Agencies of Change

In this episode, co-hosts Pete Housley and James Thomson take a look at how businesses are using AI tools to create the sort of marketing that previously required a digital agency. How are digital, analytics, and creative agencies adapting? In this episode, they find out by going inside the minds of a data-focused agency to learn how they’re using AI themselves to win in this new world.

Meet The Unprompted Crew

Pete Housley is host extraordinaire and CMO at Unbounce. His co-host this episode is Unbounce Senior Creative Director James Thomson. This episode also features special guest Andrew Lionis. Andrew is a partner and the SVP of Strategy and Client Services at Datawyze, a Marketing Intelligence Agency representing the application of data & marketing research into business process & decision-making. Andrew is a customer-focused business leader with a deep expertise in marketing and advertising technology, AI & machine learning, digital applications, social media, and mobile technologies. He is passionate about innovation, connecting consumers with brands, and pursuing marketing goals through measurable business strategies.

Key Quotes

*“I think one thing which is gonna change, especially over this coming year or two as a lot of companies do come to rely on some of these AI-based image generation tools, is that it's gonna put a lot of pressure on creatives and photographers to justify their craft and work harder to justify some of the ROI of that. I personally think there is a lot of value in custom photography, in that it does allow that customization, to own a lot of those details. But I think that the case is gonna have to be made a lot harder to warrant that investment when you are looking at the other option being AI generated images, which you can get for free.” - James Thomson

*”The agencies that embrace AI and can deliver more variety, more volume at a higher velocity, will give more value exchange to those clients. And that's what I see as the biggest benefit for agencies that embrace AI.” - Andrew Lionis

*“Speaking on behalf of the creative process, I think emotion still has belonging, but it's just that it lives in a different place. I think having the right inputs [is important]. And then when we're getting some of those results back from our AI tools, [we need to ask], ‘What does this make me feel?’ We need to be evaluating on a human level: ‘Is this compelling?’” - James Thomson

*”I think we still have to, even if we're gonna be passengers on this journey, just be aware of what's going on and make sure that the tool itself is brought up to speed.” - Andrew Lionis

*”We have to rethink the construct and makeup of our organizations and how that impacts how we deliver value as a service provider, for brands as an agency service provider. “ - Andrew Lionis

*”I've heard a little bit of fear there. And personally, I kind of want to address it through a quote, which our art director, Ceci, provided to me: ‘As long as clients continue to not know what they want, then agencies will be safe.’ So I think agencies will always be those specialists, spirit guides, that know what is going to work best, know how to identify a problem, a strategy, know how to look at data, how to evaluate it, and make some of those recommendations. But I think the agencies which are going to survive and get ahead and be a little bit more successful in some of these changing climates are the ones who do jump on some of these AI-based technologies themselves.” - James Thomson

Time Stamps

[1:24] Should AI be used for drafting or crafting?

[3:46] AI news recap: Generative AI ad tools

[6:31] How are creative agencies adopting AI?

[11:00] Introducing Andrew Lionis, SVP Strategy & Client Services, Datawyze

[16:24] What problem is Datawyze solving in the market?

[18:51] How has the use of AI impacted Andrew’