While some corners of the web are busy debating whether or not AI-generated video is a very good idea, the train has left the station. AI-generated video ads have arrived.
Brands as diverse as BMW, Starbucks, Coca-Cola, the Calm app, and JP Morgan Chase are using AI content of their ads, together with many more small and huge corporations. Meta is even offering advertisers tools for easy, AI-generated ad videos on its platforms.
However, attitudes to AI video are still mixed. The furor over a Toys “R” Us TV spot this past June, which was criticized each for being soulless and unimaginative, and for inconsistent characterization and sloppy backgrounds, shows how mistaken AI ads could be.
Brands are still nervous about using AI from start to complete, and understandably so. On their very own, GenAI models aren’t yet capable of manufacturing externally-ready assets, but virtually everyone agrees that they add superpowers to human creativity in the case of prototyping, storyboarding, and editing. Using AI for pre-production ideation and post-production refining, as an alternative of throughout all the process, could make all of the difference.
There are some awesome AI ads on the market, which exhibit the right way to do it right. Nike is at all times a source of great examples within the marketing space, and the corporate’s 2022 “Never Done Evolving” campaign with Serena Williams won awards, including the Digital Craft Grand Prix on the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, and drove massive awareness. We just need to vary our attitudes to AI use in video, in order that we get more ads like Nike and fewer ads like Toys “R” Us.
Lean into the AI difference
The common approach to integrating AI into video production is to make use of it to make content that’s identical to human-generated, camera-captured video, but to accomplish that higher, faster, and/or cheaper. All too often, this approach falls short.
AI is a complete recent style, genre, and mood of video content. We have to make the most of its newness and encourage acceptance that AI content will look different from human content. Instead of attempting to use it to make content that’s as near human as possible, we must always have a good time the innovation that it offers.
Creators should use AI for what it does best – namely, rapid creative iteration and turning concepts into daring visuals to maintain projects moving forward, not to exchange humans entirely.
For example, Coke’s 2023 Create Real Magic campaign used AI to deliver UGC on steroids, going viral in a short time. Coca-Cola’s digital marketing strategies are sophisticated, favoring content that’s interactive and personalized, however it held onto the recognizable Coke brand imagery. Perhaps most significantly, the creative team also leaned stylistically into the glitchiness of AI when editing all of it into the finalized externally facing assets, as an alternative of attempting to make it appear like the right cinematic video.
Blend AI with human creativity
One of the largest fears around AI is that it would replace humans in ad creation. These fears are misplaced; brands needs to be frightened as an alternative about their competitors outpacing them by leveraging AI tools for a market advantage.
We have to keep humans at the middle of the creative process, coming up with ideas, brainstorming, and sparking inspiration, but people making the most of AI tools will outpace and outcompete those that don’t.
AI needs to be used to propel and turbocharge human creativity. AI can (and will) remove friction from collaboration and the exchange of ideas, making it easier and faster to experiment with recent concepts, and enabling creators to speak innovations and possibilities more clearly and accurately. It’s also a strong force to democratize access and skillsets, allowing people to learn or execute in fields they previously thought were beyond their reach.
Food-oriented marketing campaigns often resonate deeply with audiences, and AI could be especially helpful on this vertical. For example, a recent Heinz ketchup ad was generated with a superbly heady mix of AI and human creativity. Humans saw the potential in an AI experiment, and AI-generated imagery made it right into a reality.
In the same vein, my very own LTX Studio team’s recent collaboration with eToro produced an ad that aired throughout the Olympics. It blended traditional footage with surreal AI-generated clips, ultimately winning an award.
Don’t be too desperate to break with the past
Many brands have a particular visual language, and it’s essential to keep up that. Audiences may need a deep and precious relationship along with your brand imagery. If you utilize AI to deviate from it too sharply and quickly, you’ll lose support, erode your authenticity, and almost actually see customers abandon your brand, probably with a whole lot of anger and grief.
Instead, it’s a very good idea to merge AI with traditional, emotion-driven content, keeping hold of the important thing elements of your style while updating them in creative ways. Remember, AI shouldn’t be producing your external assets unaided and undirected. Integrate AI tools into the method while still maintaining human control.
Nutella succeeded on this with a 2007 campaign that used an AI algorithm to create 7 million unique jar designs. The brand kept the identical distinctive Nutella wordmark and jar shape, but produced unique labels, each with a separate ID code that brought customers to a personalised digital experience.
This delivered a radical interactive experience without tinkering with beloved and traditional brand imagery.
AI-generated video ads are here to remain
There’s no option to put the AI-video genie back within the bottle. Instead, brands have to learn the right way to integrate AI to bring the very best of human creativity to life, without overturning a long time of brand name imagery and customer relationships. For now, AI is best kept to prototyping and post-production uses, but that can change quickly, and within the meantime, its glitchiness could be embraced as an asset.
As AI evolves, we’ll have the option to make use of it for more fluid, convincing, and authentic footage that blends more easily with traditional visuals.
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