How Hello turns AI into a marketing amplifier - and keeps the human gut in charge
Nearly three years after the launch of ChatGPT, marketers are past the hype and into the work. The teams finding signal are the ones pairing fast AI workflows with slower human judgment.
Hello Products, a Colgate-Palmolive brand, is a good case study. As CEO Diana Haussling put it at Variety's Future of Brand Summit on Oct. 7, AI is an amplifier: it speeds decisions, boosts precision, and frees people to think. The idea still starts with humans - strategy, taste, and context - then AI accelerates the path to market.
AI as an amplifier, not autopilot
Hello taps its parent company's AI stack across supply chain and innovation, then brings those gains into marketing. A proprietary tool synthesizes data from hundreds of thousands of sources to surface unmet human needs and small but important nuances that teams might miss up close.
That shift pushes the brand to balance emotion with distribution and timing. Insight is only useful if it helps you build products people love and get those products in front of them at the right moment.
Use cases with clear ROI
Creative development: Hello uses AI for animatics to cut cost and time while pressure-testing more directions. As the brand broadens its reach, it often runs multiple creative tracks under one umbrella idea.
Language fit: Generational differences demand precision in tone and references - right down to Gen Alpha's current "6-7" meme. The lesson: keep a living language map by audience, not a one-size message.
Agencies: creativity x AI
FCB uses AI to help creatives get to the core idea faster and turn work around sooner. As FCB's global CCO Andrés Ordóñez said, "AI without creativity, it's just an empty prompt. With great creativity, it's an incredible machine."
On the data side, Acxiom (within IPG's Kinesso) has embedded AI so media, data, and creative sit closer together. Jarrod Martin, CEO of Acxiom and Kinesso, described creative and technology "working hand in glove" - a structural shift that removes silos.
Synthetic audiences beat small focus groups
FCB is building large synthetic audiences to judge creative and iterate quickly. Ten thousand simulated responses can outperform a 10-person focus group that gets extrapolated to the masses.
The win is speed and breadth. You can test more ideas, with more nuance, and move forward with higher confidence - then validate with real panels before scaling.
AI agents with checks and balances
Acxiom's AI Console gives global teams model access to draft press releases, sense-check media plans, and create images or video. They deploy role-based agents (planning, buying, creative) and "reflector" agents that audit the work of others.
In a major sports league project, the team fine-tuned five audience personas and delivered a 23% lift versus creative developed without AI. The takeaway: aim for effectiveness, not just efficiency.
Gut > algorithm
AI can suggest; it can't decide what you stand for. "You still have to have a gut, you still have to have critical thinking skills," Haussling said. Data may point one way, but context from history and experience can - and should - steer the call.
There won't be a universal AI playbook. If everyone uses the same model in the same way, brands blend together. Differentiation will come from your inputs, your taste, your constraints, and how you mix digital with real human experiences.
What to do next
- Map AI to the work: Where can you gain speed or precision in research, creative, production, media, and measurement?
- Build an insight engine: Aggregate diverse data sources to spot unmet needs and micro-signals your team can act on.
- Shorten creative cycles: Use AI for animatics and script variations; run parallel tracks for different generations and subcultures.
- Test smarter: Stand up synthetic audiences for rapid feedback, then validate with real panels before launch.
- Use agents with QA: Assign AI agents by function and add "referee" agents to check their work before handoff.
- Prioritize outcomes: Track lifts in attention, conversion, and revenue - not just time saved.
- Keep a human bar: Define what the brand will never say or do; require strategy-first briefs and human post-mortems.
- Tune for your brand: Feed models with your language, assets, and historical wins to avoid generic outputs.
- Blend digital with the physical: As more experiences become AI-driven, create live moments that feel unmistakably human.
Level up your team
If you want practical, job-ready skill paths for marketers, see the AI Certification for Marketing Specialists. It focuses on workflows, creative testing, media planning with AI, and measurement you can take to the next campaign.
Your membership also unlocks:
