Digital Horizons
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Digital Horizons
Brand News: Adidas' AI-Driven Ad & The Future of Creative Advertising
Can AI-generated advertising surpass the creative touch of human ingenuity? We explore this exciting possibility in our latest episode of Brand News, where Adidas' new floral campaign takes center stage. Discover how this AI-driven ad, which mimics a captivating music video with its dynamic scenes and movement, is reshaping expectations in the advertising world. We'll dissect the fascinating blend of artistry and technology, spotlighting the impressive tools like Runway ML, Midjourney, Adobe Creative Suite, and Topaz that played a pivotal role in crafting this standout campaign. Join us as we uncover whether AI's integration into creative processes indicates a seismic shift in the industry's landscape.
Could the rise of AI agencies signal the dawn of a new era in digital marketing? We embark on a thought-provoking discussion about the evolving skill sets demanded by the industry, as AI becomes increasingly integral to creative endeavors. Listen as we weigh the potential of AI to revolutionize advertising, and the crucial role of experts who can deftly navigate these powerful tools. From cost savings to unprecedented creativity, this episode offers a compelling glimpse into the future of advertising, exploring whether mastery of AI might soon overshadow traditional creative prowess. This is an essential conversation for anyone keen on the thrilling intersection of creativity and technology.
The Digital Horizons Podcast is hosted by:
James Walker - Managing Director WHD
Brian Hastings - Managing Director Nous
Holy hell, that was a good ad.
Speaker 2:What a great ad Adidas Florals campaign that's just been released, which is a completely AI-generated ad.
Speaker 1:It felt like only two months ago we were reviewing the Toys. R Us campaign and their massive fail, and we were saying, oh, it's not far off, but it's not ready yet For this piece of creative. Yeah, it's the perfect use. We're cooked, it's over.
Speaker 2:So welcome to Brand News. This week and today we're obviously talking about AI-generated ads and this in particular, this new floral campaign by Adidas, which has just been released.
Speaker 1:Yeah, to give a brief description, this is the type of ad where it's a season release and it's the perfect type of ad structure for this type of AI-generated video, because a story doesn't need to be told. It's more like a music video, where there's different scenes with a fixed or slightly zooming camera, with dancing or movement from the main character.
Speaker 2:From looking at it. If I hadn't been told it was AI generated, I probably would have watched that ad and not thought twice about it. I would have just figured that was just an ad campaign that's been released.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely, and I think the elements of AI in image generation some of the parts that make it really beautiful can sometimes make it look fake as well, but the style is just spectacular. Obviously there's a little bit of blurring, but they've done it in a way that looks like it's intentional to show movement. It is a perfect example of the product. It's not a glitch version. So I think they've used multiple platforms to deliver this, and they used Runway ML, midjourney, adobe Creative Suite and said upscaled by Topaz. So I don't think it was as easy as plugging in a few scenes and, boom, they've got the ad. Yeah, they obviously put a lot of work into this, but think of the save time in shoot days to get some of those shots. It would have been hopefully cheaper than the shoot.
Speaker 2:Yeah Well, I mean, it'd be interesting to know what the actual process was, how much time was put into this. But I guess something that's come out of this and even just reading the article, and we've been looking a little bit into this is that there's now talk and we've only just heard this term right now of an AI agency, and I guess that, if we're thinking about that, over the years there's sort of been talk from going from advertising agencies and then sort of marketing and then digital marketing agencies. Is this the next evolution of what our digital marketing space is becoming? Is that, with the creatives becoming AI driven, with performance campaigns being a lot more AI reliant and then a lot more incorporation of softwares and different things that are being run on? Ai is an AI agency. What's next?
Speaker 1:Yeah, is it the way of indicating to clients that they can experience the value potential of AI, but with the comfort of using specialists who know how to extract that value and get a good result?
Speaker 2:Exactly, and so I guess, when we're thinking about future skilling within our industry, is it that we're going to be looking for people who are just experts on these tools and then understanding how to get the most out of them, as opposed to, in the past, trying to find super creative people who are able to design on their own. And I guess this is going to potentially look at a complete shift once these tools are becoming more and more as we're seeing already how powerful they are more ingrained within our industry.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and look, that AdAdS campaign was likely driven by really creative, amazing, talented people. That still needs to be there to drive the outcomes. At the moment, what I'm seeing AI do is reduce the cost associated with generating or executing on the creative concept and ensuring the output is matching the target look and feel as well.
Speaker 2:Although you feel that this is going to get to a point where the AI will know that. Like if you could feed in inputs and go hey look, this is what the field is based off this type of creatives. This is who we're trying to talk to, Potentially well, I mean, we're seeing such an increase very quickly in terms of the capabilities. Maybe that's what's next.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm not going to say that's not possible, because AI is getting more and more amazing as time goes on, but I do think there is a space for creative experts leveraging AI tools to generate more value for the end client. I just don't know that clients are there yet to get that quality out of the AI tools themselves. But, like for that Adidas campaign, that creative understanding of what you're actually trying to develop in the campaign, rather than clients were just to ask AI directly. I'd love to see what the campaigns look like at the moment. So there is still that specialist expertise, but maybe the future looks like in-house creative AI prompt engineers that are just the experts in getting what they want for the look and feel of the brand are really good at briefing so exciting times. It didn't take long for us to go from an AI video ad fail to an AI video ad success. So, yeah, well done.