Part 1: How AI-driven creativity can become the vanguard of advertising’s evolution

Artificial Intelligence is permeating into every sphere of our lives and businesses today. Technologies powered by AI, such as NLP or Natural Language Processing, Machine Learning Algorithms are enabling effective targeting, personalisation, and catering to the preferences and needs of the consumers, by analysing large amounts of data related to the consumers and generating insights helping in  decision making in the future.

Artificial Intelligence has the potential to change and disrupt the future of advertising. With the introduction of Generative AI tools, creative professionals are getting the opportunity to be benefited to a great extent. On the one hand, it is offering them the chance to reduce the amount of time spent on generating ad creatives, while on the other hand, they have to think strategically as well as creatively about the prompts that they are giving to AI tools such as Chat GPT.

In this two-part feature report, Adgully speaks to a cross-section advertising industry experts to explore the growing inroads that Artificial Intelligence is making into creative advertising, how it will reshape creative ideation, whether it will overpower human ingenuity and the emotional factor, and much more.

Speaking about generative AI tools, Preetham Venkky, Chief Digital Officer, DDB Mudra Group, opined that Gen AI tools tend to be only as good as the direction (prompts) that a user gives it. He said, “Give it basic directions and you get basic output. For anyone in creative advertising to set themselves apart in the world of AI, they just need to learn, act and experiment on the following:

• Understand the possibilities of Gen AI
• Understand the workings and boundaries of Gen AI
• Learn and use the leading tools (specifically, Adobe Firefly, Runway ML, Chat GPT 4, Midjourney, and Stable Diffusion).”

According to him, there are prompts and AI Tools specifically for strategy teams that can be used for most tasks from 4C analysis to Persona creation. He pointed out, “AI tools help strategy teams get more accurate and efficient in their process. For creative teams though, the applications are different. Creative teams can use AI tools for both visual and copy inspiration and for their first drafts. In most cases though, the use of these tools stops at the first draft. AI tools help creative teams break the creative block by helping them with more ways to look at a problem.”

While pointing out that AI is revolutionising creative advertising by optimising user engagements and interactions, Gurbaksh Singh, Chief Innovation Officer, Dentsu Creative India, said, “It enables hyper-personalisation, predictive analytics, the development of dynamic content, and new creative opportunities which are made possible by AI-generated content. Immersive experiences are improved by combining AI with augmented reality, speech technologies, and consumer engagement. With individualised, data-driven, and emotionally engaging campaigns, AI is reshaping advertising as it develops, strengthening the bond between businesses and customers.”

 "AI is like a creative spark plug for advertising! It's transforming how agencies are brainstorming, analyzing trends, and personalizing content. From smart targeting to generating ideas, AI is a great enabler"  said Sanjeev Jasani, COO, Cheil India. 

How AI is making a difference in creative advertising?

AI is making the tasks of creative professionals and ad agencies simpler and easier by delivering unique ideas that are generating profits for the organisations and saving them from additional capital investment. The newly introduced AI tools, however, need to be navigated in the right manner and utilized to the best of their ability, helping organisations and agencies during crises situations and creativity blocks.

The question now arises of whether AI will replace the jobs of creative professionals or has the potential to do so. Again, whether it is completely ethical to use AI for getting or generating creative content is also a matter of choice and a debatable topic. Till now, the benefits of AI included helping to streamline complex processes and automating time-consuming, repetitive tasks, data analysis, predictive analysis, and sentiment analysis to take important business decisions. Now, AI can generate creative ideas that were once thought to be only the gift of the human mind.

There is a quote by Robert Frost that says “No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader. No surprise in the writer, no surprise in the reader”, hence no matter how prolific the ideas generated by AI are, consumers will only feel connected to an ad or creative when there is a human touch in it. In this respect, AI enhances the creative processes and can not entirely replace it. The best use of AI is to generate unique, out-of-the-box ideas, lay out a content strategy, and guide business outcomes.

Dr Sandeep Goyal, MD, Rediffusion, India, pointed out, “Change is already in progress. In the year 2018, Lexus released an advertisement completely scripted by AI. The company used IBM Watson, an AI system, to analyse 15 years of award-winning car ads. Watson identified which elements of successful ads resonated most with audiences. That was just the beginning. Today, AI is quickly becoming the future of advertising. Advertisers are already using AI to identify and segment audiences, build ad creative, test ads, improve ad performance, and optimise spend – all automatically, in real-time, at scale.”

Sanket Audhi, Creative and Founding Member, Talented, talked about how the advertising industry will soon require prompt experts who can give accurate prompts to AI tools to generate the best results. “Imagine stepping into the future of advertising – a realm where agencies wield an entirely fresh arsenal of creative processes. Here, AI isn’t just a supporting act; it has the potential tobecome the headliner. Soon, agencies will seek out a unique breed of prompt experts. These experts won’t just decipher AI; they will conduct a symphony with it, composing ads that resonate profoundly. We’re a year into having this conversation, and I’m very excited to report where we’reheading. A year ago, our conversations were limited to text and images, but with the use of AI in the video, organisation, presentations, etc., our workflows are improving and changing a lot from where we were in the pre-AI era,” Audhi added.

Rajneesh Boila, EVP & Head of Creative Tech and Innovation, Ogilvy India, noted, “AI is a game-changer for creative advertising, globally and in India. It's a turbocharger for creativity, giving agencies data-fuelled insights to power campaigns. AI’s automation liberates creativity by handling repetitive tasks, injecting agility and efficiency. We believe AI democraties creativity, inviting diverse minds to shape fresh ideas. In India, AI bridges culture and tech for resonant campaigns. Globally, it breaks language and cultural barriers, crafting personalised connections. Yet, we honour human creativity; AI enhances, not replaces. It’s a harmonious partnership that crafts campaigns with a lasting soulful impact.”

According to Mayuresh Dubhashi, Group Executive Creative Director, Leo Burnett, the problems that advertising solves will continue to remain the same. Artificial Intelligence will provide creative agencies with phenomenal and never-seen-before tools and avenues and means and methods to find solutions to those problems. He said, “The amount of change AI will bring to creative advertising will be directly proportional to the willingness of change we want it to bring in.”

How AI is helping to enhance creativity?

AI undoubtedly helps creative agencies and brands to function more efficiently and productively, inculcating a personalisation aspect while communicating with consumers online or through OOH advertising, etc. However, if we start depending on AI entirely, it can hamper human creativity and make us dependent on technology in situations which demand human intervention. That, instead of connecting with the consumers and maintaining a strong relationship with them, reduce the chances of it, giving an impression of automatic engagement. However, the pros of its usage include enhancing human creativity and making creative professionals think more, generating curiosity, and imbuing a sense of discovery leading to heightened imagination, creativity, and ideas as well as deriving a sense of support.

According to Mayuresh Dubhashi, for certain aspects of the industry where quick turnaround, personalization, and targeting are the name of the game, AI is an absolute boon. He noted, “We have already seen a lot of automation creeping in wherever it is needed.”

Recently, Leo Burnett did a quirky multi channel campaign for Oreo, titled ‘Say It With Oreo’, with actor Farhan Akhtar, aligning the idea of AI with Oreo to enliven the brand vision of Oreo, which is ‘Stay Playful’,' expressing the message that there is nothing wrong in being playful in life to navigate through all the seriousness that life has to offer.

Dubhashi pointed out, “One can’t let AI or any new technology to overpower the thinking process. The IDEA comes first, and the means to execute it comes later. That’s where a bit of repurposing of workflow will need to happen, but not at the cost of fundamental human insights. For example, our latest work for Oreo – ‘Say It With Oreo’ – started first as trying to find ways to help people find words when they are at a loss for words. Generative AI or ChatGPT and other technologies came later to help us bring the magic of a seamless and playful experience to the consumer.”

On being asked about the extent to which Generative AI can be leveraged to drive the future of creative advertising, Rajneesh Boila noted, “Generative AI is flipping the creative script, fast-forwarding advertising’s future. This technology takes human inspiration and blossoms it into content – images, text, and entire ad concepts – with just a nudge from us. It’s like an AI wingman for brainstorming, making ideas bloom faster. And the beauty? It tailors content to individual tastes, dialing up engagement. Think of Cadbury Celebrations in India. We dialed into Generative AI for two seamless campaigns – ‘My Shahrukh Khan Ad’ #NotJustACadburyAd, which let small shop owners create ads with Shahrukh Khan promoting their business for Diwali. We then took it a few steps further with ‘#CadburyMyBirthdaySong’, letting consumers create unique, personalised Happy Birthday songs for their loved ones. In a nutshell, Generative AI supercharges creativity, turbocharges personalisation, and ignites team brainstorming. It’s a revolution that’s just warming up.”

"Generative AI is revolutionizing creativity in advertising by analysing existing content and consumer behaviour to generate innovative concepts that align with current trends and resonate with target audiences. This approach is a wellspring of inspiration, driving creative innovation to new heights in advertising. An example of this transformation is a collaboration with GM, where Generative AI-optimized creative tests reveal insights for creative success which was shared by Christine Merlotti in the webinar as part of the CAP initiative. Focused on increasing webpage visits for the Chevrolet Silverado, the initiative produced three tailored video assets for two audience segments. Over several months, the results were enlightening. Chevrolet product iterations saw a remarkable 68% increase in the initial month, with the most significant impact among younger audiences, highlighting the importance of sustained message delivery" said Moneka Khurana - Country Head - MMA Global India.

“Generative AI propels creative work into uncharted territories. It's a co-creator that draws from vast data oceans, fueling campaigns with fresh ideas, visuals, and even music. In this AI-augmented future, human creatives become conductors of innovation, orchestrating symphonies of AI-generated brilliance. The canvas of advertising expands, merging the authenticity of human vision with AI’s limitless permutations. This fusion not only challenges our notions of creativity, but evolves them, birthing a new age where AI-driven creative expression becomes the vanguard of advertising’s evolution,” noted Irvinder Ray, Partner, Deloitte India.

Preetham Venkky added here, “Gen AI is a phenomenon with potential as large as the internet itself. Much like how most of the ‘consumption’ internet is run by algorithms, the future of creative work will be influenced by AI (if it is not already). Most processes in advertising will have tools that will fundamentally use AI for both decision-making and creation. This is a generation-defining technology and will reshape the industry from talent to output.”

A unique instance of usage and utilisation of Generative AI has been pointed out by Sanket Audhi, who said, “Our first use of Generative AI came out at scale with Britannia’s latest campaign 1947% More History on Independence Day. To imagine and reimagine stories of freedom fighters from a time when recorded history was not the norm. AI that could transform 'Image to Video' has been the showstopper for this entire campaign, turning the seed of an idea from the agency into what you see as the final campaign for the brand. So, the team had to go through a lot of research to arm themselves with information to generate results that would be visually appealing. At the same time, it isn't just about aesthetics; it's about efficiency too. Agencies are tapping into AI's prowess to streamline the ad-making journey. Better ads? Check. Faster turnaround? Double check. And did someone say cost-effectiveness? AI's got you covered. To sum up, generative AI has helped us imagine a time when cameras didn't exist, and I'm excited to see what agencies across the world would employ its usage for - unexplored spaces like the universe, the oceans, or any place our imagination could take us.”

Discussing the instances of usage of AI in our daily lives and how AI can learn on its own depending on the data it receives, Sandeep Goyal said, “Once trained by humans, AI can go learn and improve on its own. The more data you give an AI system, the better it can learn and improve. Whether you know it or not, you use AI dozens or hundreds of times each day.Gmail and Google Docs use AI to understand what you’re typing, then predict what you want to type next. Every time you (and millions of others) use this feature, you train the AI to get better and better at predictive text. Self-driving cars use AI to detect obstacles and drive safely. Every mile they drive gives them more data to improve their driving abilities. Siri and Alexa use AI to understand voice commands and predict what responses make the most sense. Every time you talk to them, they learn to improve the quality of their responses.”

He further added, “In fact, AI isn’t just one technology. It’s an umbrella term that encompasses a range of smart technologies like these that can learn and improve on their own. Some AI technologies you might hear about are machine learning, computer vision, natural language generation (NLG), natural language processing (NLP), deep learning, neural networks, and speech recognition. There are dozens of others, too. You don’t need to know every term to be successful with AI. You just need to understand that AI-powered technology has the revolutionary ability to learn and improve on its own. The ability to learn and improve on its own is why AI gives you a huge competitive advantage in advertising.”

(Tomorrow: Part 2 of the report will further explore how ad agencies are using AI, upgrading skills in the new AI-powered work environment, leveraging new technology into the workflows of an ad agency, and much more.)