Why Every Marketing Team Needs an AI Sandbox

As the CMO of Snoball, I’m constantly thinking about how to make my team more efficient and creative without burning them out. One of the best ways we’ve achieved this balance, or tried to, is by creating what we call an "AI Sandbox"—a space where our team can experiment, test, and implement new AI tools to make our work easier, faster, and better. 

If you're leading a marketing team, providing an AI sandbox for your team might be one of the smartest decisions you’ll make. It encourages creativity, automation, and innovation while freeing up time for high-value activities that drive real business growth. Let's dive into why this concept is so powerful and how it can transform your marketing efforts.

• Start with the Tasks You Hate
• Automate or Augment
• Peek Inside Our Team Sandbox
• Creating More Options for Faster Iteration
• The Chaos of Experimentation
• Building a Culture of Learning
• Keeping Human Touch in an AI World
• Embrace the AI Sandbox

Start with the Tasks You Hate

Let’s be honest, marketing involves its fair share of mundane tasks—things like generating YouTube or Instagram video descriptions, picking the right hashtags, or figuring out the best SEO-friendly keywords. These repetitive tasks can end up taking much longer than you'd expect, eating into time that could be spent on more creative or strategic work. 

The beauty of AI is that it thrives on these repetitive, rule-based tasks. It can handle everything from quickly generating video descriptions and relevant hashtags to summarizing video transcripts, giving your team more time to focus on things that actually require human creativity and intuition. At Snoball, we actively encourage our team to identify these types of pain points—the tasks they find boring—and then seek out AI tools that can either automate or augment them.

This has been a game-changer for us, allowing our team to focus on high-value tasks like connecting with clients or creating more engaging content.

Automate or Augment

AI is often seen as something that automates boring tasks, but it can do so much more. At Snoball, we don’t just use AI to cut down on time-consuming work; we also use it to spark creativity. One of the coolest things we’ve noticed in our AI sandbox is how these tools can become creative partners.

Pro Tip:

Use AI, like Chat GPT, as a brainstorming tool to provide your team with a variety of different ideas.

Think about it. Your team is constantly creating content—social posts, blogs, video scripts, email campaigns. AI tools can help here by generating multiple versions of an idea, suggesting new angles, or iterating on a creative concept in ways that a human brain might not think of right away. Instead of replacing human creativity, AI augments it, giving your team a jumping-off point or fresh inspiration.

For example, Tori, on the Snoball marketing team, uses AI to generate several subject lines for our email newsletters. Once she has a few good options, she sends them over Slack so the team can vote on their favorite one. It’s a fast, collaborative way to get the best subject line out the door without wasting time on endless revisions. This process not only speeds up decision-making but also gives us a broader range of ideas to choose from.

Peek Inside Our Team Sandbox

We’ve tested quite a few tools in our AI sandbox, and the results have been both exciting and enlightening. Here are some specific examples of experiments we’ve tried:

1. Video Editing with Descript

One of the time-saving tools we've embraced is Descript, a video editing tool that automatically removes filler words like "um" and "ah" from videos. The results have been fantastic and have significantly sped up our video editing process. 

2. Opus Clip for Short-Form Content

We’ve used Opus Clip to extract short, engaging segments from our longer video content. It helps us find the most shareable parts quickly, which is a huge win. We’ve even experimented with adding AI-generated inserts or stock video directly in Opus Clip. The results? A bit random and unpredictable, but still worth playing with as we refine the process.

3. Branded Comic Books

Chad, one of our marketers, has been experimenting with AI to create a Snoball hero character in comic book form. He’s been posting these comic strips on social media, adding a little personality and fun to our brand. While it’s still in the testing phase, and we’re not yet sure if it will drive meaningful engagement, it’s been a really fun project that’s helping us stand out.

4. Fathom for Meeting Summaries

Fathom is another tool we’ve tested, particularly for recording team meetings and pulling out key action items. It’s been useful in remote 1:1 meetings as well, where it automatically adds templates to the notes to capture specific discussion points, like tasks to work on or career progress. Unfortunately, after the free version, we found that the premium version wasn’t within budget for our whole team, and the free version didn’t meet our needs well enough to continue using it.

5. Tools for Video Enhancement

Kaitlyn, another marketer on our team, has been using AI video-enhancing tools to clean up low-quality customer testimonials. This has included everything from improving the video quality to stabilizing shaky footage. The improvements have really streamlined her video editing process, allowing her to enhance low quality video testimonials recorded from less-than-ideal webcams.

6. Snoball Marketing Amigo — Our Team Chatbot

One of the most successful AI experiments we’ve had is the creation of a custom chatbot for our marketing team, powered by ChatGPT. We call it Snoball Marketing Amigo.

I’ve uploaded all our flyers, webpages, ideal customer profiles (ICPs), branding information, and messaging guides into it, so that all content created through the chatbot stays true to our voice and tone. This has really helped ensure our marketing materials stay consistent and on-brand, saving time in content creation and review.

These are just a few examples of the AI tools we’ve played around with. Some have delivered excellent results, while others are still evolving. But the freedom to experiment in our AI sandbox has been invaluable.

Creating More Options for Faster Iteration

One of the frustrations of creative work is that sometimes it feels like there’s never enough time to iterate and explore all the possible options. You might have a great idea, but you only have time to pursue one or two versions of it. AI changes that dynamic by allowing your team to generate multiple options quickly.

This rapid iteration process has freed up more time for other important tasks like podcasting, case study interviews, and building partner relationships —the human-to-human elements of marketing that are irreplaceable. By letting AI handle the repetitive and time-intensive tasks, we’ve created more space for deeper, more meaningful work.

The Chaos of Experimentation

Let’s not sugarcoat it: giving your team an AI sandbox can sometimes feel chaotic. As marketers, we’re used to processes and systems that are smooth, predictable, and well-documented. But when you let your team experiment with AI, those processes are going to morph—often in real-time.

At Snoball, we’ve embraced this chaos. Instead of trying to maintain rigid structures, we encourage the team to think of themselves as kids in a sandbox. It’s about playing, exploring, and not being afraid to get a little messy. Sure, there are moments where things feel a bit chaotic as new tools are introduced and workflows shift mid-flight, but the payoff is worth it.

By creating a culture that encourages experimentation, we’ve uncovered tools and workflows that save us massive amounts of time. We’ve also discovered creative ways to solve old problems. It’s a learning process, but one that results in a more agile and innovative team.

Building a Culture of Learning

One of the side effects of creating an AI sandbox is that it naturally fosters a culture of continuous learning. Your team is going to come across tools and ideas they’ve never seen before. They’ll have to experiment, fail, and try again. And in doing so, they’ll learn a lot—not just about AI, but about the marketing process itself.

At Snoball, we’ve seen our team’s mindset shift over time. They’re more open to testing new ideas, quicker to embrace technology, and less afraid of failure. The sandbox gives them the freedom to try something out, see if it works, and pivot if it doesn’t. This learning culture is invaluable, especially in a fast-paced marketing world where trends and technologies are constantly evolving.

Keeping Human Touch in an AI World

The fear of AI replacing humans is a common one, but it’s not the reality. AI is a tool, not a replacement for the human touch. In marketing, relationships matter. Storytelling, emotional connection, and personal engagement are still the most powerful ways to connect with customers.

By freeing up time through automation, we’ve been able to focus more on these human elements. For example, we now have more time to engage on social media platforms, particularly LinkedIn, where authentic connections with industry peers, prospects, and partners are key. Rather than being bogged down by manual tasks, our team can spend more time interacting with our audience, sharing insights, and building relationships with potential clients. This has helped us nurture a stronger presence on platforms like LinkedIn, where many of our ideal customers spend their time.

We’ve also been able to focus on generating more reviews on platforms like G2 and Capterra. By automating repetitive marketing tasks, we can dedicate more time to reputation management, ensuring we’re actively requesting and managing reviews from our happy customers. This not only boosts our brand's visibility but also builds trust with potential customers researching us online.

Another great benefit of AI-driven efficiency is our ability to incorporate more human content into our materials. We’ve had more time to schedule video interviews with our CEO, COO, CRO, and members of our sales team, and we’re able to weave these video clips into articles, landing pages, and social posts. It’s allowed us to add a personal touch to our content, showcasing the faces behind Snoball and building stronger emotional connections with our audience. This kind of content resonates more with potential clients and makes our messaging feel more authentic.

We’ve also been able to dedicate more time to building and nurturing relationships with our partners. One of the best ways we’ve done this is by co-producing webinars with industry experts, getting us in front of more people who fit our Ideal Customer Profile (ICP). These webinars have become an incredible tool for thought leadership and driving engagement, all while leveraging our team’s personal expertise and relationships. Without the time freed up by AI, we would have struggled to dedicate resources to these high-touch initiatives.

In short, AI isn’t here to take over your team’s jobs. It’s here to make their jobs easier, so they can spend more time doing what they’re best at—connecting with people, generating valuable content, and building relationships.

Embrace the AI Sandbox

Providing an AI sandbox for your marketing team might feel like a leap, but trust me, it’s one worth taking. By encouraging your team to play, experiment, and automate the tasks they don’t like, you’ll not only boost productivity but also creativity. Yes, it can be chaotic at times, and processes will shift, but the outcome is a team that’s more agile, more innovative, and more engaged.

In today’s marketing landscape, where technology is evolving at a breakneck pace, giving your team the tools to stay ahead of the curve isn’t just a nice-to-have—it’s essential. So, get your team in the sandbox, toss in some AI toys, give them a little space, and see what time saving new processes or creative ideas they come up with.