Can AI Help Brand Storytelling Prove Its Value?

Jordan P. Kelley, Content Director, BrandStorytelling

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A new report on the state of digital advertising was released last week by TripleLift, the Creative SSP, and EMARKETER - and despite its being targeted at the world of digital advertising and programmatic, its findings are worth the attention of anyone working in brand-funded content and entertainment.

At the top of the list:

• Creative and video remain the most valuable assets in the marketer’s toolkit.

• Decision makers are prioritizing efficiency in process and measurement.

• Artificial intelligence is being leaned on heavily to achieve that efficiency.

  
  

The framing of these findings points largely to programmatic advertising and media buying, but the implications stretch far beyond.

Think about the problems programmatic marketers are trying to solve. They’re wrestling with bottlenecks in workflow, difficulty proving ROI, and a need to automate the repetitive pieces of their operation without losing sight of creativity. Sound familiar? These are the same issues that brand storytellers face when building films, series, and social-first video. This report posits that the bridge between the two is clear: AI-driven solutions are being developed to streamline processes for advertising. The question then is this: what if those very same tools can be applied to the work of non-interruptive storytelling?

The report makes another point that should grab the attention of the brand storytelling community. Creative and video aren’t being treated as expendable or secondary. On the contrary, they’re being reaffirmed as the most important levers for marketers. This should be energizing for anyone who has advocated for story-driven content as a central part of brand strategy. When CMOs and their teams put creative at the top of the hierarchy, they’re signaling that the battle for attention and loyalty is won with stories, not just impressions.

But investment in creative brings its own challenges. Any brand storyteller will tell you that they've experienced the struggle to tie work back to the kind of clear, immediate performance metrics that brand leadership wants and that ads can more easily provide. This has long been the stumbling block when brands consider putting meaningful dollars behind films or episodic projects. The fact that advertisers are now investing in AI solutions to overcome similar challenges may signal an opportunity for brand storytellers to do the same.

It’s important here to push back on the easy fear that AI is coming to replace human creativity. That isn’t what the report suggests, and it shouldn’t be how we frame its value. The emphasis is on reducing friction, on clearing away the inefficiencies that slow creative teams down or leave decision makers guessing at impact. For advertising, that looks like smarter audience segmentation, automated attribution, or faster reporting. For brand-funded storytelling, it could mean AI-assisted distribution pipelines, metadata tagging that improves discoverability, or advanced measurement frameworks that can tie emotional resonance to business outcomes in a way that satisfies the C-suite.

What all of this points to is a shift in how we view the relationship between creativity and technology. The report makes clear that marketers are not reducing the role of creative; they are doubling down on it. The task now is to build the systems that empower creative content to get produced without getting bogged down in any of what comes before or after. If advertisers are finding those systems through AI, brand storytellers might consider adopting the same or similar tools, not to diminish human ingenuity but to amplify it.

This should be a galvanizing moment for the brand storytelling community. The most senior decision makers in marketing are not only prioritizing creative and video, they’re investing in the infrastructure to make those assets more efficient and measurable. That investment should absolutely include brand-funded entertainment and content. Non-interruptive storytelling has always been a high-value play in terms of consumer connection. Now, with the adoption of the right AI tools, storytellers can begin to solve the very challenges that have at times held them back, from workflow inefficiencies to unclear ROI.

The same solutions being pursued for programmatic ads - streamlined processes, AI-supported efficiency, and measurement - can be implemented by brand storytellers too. Adopt and embrace those solutions thoughtfully, and storytellers can give themselves more room to do what no machine can: tell stories that people actually want to spend time with.

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Read Triplelift's 'From Guesswork to Greatness' report HERE.

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About Jordan P. Kelley

Jordan P. Kelley is a branded content trend watcher and thought leader, serving as BrandStorytelling's Content Director and curating the festival portion of BrandStorytelling: a Sanctioned Event of Sundance Film Festival. A Forbes contributor, Kelley co-produces The BrandStorytelling Podcast 'Content That Moves' as well as various video series for the BrandStorytelling YouTube Channel.