Here’s what we quickly came to realize about AI:

It’s just a tool.

Period.

A good one? Sure. The best that humanity has ever created? Possibly. Yet, it’s a tool nonetheless. And like any other tool created throughout our 200,000 year existence, AI can, and should be thought of as nothing more than an extension of the person wielding it. As a means for augmenting our innate human abilities. As a machine for enhancing our intrinsic intelligence. And, as a weapon to wield when crafting our latest B2B advertising campaign. Wink. Wink.

You see, instead of giving up and giving in to our would-be robot overlords, we decided to make AI the newest, nerdiest member of our creative team. To supercharge our talents with its huge power and potential.

Because, after all, who better to help us craft a cheeky cautionary tale about AI than, well, AI?

Our “Ask More of AI” creative idea challenged business leaders to question AI more thoughtfully and thoroughly before rushing blindly into implementation.

Because to Ask More of AI is to use your influence to ensure that AI is done right.

To expect more of the technology itself, of the companies we partner with, and of ourselves.

Asking more of AI is a challenge and it's an expression of optimism.

It's about building a future where AI solves more problems than it creates.

It’s why our campaign posed tough questions to encourage contemplation before AI implementation.

And it’s why we used AI creatively to cut through the noise to ensure our message was heard.

After all, when we Ask More of AI, we do right by our companies, our employees, our customers, and our communities alike.

Our strategic approach was to engage business decision-makers (BDMs) before they were in the active buying cycle and drive their awareness of Salesforce’s unique position in the AI space. So, we began by conducting desk and quantitative research to gauge key concerns they had around AI. This initial research yielded the breakthrough insight we termed the “Trust Gap.”

Additionally, we conducted focus groups with both customers and prospects and identified the subjects they cared about most: accuracy, security, privacy, control, and the responsible use of AI.

With these findings, we were able to empathize with our target, and distill their most pressing concerns into a series of insightful, meaningful questions that would empower them to “Ask More of AI”.

Harnessing the power of generative AI in the production of our campaign was never a question, since AI itself was the subject matter at hand. The only real questions were ‘how’ and ‘why’?

Well, we started by challenging ourselves to become engineers as well as artists. With AI as our trusty co-pilot, we were able to augment our team’s collective creative talents, and reinvent our approach to craft throughout the entire production process.

Then, by asking juuuuust the right questions of our AI sidekicks allowed us to tap into the inherently absurd daydreams of AI, helping us to create a global campaign of striking and slightly strange visuals that compelled our audience to pause. To ponder. And to ultimately provoke them into questioning the content of the ads themselves, wherever they were.

The “Ask More of AI” (AMOAI) campaign’s impact was profound. The strategic campaign line has been used globally as our company’s AI rallying cry. Our “Trust Gap” insight was adopted by global publications like the Wall Street Journal. Its worldwide impact on our audience amassed over 2.5 billion quality impressions across channels frequented by business decision makers. And AMOAI videos boasted a 95% average video completion rate.

Our global campaign pages surged with over 465,000 visits. Strategic media placements during prime-time sporting events like Sunday Night Football and Big 10 College Football drove a 157% increase in organic site visits and 193% in engagement with primary on-page CTAs. Notably, visits were primarily from prospects, signaling successful awareness-building efforts.

This earned Salesforce a 2x boost in brand association, the largest awareness increase in company history among our target audience, and ADWEEK’s “B2B Brand of the Year” award in 2024.