How — and why — this brand created an ad campaign entirely with AI

As interest and investment in generative artificial intelligence (AI) surges, marketers are rushing to check how the technology generally is a a part of their promoting campaigns. Some firms, including Mondelēz International, have teamed with agencies and consultancies to spice up their efforts around generative AI, while others like Starburst have used the tech to scale major campaigns. Fintech company Klarna claims to have already saved thousands and thousands on marketing with AI.

Not all generative AI marketing efforts are created equal, nevertheless. Toys R Us received backlash for releasing what it claimed was the primary brand film to make use of OpenAI’s text-to-video tool Sora while Google pulled a divisive ad across the Summer Olympics promoting its AI products. With those challenges in mind, crafting a video ad campaign entirely with generative AI represents a daring, if dangerous, move. But that is strictly what IT management platform Atera has done, Marketing Dive can exclusively share.   

Two news ads illustrate the stuff IT managers’ dreams are product of — working in a tropical locale while critters play musical instruments and a UFO destroying a printer factory, for instance — before cutting to their true desires: an AI-powered, all-in-one management platform just like the one Atera provides. The remainder of the nearly minute-long spots are filled with images of Atera’s solutions in motion, alongside more fantastical scenes of white collar-workers parachuting while at their desks, astronauts on laptops and robotic speedboat copilots.

Marketing Dive spoke with Elad Gaizler, creative marketing manager at Atera, over email concerning the campaign, the way it was created and what it means for other marketers concerned with experimenting with generative AI.

MARKETING DIVE: When and where did the human element start and stop on this campaign?

ELAD GAIZLER: The human element began with the concept development and scriptwriting, where we crafted the initial idea and script ourselves. From that time, we allowed AI to interpret and transform the concept into visual form. While AI played a big role in generating the visuals, we remained actively involved throughout the method, guiding the outcomes to make sure they aligned with our vision and met our expectations for the visual language.

Our marketing team leveraged the next AI technologies to craft the whole video series: Sora, Runway, Midjourney, Topaz Labs and Adobe’s Photoshop and Premiere. So, we teed up each tool, then stepped away and let AI handle the remaining. 

Can you characterize the time and cost savings this approach allowed for?

The launch of this AI-generated campaign showcases how AI can significantly shorten production timelines, enhance creativity and enable businesses to operate with greater agility.

The entire process, from conceptualization to AI production, took around 4 weeks. Of that, the AI portion — choosing and crafting the scenes — was accomplished inside about per week. We approached the project in phases, collaborating with production company Mamash and a creative duo called Too Short for Modeling, alongside our internal content and creative teams. Together, we developed the script and handled the creative direction, with AI playing a key role in bringing the concept to life.  

This approach allowed us to dedicate more time and effort to fine-tuning the creative direction, ensuring attention to detail and maintaining prime quality throughout the project.

If this video production had been done in real life, the prices could have reached as much as $1 million. By leveraging AI, the team was in a position to focus more on high-level creative work and direction, enhancing the general quality without the identical financial and time constraints. A standard production process like this would likely have taken a minimum of three to 4 months to finish, as an alternative of the 4 weeks it took us.

Any advice for marketers seeking to use generative AI within the creative process?

As with anything unprecedented, it comes with trial and error. It’s critical to supply strong and specific prompts. However, the more marketers embrace AI’s potential and grow to be bolder of their explorations, the more advanced and refined the technology becomes. 

It’s also necessary to keep in mind that AI and humans have very different skill sets. AI doesn’t have the human touch, so, I encourage creative teams to make use of AI to do what it’s best suited to do in order that they can concentrate on what they’re best suited to do.