Creativity remains not just a nice-to-have in advertising; it’s a business imperative. New research from Kantar and WARC backs the idea that high-quality creative ads drive significantly higher ROI for brands.
As the advertising and marketing industry begins to lean on generative AI tools to more efficiently produce creative, and as someone who’s spent their career working in the creative department, I’ve had this question on my mind: How do we ensure we continue to produce high-quality creative?
At this moment in time, every AI tool runs on a predictive language and/or image model that packages up what has already been done and is designed to generate the perfectly average. When used poorly, AI enables us to produce mediocre campaign ideas and creative, effortlessly, at the tap of a button. Mediocre, average, and ordinary aren’t going to get the job done.
Luckily, we’ve already seen some tremendous examples of AI-fueled creativity. Let us examine some of the ways that brands have used AI to overcome the ordinary.
Reinforcing Brand Identity
Heinz launched its “AI Ketchup” campaign to help keep a 153-year-old brand relevant with a new generation of consumers. They asked a generative AI tool a simple question: “What does AI think ketchup looks like?” The result was that AI thinks ketchup looks like a classic Heinz bottle.
This jump-started a campaign centered around the famous condiment bottle featured in exciting and unexpected ways, using AI prompts like “ketchup in outer space.” Heinz revved-up the campaign’s reach as a social activation, calling upon others to share their own AI-generated ketchup visuals.
The results were compiled into compelling content and storytelling that reaffirmed Heinz’s cultural dominance to Gen Z and beyond.
Amplifying Original Creativity
Currently, generative AI platforms like ChatGPT and Meta’s Llama are trained on publicly available data, which has sparked much debate about issues pertaining to copyright infringement and bias. So why not use the technology as rocket fuel for original creative work, thus avoiding this headache altogether?
Enter the Honda Dream Generator, a “create-your-own-adventure”-style experience that combined human-drawn animation cels with a generative AI backbone. Users were guided through a few questions, and their answers became the basis for the adventurous animated tale of a family exploring fantastical worlds in the newest Honda vehicle. The experience had over 190 different twists and turns that changed with each viewing.
This was a deeply imaginative story, with a sense of care and a human touch, made possible through original works of art created by a team of talented illustrators, animators, 3-D artists, film directors, and AI developers.
Note: I work at RPA, the strategic and creative agency for the Honda Dream Generator.
Hyper-Personalization
Longtime early technology adopters, Nike, utilized AI to analyze vast amounts of user data — such as running habits, location, and even local weather patterns — to create custom ads for each individual. While the creative concepts themselves were human-driven, AI allowed Nike to scale personalization on a level that would have been impossible manually. Each ad was unique, relevant, and highly targeted, thus driving stronger engagement.
AI will expand and deepen creativity’s reach, even if the core concepts remain the same. This campaign was less about breaking new creative ground and more about dialing in the right message for each consumer. More isn't better, but more relevant is. More noticed is. More personal is. More effective is.
Embracing the Moment
Although a nascent example, Burger King’s “AI-Written” ads embraced the cultural discussion around AI by showcasing the quirky and absurd potential of AI-generated content via its propensity for “hallucinations” — when the output is inaccurate and nonsensical.
Three hundred ads were created using an AI tool, featuring humorous slogans such as, “The Whopper lives in a bun mansion just waiting to ketchup with you,” and, “The new chicken sandwich from Burgler King tastes like bird” (with intentional misspelling of “Burger King”). Although intentionally nonsensical, these phrases earned attention by embracing the moment and were weird enough to warrant repeat viewings.
In a noisy QSR space, Burger King continues to use AI to its advantage. Most recently, its Million Dollar Whopper Contest prompted their audience to redesign the Whopper, using generative AI to create images of the new burger recipes in real time.
An Invaluable Tool in the Creativity Toolbox
While AI has the potential to create iterative, mediocre ads when used improperly, it has also given us glimpses of its potential to enhance creativity and deepen its impact on audiences. Smarter ads work better. And smart AI-based ads work better, more efficiently.
When used thoughtfully, AI will be an invaluable tool in the creativity toolbox.
