AI is not just
a ball pit
An AI image generator is much more than just a playground. Felix May, head of the innovation unit at Peter Schmidt Group, says we should be brave enough to build brands that offer a universe of interactive experiences.
15 billion! That's the number of images that have been generated worldwide using artificial intelligence to date. I made another one to illustrate this article. And companies are creating even more, as more and more business use trained AI generators to produce more and more motifs in record time. But let's be honest: Do we really want to use AI to recreate mountains of images that already exist? Or would we rather take images to the next level and impress people with the kind of creative stories and interactions that only artificial intelligence can make possible?
From AI to magic
Let's look back a year, to early 2023. Although AI was still in its infancy, it was already being used in clever and effective ways to produce unprecedented results. Have you ever seen Coca-Cola's Masterpiece?
AI can stage brands in ways that people have never seen before!
As the Making-of impressively demonstrates, the film sequences were shot with real people. AI was used to modify the sequences to match the style of the various artworks – a huge simplification compared to the complex, manual animation process that requires a great deal of time and effort. With this spot, Coca-Cola set new standards in storytelling and demonstrated that AI can stage brands in ways that are more exciting than anything people have ever seen before.
Today, cinematic masterpieces are augmented by emotionally appealing personalities. The tools have evolved further and are already making the impossible possible – for example, the The-Revived campaign for ukraine.ua and the Ukrainian Ministry of Youth and Sports. It digitally brings back to life six of the more than 500 Ukrainian athletes who have been killed in Russia's war of aggression. The objective was to draw the attention of spectators, participants, and the media at the 2024 Olympic Games to a fundraising campaign.
As these two examples show, success is not measured in the number of images they used, but in the unique and unprecedented way the images are used. To be sure, an AI image generator is certainly an exciting tool and a first step towards servicing existing channels faster. But at the same time, brands should be asking themselves how AI can help them reach new touchpoints with presentations and experiences that wouldn't have been possible previously. How will target groups interact with brands in the future, given that we are already capable of creating emotionally appealing brand personalities? The answer: brands will interact with stakeholders in real time and in a highly personalized way.
From “Coming soon” to “Live and in real time”
Large e-commerce platforms are already using AI to generate copy and illustrations for real-time campaigns. This capability affords them a major competitive advantage, as it allows them to respond immediately to creative impulses, address customer needs, and balance out fluctuations in the market, among other things.
Highly customizable “brand companions” – or even entire families of them – will soon be able to respond to people's wishes in real time. They can be trained for the task and equipped with brand stories, brand assets, and a broad knowledge base. This will make it possible for the first time to experience brands in a lively, agile, and truly personal way. In our in-house innovation unit PSG Imagine, we have tested how this can be done in a store with an AI prototype using a brand of shoes as an example.
But that's not all. In the near future we will be able to customize and optimize an entire interactive brand experience in real time, i.e. while the customer is interacting with the brand. Google has already caused a sensation in the gaming scene with a prototypical AI application called GameNGen that simulates the shooter game “Doom” in real time – by generating scenarios while the player is moving through them. A revolution for the gaming industry. And a revolution for marketing too, if you know how to use the technology to your advantage.
From 0 to 100
Technology is constantly evolving, so it's worthwhile to think beyond AI image generators and consider a brand's potential strategic goals. How can you use AI to get closer to your target groups? Once you start generating lively interactions as opposed to static images, you'll graduate from the children's ball pit to an amusement park for grownups.
Meet the author
Felix
Director Consulting