At Chameleon Collective, we’re thrilled to partner with forward-thinking leaders ready to disrupt and innovate. Our consistent recognition on the Inc. 5000 list for four years running is proof that the market craves the kind of transformation we deliver.
And what a time to lean into innovation! AI is making this an exciting time for marketers who are exploring the leading edge of brand building. As adoption grows, marketing teams will see opportunities we can only begin to imagine. More importantly, companies like Chameleon Collective make it easier for brand leaders to access game-changing talent and experience that will help them unlock innovation and productivity via these tools.
This year, Chameleons have been supporting marketing leaders as they consider where and when to integrate AI-driven tools into their workflows, including data analysis, content creation and media optimization. These leaders are looking beyond basic LLM and content generation for ways to improve workflow speed, cost structures and marketing effectiveness significantly. And, they want to avoid the unnecessary risk inherent in adopting cutting edge tech.
We’re getting engaged to act as external facilitators and experts, leading planning discussions and workshops to assist clients as they work through the explosion of options. Our chameleons are there to drive alignment on key priorities, and areas of focus and have a longer-term POV on where AI will change their work.
Because the landscape is changing so fast, planning for new AI implementations should be bottoms-up, collaborative, and democratic. When brands embrace the planning work, teams can move faster and with more purpose. Without it, AI capabilities enter workflows in an ad hoc way, creating inefficiencies, lost knowledge, and risk.
A Path to Impact
Based on what we see, the planning work should follow a few key principles:
- Prioritize Where to Focus – For larger marketing organizations, the question of “where should we focus first” is often the starting point. Without this alignment, teams risk a scattershot approach. So, teams should talk through their options, and narrow their focus down to a smaller number of problems (e.g. “Content costs are too high”) or opportunities (e.g. “Drive better impact from lifecycle messaging”)
- Build Your Roadmap – Once the key focus areas have been identified, teams can ideate on the ways AI can be introduced. In most cases, there will be more things to try than the team has time for, so it will probably be necessary to create a prioritization or sequence for the efforts. We like a simple Now, Next, Future model, but anything that clarifies “what” and “when” is sufficient.
Managing Effort & Expectations
With the buzz and uncertainty surrounding AI, keeping both the marketing team and external stakeholders aligned on goals and progress can be challenging. Without clear communication and storytelling from the marketing team, stakeholders may misunderstand what success truly looks like. For example, senior leadership might expect outsized results from small-scale experiments with tools like ChatGPT. Legal teams may raise concerns over potential risks, agency partners could fear being replaced by AI, and some team members might focus on what’s not being prioritized.
We recommend marketing teams create a framework to communicate the size and maturity of their efforts. For example, a marketing team could communicate their efforts on an axis that has the following categories:
- What We’re Monitoring and Observing – The tactics, tools, and techniques that the team is monitoring, but not actively deploying. The team is communicating the following message: “We’re aware of the tool/tech and we’re watching it, with the intent to decide its role in our mix at some point in the future”
- Where We’re Experimenting – This is the group of activities that fall under the “experimentation” heading; It’s where the team is making smaller, lower stake test/learn efforts with the main goal of understanding the basics. The brand team is essentially communicating: “We’re trying it out through some tests, learning how it works in our processes and deliverables; Impact will be limited. Not a day-to-day thing”
- In Production – This is the group of activities that have gone beyond “experiments” and are being depended upon as product-ready tools, techniques, and tactics. The team is communicating: “These efforts are now part of our toolset, and we’re deploying in a ‘live’ environment with real data on real work; Impact should be measurable and meaningful”
- Where We’re Scaling – These are the efforts that have become proven drivers of impact and the team can depend on them as they scale. The team is communicating: “We’re going to scale up and expand the usage of the tool; It’s proven safe, reliable, and delivers impact we can trust”
One type of deliverable from a planning effort is a high-level snapshot of a team’s current experimentation roadmap. This deliverable can communicate what the team is doing, and where it gets categorized in the progression from “Observe” to “Scale Up”.
The Value of an External Facilitator
Chameleons are getting asked to work with clients as an external facilitator for several important reasons.
- External catalyst – Bringing in an expert from the outside helps teams catalyze ideas by pushing on internal assumptions, nudging the comfort level outside the culturally accepted norms, and sharing examples that might spark new conversations
- Level the room – We all have been in workshops and ideations where the room defaults to the POV of the highest-paid person. Workshops may lead to consensus or political alignment, but often at the cost of the best ideas. As outside facilitators, our job is to level room and make sure ideas are coming from all the voices and are being given a fair hearing.
- Uncomfortable Truths – An external facilitator can help the team identify and confront the unspoken or unacknowledged truths that could hinder adoption.
- Cross-Industry Expertise – With experience across a wide range of growth-oriented companies we are well versed in the good/bad of deploying new technologies such as AI.
Chameleon Collective’s rapid growth is fueled by our relentless drive to unlock the full potential of marketing and technology. As outsiders and catalysts, we thrive on challenging the status quo. We recognize that AI is set to transform the way marketers operate, and we’re dedicated to leading that charge, ensuring AI becomes a powerful force for positive change in the brands we work with.
Connect with us to learn more about our approach and discover how we’re helping brands work smarter and stay ahead.
