A successful partnership between corporations and nonprofits should involve more than minimal sponsorship. Too often, corporate partners sign up to give advice and approve content but never put up the dollars to campaign successfully for the change they claim to be seeking. Expecting a nonprofit to front the marketing and communications costs at the level and reach needed to make a real impact is unrealistic.

Bob Fitzgerald is the creative director at US-based independent marketing and communications agency Boathouse. He discusses with Transform the branding scene in Massachusetts, the challenges of modern design and how the city of Waltham inspires his work.

Boathouse Creative Director, Social Strategy and Content Geoff Gates recently participated in a panel at PR Daily's Social Media Virtual Summit titled How AI is Reshaping Social.

There’s an urgent need to address ethical considerations in AI implementation within social media due to its pervasive influence on content, opinions, and user actions.

Bob Fitzgerald is a creative director for Boathouse, a full-service integrated marketing and communications agency in Boston, where he “humbly cuts through the bullshit.”

“Influencer engagement is a natural extension of our communications and organic social capabilities, both of which are critical parts of our mix. We expect that it will give us an even more competitive offer and, more important, give our clients a greater competitive advantage in their marketing,” Peter Prodromou, Boathouse president and leader of the company’s strategic communications capability told Adweek.

Your CEO and/or president has declared their vision and goals. You've taken them in, been energized by them, and envisioned a strategy that you believe serves those goals.

AI can index company narratives relative to strategy, opportunities, and threats, and create benchmarks to watch over time related to sentiment, intensity, and impressions. Ultimately these can be tied back to ROI and stakeholder value that move past typical marketing performance metrics or traditional brand metrics.

Marketers have a missed opportunity around what John Connors, founder and president of Boathouse, calls performance artificial intelligence (AI). It's a focus that brands and agencies are missing out on. Generative gets all the attention, the shiny object, but "it's just a fancy bar trick."

By now we’re all overwhelmed by the ever-changing discussion of AI and its implications in our professional and personal lives. We ought to focus on what kind of opportunity AI creates for us, as communications and marketing professionals, and how we can advance the ball for clients.