Ad creatives are becoming more forgiving about the use of generative AI outside the office walls.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Creative agencies used to maintain red lines over AI usage \u2014 limiting tools like ChatGPT, Midjourney and Stable Diffusion for repetitive, time-consuming tasks like storyboarding that wouldn\u2019t make it to the TV screen \u2014 reserving actual production to people with cameras and clackerboards.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s changed in the last year. Hundreds of brands have now released AI ads made from whole cloth for TV and social.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have seen a shift in client openness to fully AI developed campaigns,\u201d said\u00a0Christian Pierre,\u00a0global chief intelligence officer, Gut. \u201cGenerative AI started as an experiment you had to\u00a0sell in<\/em>. Today, the client that is not using it feels like they are missing out. It is a 180 degree shift.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n Even a brand like Benetton, which once championed the craft of fashion photography, is now using AI-generated models in its fall\/winter campaign<\/a>.<\/p>\n Audiences don\u2019t seem to mind. A Kantar and Affectiva study published this week compared 356 TV, digital and social ads featuring AI generated visuals, or which had used AI in post-production, with regular non-AI ads.\u00a0<\/p>\n It found little correlation between AI usage and creative effectiveness. AI-involved ads ranked among the most effective in Kantar\u2019s study for brand recall, and among the worst, suggesting brands aren\u2019t paying an \u201ceffectiveness tax\u201d for their usage of the tech, in the words of V\u011bra \u0160\u00eddlov\u00e1, Kantar\u2019s global creative thought leadership director. In the main, audiences aren\u2019t awed \u2014 but they\u2019re not turned off, either.<\/p>\n Clearly, there\u2019s been a shift among both the public, clients and creative practitioners over the use of AI in advertising.<\/p>\n \u201cThe narrative that came along with it within the industry was \u2026 threatening,\u201d said Dustin Tomes, chief creative officer at TBWAChiatDay.<\/p>\n \u201cMy view on AI has changed fundamentally,\u201d said Jon Williams, co-founder and CEO of The Liberty Guild. In September, the company created a campaign for European airline Wizz Air, in conjunction with Monks; gen AI tools were used to produce the TV spot.\u00a0<\/p>\n Craig Miller, chief creative officer at indie agency Schafer Condon Carter, said he originally greeted the advent of gen AI with mild skepticism. \u201cWhen I heard about it, my first reaction was [about the] ethical and societal concerns,\u201d Miller told Digiday.<\/p>\n That\u2019s shifted with each new advance and demo, though. And while on location in Santiago, Chile, to shoot an ad for the U.S. Blueberry Council earlier this year, Miller enjoyed a minor epiphany. During filming,\u00a0the spot\u2019s\u00a0director,\u00a0Martin Romanella,\u00a0suggested adding in a bearded dragon character, to add a moment of humor.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe were on set so obviously there\u2019s not going to be any lizard wranglers,\u201d Miller recalled. Instead, Romanella used Midjourney to design and create the character there and then added it to the footage they\u2019d shot on site. Following client approval, the bearded dragon made it into the final cut.<\/p>\n \u201cThat was really a breakthrough for us because we didn\u2019t know that could really be possible and be convincing. And no one\u2019s commented on it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n For other creatives, reconciling with gen AI in campaign work has been a gradual process, rather than a road-to-Damascus moment.\u00a0Full-service agency McKinney, for example, ran its first work featuring gen AI assets earlier this year, in a campaign for Popeye\u2019s.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was inevitable at some point,\u201d said Lyle Yetman, chief creative officer at McKinney.<\/p>\n So, what\u2019s behind this change of heart among ad creatives? In part, the economies of scale relating to production have become harder to argue with. Liberty Guild and Monks\u2019 work for Wizz Air wouldn\u2019t have been possible for the time and budget available without gen AI, Williams said. \u201cFor my entire career\u2026 your ambition was clipped by budget,\u201d he added. \u201cNow, money is not a limit to your creative oeuvre.\u201d<\/p>\n Chief creative officers welcome the notion that junior creatives can reinvest their time away from the Adobe suite, too.\u00a0\u201cI\u2019d rather have an art director spending time concepting and thinking as opposed to pushing pixels around,\u201d added Miller.<\/p>\n Though some clients still remain wary of the potential legal risks associated with generative AI, it\u2019s become par for the course for agencies to offer indemnification to clients. Meanwhile, agency execs know there will be few job opportunities available for creatives who aren\u2019t open to using the tech.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIf you don\u2019t take that mindset, you\u2019re gonna be left behind, no matter what level you\u2019re at,\u201d said Tomes.<\/p>\n\u2018We didn\u2019t know that could be possible \u2014 and be convincing\u2019<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\u2018Everyone is using it, some more openly than others\u2019<\/strong><\/h2>\n