How AI Is Shaping Creative Advertising

An Oxford study just confirmed what most of us have been saying all along: AI-generated ads can outperform human-made ones, but only when they don't obviously look AI-generated. The secret? Human refinement. The best marketing campaigns aren't purely AI-driven or entirely human-made. They're like pizza. Dough alone is just bread, toppings alone is chaos. The magic happens when everything works together. Want to collaborate with AI effectively? 1) Use AI for rapid ideation, humans for emotional depth Take your worst-performing ad copy and feed it into ChatGPT or Claude with this prompt: "Rewrite this to evoke [specific emotion: frustration, curiosity, nostalgia]. Use conversational language. Surprise me." It'll give you variations you'd never think of. Then your human brain picks the best concept and refines it until you think: "We'd never have written this ourselves." 2) Let AI spot patterns, humans craft the story AI's really good at combing through customer feedback, support tickets, and social mentions for trends. But humans make those insights into stories that actually matter. Say AI finds that most support tickets mention setup frustration. Humans craft that into: "Setup shouldn't feel like assembling IKEA furniture blindfolded." 3) AI scales the testing, you choose the winners Generate multiple variations with AI, but you decide which ones are worth spending money on. AI can create 50 headlines in minutes, your judgment tells you which 3 are worth testing. 4) You set the rules, AI fills the gaps Define your brand voice, values, and no-go zones. Then let AI work within those boundaries to fill content calendars, generate product descriptions, or create email variations. Platforms are making this easier: - Microsoft’s Ads Studio has AI-powered creative tools built into campaign workflows - Google Cloud rolled out AI marketing tools for personalized experiences - Or start simple with ChatGPT/Claude and the prompt above Stop thinking AI vs. humans. Start thinking AI + humans. Your move: This week, pick your worst-performing content. Run it through AI with a specific emotional prompt. Refine the best result with your gut instinct. That's how you make sure your marketing isn't just dough or just toppings, but complete, irresistible pizza. P.S. I'm team pineapple on pizza 🍕 + 🍍 = 🤤 (Sorry to my Italian friends! At least there's no ketchup involved... 😂) #hicm #AI #AIinAdvertising

AI MEETS AN INDUSTRY: Advertising & Creativity Cannes Lions was an eye opener of how profoundly AI is transforming advertising: 1) A production studio in your pocket - Jamie Allan (NVIDIA) showed how AI evolves beyond agentic gains understanding of the physical world, with NVIDIA building industry specific solutions. Chad Nelson (OpenAI) shows this toolkit in action, demoing a fully produced car ad created entirely from a 3D model. Dynamic camera movements showcase the car in a desert, tundra, city. Anyone can make within hours what would have cost months & millions. 2) AI automates production - we can now mass-create ads for e-commerce. Tools like Higgsfield AI let brands create individual ads for thousands of products in permutations for each target group. Shook Digital enables AI-powered planning, buying, and creative execution from a single AdTech SaaS platform. ModelManagement.com allows real people to become models, be discovered as actors for ad shoots, and (if desired) generate AI videos using their own likeness. Brands gain authentic actors, can micro target with video, producing and iterating rapidly. 3) AI powers product creation - At the Brand Innovators panel tennis legend Sloane Stephens shared how she built direct-to-consumer body care brand Doc & Glo from a real player pain point - and now she can generate compelling product images & ads in hours, not weeks. She's got a pick of next level tools to scale, using TikTok and Instagram shops, or tapping into platforms like Reddit, Snap & Pinterest to amplify her message, drive discovery and user insights. (Gabriel, Aarti, Martin) June '25 - the state of Ads in the age of AI: 1) Ad production is more affordable, powerful, and accessible than ever. 2) It’s easier than ever to deliver the right message to the right audience at the right moment What does not change? The principles of craft, with the customer at the center! As Uber’s Paul Wright 🌻 said: “Keep it native to the consumer’s needs. If your next decision enhances their experience, you’re on the right track.” Next time you wait for an Uber, and time flies by as you engage with a playable ad—you’ll see what he means What to do next? Start learning & experimenting - Kristen Nolte (SVP, Dell) shared how she’s transforming her org into a learning organism, focused on outcomes. Her insight: the line between B2B and B2C is gone—every organization should constantly be in discovery, testing, and iteration mode. Rhys Nölke breaks this down into 1) building expertise, 2) forming partnerships, 3) Co-Innovation & piloting Lorry Destainville (TikTok) and Dave Osborn (Microsoft) shared at The AI Advantage panel, how we can apply this mindset individually. Skip a meeting and send your notetaker to get you the action items. At an event? Record thoughts with voice AI while they’re fresh - giving you better material to generate summaries or emails later In short: There’s never been a more exciting time to be in advertising! Let's create!

3 AM Burps & AI Surprises: My New Creative Process? It's 3 am. The rhythmic patting on the back, the softest of burps, and finally, that moment of stillness before gently placing our little one back in the crib. In the quiet darkness, a thought sparked: let's see what AI can do. So, fueled by lukewarm tea and sleep deprivation, I asked Gemini to create some campaign visuals for a luxury hand cream brand I just conjured up - "divyam" (clearly, 3 am isn't my creative peak!). Honestly? What came back blew my mind. (See the images below!) The sheer speed and visual quality are astonishing. Implications for the Ad Industry: Rapid Prototyping & Concept Exploration: Imagine the possibilities for brainstorming and quickly visualizing campaign ideas. Forget lengthy photoshoots for initial concepts – AI can generate a multitude of options in minutes, allowing for faster iteration and client feedback. Democratization of Visual Content: While the human creative eye and strategic thinking remain crucial, AI tools can empower smaller businesses and individuals to create compelling visuals without the immediate need for extensive resources. Focus on Strategy & Brand Narrative: As AI handles some of the heavy lifting in visual creation, creative professionals can focus more on the core strategy, brand storytelling, and the emotional connection with the target audience. Personalized & Dynamic Advertising: The potential for generating highly personalized ad creatives based on user data could become even more powerful and efficient. The Evolving Role of the Creative Team: The skills required in the ad industry will continue to evolve. Understanding and leveraging AI tools will become increasingly essential, shifting the focus towards curation, strategic direction, and ensuring brand consistency. This little 3 am experiment has certainly given me food for thought. The creative landscape is shifting, and the tools at our disposal are becoming incredibly powerful. It's not about replacing human creativity, but augmenting it in ways we're only beginning to understand.

If you think gen AI in ads is just about creative automation—think again. One area I've been really bullish on at Disruptive Digital is using AI to create personalized creative at scale. Imagine being able to use AI to generate the right ad for the right user at the right time... Meta's new retail-specific AI tools should help reach that vision of enhancing both user experience and ad effectiveness, including: → Virtual try-ons using AI models to reduce friction → Background generation for Catalog ads → AI-powered product copy that actually converts I'm thoroughly excited about the virtual-try on being able to showcase AI models of different ages, genders and body sizes wearing your products. Why? When people see themselves represented in ads, they are more likely to buy. In fact, Meta is already seeing this is the case... By combining these with dynamic product sets, some brands saw up to a 25% drop in cost per purchase and 23% lift in ROAS! The takeaway? AI isn't just an efficiency lever—it's becoming a core creative partner.