Transformation of Advertising and Promotion Practices with Artificial Intelligence: New Concepts, New Interactions

The session titled “Advertising, Promotion and Artificial Intelligence on Online Platforms” held within the scope of the 2nd International Artificial Intelligence and Hypermedia Symposium offered a rich discussion area on how artificial intelligence is positioned in the promotion and advertising leg of communication sciences. The session was moderated by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Banu Barış, Res. Asst. Selin Akınç Akpınar and Beyza Şen.

News: Deniz Feyza Tokdemir

The participants' different disciplinary approaches ranging from academic thesis reviews to field observations, from semiotic analyses to social media analytics revealed the transformation of advertising in a multifaceted way.

From Theses to Trends: What Do Advertising and Artificial Intelligence Archives Say?

Asst. Member İpek Krom, in her presentation at the opening of the session, examined postgraduate theses written in the field of social sciences in Turkey in the context of the relationship between artificial intelligence and advertising using the document analysis method. The study evaluated academic trends through a historical reading by revealing how artificial intelligence was integrated into advertising literature; which topics came to the fore in which years, and how research methods evolved.

Similarly, the bibliometric analysis presented by Lecturer Dr. Mehmet Yalçınkaya statistically analyzed the intersection points of theses on public relations and advertising with artificial intelligence. These two presentations made important contributions that questioned the field's academic production practice based on data and created a knowledge map.

Influencers, Phenomena, and Artificial Personalities: New Promotion Actors

In their presentations on influencer marketing, a rising strategy in digital advertising, Samir Ibayev and Utku Sobay evaluated how social media influencers are positioned in the context of artificial intelligence-supported content production. This presentation, which drew attention in topics such as user interaction, perception management and content accuracy, brought up the discussions on whether marketing is more effective with human touch or automation.

The presentation, which looked at the concept of influencer from another perspective, was made by Res. Asst. Sena Conkoğlu and Assoc. Prof. Hediye Aydoğan. In their presentation, how virtual influencer figures create an “illusion of relationship” on users was analyzed through user comments. The analysis presented here opened up the question of whether the sense of trust arising from interaction is possible even with virtual characters.

Sıla Yüzgülen and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Hıdır Polat examined another promotional strategy rising in the digital environment, namely child influencers. In this study, conducted with the semiotic analysis method, it was discussed in detail how the use of children as advertising faces is represented in visual culture and with which indicators it is given meaning. The presentation, which was also evaluated from the perspective of ethical questions and children's rights, received great interest especially from the audience.

Traces of Artificial Intelligence in Corporate Social Media
Lecturer İsmail Düger examined the corporate social media accounts of universities and presented examples of how artificial intelligence is used on these platforms. In a wide range of uses from content planning to visual optimization, from automatic response systems to user questions to data analysis, how academic institutions construct their digital identities and the effects of this process on transparency and interaction levels were discussed.

The New Marketing Reality: Based on Artificial Intelligence, Human-Centric?

The presentations made throughout the session revealed that artificial intelligence is not just a tool; it has become an actor that redefines the language, strategy and moral boundaries of advertising. The question of “Data-driven personalization or ethical responsibility?” was addressed from different perspectives in many papers.

In addition, it was emphasized that artificial intelligence affects the entire process from the production of advertising messages to communication with the consumer; that an interaction model based on human-machine-human, not human-human, has emerged in new generation promotion strategies.

The content presented in this session created a multi-layered and interdisciplinary discussion environment where predictions about the future of advertising were shaped. It was once again emphasized that AI-supported advertising is not only a technical revolution; it is also a social, cultural and ethical transformation.