhanced that job and make things so much quicker. Yeah, it really will. We’ll find efficiencies and just it’ll just like you said, it’ll make us work maybe faster.
(14:03 – 14:18)
And you know, and also maybe come at a different angle than we might not necessarily come at to then we would by ourselves. And so it kind of adds a couple more brains in the room to be truthful. When you’re looking at it.
(14:18 – 14:35)
I mean, I don’t I mean, the other day I was using AI to generate a sales letter and I was just blown away about how on target it was. It was. Of course, you go back and to your point, OK, I had to put my creative mind and say, OK, this target market doesn’t necessarily fit this message.
(14:35 – 14:50)
So it’s not ever 100 percent, but it helps speed up the process and also pulls in some other thought processes that I didn’t have. But you’re doing a lot of more text-to-image and generation. What are some tools that you use? Yeah.
(14:50 – 15:01)
So my number one go-to that I find to be it fits well with my workflow is just Dall-E and ChatGPT. I use that a lot. Also, use Midjourney.
(15:02 – 15:07)
OK, good one. It’s they’re very similar. They both have their quirks.
(15:07 – 15:16)
So it can depend on what you’re looking for. Midjourney does like an amazing job with like photorealistic people. Like it’s just as a beautiful job.
(15:17 – 15:27)
Really? I don’t know. We were using another day trying to do that and it didn’t look quite there yet. So but you said Midjourney did a pretty good job as a good guy.
(15:27 – 15:32)
It still takes a lot of time and work. That’s the thing about it. Right.
(15:32 – 15:45)
You have to. It’s not people just like the people who don’t use a I think you just throw an image and just put it in there. No, it takes a lot of work like you have to have the right prompts, the right text, and then you might be have to edit it.
(15:45 – 15:59)
I mean, again, after you get it always, always. Right. And so that’s that’s and if any other tools I use, obviously, Adobe has really jumped on Firefly.
(15:59 – 16:01)
Is that right? That’s why the Firefly. Yeah. OK.
(16:02 – 16:22)
They have their standalone Firefly, which is on the web, but then integrated Firefly into every single one of their programs and their apps. And so it’s built-in generative and I within Photoshop, which I use a lot. I didn’t use Photoshop a lot in the past recently until they came out with that.
(16:23 – 16:47)
And then Adobe Illustrator has text to vector and you can go as far as you just put in your design and you get your design and you can like have it generate the same design and a ton of colors and just so you can come up with like the concepts and two minutes instead of two hours. Right. Yeah.
(16:47 – 17:17)
And then I use this. I don’t know if you use this with your podcast, but Adobe Podcast has changed my life when it comes. It’s probably made the largest impact in my workflow with video editing because it does such a good job with sound, planning up sound and dialogue that I have gone from spending literally eight hours, let’s say.
(17:19 – 17:33)
Editing audio and getting noise and things just right for a video clip to five minutes like no exaggeration. And that has just really. That is amazing.
(17:34 – 17:46)
Yeah. I’ll have to double-check with the team and see how I’m using the podcast piece on Adobe to see what that looks like. But yeah.
(17:47 – 18:06)
Wow. I mean, so I mean, it still needs your brain and still needs your piece, but it just made you so much more efficient and effective. And spending on the time on the creative things that that that’s your gift versus the detail things that sometimes hold us back.
(18:06 – 18:20)
Right. And in the past, it might have been something where I had to go out and bring someone in to like a like a contractor, someone to edit audio, like literally or edit something. But now I can just do that quickly on my own.
(18:20 – 18:30)
No extra money. I’m saving hours of I mean, the company hours of money, of time as well, and I’m just seeing more quality work. Yep.
(18:31 – 18:34)
Exactly. A lot more quality work. OK.
(18:34 – 18:38)
This is a great story. This is a great thing to people embrace. Right.
(18:39 – 18:41)
Right. I mean, we get back to the point. I’m going to come up.
(18:42 – 18:56)
I want to talk about a particular campaign that you guys tested just as a just as a test. You were just trying to say, OK, what if we didn’t do anything and just did this? I want to come back to that. But I also wanted to embrace and look, the train is out of.
(18:57 – 19:04)
It’s out. It’s going it’s going fast. And I can’t control that.
(19:04 – 19:14)
I can and nor can you. But we can use it. We can’t control the bad guys as much as we can, because they’re going to be every tool in the history of our country and the world.
(19:15 – 19:26)
If there was a tool that somebody developed, somebody was going to use it for bad. This is definitely not any different from that. But what I and our company, it sounds like the same thing as we’re going to embrace it and we’re going to use it for good.
(19:27 – 19:37)
So I think that’s really powerful. Yes, it is. And like I’ve honestly we’ve used AI because we were personal story part of this.
(19:38 – 19:54)
Trust that we didn’t fall for it. Someone was trying to scam us on something and they sent a picture telling us who they were. And we use like reverse photo lookup and AI to discover where the photo came from and who it really was.
(19:55 – 20:07)
Right. So let’s watch the like there’s so many like so like it’s so you’re right, people are using it for wrong ways. But then there’s also you can use AI to figure out what like to solve those issues.
(20:07 – 20:27)
It’s just a lie. And actually, I think in the last 24 hours, OpenAI has announced that they’re going to do a release where they can actually have methods to track how the content improved, whether it was AI-generated. So they’re enhancing their tools.
(20:27 – 20:56)
I mean, this within the last 24 hours, OpenAI announced that and used to determine if the photo was AI-generated. And so that is, they’re going it’s in their best interest, right, for these tools to be used for efficiency and effectiveness and not bad. So they’re going to continue to generate those resources and tools for us to say, hey, that’s that really, it’s probably a bad guy.
(20:57 – 21:07)
No, this one, this one’s making us more efficient. That’s fine. So, you know, it’s going to be crazy to watch to be truthful and interesting to watch.
(21:07 – 21:30)
But it’s definitely useful because I don’t know how many times you see like someone on social media share an image that’s like, you’re pretty sure that’s not real, but they don’t know. They think it’s totally real. And this past weekend at the Met Gala, right, they were sharing photos of celebrities that people thought were them and they weren’t even there.
(21:30 – 21:33)
It’s crazy. I know. And that’s going to happen.
(21:34 – 21:47)
Yeah, it’s going to happen. And so we’ll, you know, we’ll work through this change in history that we’re in the middle of and we’re, you know, kind of jumping into it. We’re jumping two feet.
(21:47 – 21:54)
Sounds like you’re two feet into it, too. And so we’re just going. I’m going to pull up an example that I know you that you did.
(21:54 – 22:14)
So tell me a little bit about you really were said, hey, let’s see what happens if we just do everything from start to finish in AI, is that right? Yep. Yeah, pretty much. So we wanted like one of our big things is like people still work on legacy systems and out-of-day systems.
(22:14 – 22:31)
And we want to show or even paper-like, let’s show a fun visual way to like kind of poke at that. Right. Like show old like old computers from the 90s or the 80s and like one of the headline is your Q messed up in the past.
(22:32 – 23:08)
So yeah, it’s so funny. I’m so happy to get rid of my filing cabinets. I don’t know.
We don’t have too many of those around anymore. So we started with our ad team, the creative team, the writers, and stuff like started with ChatGPT from the very beginning of like putting in and like prompting it, like what we wanted to get the headline and to get the direction for the ad. And then they took it and used ChatGPT to generate visual examples that they saw in their mind that would fit with it.
(23:09 – 23:30)
And then they gave the prompts to myself and their examples. So then I took those examples and just played with them. I took them, reformatted them, and worked and worked until we got more refined visuals that we felt told the story that we wanted to tell.
(23:31 – 23:44)
And that’s how we landed on. We went through tons and tons and tons of iterations to get to where we landed. But then we got the basis down for the look of each of the ads.
(23:45 – 24:11)
Then I took those into Adobe and then the AI programs within Adobe to resize them to the different sizes, to remove some things we didn’t want there, add some things we did want there like the keyboards were muddy. You know how I can be on details. So I just used AI again to put new keyboards on super quick.
(24:11 – 24:26)
It took me too long, stuff that would take you forever in the past, I was re-edited very quickly. Like on these boards here that you have pulled up now, like there was stuff all over those bulletin boards. One-click, I said, remove that, make them blank.
(24:26 – 24:33)
And they did. So then I just put them over. I added post-it notes, added the light on the right-hand side.
(24:34 – 24:40)
Just lots of things that I did. The screen was blank. One click, few options.
(24:40 – 24:55)
I filled in the screen with AI, didn’t have to do any additional editing to that. OK, so we did all that, got it settled. I think we had like we probably ran like seven or eight different variations of this ad.
(24:55 – 25:00)
Yeah. Put them out in the world, see how they do. Got the data back.
(25:02 – 25:41)
While they gave me the spreadsheets, what did I do with those spreadsheets? I put them in the ChatGPT, analyze all this data, and tell me how these did, which ones were the best, which ones performed worse. They gave me all that information. Pretty incredible.
They honestly outperformed our typical ad campaigns. So not only did we use it, we went for it. And we had questions like, so as a designer, were you OK with this? Like, were you OK with doing it this way? And I was because I still had a lot of work involved.
(25:42 – 26:08)
But in order for me to find, who knows if we would have been able to find stock photos to work. So it took forever. I mean, I mean, a photo shoot or stock or stock photos, I mean, you can edit stock photos, but still, there’s a lot of detail because you have, for example, I mean, one thing I do see, you have shadows, right? And so the shadowing, it can be really difficult to edit an image, a stock photo when you have shadowing or certain things like that.
(26:08 – 26:13)
So it’s kind of interesting. Yeah. If I see the kind of the little details like that.
(26:14 – 26:23)
And like the photo on the left is the original one that I got from, well, the base of it’s a square. Yeah. So on the right-hand side, I had to make it vertical.
(26:23 – 26:37)
And you have all the different sizes you have to have for social or digital. And like I had to just finish that filing cabinet, finish the chair, put the clock up there like it just did all that for me. And it’s just it’s there and it looks good to roll.
(26:38 – 26:49)
So that’s that’s crazy. Which what so which one performed better of this one? Actually, this one here, this one did really good. And then there is.
(26:51 – 27:03)
The purple, purple background, that one did really well, the ones with the purple backgrounds did well. Which is kind of interesting because it’s not quite as polished as the other ones, but the color pops. Right.
(27:04 – 27:32)
Yeah. And that was what? And like the engagement rate on these ads was through the roof like they didn’t all click through, like they performed well as far as clicking through to get a demo or to like look like they’re like just like the stopping or the clicking on the like to expand the ad was like through the roof, like below blue, like all our data and SAS company data out of the water. It was kind of crazy.
(27:33 – 27:49)
That is so fun and crazy. And this ad, I mean, I can see the edges. It’s just like an old magazine ad that came out of a magazine that was, you know, from 1970 or 80 or something with the edging here, which is kind of interesting.
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So it looks like an old old ad, too. Yeah. In addition to the filing with all the paper on top of it.
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Yeah. But I think like the papers on the floor I added later. OK.
One yeah. Only like one of the corners had that look of that that you’re talking about on the edges like that.
Yeah. But I really like that. So then I had to add it to the rest.
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Yeah. A couple clicks and it did it. OK.
Well, that’s I mean, I’m going to that’s a really fun, real-life story about one and testing the stuff we test all the time when we create real one. So, I mean, the same thing you can do, you know, test each one, create multiple images on AI and, and then the fun part was that you put the data into AI and it told you, you know, what’s going on. And being a we use a lot from a standpoint of analytics and understanding behavior.
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And that’s one actually one thing we see a lot of potential from our standpoint of insights. So that’s kind of that’s kind of fun stuff anyway. We will take like to get insights, for example, we have to anonymize a lot of things within GPT, right? Because, right?
You don’t want our stuff out in the world or know who’s who’s our details, but like we can run like sales calls, anonymized, totally approved by IT through GPT, like multiple of them. And it can tell us like why common factors of why these people decided not to buy or like why they’re like you get so much data and then you can pull from GPT without having to sit and manually do it and listen to hours worth of calls like it can just do it for you. I know.
And it’s like I said, I used it to develop a sales letter the other day. And I’m like, darn, I mean, it really understands the behavior of my target market. Very for this.
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I mean, it was a very specific industry, by the way, and it was a very specific, you know, what we were selling. And it was just like, OK, it’s game on. Yeah, it’s amazing.
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Like one of my favorite tools, I haven’t talked about it yet. Well, yeah, OK. The purpose-built GPT.
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It’s inside of ChatGPT. Yeah. That’s called Brand Advisor.
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OK. Built by Nick Clair Cleverall, I think is his name. He works for Native Foreign.
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It’s an agency in California, and I use it to like just recently I pulled our ad campaign and three competitors had campaigns that were all demo-related, like trying to get people to get demos for their ads. And I put it in the GPT and I said, please analyze these. Which one are there? What’s their target audience? What’s their messaging? Who’s the strongest ads and why? And then it starts out with it.
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And then I said a conversation with it. Right. And it just like tells you so.
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And it blows my mind that like. They understand, like sometimes it’ll tell us exactly what our idea was, like it understands like our whole idea behind the campaign, our whole strategy, it’s like it tells you that back to so, you know, like, oh, we hit the mark. That’s right.
You hit the mark. Right. Yeah, I test against competitors.
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I tend to test our ads against ourselves. And it’s like obviously testing in the market’s huge. It is, but you have to do both.
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But if it can get you a head start. Yeah. You know, and then you do a B test, you do a head start.
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And then, I mean, you keep on. But it’s just it speeds up the process. It does.
And it’s just like it may like it blows my mind that how accurate. And I trust it. Like, you know, it’s one of those things where like what it tells me most the time.
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I’m like, that’s pretty accurate, I think. Like, yeah. And we have other tools, too, that aren’t AI.
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Well, they probably all are using AI as well. But, you know, we use various tools to look at competitor behavior and online behavior of competitor sites. And, you know, what’s driving them mostly is to competitor sites and those type of things.
And I’m I’m seeing more and more. Similar data coming out of AI. So I think the inputs are improving and we’re still in its infancy.
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Right. It’s still a baby. It’s still a baby.
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That’s the crazy thing I’m talking about. I like that, as opposed to like you have no idea what’s going to look like. Like the fact that like.
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A year and a half ago, Adobe will tell you that they had none of this Firefly stuff even on their product roadmap. Right now, yeah, it’s like dominating their software. Like that’s what they do now.
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They like make AI for right. And Adobe podcast piece. I’m on that, by the way, Anthony.
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I’m going to go check on that and see what we’re doing on it. Like, speed up that stuff. Now, if you get two people talking at once, watch out.
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It’s not there yet. OK, people are like that. That’s some of the it’s coming, I’m sure, in like a couple of months from now, it’ll probably be able to clear that up totally.
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Well, you know, we have these transcribed and it’s not 100% either, too. I mean, so that’s that’s come a long way, too. But that’s been going on for decades trying to improve that.
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And within the last couple of years, I’ve noticed a lot better. So it’s the same thing on voice. So anyway, I’ll try not to.
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But when I’m talking, I’m going to try not to talk over people. That’s a bad habit anyway. So back on any other tools, any other anything.
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What else is on this piece? Those are like most of the tools I use. I use being I do use being sort of thing. Yeah.
Personal stuff, honestly, like trying to buy like, you know, trying to buy something like it’s so much quicker to get better reviews and summarize reviews with like Bing’s chat and things that it used to be. What do you think? What do you think of Bing’s chat? I mean, what do you think of it? I mean, Bing’s progress. Yeah, I think they’re really coming along.
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Like when it first started out, I wasn’t too impressed. But now I use it quite regularly. I have the app on my phone, and so I pull it up quite regularly if I need something or.
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Do you use Gemini at all? No, I have not really used. I know people who do, but I’m. Yeah.
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OK, well, we have certain things. I mean, search is better. I mean, it’s certain things that it’s because it’s Google.
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And so. Yeah. And Facebook also is in the game.
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I mean, Microsoft, Google, and Facebook are the big guys. I think the reason Bing got me early on because I don’t use Bing, I never use Bing House.
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Right. Like who does? No, I’m not. No, people.
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Right. Now there are. But not many.
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Like there’s good data, like since they released the AI to like it’s gone way up. But there they have Dall-E into like they did that early on, like introduced Dall-E on the app. So it’s super easy to pull up and put an image creation.
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And like I just use that often, like early on. And so like I automatically go to that app because it’s there. So I think I went that direction.
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But yeah, no, it’s awesome. That’s totally awesome. Where do you get your inspiration? Topic.
Everywhere, right? Like, honestly, I’m always like I’m always learning and I’m always researching and trying to find what’s I like to go to conferences, to be honest. I try to go to one every year. So I get a lot of inspiration from other people.
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I don’t necessarily say I take a lot of. Like visual or like creative. Influence from like things like that, but just like the way we do things and like people’s thoughts and ideas like that is really like that’s what energizes me and makes me I will create new things that look different.
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Just based off of those factors, not a zine or looking at another ad, like I’m really fueled by other people’s passion and their excitement and things that they’re trying. That really kind of drives my inspiration. But then obviously I’ll see something cool or like a really neat.
(36:35 – 36:47)
Personally, I love motion graphics. I haven’t talked about that at all. But I take a lot of, you know, inspiration from motion graphics, from like seeing amazing other people’s work.
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So I mean, back to catching people’s attention. Motion graphics. You do that.
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Yeah, they do. And like, hey, I really I think it’s getting there. Like it’s kind of like it’s it’s even like behind some of the I say like behind, this is all like two years old at the moment.
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Gosh, I’ve seen like people showing off and bits and things of some of the things that it’s getting ready to do with motion design. And it’s going to be wild. I think I’m excited for that.
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You know, I’m blown away most days in this in this business, and I think and I’m not young, but I tell you, it energizes me to stay on top of it every day because it’s just so crazy. I mean, Anthony, sorry. When I started my first job outside, email did not exist.
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The Internet really wasn’t a thing yet. Hey, I was just talking. My wife and I were just talking yesterday about how things have changed since we were thing.
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I can’t remember what it was, but it was only been since we were in college. I was like, yeah, but you got to remember, like we didn’t have the cell like smartphones back then, like we didn’t like things a lot. Yeah.
But we just kind of grow and grow with it. So I wanted before I kind of close, I have one last question. What final proof point. This is the Proof Point Podcast that group point.
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Do you want to leave to those who listen to this podcast? Yeah, I just want to say, like. Embrace is all about, I like just embrace it, like play with it every day, like find something to do, don’t be afraid of it. I know I have conversations regularly still with people that are afraid of.
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Jittery, but it’s usually because they don’t understand it, so be open to it, play with it. We get a lot of we did we did an AI report recently and a lot of people, a majority of people said they were interested in using it or would like to, but a vast majority also said they hadn’t yet. And I think some of it’s that in between like they don’t really know where to start or what to do.
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So just pick it up and go. Just like download the ChatGPT if that’s what you want to do and just start there. And type in what you have in your closet or your cabinet.
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I have these items in my cabinet. What recipe can I make right there? Boom. Yeah, there you go.
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Yeah. And then you’ll know, like, that’s really it. And then you’ll get hooked.
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I promise you totally will get hooked. Awesome. Well, we’ve been talking to Anthony Robinson.
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Thanks, Anthony, for being on The Proof Point Podcast. Loved your insights and look forward to staying connected. Alright.
Thanks for having me. I appreciate it. Thank you so much.
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Thanks for listening to The Proof Point Podcast. We’ll see you again next time. And be sure to click subscribe to get future episodes.