About the Episode
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About the Episode:
#NotJustaCadburyAd with Shah Rukh Khan
Mallory Willsea sits down with Erin Fields, Marketing Director at Ologie (and former Enrollify team member), to explore the shifting role of AI video in higher education marketing. Together, they dissect the creative possibilities, strategic risks, and trust considerations emerging from tools like Sora, while tackling how marketers should use AI video as an ideation engine—not a shortcut to storytelling. This conversation offers a grounded, forward-looking take on how higher ed marketers can responsibly and creatively integrate AI video into their workflows.
Key Takeaways
- AI video tools like Sora are better for ideation than execution in higher ed marketing—use them upstream to explore tone, narrative, and visual ideas quickly.
- Overly detailed prompts lead to brittle, incoherent outputs; the best AI video results often stem from simple, focused inputs.
- The real risk of AI video in higher ed isn't visual quality—it's trust erosion when audiences can’t tell what’s real and what’s generated.
- Higher ed marketers must draw clear ethical lines: AI video should never stand in for real student experiences or simulate authenticity.
- AI video unlocks faster thinking, not just faster production, shifting creative responsibility upstream to taste and judgment.
- The Cadbury India campaign is a model of ethical AI video—transparently personalized, rooted in community impact, and strategically sound.
- Sameness is a creeping threat—AI video is trained on existing visual patterns, and higher ed must resist the temptation to accept defaults.
- Marketing’s job has shifted: it’s not about making more content faster; it’s about making fewer, better bets and knowing when to stop.
Episode Summary
What is AI video actually good for in higher ed marketing?
AI video has crossed a credibility threshold—it’s now capable of creating output that's “good enough” to prompt real marketing decisions. Mallory and Erin emphasize that AI video tools like Sora are most valuable during the ideation phase, not final production. They help teams explore different tones, story structures, and visual languages quickly, giving marketers more clarity before locking in a campaign direction. Erin shares that she’s used Sora to create playful, low-stakes content internally—not to represent real student experiences, but to test what the tool can do creatively. The takeaway: AI video is best when it's used for brainstorming, not broadcasting.
Why is “taste” now more important than execution?
With AI making execution fast and cheap, taste and judgment become the new marketing superpowers. Erin argues that good creative work has never been about controlling every detail—it’s about knowing when to intervene. Trying to over-direct an AI video with too many prompt details usually results in worse outcomes. Simpler prompts often yield better results, echoing a broader shift: marketers need to know when to stop generating and start deciding. In this AI era, the temptation to endlessly iterate is real—but productivity isn't the same as progress.
Where does AI video risk eroding trust?
As AI-generated visuals become more lifelike, audiences will become less forgiving of inauthentic content, especially in higher education where credibility is key. Mallory and Erin agree: the risk isn’t that the video “looks AI”—it’s that it might quietly simulate real student experiences. And that’s a hard line higher ed cannot cross. Marketing a manufactured moment as if it were authentic undermines trust. Instead, Erin recommends using AI video as a visual sketchpad—not a reality replacement. If AI is used to extend generosity or access, like Cadbury’s campaign that uplifted local businesses, people accept it. But when it’s used to simulate connection or manufacture meaning, that’s when trust erodes.
How can higher ed marketers use AI video responsibly?
Mallory and Erin recommend drawing firm ethical boundaries. AI video should never be used to fake classroom experiences, fabricate student stories, or simplify the real, messy, non-linear nature of student journeys. Instead, schools should leverage AI tools as collaborative ideation resources, especially in the early stages of campaign development. These tools can help bring strategists and creatives into the same conversation by visualizing ideas before resources are committed. Erin calls this the “study guide effect”—AI helping to translate strategy into visual possibilities without jumping the ethical shark.
What does Cadbury’s campaign get right—and what can higher ed learn from it?
The Cadbury India campaign used AI to create over 100,000 personalized ads featuring Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan promoting local businesses. It disclosed the use of AI clearly, never pretended the videos were real interactions, and used AI to amplify generosity, not simulate experience. Erin highlights this as a gold standard: AI stayed in the background, the strategy stayed upfront, and the campaign avoided false intimacy. For higher ed, this means that transparency isn’t optional—it’s a trust signal. Your audiences don’t need to understand the tech, but they do need to believe in the integrity of the story.
What’s the future of AI video in higher ed?
Both Mallory and Erin agree: the immediate opportunity isn’t publishing AI videos—it’s using them to get smarter, faster. Sora can help marketing teams test and visualize creative directions before the cameras roll, helping teams make more confident bets. However, Erin warns that sameness is a creeping risk—AI defaults can cause visual convergence, making it harder for institutions to stand out. That’s why creative taste, restraint, and intentionality matter more than ever. As Erin says, the boundary is simple: “AI can help you imagine what a story might look like, but humans must decide what’s worth showing.”
Connect With Our Host:
Mallory Willsea
https://www.linkedin.com/in/mallorywillsea/
https://twitter.com/mallorywillsea
Enrollify is produced by Element451 — the next-generation AI student engagement platform helping institutions create meaningful and personalized interactions with students. Learn more at element451.com.
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