Christina Kyriazi, SVP of Marketing at PhotoShelter: “Staying ahead of the marketing curve is a constant sprint”

It’s a message we’ve heard before, but Christina Kyriazi, SVP of Marketing at PhotoShelter, paints it in giant red letters: embrace AI, marketers, or your career is in jeopardy. And she has the data to prove it thanks to a study that explored how marketers are currently using AI: “[Our] data shows that 86% of AI users have higher levels of job satisfaction, with many agreeing that those who don’t embrace AI now, will be left behind.”

Take heed, because PhotoShelter – a digital asset management platform designed to help creative brands, organisations and individual photographers – is itself embedded into the marketing world. “We pride ourselves on listening to our fellow marketers to bring them a product that makes their lives easier,” explains Christina.

Unusually, then, this interview isn’t merely about big picture thinking. Christina shares practical advice on using AI now, including the fact that it isn’t perfect: it’s a huge time-saver, but you still need to apply your human expertise and judgement. Read on for the details, and much more besides.

Why Dust or Magic? That stems from a quote by legendary American advertising creative director, William Bernbach: “An idea can turn to dust or magic, depending on the talent that rubs against it.” (And if you’re wondering where you’ve heard the name, Bernbach was the inspiration behind Don Draper of Mad Men fame.)

Could you please introduce yourself to our audience? What motivated you to pursue a career in marketing, and how did you embark on your journey in this field? 

I’m currently the Senior Vice President of Marketing at PhotoShelter, the leading digital asset management solution that helps you organise, manage, distribute, instantly share, and collaborate with your team on digital content.

I had a non-traditional path into marketing and started my career in analytics and customer insights. I found my way into marketing through an initial switch to product marketing where I tied together my excitement for data and the creative aspect of marketing to lead teams that were challenged to position tech solutions for complex and highly regulated industries. 

Over my career, I’ve worked at various B2B SaaS companies such as Flexential, Passport and Ekos and I’ve found a deep passion for data-driven marketing that puts the customer at the front of every decision. One could say I’m obsessed with not only achieving results but analysing them too. I love diving further into the why behind a decision and this has really allowed me to bring a differentiated perspective to the companies I work with. 

Now, at PhotoShelter, I’ve brought all of this past work in data, product positioning and go-to-market strategies to help us do something unique and equally as challenging: market to marketers. We pride ourselves on listening to our fellow marketers to bring them a product that makes their lives easier. That’s something we can all relate to and it’s exciting to know we’re helping others in our field with a product we truly believe in. 

What are your thoughts on the escalating integration of AI in digital marketing and its potential influence on the future of marketing, Martech and social media?

AI has taken the world by storm and we as marketers really can’t ignore its influence. However, AI and automation still need a human touch to turn it into something valuable that reaps results. AI can seem like something great and powerful at first as it saves you time and money, but it needs a hint of personalisation in order to connect with customers. 

PhotoShelter recently launched a new study about the future of AI solutions for brand experts and marketers. Our study takes a deep dive into how marketers are currently using AI, how marketing teams plan to utilise and invest in AI tools in 2024 and how creative professionals are really feeling about the rise of AI tools. While I don’t want to give it all away, the data makes it clear that the sentiment is overwhelmingly positive. In fact, our data shows that 86% of AI users have higher levels of job satisfaction with many agreeing that those who don’t embrace AI now, will be left behind. 

There’s this sense of fear that AI will take the place of marketers as it shapes the future of marketing and social media. I just don’t think that’s true. We need to remember that marketers are the ones behind the story of AI. We are writing the story, not writing ourselves out of it.

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How do you ready yourself for an AI-driven landscape as a marketing leader? What new skills do you need? 

Having a keen eye is more important than ever. We should constantly be looking for the “low-hanging fruit” of tasks – the time sucks that should be automated. Once these are automated, marketers can put their effort and limited energy into the creative tasks that require our full attention and move the needle for our brands.

I encourage marketers to embrace tools like ChatGPT and AI imagine search to learn how to best leverage AI-powered solutions. Whether it’s to create an outline, develop some new ideas or even leverage AI to automatically tag your brand’s visual assets in an effort to streamline your workflows, these tools take half the time we do. There is no shame in using them to get started, but it’s never meant to be the final product. 

Marketing leads need to be honest with themselves about their team’s current workload. This industry is centred around urgency and constantly driving results. This is what fuels most marketers, but because of that, our time is so valuable. Why waste time on tasks that AI can do? According to our new study, 59% of marketers are leveraging AI tools for content and asset creation in their creative workflows but only 33% are utilising AI automating tasks and workflows.

One of our most popular features at PhotoShelter is our AI tagging solution, which automatically creates searchable metadata tags on any visual assets that are uploaded, making it easy and seamless for branding teams and marketers to find what they need later. Especially for companies with a large number of visual assets and various types of files, automatic tagging saves time and allows marketers to get back to the tasks that push the needle. 

Spend your time with higher-level, strategic initiatives or bouncing creative ideas off of one another. Be honest with yourself and don’t be afraid to tap into tech to support your workflows. 

Do you anticipate any significant disruptions in marketing and sales technology for 2024? If so, what?

The growth of AI will continue well into 2024 and marketers should embrace, not steer away from the uses of AI.

I think we will start to see marketers and the AI tools they use lean more towards automating processes and acting as a solution to complete mundane tasks such as asset tagging, workflow optimisation and reporting. More and more companies will start to see the benefits of AI beyond just faster copywriting and content creation, and start to utilise AI more strategically to bring creativity back into branding and marketing.

Currently, only 14% of marketers use AI for auto-tagging assets and only 22% use it to support their administrative tasks. Very few marketers are leveraging AI for automation and I believe this is the biggest opportunity for brand professionals to test in the coming year. 

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What core values have played a pivotal role in shaping your approach to marketing and communication?

My approach to marketing and communications is deeply rooted in data analysis and customer-first strategy. Customers ultimately decide whether our marketing strategies are successful. It is essential to start with a strong understanding of a customer’s needs and wants in order to build a marketing funnel that reaches the right audience.

Throughout my career, I’ve watched marketing teams struggle because other departments or leaders have been too focused on other aspects of the marketing funnel or the wrong results. Marketing teams can sometimes spend too much time trying to balance the needs of sales, customer success and product instead of leaning on the data. Marketers need to prioritise customer sentiment and use that data to inform decision-making. While it’s been a challenge at times to put the customer first, I’ve always pushed back when needed and trusted the data to guide how we pivot and strategise as a marketing and brand team. 

Another value I hold close to is recognising that learning is a lifelong experience. Marketers need to constantly be open-minded and willing to test and experiment to see what works and what doesn’t. Marketing and brand change quickly and there’s always something new to master, whether it’s a new marketing technique, trend, or even a whole new industry that has popped up. Those who are open to learning new things and exploring different ways of approaching things compared to how they’ve always done it will succeed. 

What major hurdles have you encountered as a marketing leader, and how did you surmount them?

As a marketing leader, I’ve dealt with a fair share of hurdles, and in today’s economic climate, some of those have been amplified. For example, right now, a lot of marketing budgets are either being cut or are not growing as fast as they were growing before. This leaves marketers with the challenge of figuring out how to do more with less, or how to do more with the same as they had before.

Another challenge that I (and probably every marketer) have struggled with is being able to tell what actually makes a business money, or connecting marketing activities to business results. Having a marketing infrastructure that can tie attribution to your activities versus relying solely on results is crucial and something that a lot of marketers don’t have, but could benefit from.

To solve these hurdles, I’ve strived to create systems that help me leverage data and customer feedback for stronger, and better decision-making. When budgets need to be scaled back and tough calls need to be made, leaning on customer feedback and prioritising their needs in your decision-making will help you succeed. As a leader, I always push my teams to get creative and listen to our end users to understand what makes sense to spend money on and what resources we truly need to invest in to achieve the best ROI. 

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How do you ensure you’re up to date with the latest marketing trends and technologies, and how do you integrate them into your strategies?

Staying ahead of the marketing curve is a constant sprint, and maintaining a diverse and large network is a secret weapon. As a marketing leader, I never leap into purchasing a new tool without taking a recommendation from someone else. I typically seek reviews and recommendations from my peers. Regardless, I value the guidance from those who have been in my place or have had successes in what I am striving for. 

I also try to maintain a large and diverse network – beyond just LinkedIn and the virtual world. When I have the opportunity, I enjoy attending industry conferences and events in person that allow me to meet and speak with other marketing and technology professionals face-to-face. I am also passionate about mentorship and lead some programs where I offer guidance and insights based on my career learnings. I take these mentorship opportunities as a way to see what I can learn from mentees as well. 

Another key to staying ahead of trends is to regularly peruse industry blogs and newsletters. This has always been a great way for me to keep a pulse on marketing trends and the conversations and opinions that spur from them. 

What piece of advice would you offer to fellow marketing leaders that has been particularly beneficial to you personally?

One of the most valuable pieces of advice I have received is that the best way to accelerate your career and expertise is to talk to people who have already achieved what you’re aspiring to become. This is what one of the CEOs I worked for at a fast-growing company told me. 

For example, are you trying to increase your annual recurring revenue (ARR) from $20 million to $100 million? Talk to the CMOs who have achieved that in the past few years. Or, if you’re trying to build a new category, talk to the founders and CMOs who have been there and done that. By learning from other people’s mistakes and wins, you can discover what works and what doesn’t early on. 

I quickly began reaching out to people I identified as “having been where I want to go”. I was surprised by how quickly and graciously they responded to me, and their willingness to share their knowledge. I took the opportunity to ask them about their learnings, pitfalls, and challenges they faced in their careers. I took their advice as lessons and incorporated their learnings into my personal strategies to avoid making the same mistakes.