Tag: marketing planning

AI SENSE - Think before you prompt
8 QUESTIONS TO ASK BEFORE USING AI IN YOUR MARKETING

AI can write the copy.

Build the presentation.

Analyse the data.

Generate the image.

Summarise the research.

Suggest the strategy.

But should it?

We’re big fans of AI at chicken/egg. We use it every day, experiment with it and have built our own GPTs to help us think, create, analyse and get stuff done.

But when a tool makes something quicker and easier, it’s tempting to start with the tool.

Can AI write this?
Can AI create that?
Can we automate this?

Maybe.

But that’s not the first question.

What does the marketing need to do?

AI isn’t your marketing strategy. It’s a tool you might use to help deliver it.

So before you open ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini or whatever shiny new AI tool has landed in your inbox this week, use a more important tool first.

Your brain.

AI SENSE is our 8-question marketing sense check. It’ll help you work out where AI can genuinely help, where human thinking matters more and whether the work coming out the other end is actually any better.

Grab a coffee. Grab the brief. Then think before you prompt.

1 – WHAT’S THE MARKETING PROBLEM?

Start with the job, not the tool.

What problem are we trying to solve, or what opportunity are we trying to create?

Are we trying to change a perception? Generate demand? Improve conversion? Retain more customers? Launch something new? Make a better decision?

Ask yourself

  • What are we actually trying to achieve?
  • What needs to change?
  • Why does it matter to the business?
  • How will we know if it worked?
  • Is AI the best way to help us get there?

Watch out for…

Starting with the tool

AI makes it easy to create more content, more ideas and more activity.

That doesn’t automatically create more value.

Sense check

What’s the marketing challenge, not the AI task?

If you can’t explain the challenge without talking about the tool, you’re probably starting in the wrong place.

 

2 – WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT THE CUSTOMER?

AI knows a lot.

It doesn’t necessarily know your customer.

Good marketing starts with understanding the people we’re trying to create value for. What they need. What matters to them. What’s getting in their way. Why they choose you, or don’t.

AI can help us explore customer research, interrogate data and spot patterns.

But it shouldn’t invent the customer.

Ask yourself

  • Who are we trying to reach or influence?
  • What do we actually know about them?
  • Where has that knowledge come from?
  • Are we working with real insight or assumptions?
  • Are we asking AI to analyse customer insight or create it?

Watch out for…

Synthetic certainty.

Ask AI to describe your target customer and it’ll happily give you their motivations, frustrations, buying habits and possibly their preferred brand of oat milk.

Doesn’t make it true.

Sense check

What evidence do we have for what we think we know?

AI can help you interrogate customer insight. It isn’t a replacement for talking to customers.

 

3 – WHAT JOB SHOULD AI DO?

AI doesn’t need to do everything. And it probably shouldn’t.

It might help generate ideas, challenge your thinking, analyse information, create a first draft, adapt existing work or take a repetitive job off someone’s plate.

AI might be brilliant for one bit of the job and rubbish for another.

Decide where you actually need it.

Ask yourself

  • What exactly do we want AI to help with?
  • Where in the process should it get involved?
  • What happens before AI?
  • What happens after it?
  • Is AI actually the best tool for this job?

Watch out for…

Handing over the whole job.

Ask AI to “create our marketing strategy” and you’ll probably get 2,000 beautifully structured words.

That doesn’t mean you’ve got a strategy.

Sense check

Could you brief AI’s role as clearly as you’d brief someone on your team?

If the job is vague, don’t be surprised when the answer is too.

 

4 – WHERE’S THE HUMAN THINKING?

AI can give you an answer in seconds.

Knowing whether it’s a good answer is the clever bit.

Someone still needs to understand the business, customer, competition, brand and commercial reality well enough to question what’s coming back.

AI can contribute to the thinking.

It shouldn’t quietly become the thinking.

Ask yourself

  • Who owns the decision?
  • Does someone with the right experience understand and review the work?
  • Are we questioning the output or simply accepting it?
  • What have we added from our own experience and knowledge?
  • Would we make the same decision if AI hadn’t suggested it?

Watch out for…

Confidence being mistaken for competence.

AI is very good at sounding like it knows what it’s talking about.

Sometimes it does.

Sometimes it’s wearing a tiny imaginary suit and bluffing its way through the meeting.

Sense check

Who’s accountable for the final decision?

Hopefully the answer isn’t ChatGPT.

 

5 – COULD THIS HAVE COME FROM ANY COMPETITOR?

AI is very good at producing things that look and sound like things that already exist.

That’s useful.

It’s also how everything starts sounding the same.

Your brand needs to bring the things AI doesn’t have by default: your point of view, personality, experience, stories and distinctive way of seeing the world.

Ask yourself

  • Does this sound like us?
  • Does it reflect what our brand stands for?
  • Is there an actual point of view?
  • Have we added examples, experience or ideas that only we could contribute?
  • Could a competitor publish this tomorrow with their logo on it?

Watch out for…

Perfectly acceptable beige marketing.

Polished. Professional. Correct.

And completely forgettable.

Sense check

If we removed the logo, would anyone know it was ours?

If a competitor could copy it tomorrow, AI probably hasn’t made your marketing better.

 

6 – CAN WE TRUST IT?

AI can be wrong.

Very convincingly wrong.

So when it’s helping with research, analysis, claims, copy, recommendations or decisions, check the bits that matter.

Don’t confuse a confident answer with a correct one.

Ask yourself

  • Have we checked the facts?
  • Are the figures, quotes and sources real?
  • Is the information current?
  • Have we challenged the assumptions?
  • Could bias affect the answer or the work we’re creating?

Watch out for…

“ChatGPT said…”

AI isn’t a source.

Sense check

Could we show where this information came from?

If it matters enough to publish or make a decision on, it matters enough to check.

 

7 – WOULD WE BE HAPPY EXPLAINING THIS?

Would you happily tell the client what you uploaded?

Would you tell a customer how their information was used?

Could you explain where the image, claim or idea came from?

And would you happily put your name against the finished work?

If any of those questions make you shuffle awkwardly in your chair, it’s probably worth looking again.

Ask yourself

  • Are we putting confidential business or client information into AI?
  • Are we using personal or customer data?
  • Do we have the right to use the material we’re giving it?
  • Have we thought about ownership, copyright and usage?
  • Could the output mislead someone?
  • Would we be comfortable explaining exactly how AI was used?

Watch out for…

Copy. Paste. Regret.

Saving 10 minutes isn’t worth damaging client confidence or customer trust.

Sense check

Would you be comfortable putting your name to it?

If not, find out why before you carry on.

 

8 – DID AI MAKE THE MARKETING BETTER?

AI can make things quicker.

Great.

It can make things cheaper.

Also great.

Maybe it saved you 3 hours. Maybe it helped you spot something you’d missed. Maybe it gave you 20 ideas and one of them was brilliant. Maybe the work performed better.

But AI always comes with a trade-off.

What did we gain?

And what might we have lost?

Speed at the expense of originality?

More personalisation but less humanity?

50 ideas and another hour deciding which one is any good?

The goal isn’t to use more AI.

It’s to make better marketing.

Ask yourself

  • What got better because AI was involved?
  • Did it save meaningful time or money?
  • Did it improve the quality of the work?
  • Did it help us make a better decision?
  • Did it create more value for the customer?
  • Did it help Brand, Demand or Expand?
  • What might we have lost along the way?

Watch out for…

Mistaking more for better.

50 posts instead of 10.

20 concepts instead of 3.

A week’s work completed in an afternoon.

Brilliant.

But did any of it work?

Sense check

What got better because AI was involved?

If the only answer is “we made more stuff”, keep digging.

 

THE BEST PROMPT …

…starts long before you open ChatGPT.

AI will keep changing.

New models.

New tools.

New ways of working.

But the fundamentals of good marketing haven’t.

It still starts with understanding people.

Solving real problems.

Making good decisions.

AI can help you do all of those things.

Just don’t hand over the bit that makes you a marketer.

Your judgement.

 

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ANATOMY - cracking the DNA of marketing intention
Bridging the gap between strategy and action – how the ANATOMY framework makes marketing matter.

In today’s crowded marketplace, having a solid brand and marketing strategy is essential – but it’s not enough. The challenge for many brands is turning high-level strategic goals into practical, intentional marketing actions. This is where the ANATOMY framework from chicken/egg steps in.

Designed as a tactical checklist for campaign planning and execution, ANATOMY ensures that every marketing action serves a purpose and aligns with broader strategic objectives. It doesn’t replace your existing strategy – instead, it translates strategic intent into on-the-ground marketing activities that deliver real results.

What Is the ANATOMY framework?

ANATOMY breaks down every marketing action into six key components: Purpose, Audience, Intention, Design, Impact, and Evaluation. Each component serves as a checkpoint to guide the planning, execution, and measurement of campaigns, ensuring that every step is intentional and aligned with strategic goals.

Purpose (the why)

Start by clearly defining the purpose behind each action or interaction. Ask yourself – Why are we doing this? Whether it’s to increase brand awareness, drive sales, or nurture customer relationships, understanding the why grounds your campaign in a strategic objective.

Audience (the who)

Knowing your target audience is critical for crafting messages that resonate. Identify who you’re speaking to and tailor your approach to their needs, preferences, and behaviours to create more meaningful engagement. Segmentation is key!

Intention (the what)

Clarify the specific outcomes you aim to achieve. Are you educating your audience, driving a specific action, or generating leads? Setting clear intentions allows for measurable goals, guiding both the creative development and metrics for success.

Design (the how)

Plan the execution based on your audience’s preferences and your campaign objectives. Choose the right format, channels, tone, and timing to ensure every element supports your campaign’s purpose.

Impact (the goal)

Connect the campaign’s immediate intention to longer-term business goals, such as enhancing brand loyalty or changing perceptions. This ensures that each tactical action supports broader business objectives.

Evaluation (the learning)

Assess the results by reflecting on what worked, what didn’t, and why. This step provides insights for future campaigns, helping with continuous improvement.

Using ANATOMY as a campaign checklist

Once you have your marketing strategy in place, ANATOMY acts as a practical tool to shape the execution of individual campaigns. Here’s how you can use it:

Pre-launch checklist

Before launching, validate that each component – Purpose, Audience, Intention, Design – is clearly defined and aligned. This consistency keeps your campaigns on-brand while allowing creativity to flourish.

Real-time adjustment

Use the framework during execution to guide decisions and make adjustments. If a campaign isn’t performing as expected, revisit the checklist to ensure each component is on track.

Post-campaign review

Incorporate the Evaluation phase to measure outcomes against original intentions and strategic objectives, creating a feedback loop that informs your next campaign.

How ANATOMY fits into the marketing workflow

The ANATOMY framework operates at the tactical level, bridging the gap between strategy and execution:

Top-level

Brand strategy and marketing strategy – Set the vision, mission, positioning, and long-term goals.

Mid-level

ANATOMY Framework – Translate strategic intent into actionable steps.

Bottom-level

Campaign Execution and Creative Development – Apply ANATOMY to shape practical actions, from content creation to channel selection.

The benefits of using ANATOMY

By applying ANATOMY, you gain several key advantages:

Clarity and focus

By starting with why, you ensure every campaign is grounded in your strategic goals, avoiding scattered tactics.

Improved engagement

Tailoring actions to your target audience results in stronger connections and more meaningful interactions.

Measurable outcomes

Setting intentions helps track progress and demonstrates the campaign’s ROI.

Continuous adaptation

Insights from the Evaluation phase help refine future campaigns, making your marketing efforts smarter and more effective over time.

 Applying ANATOMY in real-world campaigns

At chicken/egg, we integrate ANATOMY into all aspects of campaign planning. Here’s how we use it:

Discovery sessions

Define the Purpose, Audience, and Intention from the outset to lay a strong foundation.

Creative development

Guide content and messaging development using the framework to ensure alignment with strategic goals.

Execution

Use the ANATOMY checklist to stay on track during the campaign.

Review and refinement

After the campaign, assess the results and extract insights for continuous improvement.

Bring purpose to your marketing.

In a world where strategic vision alone isn’t enough, ANATOMY empowers brands to bring their strategies to life through intentional, purposeful actions. By integrating this framework into your marketing, you can ensure every action serves a purpose, every message resonates, and every outcome supports your strategic goals.

Are you ready to transform your campaigns from planning to execution? Let’s hatch a plan!

 

PS: We have created an easy to use ANATOMY framework checklist – you can download a copy here:

Anatomy methodology_checklist

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