Voice is the new OS! AI is going to transform everything in business, including marketing! Customer experiences will never be the same thanks to augmented reality! Data is the new oil!

I’m sure you’ve heard statements like these recently, and probably at an accelerating pace. The business world, including marketing, has become obsessed with all manner of new technologies, most of which have some basis in artificial intelligence. This obsession is, I believe, a healthy one–provided the marketer’s intrigue is handled in an appropriate, systematic and value-focused manner. If not, Shiny New Toy Syndrome (SNTS) is going to play out and result in a high potential for wasted time and money.

How do marketers, then, approach new AI-based marketing technologies and avoid succumbing to the so-called SNTS?

Over the last year I’ve been thinking about this a lot because it is a really important aspect of a company’s approach to today’s (and tomorrow’s!) tech-focused marketing landscape. I’ve talked to CMOs and CDOs from leading companies as part of the Oxford Future of Marketing Initiative, listened to and worked with participants (all senior executives) on the Oxford Strategic Marketing Program, an immersive week-long focus on all things new in marketing, and studied companies’ successes and failures with implementing new marketing-related technologies. I’ve come to the conclusion that a systematic, well-thought-through approach is absolutely essential. This is all the more important when senior marketing leaders are finding themselves being asked by their CEOs, and in some cases their customers, to put new tech before anything else by doing things like developing an AR or VR app, launching an Alexa skill, or even building voice assistants such as Alexa or Google Home directly into their products.

The systematic approach I now advise leaders to adopt has six lines of questioning.

1. Will this marketing technology project be relevant to one or more of our existing customer segments?

Simple as it might sound, this is often forgotten. If what you’re thinking of doing has nothing to do with anyone in your existing customer base, then there’s no point in going ahead with it (for now, at least). Consider relevance first and foremost. But also keep in mind that there might be a valuable signal from doing something “techie” as it could suggest to your customers (and competitors, investors, board, C-suite) that your organization is tech savvy.