Using your brain might just make you stand out more than ever

When everyone is using AI, being human might be your biggest marketing advantage.

AI has made it ridiculously easy to create marketing.

Sure, it can write a social post, generate an image, design a poster (more on this in a moment), and produce a video. It can even come up with a campaign idea.

Things that might once have taken hours can now take seconds.

That’s brilliant.

But I’ve noticed an unintended consequence. Everything is beginning to look the same.

And ironically, at a time when businesses have more creative tools available than ever before, one of the easiest ways to stand out might be to not ask AI to do all the creative work for you.

I have two examples of where I’m seeing AI zap all creativity and uniqueness. 

By the way, this blog will not bash AI – I think AI is powerful for businesses and marketers in particular. I’m on it daily. But I’m using it completely differently to some people out there with their Chat or Claude licences. 

The rise of the AI pub poster

You’ve seen them. And you’ve definitely seen them enough now to spot an AI poster a mile off.

Traditional pubs are suddenly advertising themselves with elaborate AI-generated posters.

Big vintage lettering, illustrated pints, chalkboard styling, decorative borders, seven different offers, twenty different bits of information competing for your attention.

They all look remarkably similar. Sure, different pubs, different names. The same visually though.

One of the things I always liked about pub marketing was how individual it could be.

A hand drawn chalkboard out front, a terrible drawing, a joke written down that somebody behind the bar thought was hilarious. Maybe something slightly inappropriate that somebody probably should have rubbed off before opening.

It wasn’t polished, but it had personality.

Marketing hasn’t changed in this regard. People still buy into those things that feel real, catch their attention, or makes them feel as though the copy or visuals were created just for them.

You got a little glimpse of the people and place behind the business.

Now we have technology capable of producing something technically far more impressive in seconds. But for me, and seemingly many people online, the end result feels less distinctive.

Then I saw it happening with a school fete

This one bothered me even more.

I walked past a poster for my little boy’s school fete recently and immediately recognised that it was created by AI.

What gave it away? It was busy, packed with copy, bunting, balloons, cakes, stalls, cute illustrations everywhere. Loads of information squeezed into every inch of available space.

Again, there’s nothing inherently wrong with using AI to create it.

But it made me wonder what had disappeared in the process.

School fetes are supposed to feel homemade. Hell, everything about them is meant to look homemade.

Parents organise them, teachers help, and most importantly, children run stalls. Things are stuck together, cakes are uneven, and signs are handwritten. That’s all part of their charm.

And surely creating the school fete poster could be part of that too?

• Give the children some paper and pencils, ask them to design it.
• Run a competition.
• Ask them to come up with the headline.
• Let somebody draw a completely disproportionate bouncy castle.

One of those children might discover they love drawing. Another might realise they enjoy writing.

Someone might become fascinated by typography, design or advertising without having the slightest idea that’s what they’re learning.

And then they get to see something they created pinned to a tree outside their school.

Instead, we can type “Create a poster for our school summer fete” and have something polished ten seconds later.

It saves time, sure. But saving time removes the bit that was actually worth doing.

Standing out might mean doing something AI didn’t create

This is where I think things become particularly interesting for businesses.

For the last few years, using AI has felt like the innovative thing to do. It’s becoming the normal thing to do.

Your competitors have ChatGPT, they have image generators, they can generate social posts, they can make videos.

So what does that tell you?

It tells you that using AI isn’t a differentiator anymore.

In some situations, doing the opposite might be:

• A handwritten sign.
• A photograph taken by the owner.
• An illustration created by somebody in the team.
• A customer story written exactly how they told it.
• A deliberately simple poster.
• An unusual campaign idea that came from a conversation rather than a prompt.

Those things suddenly feel different precisely because so much around them has been generated.

That doesn’t mean deliberately making bad marketing.

It means recognising that humanity has marketing value:

• Personality has value.
• Imperfection can have value.
• And originality definitely has value.

Don’t outsource the thinking

This is probably the biggest distinction I make when using AI.

There’s a difference between:

“Come up with my marketing for me.”

and:

“Here’s my idea. Help me make it better.”

The second is where AI becomes incredibly useful.

You bring the observation and the humour.

You know your customers better than anyone. Certainly better than AI. 

You understand why something might resonate with them. You know what your business sounds like. You have experiences that an AI model doesn’t.

Let AI amplify your creativity rather than replace it.

Tell AI about your business, your customers, your tone, your objective and exactly what you’re trying to achieve.

But there’s something that comes before even the perfect prompt… having an idea worth prompting.

You can write the most detailed prompt imaginable and still end up with something forgettable if the underlying concept is generic.

Sometimes the creative answer is not to use it

If I ran a pub, perhaps the answer isn’t an elaborate AI poster. Maybe it’s letting the funniest member of staff loose on the chalkboard again.

If I were running a school fete, perhaps I’d give the poster brief to the children.

And if I were marketing a business, I’d ask:

What could we make that only we would make?

That question becomes more valuable as AI content becomes more common.

AI gives almost everyone access to good execution.

Your ideas, experiences, opinions, people and personality are much harder to replicate.

That’s where the advantage is.

I use AI. A lot.

For the avoidance of doubt, this isn’t an anti-AI article.

Use AI without losing what makes your business different

Businesses shouldn’t stop using AI.

• Use AI for speed.
• Use it for production.
• Use it to explore.
• Use it to iterate.
• Use it to help turn ideas into reality.

But don’t automatically hand over the idea, personality and creative direction as well.

Need another perspective on your marketing?

Sometimes you don’t need an agency to take everything away and do it for you.

You need someone who can look at what you’re doing, challenge the obvious approach, and help shape stronger ideas.

I offer marketing support on an advisory basis through TJ Creative, including strategy, messaging, campaign ideas and creative/design direction. I am helping businesses make better use of both AI and the human thinking behind their marketing.

If your marketing is starting to look like everyone else’s, let’s change that. Reach out to me on tom@tjcreative.co.uk.