Alma Media
Agile experiments brought AI into the development of content marketing
Alma Brand Studio wanted to deepen its understanding of AI and its impact on customer experience. The collaboration resulted in a concrete pilot, learning in practice and new perspectives on the business potential of AI and how to use it in a customer-centric way.
“ The project helped us to understand the possibilities and dimensions that AI brings to new forms of content, listening to readers and customers, and deepening the relationship between customers and readers. The whole team gained valuable insights - both about AI as a tool and about developing the customer experience in a new way. The AI twins and agile pilot made the learning tangible, and we immediately got authentic reactions from end customers. Shirute's expertise and encouraging approach made experimenting not only concrete, but also insightful and fun. This was not only a great learning experience for us, but also a concrete opportunity to test and develop new business. “
Challenge
Alma Media is a rapidly evolving company with a focus on digital media and services. In Finland, Alma’s best-known brands include Iltalehti, Kauppalehti, Talouselämä, Etuovi.com and Nettiauto.
Alma Brand Studio is the company’s content marketing unit that produces impactful and customer-oriented content utilising Alma Media’s extensive media network.
They became interested in machine customers and the use of artificial intelligence to enrich content and to improve the customer experience. The teams had been testing various AI tools for creative work for a considerable period. Now, the goal was to develop their business by leveraging new business opportunities enabled by AI.
Alma Brand Studio wanted to be inspired and learn more about AI, and its potential in business. They also looked to understand how customer behaviour changes as machine customers and AI-assisted content consumption become more common. The leadership wanted to proactively coach their team on this transformation and strengthen their AI skills at both strategic and practical levels.
Solution
Our collaboration with Alma Brand Studio started with a Hands-on AI Studio project designed to deepen the team’s understanding of AI and its applications in business. The project combined expert lectures, participatory workshops and concrete trials of AI solutions.
In the early stages of the project, the whole team was brought up to speed on the market situation and business implications of AI through expert presentations. The thought-provoking lectures covered current developments in AI and their impact on customer behaviour – especially from the perspective of machine customers and AI-assisted content consumption.
This was followed by a joint workshop to identify and brainstorm concrete use cases for AI, particularly from the perspective of Alma Brand Studio’s client companies and their end customers, as well as to enhance internal processes.
As part of the learning process, each participant created a personal AI twin, which they could use to develop their own skills and thinking. The twins acted as personal sparring and testing partners throughout the project.
From the ideas generated in the workshop, a particularly promising and innovative customer case was selected for piloting, using the ”Talking Product” solution that enables rapid trials.
With this ready-made AI solution, the creative concept designed by Alma Brand Studio could be tested in practice almost immediately – without the need for heavy production processes. The pilot was based on an already designed and produced article, which accelerated the launch of the pilot in collaboration with Brand Studio’s client company. During the pilot, the content could be further updated and refined based on reader questions and conversations with the AI assistant.
The pilot included both internal testing and a production trial in a real content marketing context. The AI assistant, known as the “Talking Product”, interacted with end users and provided valuable insights into the interests of end customers through its conversations during the pilot.
At the end of the project, the participants’ experiences of both the use of AI twins and the trial of the “Talking Product” were compiled. These insights will support the further development and broader adoption of AI solutions in creating content marketing services.
- Deepened understanding of the role of AI in content marketing and customer experience development.
- Tested a new customer solution quickly and agilely in a real market environment.
- Built the capacity of the team to apply AI to their own work through personal AI twins.
- Gained valuable insights into end-customers’ interests from discussions with the AI assistant during the pilot.
- Identified new opportunities for using AI to develop customer-centric business.