May 9, 2025 What Manufacturers Can Learn from M&E’s Use of AI

M&E leads with AI-driven marketing – manufacturers can follow suit to personalize content, boost engagement, and drive growth.

by Dave Liu, Head of M&E Consulting, EPAM Systems Inc.

Leading Media and Entertainment (M&E) brands leverage Artificial Intelligence (AI) to deliver personalized content and experiences that enhance customer engagement. AI is transitioning from experimental to table stakes in this industry as top brands use AI to improve market research, automate routine tasks and individualize content. Netflix, for example, uses AI to provide users with personalized recommendations for movies and shows, with the majority of users discovering new TV shows via the platform’s recommendation system. The M&E industry is at the forefront of AI-led marketing, and manufacturers should take a page out of their playbook.

Typically, most would never associate these two industries together. However, despite the apparent differences, companies within both sectors share many of the same goals—namely, growing their customer base and generating revenue. Both industries also rely on marketing efforts to accomplish these two objectives. While M&E companies are B2C/B2B and manufacturing B2B focused, customers in these sectors crave personalized content and experiences that speak directly to their needs, preferences and challenges. AI-led marketing, like with M&E, can be the difference maker for manufacturers.

Using AI for Segmented Marketing

Manufacturer marketing is mainly B2B marketing, with manufacturers selling complex products that cause sales cycles to be longer than most other industries. Marketing efforts target different entities, from business end-users to wholesalers and retailers. Purchasing decisions also involve multiple stakeholders, from engineers to procurement teams. According to research from Challenger, complex purchases with high price points involve large groups of stakeholders, 11.2 individuals on average. Customers want to buy from manufacturers who understand their challenges and offer solutions that meet their needs. Nevertheless, keeping these facts straight to ensure the right content goes to the correct customer can be tedious and error-ridden.

M&E companies excel at customer segmentation and targeting, using AI to process vast amounts of data to uncover and isolate key user differences. Manufacturing marketers can likewise use AI to analyze enormous amounts of customer data and then organize it by industry, specific business needs, budget recruitments, number of decision-makers, etc. AI algorithms can even evaluate customers based on these factors to determine if they are high-potential leads, allowing marketers to prioritize resources.

Data is a gold mine, and the insights gained from customer data, preferences and behaviors fuel more sophisticated advertising and content models. In the M&E industry, marketers leverage AI to generate advertisements and trailers based on individual user preferences, demographics and behaviors. Manufacturing marketers can do the same by utilizing AI tools to curate and enhance content to appeal to distinct customer archetypes, whether technical leadership pieces and case studies or explainer videos and webinars. Advanced AI analytics tools can also review past trends to predict future customer behavior and requirements, helping marketers prepare new campaigns accordingly.   

Engaging with Customers at the Right Time

Manufacturer marketing emphasizes long-term relationships where trust grows steadily. They nurture leads over weeks to months, sometimes years. Just as marketers use AI to segment customers based on buying behaviors, business needs, budget constraints, and other characteristics, they can also use it to group customers by their stage or position along the buyer’s journey.

The M&E industry is proficient at delivering relevant content in a timely and context-aware manner. Consider how frustrating it would be for a Netflix user binge-watching a TV series to get bombarded with suggestions for other shows after the end of a nail-biting cliffhanger. This person wants to watch the next episode, not explore other series. In the same way, a manufacturing customer would become upset if they were unsure about the pricing of a certain product but received an email asking them to watch a video explaining the product’s features. In this scenario, the content is utterly irrelevant to the customer’s current roadblock, causing frustration.

To prevent this problem, marketers must map out the customers’ buyer journey, noting when to deploy emails, social messaging and other targeted outreach to have the most optimal effect. From there, marketers can use AI to support marketing efforts throughout the entire sales cycle, delivering relevant, helpful, and time-sensitive content exactly when the customer needs it to push them to the next stage in the buyer’s journey and, ultimately, across the finish line.

For example, AI enhances email marketing, allowing marketers to deliver content at the right time to the right audience. It also helps personalize content and make suggestions for marketers based on the customer’s position along the buyer’s journey, saving time while boosting conversation rates and return on investment. Additionally, AI-powered advertisements and content recommendations tailored to the customer’s buyer journey are essential for higher engagement and conversion rates. AI is also a crucial part of the marketing feedback loop. Manufacturers use AI to perform sentiment analysis (e.g., gauging when customers are unhappy based on app store feedback) and make appropriate improvements.

Becoming More Competitive 

The M&E industry and its use of AI serve as a helpful guide for manufacturer marketers, showing them how to enhance their capabilities, streamline daily tasks and focus on more complex, strategic initiatives. AI empowers manufacturers to position themselves as trusted sources of valuable, accessible information, delivering in-depth content that resonates with industry experts and decision-makers. Like leaders in the M&E space, those manufacturing companies willing to embrace AI-driven marketing will also position themselves as frontrunners.

About the Author:
Dave Liu is a seasoned entrepreneur, investor, author and Wall Street veteran with over 30 years of experience. Leading the North America Media and Entertainment Consulting practice at EPAM, Dave helps engineer the future of media & entertainment by driving innovative solutions in revenue optimization, data intelligence and digital media supply chains. A former Managing Director at Jefferies, Dave advised leading tech and media companies on M&A and IPOs during his 25-year finance career. He has since co-founded multiple ventures, advised global companies like TikTok and championed diversity in business. Dave is also the author of The Way of the Wall Street Warrior and a proud graduate of the University of Pennsylvania.

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