PALM SPRINGS, CALIF. – Nissan Motor Corp.’s chief marketing officer and global brand advisor Allyson Witherspoon says artificial intelligence has moved from a side experiment to the backbone of the automaker’s marketing organization.
AI as the foundation of planning, measurement and creative
Speaking with Beet.TV at the IAB Annual Leadership Meeting, Witherspoon said AI now underpins nearly every part of Nissan’s marketing workflow, from insights and research to media planning and measurement.
“AI is kind of underpinning everything that we do,” she said, adding that it plays a growing role in creative as well.
Nissan is testing a hybrid production model that blends live action, CGI and AI to improve speed without sacrificing quality.
“Speed to market is really, really important,” Witherspoon said, noting that AI is also helping automate tasks that were once heavily manual.
She added that her team is on a rapid learning curve, even using AI itself to upskill staff.
“We’ve developed it using AI to help upskill all of us so we can be ready to use all of these tools,” she said.
Understanding audiences at scale
One of the biggest gains, according to Witherspoon, has been in audience understanding. Traditional consumer research has long struggled with limited sample sizes, but AI is changing that dynamic.
“What we’re able to do now is actually create these synthetic audiences,” she said, allowing Nissan to analyze signals across channels and marketing touchpoints at a far greater scale.
For Witherspoon, the value goes beyond efficiency.
“I don’t think AI is gonna be just about productivity or efficiency,” she said. “What we’re trying to use it for is how do we solve some of the complex challenges that we have as marketers.”
Signals shift in a changing search environment
Witherspoon also pointed to how shifts in search behavior are forcing marketers to rethink which signals matter most. Following changes to Google search and the introduction of AI overviews, she said Nissan has seen a meaningful drop in visible consumer actions.
“We’re losing about 40% of the actions that consumers are taking,” she said.
As a result, the company is focusing more on discoverability metrics across large language models and refining what it calls key buying actions, which are behaviors that historically correlate strongly with vehicle sales.
TV strategy follows the audience, not the channel
On television and streaming, Witherspoon described a media environment that is far more fragmented than in the past. The answer, she said, is not rigid channel splits but flexibility.
“We’re actually going where the audiences are and where the eyeballs are,” she said, with media mixes adjusted accordingly. Performance expectations also vary by format.
Linear TV still leans toward awareness, while connected TV allows for more precise modeling and interactivity.
“When you’re looking at connected TV, that gets you much more on the performance side,” she said.
A changing role for the modern CMO
Witherspoon closed by reflecting on how the CMO role itself is evolving.
“It’s an exciting time to be a CMO,” she said, describing the job as increasingly tied to growth, change management and technology leadership. She acknowledged the pace of change can feel daunting.
“It’s a little bit scary if I’m being totally honest,” she said, but framed that uncertainty as a positive force.
“I’m optimistic about it,” Witherspoon added. “I’m also just ready to keep being curious about what’s around the corner.”
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