The Serbian magazine “Marketing mreža” invited us to write a few words on how we create campaigns with the help of AI. Here’s the result:
It’s been two years since Frankfurt Airport decided to change their retail marketing campaign to an AI generated one. Since then, more than a dozen promotional campaigns have been created, each with half a dozen visuals. The learnings are invaluable.
The challenge is as epic as it is omnipresent. How do you create a powerful campaign with unique visuals if you don’t have the budget for photo shoots? Today, the answer seems to be clear: you use AI. Two years ago, this wasn’t so obvious.
Even today, working with a platform like Midjourney is as much of a challenge as it is a great opportunity. With patience, persistence and creativity it is possible to create visual worlds that would be impossible to produce in the real world. Or impossible to finance if you tried.
The challenges? Well, there are still too many fingers, too many arms, all kinds of mistakes. But that’s manageable. What tends to become more difficult is the direction these platforms are taking. It’s a tendency to become ever more photorealistic.
It’s not about saving money
The reason is an obvious one. It lies in how we are using AI, not just in generating images. We use it to save money. Or to save time, which is the same in the end. Not that this is a bad thing – but it is never much more than a reaction to shrinking budgets or dissatisfaction with stock photography. Nothing that would get you ahead of your competition.
At Frankfurt Airport, the decision wasn’t budget based, it was a primarily creative decision. The question wasn’t “how do we create campaigns on a smaller budget” but “how do we use our budget to create more visual impact”.
It may not look like much of a difference, wanting the same for less or wanting more for the same, but it’s actually a big one. We didn’t look for cheaper ways of doing the same, so we didn’t look for a prompter, we looked for a designer. It’s a huge difference whether you are looking for discount or for art.
First, you need an idea
It’s a completely different process too. Simply because AI still is not coming up with its own ideas. It can come up with a long list of suggestions based on what it finds on the web. And for everyday use, these might be good enough. But if you want something unique, you need an idea.
In that way, working with AI is no different from a traditional creative process. You sit down, read the brief, start to think, come up with an idea. But then you need to start working with your new partner, AI. You need to start prompting.
Prompting on a platform like Midjourney is not a discussion. It doesn’t work like that. Instead, you describe what you want to see, and Midjourney comes up with images. Maybe usable ones, maybe not. It all depends on the prompt – your description. If your description is crap, you get a crappy image. If it accurately defines a great visual idea, you have a good chance of getting an inspiring result.
A lot of trial and error
That’s where the real work starts. Because it’s very unlikely that you get the desired image after a few rounds of prompting. For every visual of our campaign for Frankfurt Airport, we need around 1.000 work steps.
Why so many? Some part is due to the mistakes that happen. Every AI makes mistakes. A large number of visuals are discarded because they simply aren’t good enough. And another sizeable number of attempts are in vain because the visual doesn’t fit the purpose.
Typical AI blooper: too many limbs
That’s another big challenge. We’re not creating art for art’s sake. There is a brief. And retail marketing is not a beauty pageant. It’s supposed to sell. The problem: the more detailed the brief, the more complex the requirements for the image, the more difficult it is to get a visual that does what it should.
AI as collaborator
The way this all works requires a different way of working, both for marketing and for the agencies. AI is not an omnipotent art director that will give you whatever you want. It has its limitations. One example: what the internet doesn’t know cannot be shown. Good luck if you want to create visuals that depict very specific local traditions. Very hard to get that done properly.
A platform like Midjourney needs to be treated like a collaborator. And you need to be willing to take what it gives you and work with it. The results will always be much better if you keep your mind open and take the AI’s results as valid suggestions. Even the mistakes. The list of inventions and ideas that were based on mistakes or misunderstandings is endless. It’s one of many sources of great ideas.
That’s not that much different from traditional processes though. It was never a good idea when agency and marketing are telling a photographer or director how to do their work. Same here. You get more out of AI when you use a collaborative approach, and not just use it as something that is supposed to deliver. Sounds familiar? Yes, this is also a good way to work with actual humans.
The next chapter
The big question: what are the results of a dozen campaigns with more than 50 visuals? At the airport, this question finds a simple answer. At the start of the campaign, it only ran in the concourse areas. The shops were off limits – the owners didn’t want the campaign to invade their territory. Today, almost every shop and restaurant at the airport happily buys into the campaign – the best proof of success possible. If they want it, it works. No doubt about it.
The next chapter of this campaign is on the horizon already. Within the last year, the possibility of turning visuals into film have progressed so much that we are now able to create video as well.
Screen shot – first AI generated Frankfurt Airport commercial
Sure, this was already possible a year ago. But not with consistent quality for more than three of four seconds, and not in a resolution that can be used on large digital advertising screens. Mediocre quality may not be much of a problem when it’s a thumbnail visual on a website – it’s a disaster on a 40 square meter LED screen.
That’s the magnificent aspect of working with AI. The speed of progress and change. Every other month, something new pops up. Nothing stays the same. Which means that the campaign doesn’t stay the same. Continuity and progress all wrapped in one. What more can you want?