I noticed today that the local “Alton Conservative Club” has become “Alton Club”. I knew something had been going on, because the local newspaper had covered it.
Financial worries – the controlling group had planned to throw in the towel, call in the administrators and all, unless someone was willing to step forward. Seeing the name change, I assumed that someone had, but I wanted to confirm it – so I headed to their Facebook page.
And that’s when I got distracted. Because what I noticed was a shift in marketing approach. Not only more themed events (as you’d expect from a new club trying to get itself back on firm financial footing), but also the visual approach.
It might be my instinct. It might be because it’s seriously obvious to anyone who looks. What I noticed was that they’d started using AI to create nice illustrations to go alongside their posts. Bingo night. Curry night. Roasts. Everything, covered with an AI illustration.
I want to be clear that there’s no judgement coming from me at all on this one. I’m a big fan of using AI as a force multiplier — and for a small business like this, that’s all it is. Not a replacement for a marketing director; a way to punch above their weight. They were never going to recruit a marketing person to do this work, as their before-AI posts indicate.
And it wasn’t just the club
But there was something that got me about it. And it was the Facebook page of the pub across the road from Alton Club.
The George is an old, and rather famous pub. Previously known as The Duke’s Head Inn, on 27 August 1867 it hosted the inquest of Fanny Adams. ‘Sweet’ Fanny Adams was a real 8-year-old girl, murdered in Alton in 1867 in a case so notorious it shocked Victorian Britain. Two years later, Royal Navy sailors took one look at the grim tinned mutton they’d been issued and joked it must be her remains, “Sweet Fanny Adams” — and the phrase stuck. Over time “Sweet F.A.” drifted from gallows humour about rations to mean worthless rubbish, and eventually nothing at all.
Today, it’s a nice pub that serves food – and it, like the Conservative Club, has had financial trouble under previous owners. A strong heritage, well known locally for its unique quirky interior features and its offer, alongside its heritage.
It’s just a very short walk from the (now) Alton Club, but a whole different world
So it’s interesting to see – thanks to AI – just how similar these two very different businesses’ marketing now is.
Again, I’ve not a single bit of judgement. In fact, I’m quite impressed. These are two businesses, different audiences (ish), able – thanks to AI – to have an interesting, informative and professional presence on Facebook without having to (find the money to) hire an expert.
That’s not to be sniffed at – but it could perhaps be improved with just a few little tweaks – and I think this comes into the same area as most commentary on AI: it’s all about the prompt.
If you tell ChatGPT to create an advert, it assumes it’s A4
The one consistent factor between both businesses that I found odd was that their Facebook posts all had what were, to my eye, roughly A4-sized images. So I tested it. “Create me an advert for ‘Friday night is Pie night'”. Sure enough, out came the A4-sized version.
But it doesn’t have to be that way. “Create a version in a shape I can use on Facebook” got me exactly what I’d have been looking for. And showing how far we’ve come since AI image generation started, it even managed to preserve the design and details.
It’s worth investing some time in creating a unique look and feel
It doesn’t matter that the look and feel let me (and maybe others?) spot the AI behind it. What I’d argue could push this even further — and it’s a tweak away — is bringing decades of learning about brand into the prompt.
And it’s easily fixed with a change to the prompt. My “nicparkes.com” brand guidelines weren’t really suited to a pie night, but they were enough to help ChatGPT create a much more distinctive marketing option – and it’s a one-and-done once you’ve got it right.
And you can even get your brand guidelines generated by ChatGPT itself. I used a photo of The George pub and asked ChatGPT to “create me an image with some brand guidelines for this pub, to be used to help steer differentiated marketing images generated by future ChatGPT sessions”.
You can see how well it worked.
A form of democratisation
For all that AI is criticised, it’s testament to just how powerful a force it is that businesses like these can not only now access high-quality marketing without a significant investment, but that they’re actually doing it – and consistently, too.
But AI, like any tool, still depends on the basics. I hope I’ve been able to demonstrate that while it’s got good at doing what it’s asked to do, the basic principles of marketing still apply, and – more importantly – are applied.
It is still important to understand and reach out to your audiences. It is still important that what’s shown in the marketing is what you get at the end (not every pizza or pie is made equal, of course), and it’s still important to be human and authentic if you want your brand to connect to your customers on social media.
AI may have captured my local Sunday roast, it may be continually getting better, it may be allowing people who would never have paid someone to do their marketing to level up their output visually, but it’s not going to be taking the place of a skilled, intelligent and experienced human being any time soon.
