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In the ever-evolving world of digital marketing, the ability to design impactful, audience-centric campaigns has become both an art and a science. By the end of 2025, AI is expected to drive 95 percent of customer interactions in some capacity.
Central to this evolution is the growing importance of prompts – carefully structured inputs that guide AI tools and systems to generate creative, targeted and data-driven outputs. By mastering the “art of prompting”, marketing professionals from chief marketing officers to brand and sales executives can augment and transform their strategies, foster deeper engagement and drive tangible results.
Why prompts matter in marketing strategy
Prompts are structured, often textual inputs that direct GenAI-powered tools to produce specific responses or outputs, acting as a bridge between prescriptive inputs by humans and AI capabilities. These inputs can range from straightforward instructions (e.g. “generate an Instagram caption for a new luxury watch”) to more specific requests (e.g. “create a five-part email sequence promoting a new sustainable fashion collection, emphasising ethical sourcing and exclusivity”).
Prompts inform, augment and/or transpose strategic marketing goals into actionable outputs by AI systems. This includes (but is not limited to) competitive analysis, online presence and SEO (search engine optimisation) audits, marketing and brand positioning, and channel strategy and execution.
Here are four ways effective prompting can help brands make their marketing campaigns sing.
1. Personalisation at scale
One of the most significant challenges in digital marketing is balancing scale with personalisation. With the right prompts, brands can create hyper-personalised campaigns tailored to different audience segments.
For instance, L’Oréal’s GenAI Beauty Content Lab, CREAITECH, has started training GenAI to recognise the unique visual codes of the brands in their portfolio, expressed in logos, imagery, styles, packaging, typography and colours. This enables the company to launch innovative campaigns faster and generate customised product recommendations for millions of users based on their individual preferences and skin types.
Then there’s the hospitality industry, which has the most potential to create significant value from AI, according to a study by McKinsey. Many operators, including Airbnb, increasingly utilise prompt engineering to power tailored travel suggestions for users. A prompt such as “generate a personalised two-day itinerary for a couple visiting Paris for the first time, emphasising romantic spots and top-rated bistros within walking distance of Le Marais” ensures that content resonates with travellers’ unique preferences. This approach has helped Airbnb achieve a 30 percent increase in click-through rates on email campaigns.
2. Speed and efficiency
Prompts significantly reduce the time and resources spent on content creation, enabling marketers to move from ideation to execution more quickly. For example, in March 2023, Coca-Cola used AI-driven tools in its “Real Magic” campaign, encouraging digital artists and consumers to create to hundreds of variations of advertising copy and visuals to suit different markets. Within minutes, more than 120,000 AI-powered pieces of content (prompted by real humans) were posted.
Similarly, Nike uses prompts to fuel dynamic campaigns tailored to local markets, particularly in outdoor advertisements. During the Paris 2024 Olympics, Nike erected AI-powered billboards in cities across the United States, Europe, South America and Asia that updated promotional messages in real time based on the latest results. Whenever an athlete featured in the campaign won an event, the billboards immediately displayed the winning athlete, mirroring the thrill and uncertainty of the Games.
Thanks to this strategy, visits to the Nike website peaked on 31 July 2024, at 2 million visitors. Of these visits, 86,900 resulted in a sale. This contrasted sharply with declines in site traffic experienced by competitors such as Adidas, Hoka and On during the same period.
3. Consistency across channels
In today’s omnichannel environment, maintaining brand voice and consistency is crucial. Prompts ensure that messaging aligns with brand values, regardless of the platform. A prompt such as “write a LinkedIn post and a corresponding Instagram caption about our new electric vehicle” ensures greater consistency while optimising content for platform-specific formats and audiences.
4. Enhanced creativity
AI tools powered by prompts can act as creative collaborators, pushing the boundaries of what marketers can imagine. Marketing and sales leaders can use prompts to explore bold, unexpected ideas that go beyond traditional campaigns. For instance, Sephora launched the Sephora Skin IQ tool, which uses AI to offer tailored beauty and skincare recommendations based on a user’s unique skin type and concerns. The tool boosted user satisfaction and Sephora’s skincare sales grew by 35 percent following its introduction.
How to craft (more) effective prompts
To unlock AI’s potential, marketing and sales leaders must learn how to craft effective prompts. Here are some key best practices:
The future of prompts
As GenAI – and more recently, agentic AI – continues to advance, the role of prompts in marketing and sales will only grow, with future opportunities including:
Beyond crafting individual prompts, organisations must also start adopting comprehensive, automated tools that manage and execute these processes simultaneously. Platforms like VSTRAT enable companies to orchestrate the entire workflow, addressing strategic challenges such as designing customer journeys tailored to specific objectives, markets and target audiences. Similarly, the Anthropic Console allows users to generate, test and evaluate the effect of prompts through a built-in prompt generator.
These tools integrate advanced analytics, prompt generation and content deployment into a seamless, easy-to-use system. By ensuring consistent and optimised messaging at scale, they empower marketing and sales teams to shift their focus from operational execution to strategic planning and creative innovation, while the platform manages execution and continuous refinement autonomously.
Whether through human or machine genius, brands that master the art of crafting and deploying prompts will stay ahead of the curve, empowering them to achieve measurable success and build long-term, personalised relationships with their audiences at scale.
A version of this article will be published in The European Business Review’s upcoming May/June 2025 edition.
is an Associate Professor of Marketing at INSEAD. He is the Co-Director of the Leading Digital Marketing Strategy and the Driving Digital Marketing Strategy programmes.
is a Senior Affiliate Professor of Marketing at INSEAD. He co-directs the Leading Digital Marketing Strategy and B2B Marketing Strategies programmes at INSEAD.
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