Stealth Ads: How Brands Use AI to Blend Marketing into Content

With the constant rise of global capitalism in almost every field, the need to promote products is also at its peak. For that, businesses adopt various marketing tactics, one of which is Stealth ads.

If you don’t know, Stealth ads are ads that are shown to you, but you are not consciously aware they were meant to market. This is done so smoothly by blending promotional material into any content that it almost goes unnoticed.

You can say it is an art of marketing to people without them realising they are being marketed to. And because it is done from behind the curtain, it is also guerilla marketing.

You may also know it by other names, such as buzz advertising, ambush marketing, or viral marketing.

How exactly do Stealth Ads work?

You’ve probably been exposed to stealth advertising tactics many times without even realizing it. Here are some real-life examples of how that happens

A movie or song shows a branded car scene. James Bond is usually seen driving Aston Martin.

image via Google

A TV or movie character driving or using a product whose brand name is clearly visible. One example was when a cup of Starbucks was kept on the table in the famous TV series. However, as the series was based on historical events, this marketing stunt almost created controversy as Starbucks is a modern brand.

Any famous personality or influencer publicly using a branded product without explicitly mentioning it is sponsored. Paparazzi several times spotted Kylie Jenner holding a Starbucks coffee cup in hand

image via here

Any tweet or social media post indirectly mentions a product in a meme. Sometimes, Duolingo tweets jokes about learning a new language without promoting its app.

A fitness freak wearing “Nike shoes but not explicitly asking the audience to buy them. For instance, A famous fitness coach, Joe Wick, often posts photos wearing branded shoes, though not advertising.

image source: Instagram

A celebrity casually walks out of any restaurant holding their branded prop.

How Brands Use AI to Blend Sealth ads in content marketing

Finding the Right Influencer Using AI

When it comes to influencer marketing, most businesses prefer to market their brands through influencers who exactly or somehow belong to their niche.

So that when they refer to a product, it feels natural and not forced on the audience.

For this, they have AI software in place to do the research, fetching the most relevant influencers.

AI software CreatorIQ is one example of discovering the right influencer for a brand’s marketing.

 AI optimised Native Advertising

Businesses want to know what people watch, search or read. It’s like tracking their every move so that they can place their ads into the right feeds.

AI helps mostly in using such search patterns and user volume searches.

Social media algorithms are one of the examples which show you mostly content you have shown interest in or interacted with.

This was about social media.

Because this makes ads look like what people need and not something irrelevant, businesses adopt it as a stealth strategy, recommending products on their websites or apps using AI algorithms.

AI softwares like Taboola and Outbrain helps businesses analyse user behaviour based on previous searches or interactions and recommend articles that feel more like organic content than ads.

 AI in VR and AR

AR and VR help businesses promote their product even when a user is randomly scrolling through their social app camera.

Instagram and Snapchat collaborate with companies to let you try on products virtually on your face or in your space.

Even when you were not actually looking for it, these augmented reality features make you almost so invested in them that you almost forget to notice t that this product is being marketed to you.

This is why most of this marketing tactic fall under stealth advertising.

AI helps businesses create AR and VR versions of their products and incorporate them in the platform etch to show users how they appear in real-time so it becomes more obvious to show interest without directly asking them to “Buy it.”

That’s it

We hope you found the information helpful. For more such marketing and AI articles, you can subscribe to our blog.

Also, if you are looking for a digital marketing company in London for your marketing projects, you can contact us. Thank you!