Looking to ride the AI-powered marketing wave? This course by IIM Calcutta might be just for you

Marketing came to being soon after the concept of the market itself first took concrete shape. Until the 2000s, traditional forms of marketing through analogue media such as the telephone, newspaper, radio and television dominated the way the profession worked.

The two decades that followed was the era of digital marketing where targeted ads and brand campaigns that contained colourful, often interactive graphics and other highly-engaging content made its way into the web to interact with the consumer. Powerful analytics tools have now become a staple component on the dashboards of all marketing professionals, and words such as ‘engagement’ and ‘impressions’ on social media posts or other web pages are a fixed part of their vocabulary.

But technological advancements are continuously taking place. This decade is touted to be the decade of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML), whose usage we can see across many industries. For instance, fintech companies such as PayPal are clamping down on its fraud rates by using sophisticated deep learning systems to analyse transactions, surgical robots undergo ML to perform complex surgical operations with a precision unmatched by human surgeons, and large e-commerce platforms and OTT providers such as Amazon and Netflix are using deep learning algorithms to power their recommendations to customers to boost their revenues.

Even professionals in the marketing industry are convinced that AI and ML-powered marketing is on the horizon. According to a recent PwC study carried out on marketing professionals, more than two-thirds of the respondents viewed AI as a ‘business advantage’. However, research also shows that 85 percent of AI projects fail due to poor upskilling efforts undertaken by marketing teams.

To ensure that aspiring CXOs, business heads, and marketing professionals are prepared to ride this new wave, IIM Calcutta, in association with TalentSprint, is offering an Advanced Programme in AI-Powered Marketing (APAIPM) where they can learn to leverage the power of AI in taking data-driven marketing decisions to maximize their marketing yield, engage customers with precision and leverage superior customer insights.

Click here to apply for the May cohort of this programme.

What gives AI-powered marketing the edge?

• Maximise marketing yield

The continuous developments in Machine Learning and Deep Learning ensures that AI can increase the revenue from every rupee spent on campaigns. Google’s Responsive Search Ads is a prime example of the direction AI-powered marketing tools can take. The feature helps marketers save precious time and resources by eliminating the endless backtesting carried out to secure the optimum headline. By using AI, the feature figures out the best headlines from 15 different options and four descriptions that are provided by the user by matching potential customers’ search terms to help improve one’s campaign performance.

• Engage customers with precision

The segmentation of audiences for the targeting of desired demographics by various campaigns is an essential, but time-consuming, and challenging process for marketing professionals worldwide. However, AI-optimised audience segmentation solutions allow for the creation and continuous upgradation of precise segments on the basis of a campaign's performance, and any other relevant data updates that will be factored in by ML. Thus, a campaign’s performance would be significantly improved as it would be delivered to a dynamic audience segment that is being constantly updated to include more and more relevant audiences, and thus, constantly improve a campaign’s effectiveness.

AI-powered conversation analytics tools can help in parsing through large amounts of consumer calls and chats to understand the relevant channels, ads, keywords and web pages that drive higher conversions. Such tools recognise patterns in images, text, voice, and other data to aid in productive customer engagement, understanding customer sentiment and efficient troubleshooting.

• Leverage superior customer insights

“Data is the new oil” was a popular adage that came up in the last decade, and rightly so. The explosion in the availability of consumer data means that one can glean the deepest insights into consumer behaviour and leverage it to enhance the customer experience at a personalised level in a way never done before. The analysis of Big Data by AI could mean using past consumer data to predict buying patterns and capitalise on opportunities for the future. These insights allow for the creation of hyper-personalised campaigns that could significantly boost revenues. It can also be used to understand the customer’s bandwidth for potential upselling or cross-selling, which could again be used to deliver targeted campaigns to the consumer.

Why should you sign up?

• APAIPM is an intensive six-month programme delivered in an executive-friendly format with a mix of live online interactive sessions, along with visits to IIM Calcutta campus .
• Though no prior experience of coding is required to apply, participants will have hands-on learning of the latest AI-powered tools that would form a core part of the industry in the future.
• These tools would be used to gain in-depth insights into consumer behaviour to power one’s marketing strategy to a personalised level for the consumer.
• The programme will also consist of two visits, 3 days each, to IIM Calcutta Campus that will see insightful lecture series from faculty and industry experts, and opportunities to network with the future leaders of the marketing industry.
• A key feature of the programme will be the completion of a capstone project that will require the application of all the theory and practical knowledge acquired by the participants of the programme.

The IIM Calcutta factor

IIM Calcutta has long produced the finest management graduates in the country. Ranked number three among management institutes in Asia, the institute also has a first-rate track record in conducting top-quality quantitative courses, marketing courses and analytics programmes, making it the ideal destination to equip marketing professionals with both the academic framework and practical capabilities to navigate the rapidly-evolving world of AI-powered marketing.

The APAIPM programme will be conducted by faculty from the institute, and upon successful completion of the programme, participants will be certified by IIM Calcutta.

Marketing professionals, tech professionals in marketing, CXOs, revenue owners, and startups who are looking to invest in some form of AI in their marketing practices would be best suited to leverage the benefits offered by the programme.

Anyone who has completed their graduation or post-graduation with at least 50 percent marks, and with relevant work experience of at least 2 years in the marketing industry is eligible to apply.

The programme will commence on May 1, 2020. The next selection review is set to take place on March 27, 2020. Click here to apply!