Anyone pretending AI is the incarnation of Don Draper is lying to themselves. Let the algorithm do your marketing job for you — write the copy, design the visuals, cook up the “big idea” — and you’ll get what you deserve: campaigns that look good, say nothing, and are about as memorable as the font Apple used in last year’s WWDC slides. But if you stop trying to outsource your brain and start using AI for what it’s good at — spotting and breaking patterns, throwing curveballs, and data munching — things get interesting. But if you stop trying to outsource your brain and start using AI for what it’s good at — spotting and breaking patterns, throwing curveballs, and data munching — things get interesting. stop trying to outsource your brain stop trying to outsource your brain No polite tips in this piece. Just slightly ridiculous ways to leverage AI in your marketing. You’re already paying for the subscription. Might as well get your money’s worth. 1. Translate Weird Into Boardroom-Safe English 1. Translate Weird Into Boardroom-Safe English Your great idea sounds insane. “We want to spray-paint QR codes on live goats.” AI can turn that into: “Experimental OOH activation leveraging kinetic brand engagement.” Experimental OOH activation leveraging kinetic brand engagement. Experimental OOH activation leveraging kinetic brand engagement. Bingo. Now the CFO signs off. 2. Gut-Check Your Copy Feed your ad copy to AI and see what it spits back. If it summarizes your “big idea” in one sentence that sounds like — “We empower communities through innovation and passion” — congrats, you’re a stock photo with a polished caption. Rewrite until the bot hesitates, stutters, and basically says, “I can’t tell if this is genius or a cry for help.” That’s when you’re finally onto something people might remember. congrats, you’re a stock photo with a polished caption congrats, you’re a stock photo with a polished caption 3. Use AI to Bust Your Team’s AI Addiction Suspect your team’s “new ideas” are just ChatGPT with lipstick? Feed the copy right back into the model and ask: “Did you write this?” If the response is, “Sounds familiar,” your team just Ctrl+C’d from the same prompt as every other brand. Time to remind them that “marketing prompt engineer” isn’t a job title — it’s a cry for help. 4. Make AI Your Style Police Dump everything you’ve ever made into AI — ads, captions, emails, pitch decks, reels — and tell it to audit you. If your vibe swings from “corporate intern with a thesaurus” to “wannabe meme lord,” or your visuals look like five agencies in a custody battle, guess what? You don’t have “brand confusion.” You have no brand. AI won’t fix your identity crisis, but at least it’ll tell you you have one. You don’t have “brand confusion.” You have no brand. 5. Build Reverse Personas Forget your perfect buyer avatars named “Engaged Emily” and “Growth-Minded Greg.” Dump your sales data in and have AI build a profile of the people who would rather set their credit cards on fire than buy what you’re selling. That’s where the good stuff is — because knowing who hates you tells you exactly who you should be talking to, and who to stop wasting time on. the people who would rather set their credit cards on fire than buy what you’re selling the people who would rather set their credit cards on fire than buy what you’re selling 6. Invert Your Competitor’s Soul Shovel every piece of your competitor’s brand into AI — the press releases, the site, the “visionary” tweets. Ask it to describe in 10 words. Now flip whatever AI gives you. If they’re selling wholesome gospel, you sell sharp elbows and chaos. If they’re screaming “innovation,” you whisper “results.” The market doesn’t need two clones fighting over the same customer scraps — it needs you to be the exact opposite of their beige mediocrity. The market doesn’t need two clones fighting over the same customer scraps — it needs you to be the exact opposite of their beige mediocrity 7. Train AI to Be Your Competitor’s Fanboy And while you’re at it, make the bot your rival’s biggest hype man. Have it write a love letter from the perspective of their most obsessed customer — the kind of lunatic who’d tattoo their logo on a thigh. Read closely. It’ll show you exactly what their fans think they’re getting — and exactly where the cracks are. Those cracks? That’s your leverage to pull them over without looking like a thirsty knockoff. 8. Train It to Think Like Your Haters Take every angry comment, every “this brand fell off” tweet, every Reddit thread calling you a scam, and feed it into AI. Then ask: “Okay, genius. How will they roast my next campaign?” What you get back is a blueprint of every weak spot you’ve been ignoring. Most of the time, hate is just free market research with better insults. Most of the time, hate is just free market research with better insults. Most of the time, hate is just free market research with better insults. 9. Turn It Into A Meme Radar Your audience is leaving you cultural breadcrumbs every day. Scrape their feeds, Reddit threads, comments, dump it into AI, and prompt: “What jokes, references, or cultural signals are peaking right now but haven’t hit mainstream?” Inject yourself there. Worst case? Nothing happens — just like 80% of the “safe” marketing you’re currently churning out. At least this way, you’re failing forward. 10. Ask for Ideas — Then Burn Them Feed AI your campaign brief and ask for ten ideas. Then throw them in the trash. If the bot came up with it in five seconds, so can your competitors — and they probably already have. Sidebar: The sad part? Half the time, one of those ideas will look suspiciously like the one you thought was genius. Yeah, you’re basic. Go level up. Sidebar: The sad part? Half the time, one of those ideas will look suspiciously like the one you thought was genius. Yeah, you’re basic. Go level up. Run the process again. And again. If the bot still can’t spit out one of your ideas, that’s your green light — you’ve finally found something that isn’t copy-paste garbage. 11. Let AI Go Batshit Crazy Treat AI less like a junior copywriter, more like a board-approved hallucinogen. Let it off the leash. Give it senseless prompts: a board-approved hallucinogen a board-approved hallucinogen “Pitch this like we’re running for office in hell.” “Write this ad like it’s a sci-fi opera.” “Sell this product to aliens.” Most of it will be insane, unusable, borderline unethical. Perfect. Marketing flatlines the second you start taking things too seriously. You won’t use 99% of the absurdity — but you’ll get that laugh you forgot you needed, and sometimes that laugh is the only place a real idea ever comes from. Marketing flatlines the second you start taking things too seriously. but you’ll get that laugh you forgot you needed, and sometimes that laugh is the only place a real idea ever comes from but you’ll get that laugh you forgot you needed, and sometimes that laugh is the only place a real idea ever comes from Final Thoughts: Relax Final Thoughts: Relax AI isn’t taking your job — no matter what the clickbait headlines scream every time someone raises a round and promises to “reinvent the funnel.” Maybe only marketers see that right now, but give it time; the rest of the world will catch up. AI could actually be doing us a favor: flooding the internet with so much shiny and soulless sludge that real creativity finally cuts through again. The irony? The machine that optimizes the hell out of everything might be exactly what drags marketing out of the performance-obsessed rut it’s been stuck in for over a decade. But more on that in a later piece. AI could actually be doing us a favor: flooding the internet with so much shiny and soulless sludge that real creativity finally cuts through again. The irony? The machine that optimizes the hell out of everything might be exactly what drags marketing out of the performance-obsessed rut it’s been stuck in for over a decade. But more on that in a later piece.

This story contains new, firsthand information uncovered by the writer.

The is an opinion piece based on the author’s POV and does not necessarily reflect the views of HackerNoon.

This story contains AI-generated text. The author has used AI either for research, to generate outlines, or write the text itself. 

11 Unconventional Ways to Use AI in Marketing

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