NotebookLM for dummies: 101 on how it could take your brand image to the next level

Marketers, we have a new development in the field of AI that could potentially change the way you manage brand image and it's none other than NotebookLM, which was previously known as Project Tailwind.

Curious to find out how a tool that is largely meant for learning might be able to help you take your brand image to the next level? Read on.

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What is NotebookLM?

NotebookLM is an experimental offering from Google Labs. It’s Google's attempt at reimagining what notetaking software might look like if you designed it from scratch knowing that you would have a powerful language model at its core: hence the LM.

With NotebookLM, you create individual notebooks dedicated to a topic or project.

You can upload up to 50 'sources' with up to 25 million words — all from things such as PDFs, Google Docs, websites and YouTube videos.

Then, NotebookLM uses Gemini 1.5’s multimodal capabilities to assess and make connections between the sources you’ve added.

You can ask questions about the content or ask NotebookLM to format it in a specific way — it will even provide citations that link back to the most relevant original passages in your sources. Along the way, your private information is never shared or used to train the model, said Google. 

How can one start with NotebookLM?

One of the first things Google suggests new NotebookLM users do is upload their 10 most recent documents into one notebook and start experimenting by asking questions.

"Even if your most recent documents are unrelated and totally random, it’s a great way to test run what NotebookLM can do. Whether you know the material in the documents down to the letter, or it’s all pretty new to you, NotebookLM will help you uncover some interesting insights," it said.

You can also use NotebookLM to connect the dots from different materials.

NotebookLM is extremely useful for situations where you need to manage, connect and synthesize information from multiple sources. NotebookLM can be especially helpful as a next step after using Gemini and Gems.

After you brainstorm or have other open-ended conversations in those tools, NotebookLM can take the results and turn them into something easy to follow.

Once you’ve added content to NotebookLM, you can also ask the platform questions to guide you through the material. When you start asking questions, NotebookLM will suggest follow-up queries, too, based on what you’ve already asked and what you uploaded.

What are audio overviews?

One of the most exciting features of NotebookLM, and the part that is most relevant for marketers, is that it can present the information in various formats.

Using the Notebook Guide feature, NotebookLM can turn your uploaded content into an FAQ, a briefing document, a timeline, a table of contents, a study guide — or audio overview, which actually transforms your information into an engaging conversation between two AI 'hosts'.

You can try different options both to see what works best for your own learning purposes as well as for presenting information to others.

There is also a fairly new feature in audio overviews that allows users to adjust the format of the conversation.

Just hit 'customise' in the audio overviews panel and enter a short description of what you want the hosts to focus on from your sources.

How can marketers take advantage of NotebookLM?

Even though its early days for NotebookLM, the ‘conversation’ that is generated between the two “people” can provide valuable insight and feedback to marketers before campaigns are launched, according to Christopher Smith, founder of strategy, storytelling and image engineering consultancy Rock Paper Scissors.

"Add items into a Notebook such as a project brief, research, insights, a strategy document, a creative response, audience demographics and profiles, and once a conversation is generated, you can listen to the dialogue, and see what surfaces," Smith said.

"Did the important themes come out in the created dialogue? Was the messaging on point, the insights reflected? Did the work product generate the type of impression or result you are planning for?" he added.

Smith explained that NotebookLM can be used as a way to test the work before a campaign is pushed live. If the most important parts of the campaign are not discussed, one can rework the source material and generate another conversation.

He said:

It’s like eavesdropping on your intended audience before a campaign is launched.

This in turn can help a brand's image as hearing a conversation about your brand can often reveal things like unintended biases, inconsistently in messaging, possibly help identify gaps in brand narratives, or even surface up interesting possibilities that might haven’t been considered.

"I don’t think it's ready for prime time yet, meaning I wouldn’t advise my clients to use the generated conversation in anything that is go to market. But using NotebookLM as another valuable internal tool in the journey from idea to execution, the generated conversation is a powerful way to test and learn," said Smith.

That said, Smith cautioned that NotebookLM isn’t ready to be a replacement to a spokesperson or a CEO, yet.

"An interesting use case to help with that could be to load scripts, talking points, and narratives into a notebook, and use the resulting conversation to fine tune the messaging that will be delivered by a company’s leaders," said Smith. "What key points surfaced in the discussion? Did the narratives hold up, or could they be improved? Did the conversation surface interesting ways of explaining a complex concept? What did the synthetic audience find important in the source material, and talk about?"

He added:

Using these insights as critique and feedback, a brand spokesperson or leader can be more prepared, and hopefully more confident in the intended messaging.

Adding to his point, Siddharth Jhanji, APAC domain leader in data engineering and architecture at Ekimetrics said that NotebookLM is a "game-changer" for marketers due to its ability to synthesise vast amounts of data from various sources and generate actionable insights.

"It streamlines the research process, allowing marketers to focus on strategy and creativity. By quickly providing comprehensive summaries and interactive content, it empowers marketers to stay ahead of trends and adapt strategies in real-time," he said.

On the point of using NotebookLM in the realm of brand image, Jhanji said that NotebookLM can enhance a brand's image by ensuring that all marketing content is data-driven and tailored to the audience.

"By integrating insights from diverse sources, it helps create compelling narratives that resonate with customers. Consistency in messaging and the ability to quickly adapt to feedback or changes in the market can significantly strengthen a brand's reputation," he said.

He added that in the absence of a charismatic spokesperson or CEO, NotebookLM can assist by crafting compelling content that reflects the brand's values and voice. It can simulate engaging dialogues and create personalised content that feels authentic and connected.

He said:

This helps maintain a strong brand presence and fosters trust among the audience, even without a singular human figurehead.

Are there considerations or limitations that marketers need to think about with NotebookLM?

With any third-party AI tool adoption or integration there are broader considerations particularly if you are a larger corporation — if you’re a multinational you may likely have protocols for tool evaluation before approving wider use among teams, whereas a smaller boutique agency is less likely to have this in place and may need to be prepared for client questions on this front, according to Don Anderson, CEO of Kaddadle Consultancy.

Anderson added that marketers will also need to consider how prone NotebookLM is to hallucinations even though it is essentially a 'verticalised LLM', and how much trust they should place in these tools.

"Marketers, and their internal legal teams, would be best advised to thoroughly scrutinise these offerings by posing the tough questions to Google before deploying," he said. "Reading the ‘fine print’ of any terms of use relating to NotebookLM and related solutions is critical, noting that use requires feeding the LLM documents that could be sensitive in nature – privacy considerations will be paramount here."

Anderson also cautioned that brands may become more “synthetic” if marketers become too reliant on these tools for external communications.

"At the same time, given the remarkable efficiencies that NotebookLM and related solutions provide for communications and content creation, brands may be perceived as more responsive, accessible and creative," he said.

True enough, Gen AI is among the top three business priorities for 83% of APAC C-suite executives. 54% said their organisation had a clear and defined Gen AI strategy, while a further 40% said they had started working on a Gen AI strategy for their business.

This is according to research by Salesforce where 1243 leaders from large businesses across the APAC region were surveyed.

Also, almost two in three (65%) Asia-Pacific and Japan (APJ) brands have implemented full or initial AI solutions and pilots, ahead of the US (61%) and Europe (55%).

Within APJ, deployment is highest in Japan (82%), followed by India and Asia both at 72%. This is according to a report titled "Digital trends 2024 Asia Pacific and Japan" by Adobe.

Saying that, Anderson is also of the view that NotebookLM is one of the more "noteworthy" AI tools that have been released in the past 18 months based on its simple premise of enabling users to essentially build their own LLM off research and information they’ve assembled, and then produce their own prompts for that LLM to decipher and organise those inputs.

"There are countless possible applications for marketers which will most certainly accelerate response times on client briefs, creative scripts and strategy documents and lead to internal efficiencies," he said, noting that another opportunity lies in crisis communications and marketing content creation.

"Just given the degree of responsiveness. Imagine feeding NotebookLM an overview of a particular corporate or brand crisis and requesting communications strategies and formats. The responsiveness of the tool should enable brands to act with increased urgency and potential more effectively," he said.

Anderson added that NotebookLM essentially provides marketers a personal AI agent or assistant of sorts that is trained on their own source material, be it meeting notes, research reports or other formal conversations with partners and clients, which then can swiftly organise, interpret and evaluate that information more efficiently than a human could.

"This is perhaps the seeds of something very significant in terms of a tool that has potential long-term applications for marketers and brands," explained Anderson. "It could amount to a game changer for marketers and brands, simply by the broad array of potential applications, from creating customer-facing or B2B podcasts, to resource guides and partner briefs for product launches, event dossiers and marketing strategies and advertising plans. All of which can also be provided in text or audio formats."

He added that it seems to be "limitless" at this point, and we’ll surely see the community expand beyond what Google has already demonstrated in terms of its potential.

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