Featuring Emmanuel S. Avotri
In this insightful episode, host "Enoch RobotBoy" Appiah Jr. sits down with digital marketing expert Emmanuel S. Avotri Jr. to unpack the tension between automation and emotion in the AI-powered era. They explore how brands are adapting, crafting campaigns, and staying relevant as artificial intelligence rapidly evolves.
[0:00] How has the rise of AI changed the way brands approach digital marketing? We don't now have to hire a creative writer to give you maybe one week and he will generate maybe 200 social media up to every small business owner. We don't need to have a full budget at the moment for AI. We just need to take advantage of the free testing versions.
[0:27] From the next videos, this is Colours of Social Media, the podcast for marketers who believe in digital. I'm your host, Enoch Robert Boyer, Appiah Jr., and before we dive in, a quick announcement. If you are watching on YouTube, hit the subscribe button, and if you are listening on Spotify, make sure to follow So You Never Miss an episode. Now, today's topic is one that's got the whole industry glasses, the future of digital marketing, human or AI.
[0:57] I'm joined by Emmanuel S. Avotri Jr., and we are unpacking the tension between automation and emotion, and what that means for how we connect with audiences, craft campaigns, and stay relevant in this AI-powered era. Let's get into it.
[1:19] Okay, so Emmanuel, let's start the stage, right? From your perspective, how has the rise of AI changed the way brands approach digital marketing over the last few years?
[1:33] Yes. Thank you very much, Enoch. I'd like to thank you for having me on your podcast. AI is kind of, it's like a tube. We know that humans evolve from one stage to another. So it has now gotten to a point where we have to adapt into using AI in marketing products, or brands can market products using AI. But over the last few years, let's say AI has become very popular. So looking at how brands have approved it, it's kind of lukewarm, because not all brands are, especially let's use Ghana as a case study. Not all brands have leveraged AI to the way it's supposed to, because we are now kind of embracing AI into our businesses. And even let's say, even in schools, it's still a problem. So it's now kind of entering the system small, small, but we are now looking at a point where brands will fully use AI in their businesses.
[2:46] All right. So looking at what you're just saying, do you think, I mean, looking at Ghana brands and small businesses not using AI to raise food capacity, do you think there is like a misconception among marketers, and in fact, small business owners about what AI can or cannot do? Yes, in a way, I think so, because there is a misconception, because people are not really abreast with the two called AI. They don't even understand what AI is all about, and what they can do, the capabilities of AI. So sometimes some brands are ready to enter AI, but sometimes they step back because they think let's wait a bit and let's see what others will do first. So they are now waiting on others to try it before they venture into it. And others too are like, oh, AI, it's kind of difficult to use, so we need this, we need that. But yeah, that has been the general concern among small business owners. I'm just here thinking. But Emmanuel, in your own opinion, what are some marketing tasks, or let's say activities where automation shines? And where do humans still have the upper hand over this task? Yes, there are one automation like done for some businesses. There are a variety of AI tools, and there are ways of which you can leverage these AI tools, automate them. One prime example is writing. Let's say marketing through social media, you have to write a blog post or advertising in such a way that people can get full information of the product and can assess the product or have belief in the product. You don't now have to hire, let's say, a creative writer to give you maybe one week and he will generate maybe 200 social media full, whereby we posting them small, small. You can just automate them with AI.
[5:04] Then AI will just generate thousands of social media, whereby you can also tweak them to your own style by prompting the AI, okay, I want you to add this to it. I want you to add this to it.
[5:18] In fact, there is a tool where I use that tool to create a general for a small business. The person sold electronic gadgets. I generated right in front of him within 20 minutes. I created a general for him, and I told him to just play the general in front of his shop. And you did that with him. He generated a lot of sales done when he decided to do it the body. AI can now do it within a few minutes. Where humans stands tall is, let's say, when requiring a general for a business, you still have to input in your weight, your emotion. Okay, I want you to add a touch of affluence to this weight kind or you can prompt okay kindly recraft these words into ways that can where humans can release. I want you to change these few words to include a happy emotion whereby I can create a sense of trust. But okay, add add a jazzy feel to this add an affluence feel, add the haplife feel, then the AI will just take all of those prompts, combine it, and create your jingle to your own style. So that's why humans will stand tall, because AI will generate it. AI doesn't understand, like okay, the kind of emotion you want to be.
[6:47] It is you as the owner of the AI, it is you who is actually giving the AI instructions according to how you feel. So the AI produces the prompt according to your own specification and design. Interesting. You mentioned of emotions, right? Yeah. Now we are talking about AI.
[7:20] So why is emotional intelligence still crucial for marketing success even in this AI-driven world? Why? Why is that the case? The average human is always drawn to things that has emotions attached. Emotional intelligence is very crucial. It's very important because it is through that that I can tell the AI, okay, I'm feeling sad. I want you to create a date for this. Okay, I'm feeling so joyous. I want you to create a kind of song that will resonate around the emotion of joy. So it is based on this prompting that the AI will take into consideration. Thanks. We've been talking about AI and emotions now. Emmanuel, I want us to talk about application and a strategy that we can implement in executing marketing campaigns with AI. My focus is especially on small business owners. Small business owners who don't have big budgets. What practical ways can they use to, you know, balance AI tools whilst maintaining the human touch? Yes. First and foremost, how I answer this question is that you don't actually need a big budget to fully utilize AI. That's really required. There are three versions of AI tools. So you can use the AI in such a way that it can generate money from the AI and use the money from the AI to fund the AI itself. Like let's say register for an annual plan or something, but it can utilize the free versions. Then you build on from there, make money through the free versions, then use the money you got to actually invest in the AI.
[9:18] So there are a few strategies that I will share for small businesses. The first one is train your teams. Like businesses, if you have a team, like train your employees to think AI, such as let's say prompt engineering, how to ask better questions for the AI to generate what you want. It's very important. It's about training your team. A lot of people use charge GPT, but they don't actually know what charge GPT is capable of. That's one of the ways training teams to think with AI. That's the first one. And the second one is blending AI insights with human intuition. You can make the AI generate money. Maybe you want to write something or create a post or create an article. Let's say, okay, give me a sample company and let me give you an instance. So let's, we can't even use the social media podcasts, like a podcast company.
[10:32] So something like the Colours of Social Media as a company, I was saying that you are blending AI insights with human intuition. You have other assistants in there who assist you with production. So if you are blending AI insights with human intuition, okay, you can say, okay, I want to create a thumbnail. You are acquiring the AI. I want to create a thumbnail, but I want the thumbnail to resonate a particular kind of audience, corporate audience. So to the best of your knowledge, derive the best color for me for my thumbnails and add a twist. Like let's say, sometimes somebody has never tried before. There may be, you have a sketch of your idea, you have a sketch of your idea. So you've drawn the sketch. You have to upload the sketch into the AI. Then the AI will base on your intuition to generate something. Like let's say maybe AI may pick a yellow, that okay, when I pick yellow, I'm using yellow because yellow draws human attention easily to a content. So that's how you infuse more yellows into the thumbnail designs.
[11:55] So the AI will bring, let's say, a draft or a style of how you should draft the thumbnails. Then you give it to your graphic designer. Then the graphic designer will just look on the IBA.
[12:09] Then they will craft the thumbnail. According to the specification you give to the AI, then it will be done. Until maybe AI develops the capability of actually designing graphics to a perfect standard. After all now, they are still training the AI to actually get the concepts of designing the font styles, the font types. So they are still under criminal graphic design, but they can give you a perfect idea. This is interesting. Yeah, I got you. I got you.
[12:46] I just muted a sec there. All right. So I'm looking at the future, right? Do you think this thumbnail that's recruited for color social media podcast, do you think future consumers in a sense that those people who see the thumbnail anywhere, they will care whether this thumbnail was made by AI or a human? I'm just trying to figure out the efficacy of an AI-generated thumbnail. Yes, AI can generate your thumbnails. But depending on the style you want to see on your thumbnail designs, maybe the generated figures. You wanted to do something like a photo manipulation of your AI. That one AI can generate, you just put in the text and all of those things. But people who have actually been using AI a lot may know that, okay, this is AI generated, but it won't kill the idea that, okay, this is what I wanted to achieve.
[13:57] Demand, if you see such things, right? For instance, the business used an AI to create an ad of an item that you need. If you see such AI-generated ad, does it influence your decision in purchasing that particular product? Or you just let it go and just purchase it?
[14:23] I just purchase it because it doesn't actually have any influence. But when creating these ads, you don't have to make it feel too robotic. That's where the humans come in.
[14:37] You have your own creative style. You have your own brand tune. You have your own maybe voice ovation or something to give it the human feel, but everything was generated by AI.
[14:51] So people even actually watch it and will not identify it is being done by AI. Interesting. With AI evolving this so quickly, what skills do you think my fellow digital marketers should start to develop now to stay competitive over the next five to 10 years?
[15:16] Yes. One is prompt engineering. They should just learn how to prompt AI. And that is basically finding the words to input into the AI. Yeah, the right ways so that I don't just keep coming back to one thing you want to generate.
[15:35] And secondly is mastering the AI tools like a lot of the AI tools, mastering a lot of AI tools, not just like, not just like one AI tool, like a lot of it, at least you should have about five AI tools at your fingertips, at least five AI tools so that as soon as something comes in your mind, you know that, okay, this is the right AI I can use to achieve this. This is the right tool I can use to achieve this so that you can achieve speed, you can achieve efficiency as having your own human touch to it. I'm looking at AI not replacing humans, but I'm looking at AI in collaboration with humans or humans in collaboration with AI or digital marketers to just put them on top because at the moment as we speak, we may think that AI can actually replace us or is going to replace us. That's it. That is, if you don't imbibe or embrace AI, then you are likely to get phased out. To become assumed.
[16:44] Yeah, it's you. Yes. But if you are going to collaborate and embrace AI, you are going to be on top all of the time. So the first one is front engineering. And the second one is having at least five AI tools on your fingertips, at least five AI tools on your fingertips.
[17:03] I'm talking about tools, you know, what are some of the tools that you utilize in your work? You can say for me, I use ChachiPT for my test base assignments, you know, if I need something cooked up real quick, I just ask you advice, I just put in my emotions and what I want ChachiPT to pop out, then you do the job. So what are some of the tools that you use? And there are corresponding tasks. ChachiPT is one. Yeah. ChachiPT like, let's see if you want to write. Yeah. So with better points, you can really have ChachiPT on your fingertips. And you have SciSpace, S-E-I for literature review, you have Sumo AI for music generation, lyrics, vocals, instrumentations.
[18:02] Yeah. This is why you can give it, okay, give me a jazzy feel of this. Then it will just create a jazzy feel. It makes my piano with high life. And let's see how it is. We also have voice mode. That is the fourth AI too. Voice mode. Voice mode.net. Voice mode. Yeah. That's where you can, this is the AI too. You can use it to modify voices, own voices. If you can't sing, if you can't sing, you can make that AI sing your lyrics. Then you select the tone as to how you want it to sound. Yes. And there's a sound, sound draw, sound draw. This is the fifth AI, sound draw.io. You can generate like royalty free music. Like it's easy for we content critics for instance. We get copyrighted a lot because we may pick some sound and it's copyrighted and we may not do it. And because of that, they will strike a page or put copyrights.
[19:01] We don't earn anything on those sessions. You can use sound draw to generate a sound. That is exclusive to you alone and it's free. Interesting. It's not copyrighted. Yeah. It's actually free.
[19:17] Yeah. And we have the Lovo AI. Lovo AI for commercial voiceovers. And we have the 11 Labs also for the Clooney. 11 Labs for Clooney. Clooney not voice. So I've given about seven AI.
[19:34] Manos, thank you so much. You've made mention of a lot of Clooney, especially with the Sonu, how someone can pick my voice and use it. And I'm also looking at a use case scenario where I can tell Chachi to generate lyrics for me based on sexy emotions, right? This is a nice business idea actually. So Chachi Pity will generate the lyrics based on certain emotions. Then I go and put it into, is it sound draw? Yeah. Sound draw for sound draw to sing this song for me based on the clone of let's say Beyonce's voice I used. Exactly.
[20:24] Exactly. Exactly as you wanted. So you see, is it ethical? You see, all that I want to access, how ethical is this? How come marketers ensure that the use of AI means ethical?
[20:42] Yes. Right now, especially when it comes to, yeah. Right now, do you know one of the biggest challenges of AI today is ethical use. That is what we are fighting like. That's what it's been for today. We are now developing the whole framework for ethical use of AI. So that's the biggest challenge of AI today, ethical use, because one who has these tools on his fingertips can just maneuver his way through things and sometimes become an ethical in the use of it because everything can usually become AI generated. So that's the biggest challenge of AI today. So measures are being put in place. That's what Chachi is saying. Yes. The frameworks are being drawn, measures are being put in place. Like let's say something about AI is that it can be biased. Yeah. Yes. Recently, I was using Grog, Grog on Twitter. Twitter.
[21:43] Lomax made a statement about the Epstein files that Donald Trump has got of it and all of this. And I queried Grog that, why are you like supporting your boss? And the answer Grog gave me was like, he didn't want to attack what Lomax said, but he was attacking somebody who was not, yes, he was attacking Trump and his other officials and also biased. Also biased. So they are all part of the whole thing. Yeah. But it's just about now having to now control yourself to get to make everything seem original. Yeah. So I'll just go and I'll pick Beyonce's voice anyhow. Somebody can overuse Beyonce's voice and to make their voice sound too common.
[22:38] So sometimes I like to use my own voice or maybe I want your metal voice. So I'll clean it from this music. Then I'll put it into mine, but I'll make modifications to it that you can't actually point to your metal's voice. So it's like a mixture of my voice and your metal's voice. Then I get what I want. So it's about you becoming intentionally ethical in its use for life until the frameworks are developed whereby they can set limits to the AI.
[23:18] What risk do you foresee if brands lean too heavily on AI without human oversight? The first one I'll say is it can become too robotic. It can sound too machine.
[23:38] There will be no emotions in the AI. I define marketing as a combination of emotions and intelligence to actually draw somebody to purchase a product or to purchase a service. So you can never practice marketing without emotions. So if you lean on AI too much without imbibing the human side, it will sound too robotic. And as a matter of fact, you may lose clients in the pipeline because somebody wrote an application in the tie and sent it to you that he wanted to apply for a certain job, but this is happening. So I should look through it, not knowing that he didn't know that I had already caught him that he abused AI. AI uses certain ways. They have let's say some ways they use repeatedly. He was like, okay, he wanted to apply for maybe a graphic design. AI will write a certain sentence like, oh, I have numerous or I have extensive experience or let's say I have 10 years experience in the realm of graphic design. You see, the moment you see this sentence, you know that a human can't write this because how can you put graphic design in a realm? It's not a realm. In a realm. Like the realm of graphic design. It doesn't make sense. So people would generate AI, this one, then they will not ability to add the human. Another one is the use of the end dash, that long dash to continue the sentence. We are not familiar with using these dashes in our writing in Ghana. And even if it appears just once or twice, but the whole document, you find a lot of dashes, M dashes throughout is a sign of AI. AI uses a lot of M dashes. So if you don't edit it, then we now get to see all these AI generated. It has a signature. AI tools always have a signature.
[25:55] And we are also developing AI detectors to actually clamp down on the overuse of AI. People will go to school and they are set to work. It's full of AI written work. It's full of AI written work. Because when the AI generated, it didn't go through to add a human element, a human factor, explanations into how the tension sound. Yeah. So all of these things, yeah, eventually, if people do not learn how to actually put their human selves into whatever they are doing, and they say they are going to solely lie on AI or rely on AI, then it's going to be problematic for them because emotions will be lost in whatever they do and it could adversely affect their businesses. Yeah. So before we wrap up, I want to know how you navigate the internet with you having this telescopic eye alert for AI content. How do you use the internet? Because from what you are saying, it's like you analyze every content that comes on the internet with M dash, some certain words inside our captions. Are you able to sleep peacefully? Usually, we AI users, let's say AI users, we barely sleep. Let's say the whole 24 hours, we only have like two hours or three hours of sleep. Everything, we are just on the internet like 24-7, we must always have internet. That's why we're fighting for data prices to be reduced so that we can buy more data to stay on the internet. So we are just hanging around AI.
[27:56] For me personally, aside me being a travel coach and a content creator, I was also a writer, a creative writer, like let's say a full-fledged publisher into book designing, graphic designing.
[28:12] So all of these things, I actually knew them beforehand. So when the AI became popular, I knew that I had to capitalize on it, then use it to my advantage. Whereby I can reduce the task on me because people will come and write SOP for me, I need to. Then you have about 30 SOPs to write all in the space of one week. You need AI to actually help you to tap down the time.
[28:38] They'll produce all the 30 SOPs into this, then add your own human elements to it. So we are just glued to the internet. There are also channels that announce new AI tools on YouTube, so you can subscribe to them as soon as it comes to check it out.
[29:03] Finally, I'm sure I will take them after this conversation so that I'll put it in the description notes and all these important AI tools you've mentioned. So yeah, if you are listening, just check out the description notes. All these AI tools that Immanuel is talking about will be listed and linked to the Iberio's website. Alright, Immanuel, finally, if you had to give just one piece of advice to marketers and small business owners navigating this AI era, what would it be? I will tell small business owners that when it comes to the use of AI, they should take it very seriously. They should learn a lot of tools. They should just have at least five AI tools that are crucial to the business they are in. They should plan with AI, like they should just envision into the future about where they want to get with their businesses and how they can use AI to actually affect that or realize what they want to achieve.
[30:18] So it's about humans collaborating with AI, as I already said earlier. So every small business owner, you don't need to have a few budgets at the moment for AI or AI can use. You just need to take advantage of the three testing versions, then make money out of it first, then use that money too. So it's not only privy to the business you do, like let's say you sell business, it's not privy to the business or you have to make money with the AI through your business.
[30:57] You can use, you can master the AI tools and it can become a separate personal business for you, whereby you can use the monies you generate from the AI and you can now put it into the AI and use it for your business, the actual business you are doing, which is like your main field.
[31:18] That way you can utilize the AI very well in a sense. Thank you so much for this. If any of our listeners or those who are watching us on YouTube want to reach out to you, how can they reach out to you, you might not? My number is at the label, my WhatsApp contact is at the label. So you deal on WhatsApp? Yes, on WhatsApp, you can also text me on Twitter, you can come into my DM, my DM is open. 24-7. 2-4-7.
[31:54] If you want my attention first, just come to Twitter, I'm very active on Twitter, which is excellent. You can come to at kselasi10, at kselasi10, yes. My email too is at the label, ymanoel.s.abotru, a-v-o-t-r-i, gmail.com. Yes. All right, got it. Oh, yes. Yeah, also I will include the links of Imanoel's contacts in the description also, including his LinkedIn also because he talks a lot with LinkedIn also. All right, Imanoel, thank you so much for coming on Kale Sashamiya's podcast. Your conversation has been really insightful, and now I know where to go in this AI era. Thank you so much for appealing yourself for this. I appreciate it.
[32:53] Thanks for having me, Imanoel. You can also visit my personal YouTube channel on TW6, right? On YouTube. You see a lot of AI with human kind of thumbnail thing, then you see how AI has been beneficial to myself and my team. But actually, I don't even do any content there, but possibly very soon I'll start there. Moving on.
[33:27] But you get the inspiration there. Yes, that is mindful.