Featured in Digiday: Kelly Dye on the Rise of AI in Product Placements

This blog summarizes an article from Digiday, published on January 21, 2025.

SEATTLE, WA - The future of influencer marketing might look a little different—AI is transforming how brands approach product placement.

In a recent Digiday feature, Kelly Dye, New Engen’s VP of Influencer Strategy, shared insights on how AI tools are reshaping product placement and influencer marketing. The article explores the rise of virtual product placement technologies that allow brands to integrate their products into movies, TV shows, and influencer content seamlessly—even after the initial filming.

Dye highlighted how AI can enhance influencer marketing strategies by personalizing content, cutting production costs, and creating evergreen campaigns. She offered a thought-provoking example:

"Imagine a Mars Wrigley ad virtually placed in an influencer's empty drawer, tailored to viewer preferences and seasonal trends."

Despite the promise, Dye noted potential hurdles, including upfront costs, ethical considerations, and authenticity concerns. She emphasized the importance of ensuring content remains relatable and not overly polished, adding that creators may feel less ownership over AI-enhanced content.

As the industry begins to explore these tools, some verticals—such as fashion, beauty, and home—are naturally suited to experiment with AI product placement. Dye predicts that the future success of this technology will depend on performance metrics and its ability to maintain trust between brands, creators, and audiences.

Read the original article on Digiday: Agencies have mixed feelings about using AI tools for product placements and influencer marketing.

About Digiday

Digiday is a media company and community for digital media, marketing, and advertising professionals. We cover the industry with expertise, depth, and tone you won't find anywhere else. The Digiday team strives to produce the highest quality publications, conferences, and resources for our industry. Digiday is a Digiday Media brand.

About Acorn

Acorn, an influencer marketing solution from New Engen, is a leading and innovative creator marketing solution that generates genuine relationships between consumers, shoppers, creators, and brands by curating and amplifying actionable content. Their integrated influencer network, technology, and campaign solutions are the choice of more than 50 of the world's leading advertisers, including household names like General Mills, Mondeléz, Coca-Cola & more. From influencer curation to content development, media deployment and measurement, Acorn Influence has developed a seamless process to create maximum impact and drive accountable growth. They drive client satisfaction by anticipating their needs, constantly bringing new opportunities to their attention, and through seamless, agile execution.


About New Engen

New Engen is a digital marketing agency driving impact for brands across every phase of the customer journey – maximizing it, measuring it, and repeating it. Through a collective passion for building brands, a relentless desire to challenge the status quo, and deep digital expertise across hundreds of brands and verticals, we put our clients on the cutting edge of what’s possible in digital marketing.

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