Beliefs and adoption of AI in content marketing: Insights from South African marketing agencies

South African Journal of Information Management

 
 
Field Value
 
Title Beliefs and adoption of AI in content marketing: Insights from South African marketing agencies
 
Creator du Plessis, Charmaine Swart, Christelle
 
Subject Marketing; digital marketing, content marketing artificial intelligence; content marketing; content strategy; content optimisation; content creation; generative artificial intelligence.
Description Background: Notwithstanding a large body of academic literature on artificial intelligence (AI) in computer science and other technical fields dating back decades, research is needed on how AI is applied in the context of marketing. Marketers have used AI for many years, but generative AI has only recently come to the forefront. The study focussed on understanding the beliefs and adoption of AI in content marketing practices in South Africa.Objectives: By combining various perspectives in the marketing industry, a taxonomy is proposed that categorises current AI practices in content marketing.Method: An exploratory web-based survey was adopted. It was important to measure the scope and extent of beliefs, acceptance, and adoption of AI in content marketing, and to gain insights to categorise current AI practices in content marketing. Data analyses of the closed-ended and open-ended questions were conducted using JMP®, 17.2 (SAS Institute Inc., Cary, NC 2023) and through inductive thematic analysis, respectively.Results: The findings reveal that South African marketing agencies currently adopt AI for content strategy optimisation, content creation enhancement, insight integration and personalisation, automation and process enhancement.Conclusion: While South African marketing agencies acknowledge the value of AI in improving content marketing, they believe that the human element is still necessary, and that content marketing practice cannot depend entirely on AI.Contribution: The proposed taxonomy lays the foundation for future research about AI in content marketing with a larger sample.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor Unisa funding Marketing Association of South Africa (MASA), Interactive Bureau of Advertising (IAB) of South Africa
Date 2024-10-23
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — Web-based survey
Format text/html application/epub+zip text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/sajim.v26i1.1878
 
Source South African Journal of Information Management; Vol 26, No 1 (2024); 14 pages 1560-683X 2078-1865
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://sajim.co.za/index.php/sajim/article/view/1878/3007 https://sajim.co.za/index.php/sajim/article/view/1878/3008 https://sajim.co.za/index.php/sajim/article/view/1878/3009 https://sajim.co.za/index.php/sajim/article/view/1878/3010
 
Coverage South Africa Not applicable educational level; work experience
Rights Copyright (c) 2024 Charmaine du Plessis, Christelle Swart https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
ADVERTISEMENT