Salesforce’s AI-Focused Brand Campaign Has a Lot of Questions

Salesforce is not new to artificial intelligence (AI), having used the technology through its platform in various ways for the last decade. But, as with most tech companies, it has faced a surge in interest from customers in recent months, asking about the potential and pitfalls of generative AI (GenAI).

Those questions are now part of a new brand campaign, “Ask More of AI,” led by Salesforce pitchman and ambassador Matthew McConaughey.

The company’s first major announcement in the generative space came in March with Einstein GPT. Sales GPT and Service GPT followed that.

“We see a little bit of a gold rush mentality happening in the market,” said Colin Fleming, evp of brand and marketing for Salesforce. With the new offerings, Fleming says b-to-b brand is “applying Gen AI into the use cases that people trust us for right in their companies.”

The questions we ask are not meant to stoke fear, but just meant to shine a light.

Colin Fleming, EVP, brand and marketing, Salesforce

“The big important part of this,” Fleming told Adweek, “is the idea of trust. We do believe that a lot of the startups and a lot of the companies have been throwing caution to the wind and really not considering what CIOs care about: data integrity, trust and residency. That’s where we feel like our investments have really helped us along the way and really created some space for us in the market.”

Fleming and McConaughey spent time learning about GenAI and writing a list of their questions, which became a part of the “Ask More of AI” campaign.

“We realized that GenAI is all about asking questions. But are we asking the right ones?” he mused.

A series of three tongue-in-cheek 15-second spots focus on questions that should be asked about data and privacy security. They each see the Academy Award-winning actor step into a different environment—be it a Wild West town or a forest filled with magic and fantastic imagery—as he is prompted to ask something about the impact of AI technology.

The first spot, “AI Sheriff,” wonders who is looking after us, while “Data Forrest” is about data privacy and the latest, titled “Self Aware Squirrel,” questioning movement towards the singularity.

The ads have been released in the U.S., but the campaign will be rolled out globally with less reliance on McConaughey and more supplementary content.

“We are trying to be very thoughtful about ensuring that the questions we ask are not meant to stoke fear, but just meant to shine a light on where we think the direction should be going,” explained Fleming, who also revealed that he uses ChatGPT with his daughter, writing bedtime stories.

The spots were developed in-house by the Salesforce marketing team, allowing the company to produce ads quickly to meet emerging business trends. The slightly unreal and inauthentic feel was intentionally added in post-production.

The use of GenAI visual effects is something the company has begun to explore, including testing what a Gen AI-created McConaughey would look like, although Fleming doubts the results will ever see the light of day.

“There’s a lot of advancement that has still to come in the generative video market. It’s not fully there yet. But we’ve learned a lot, and we think of that to do with the campaign,” he said.

B-to-b marketing continues to resemble b-to-c from both the creative side and the media buying and planning. Fleming, who’s spent more than 12 years at Salesforce and has b-to-c marketing background, says that is no accident. (Fun fact: before marketing, Fleming was a professional race driver for Red Bull.)

“We’re selling to humans. We’re selling to people. Businesses are writing the checks, but these are humans,” said Fleming of his customers. “We know that the tendencies of consumers are the same as business buyers, so we have tried to level the playing field in how we approach briefs and how we approach the work we put forth.”