Five Ways to Make AI Do Your Creative Bidding
Sure, artificial intelligence can whip up a layout, or blog post in seconds, but will it break through the clutter? Probably not without our help. The rub is that AI doesn’t invent new ideas, rather, it pulls from what already exists. That’s why brands need to be careful how they use AI to connect with consumers. So, we’ve compiled a handy dandy cheat sheet on the best ways to augment creativity with AI.
1. Research and insights generator
On the front end, AI can help identify insights about the market, target audience or problem your brand is trying to solve. Along the way, AI helps you understand how effective the creative is performing, so you can adjust in real-time.
Imagine you’re launching a new vegan ice cream and you’ve tasked your agency to handle campaign development. Previously, you had to wait weeks (sometimes months) for research analysis. But now? AI can pour through thousands of pages of data in seconds and provide immediate insights.
Take a look at the below example (we got in less than three seconds). We prompted AI with simply “vegan” and “ice cream”. We added in “texture” and “unique flavors”, which AI provided as growing consumer preferences.
Bottom line, AI can speed up the insight time and frees up staff for other resources. Oh, and once the campaign is developed and media placed, AI can even optimize the creative insights for better, iterative results.
2. Storyboard creator
Historically, communicating a vision meant creating storyboards. With generative AI, you have an on-staff freelance storyboard artist—given you have some patience and detailed direction.
Let’s say you’re a tourism destination and your agency is proposing a layout featuring a couple at the mountain’s peak. Imagine: a man wearing a red t-shirt and khaki shorts sitting on a rock, a woman dressed in a light blue windbreaker and yoga pants standing next to him, and a faithful Golden Retriever by their side. White-capped mountains and a green valley stretch on in the distance.
Rather than hand drawing storyboards, we added those prompts in a generative AI program and got the following result:
Woof! Good boy.
3. Image and video enhancer
Tools such as Adobe Firefly and Open AI's DALL-E deliver new AI-powered creative possibilities for ideas, and where they really shine is by improving the idea and inspiring new ones.
Imagine you’re a pet food company that specializes in fresh, gourmet dog food delivered to your door. You might input, "dog waiting at the door for his next meal to arrive.” And you’d get this image:
Using additional prompts in AI, this setting can instantly evolve into an upscale home restaurant with a tiny table for one. And hey, we’re feeling fancy, let’s add a black tie to the lovable pooch.
Looks like Fido has gone uptown.
4. First-draft writer
The blank page is always the scariest for writers. Here, AI can help once again by helping generate a first draft.
Imagine you’re launching a new all-natural laundry detergent that uses less detergent per load. Using these prompts, AI can immediately generate a video script. For fun, we tried this with ChatGPT and here’s what we got:
Narrator (V.O.): "Introducing NatureClean™ Laundry Detergent - Your Home's New Best Friend!"
[Cut to shot of beautiful, lush forest]
Narrator (V.O.): "Experience the power of nature in every wash."
[Transition to close-up of NatureClean™ bottle, with label stating "All Natural, Less Detergent Needed"]
Narrator (V.O.): "With NatureClean™, you can finally have clean clothes without harming the environment or your wallet!"
[Cut to a family sorting laundry]
Mother: "We love NatureClean™! It's gentle on our clothes and the planet."
Father: "And it's amazing how little we need for each load!"
[Show NatureClean™ being poured into the washer]
Narrator (V.O.): "Thanks to our cutting-edge formula, you only need a fraction of the detergent you'd use with other brands."
[Time-lapse video of a washing machine in action]
Narrator (V.O.): "So, you get more loads per bottle and save money!"
[Show animated graphic of a planet with the Earth's natural elements surrounding it]
Narrator (V.O.): "NatureClean™ is not just good for your family; it's good for our planet, too."
[Cut to serene beach, with children playing in the sand]
Narrator (V.O.): "Our all-natural ingredients are biodegradable, so they won't harm our waterways."
[Show image of happy family in front of their clean laundry]
Narrator (V.O.): "NatureClean™ - Where Clean Meets Green!"
[Display the NatureClean™ logo, tagline]
Narrator (V.O.): "Switch to NatureClean™ today and experience a new era of laundry care.”
[End with a fade-out and NatureClean™]
Okay, impressive, but there are some red flags. First, the script is a bit obvious and cliché. Second, the name NatureClean already exists. And the tagline, “Where Clean Meets Green”, also exists. But for all its faults, there are some positives to take away from this exercise.
5. Innovation enabler
One of AI’s biggest strengths is navigating time-consuming and nitpicky creative tasks such as image sizing, layout and video formatting. By absorbing these things, it allows those creating the content to focus on the other important stuff—namely ideation.
Imagine you’ve given the creative team three days to write and design a series of social media ads. In the past, the team might panic as they consider the steps—designing a template, selecting Images/video and writing headlines and copy. With AI built into programs such as Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop, the team can more quickly arrive at a template and drop in various images and copy using AI to assist. This frees up time for the team to think through the idea and get the creative approved. With a day to spare!
AI doesn’t want to replace your team or your ad agency as even the most advanced AI tools require human interaction. And great creative isn’t about reaching perfection in one shot. It’s about iterating dozens of options to find the right ones. Ultimately, AI helps deliver insights quicker and allows creative teams to move faster. All with the goal of helping marketers save time—and got this result.