Survey: Most CEO’s Think Their CMOs Are Successfully Leveraging AI

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Hi AI Pro!

We’re following the money flow in the AI marketing tech space and today’s edition offers a quick glimpse for you on some major trends—and one very large deal in the GenAI audio/video voiceover space.

TODAY’S AI-POWERED MARKETING UPDATE:

• Top Story: Most CEO’s Think Their CMOs Are Successfully Leveraging AI

• Investment Trends: AI Sector Attracts Most VC Funding Among Martech Companies in Q4

• VC Deals: AI Ad Voiceover Provider ElevenLabs Raises $80 Million Investment

• Video Content Analysis: AI-Powered Video Platform Provider Munch Claims 40 Seconds Optimal

• Today’s Master Marketing Tip: Nate Silver, founder and former editor-in-chief of FiveThirtyEight

TOP STORY

Survey: Most CEO’s Think Their CMOs Are Successfully Leveraging AI

In a recent survey of 150 CEOs serving at major publicly traded and privately held businesses, which was conducted by Boathouse, 76% said they are actively integrating AI into their organizations and 90% think their CMOs are effectively deploying AI solutions to their company’s benefit.

Marketing has the broadest AI adoption across all functions of the businesses surveyed, with CEOs citing content (generation and personalization), analytics, and customer experience as the most widely used applications of AI.

A few more key takeaways from the survey:

• 49% of CEOs consider their marketing team as "best in class”

• 40% rate their CMOs as "best in class”

• 50% believe the short tenure of many CMOs is "a sign of success, not failure."

The surveyed CEOs also said that the areas where they most want their marketing team to excel are in driving growth, market share/sales, differentiation, and improving brand reputation.

Overall, AI tech ranked No. 10 in a list of the top 16 issues for CEOs, in terms of how much time the new tech occupies their time and decision-making efforts.

INVESTMENT TRENDS

AI Sector Attracts Most VC Funding Among Martech Companies in Q4

AI-based solution developers attracted the most venture capital funding ($156 million) for any single subsector within the marketing technology space during the most recently ended quarter, according to a new survey by CabinetM.

Total investment in martech companies during the fourth quarter was $699 million, down 62% from the previous three months, according to the report from CabinetM, which offers a martech management platform.

Making up the $156 million raised by AI-powered martech developers were AI21 Labs ($53 million), an AI text generator; Essential AI ($56 million), an AI enablement solutions provider; Pika ($35 million) an AI video generator; and Guidde ($12 million), another AI video tech developer.

From the first quarter to the fourth quarter of 2023, total VC investment in the martech sector fell sharply from $13.2 billion to $699 million, according to the survey.

VC DEALS

AI Ad Voiceover Provider ElevenLabs Raises $80 Million Investment

ElevenLabs, a provider of AI-generated voiceovers for audio and video ads, has raised $80 million in its second round of venture capital, which was co-led by a group of several top-tier VC firms.

As a result of the deal—which valued the company at over $1 billion—ElevenLabs has earned the coveted title of “unicorn.”

Founded just two years ago, ElevenLabs offers natural speech synthesis technology used by business in numerous sectors that include advertising, publishing, conversational AI, entertainment, education, and accessibility.

Since its launch, ElevenLabs users have generated over 100 years of audio, as the firm has grown from 5 to 40 employees. Its platform is being used by employees at 41% of Fortune 500 companies, according to ElevenLabs.

The company said the new funding round will be used to further refine its product offering, “while ensuring the safe deployment of AI technology.”

“We're building cutting-edge technology to make content accessible across languages--and voices--to enable everyone to connect with information and stories that matter,” said Mati Staniszewski, co-founder and CEO of ElevenLabs.

VIDEO CONTENT ANALYSIS

AI-Powered Video Platform Provider Munch Claims 40 Seconds Optimal

Based on its annual survey of millions of video hours from over 500,000 content professionals worldwide, Munch, the provider of an AI-powered automation platform for social media, has identified 40 seconds as the current optimal length for short-form video content.

“Consumers today watch more videos than ever before and the demand for short-form content has rapidly increased with 66% finding this type of content to be the most engaging,” according to Munch. “For marketers, this shift has brought short-form videos to the forefront of content creation due to its ability to capture an audience's attention and drive engagement.”

Eight percent of short-form marketing video content is produced by large enterprises, with the majority coming from small businesses (70%) and medium-sized businesses (22%), according to Munch. “This demonstrates how video marketing has become an integral tool for businesses across the board in reaching and engaging diverse audiences.”

“However, despite its growing popularity, many struggle to make viral clips and often rely on time-consuming solutions to help create short-form content,” according to the report’s authors. Their analysis found the key to successful video clips lies in a pacing of 150 words per minute and features two or three speakers “to ensure a variety of perspectives and discourse.”

Founded in 2021, Munch leverages AI to turn lengthy videos into “bite-size compelling clips” designed to engage audiences and maximize ROI for social media content.

TODAY’S MARKETING MASTER TIP:

GET YOUR BRAND REFERRED TO ACTIVE, ENGAGED, TARGETED READERS:

Want to learn how to get your brand referred at scale to your target customer? Check out Presspool.ai to learn more.

Let’s win together!

THAT’S ALL FOR TODAY, FOLKS!