The best AI marketing activations of 2024

Another year of AI mania has passed, and marketers are as gung-ho over the technology as ever. And in 2024, brands, agencies and tech platforms went further with their use of AI than they did in the prior year. For one thing, AI has advanced, so the kinds of opportunities have multiplied several times over. One brand was able to leverage cutting-edge research about AI into a moment that made perfect sense for its longtime marketing strategy. Another made note of AI’s still-numerous shortcomings, but in a way that felt more relevant to its value proposition than last year’s satirical takes. This year’s AI activations also carried more substance as debates in the polarizing field have intensified. Many creatives are leading an anti-AI resistance movement over concerns that the technology is going to be used to replace them. A design platform took a stand on this issue, winning over serious support on social media while managing to heap shame onto a competitor. Another brand actually did cut expenses with AI, but in doing so showed a path for how agencies can stay needed for many years to come. Read Ad Age’s Best of 2024 stories here The brands and details behind these big moments are revealed below, as is the recipient of the top spot, whose position within the industry may surprise you. Read on to find out Ad Age’s best AI marketing activations of 2024. No. 5: KitKat’s AI opportunity KitKat Canada embodied quick, clever and in-the-know marketing with an ad at the start of the year that drew on rising AI interest. The effort hinged on recently published research that found that AI performs better when the prompter first tells it to take a pause before answering a request. This finding turned out to fit quite well with KitKat’s “Have a Break” marketing. The candy brand, along with Toronto-based agency Courage, developed a 60-second spot that told viewers about the hack, but in a way that folded in KitKat branding at every step. The tagline, “Have a Break,” for example, became “Have Ai break.” The effort was a textbook instance of opportunistic marketing that not only made sense with respect to the brand’s messaging, but actually paid off. It received global attention on social media (and won gold as part of Ad Age’s Small Agency Awards). No. 4: Bodyarmor plays on the artificiality of AI AI was not ready to write Super Bowl ads this year, and that was the point of a Bodyarmor spot that aired regionally during the big game. The Coca-Cola-owned sports drink created an ad with Full Contact Advertising called “Field of Fake,” in which creepy visuals showcased all the ways that AI doesn’t understand how to create realistic advertising. Sports drinks were depicted as neon goo snakes defying the laws of physics, while human bodies bulged and undulated like a psychedelic nightmare. The effort was an effective use of AI’s shortcomings, taking them for what they were and not trying to shy away from their production unreadiness. It also tied into a larger message that fits Bodyarmor market position. The ad made note of how artificial is anathema, before explaining how its drinks use “real” ingredients. It was a play on the word “artificial” that made its point in a culturally relevant way. Interestingly, Coca-Cola has leaned way into AI marketing for its core beverage, and even ran its first batch of AI-generated TV ads in November. The creative unsurprisingly sparked some controversy, and even inspired another all-natural drink brand to fire a shot at Coca-Cola in response. Also read: Inside Coca-Cola’s first AI-generated TV ads No. 3: Klarna cuts agency expenses by 25% using AI In May, Klarna said the thing that many advertisers have been fearing since the onset of generative AI: a significant cut in agency expenses. The buy now, pay later brand announced that its use of AI had resulted in a 25% reduction in these costs, saving it around $10 million over the course of the year. Klarna said that AI had been swapped for agencies with respect to translation, production, CRM and social work, and was being deployed for about 80% of its copywriting. Most other brands using AI have yet to find this much success, but fears in the production industry are mounting, and for anyone who says that AI isn’t replacing advertising jobs, Klarna is one of the clearest pieces of evidence suggesting otherwise. Indeed, some 30,000 advertising roles may be automated by 2030, according to Forrester. Agencies need not see this as a harbinger of doomsday. Speaking with Ad Age in September, Klarna Chief Marketing Officer David Sandstrom said that generative AI plays a big part in campaigns around annual retail events such as back to school, but that larger campaigns “are still going to be 100% human.” This means that now more than ever, agencies need to be clear about how they can help brands, especially with the kinds of tasks that are too sensitive or high-stakes to be left up to computer technology. No. 2: ProCreate saying ‘No’ to AI While numerous brands were publicly embracing AI, design platform ProCreate took the opposite stance. “I really [bleep] hate generative AI,” CEO James Cuda said in a video posted to X. “I don’t like what’s happening in the industry and I don’t like what it’s doing to artists.” We’re never going there. Creativity is made, not generated.You can read more at https://t.co/9Fgh460KVu ✨ #procreate #noaiart pic.twitter.com/AnLVPgWzl3— Procreate (@Procreate) August 18, 2024 Cuda, speaking on behalf of ProCreate, formally declared that the company would not introduce AI into its products. This may seem an odd selection for a “best AI activations” list, but the video brought significant positive attention to ProCreate’s brand. Numerous creatives poured in their support on social media, evidently resonating with the anti-AI stance. Moreover, the supporters also shamed ProCreate’s biggest competitor, Adobe, claiming that the design giant doesn’t care about its clientele. It’s unclear whether or how the backlash affected Adobe’s business or reputation, but it certainly highlighted a growing divide in the creative community, which ProCreate was able to turn into a brand-building moment. No. 1: A fake Volvo ad makes a big mark This year’s best AI marketing activation did not come from a brand, an agency or even officially on behalf of a company. The effort was made by a solo colorist named Laszlo Gaal, who used AI to develop a mock Volvo ad. With the help of text-to-video platform Runway, Gaal depicted a lifelike vehicle speeding through a city and painting it with lush vegetation—evoking the spirit of Volvo’s actual philanthropic fund, Volvo For Life. The work, which took less than 24 hours to complete, garnered praise online from tech-focused marketers as well as AI experts. Many in the comments were skeptical that Gaal had used AI to create the realistic film, but the colorist assured Ad Age that he had, claiming that the final 45 AI-generated frames of the spot were distilled from a much larger collection of 500 generations. Gaal’s work speaks to the way that AI has democratized high-quality production for many creatives. The consequences of this may be scary for some brands—after all, Volvo never gave permission to Gaal to recreate its products in a fake ad—but those willing to listen might find some serious wisdom to learn. Gaal shared some of this with Ad Age, such as the importance of letting go of the vast majority of the assets you create and abstaining from using AI to depict brand products. Gaal also gave some advice for marketers who are as inundated as ever by the flow of new platforms into the AI market. Just as communicating with different kinds of people warrants different ways of speaking, leveraging different AI tools requires different styles of prompting. “Whenever a new tool comes out, you have to re-learn how to talk to that tool,” Gaal said. Become an All Access subscriber Get access to exclusive resources including Leading National Advertisers, World’s Largest Advertisers, Agency Report, Agency Review Tracker and TV Pricing Report. Click here

The best AI marketing activations of 2024

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