Nearly every marketer has by now heard of ChatGPT, the OpenAI bot that kicked off the buzz for large language models (LLMs) last fall. But there are other generative AI tools that are equally relevant—or potentially more so—for advertisers. 

Text-to-video generation, 3D-rendering of 2D smartphone images in seconds and speech translation with simulated lip dubs—these are a few of the capabilities on offer from some of the lesser-known yet competitively powerful generative AI tools on the market. 

Ad Age has compiled a list of six of these tools, co-signed by industry experts who have used them. Read on to learn how these platforms can help marketers, where they fall short and how much they cost to use.

Clipdrop

How can Clipdrop help marketers? 

Clipdrop, a product by Stable Diffusion developer Stability AI, allows creatives to edit media with painstaking precision. Recommended by the team at Media.Monks, the tool can be used to remove defects in images, such as unwanted text or objects, as well as improve image quality via relighting and upscaling. 

Clipdrop poses obvious benefits for ad design, allowing for quick customization and clean-up. It is also available as a mobile application, in addition to its primary desktop platform.

Where does Clipdrop fall short? 

Clipdrop thrives on high-quality images, but its ability to clean up lower-quality images appears to be not as strong, per user reviews. The tool may also get confused with complex images consisting of many details.

How much does Clipdrop cost?

There is a free option with limitations, as well as a premium option starting at $9 per month.

Also read: Inside ad agencies’ think tanks

ElevenLabs

How does ElevenLabs help marketers? 

ElevenLabs is an AI voice generator, capable of turning long, complex script into crisp, human-sounding speech. Users can choose from a list of preset voices, or replicate someone else’s voice from scratch. The AI behind the tool specializes in parsing the logic and emotionality of text, from which it can produce an output of corresponding intonation.

“It’s a quick way to get audio for a guide read without having to jump into a sound booth yourself,” said Kai Tier, VP and U.S. executive creative technology director at R/GA. The agency has used ElevenLabs to replicate the voice of its global chief creative officer, Tiffany Rolfe.

Where does ElevenLabs fall short?

Users have little ability to calibrate ElevenLabs’ outputs, said Tier. This means that what the AI generates is largely what you end up with, with no options for providing further direction, such as with respect to the energy of the read or its points of accentuation.

How much does ElevenLabs cost? 

ElevenLabs offers a range of pricing models, from a free version with limitation, to a creator-focused version for $22 per month. There’s also a publisher-focused model for $330 per month.

HeyGen

How does HeyGen help marketers? 

HeyGen is an AI video generator that specializes in translating speech. Creatives can record and upload a video of themselves saying anything, then select a translation from 13 different languages:  English, Spanish, French, Hindi, Italian, German, Polish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Japanese, Dutch, Turkish and Korean. HeyGen will not only recreate the translation in the speaker’s voice but also produce lip dubs that are synced to the new words. The final video will show the speaker fluently conversing in a language in which they may have no expertise.

HeyGen is a “huge benefit to creators all around the world who often post regionalized or localized content or utilize subtitles as the only translation method,” according to an ad tech expert. 

Moreover, the translation features are only one aspect of HeyGen’s AI offering. Customized avatars and voice cloning could dovetail with translation to help marketers expand their reach to diverse audiences.

Where does HeyGen fall short? 

HeyGen’s support for different languages is inconsistent across its various features. The speech-to-text feature, for example, supports dozens of languages, but video translation supports just 13. And voice cloning only supports English at the moment. Separately, HeyGen's avatar creation feature could use some work in humanizing facial and bodily expressions.

How much does HeyGen cost? 

HeyGen’s plans range from $30 to $90 per month, with an enterprise-level option that is price-negotiable.

Luma AI 

How does Luma AI help marketers? 

Luma AI turns 2D images and videos into 3D mixed reality, which bodes well for both consumer-facing ads and internal strategic efforts. The tool, recommended by Rebecca Sykes, partner at The Brandtech Group, is simple to use—just upload a few smartphone images of an object to Luma’s app. From there, the AI processes the images, stitches together the different angles and in seconds spits out a 3D-rendered scene, known as a neural radiance field, or NeRF.

Marketers looking for more capabilities, such as importing their own camera animation, can do so via Luma’s web platform or application programming interface (API). These options are especially conducive for creating larger scenes, including those captured by a drone. The API requires a video upload, not images.

Where does Luma AI fall short?

Luma is not suitable for creating complex 3D models, Sykes said, as the process would overwhelm the platform.

How much does Luma cost? 

Luma’s mobile and web versions are free to use, and models created via its API cost $1 each.

Also read: How Gen Z envisions AI improving e-commerce

Runway Gen-2

How does Runway Gen-2 help marketers?  

Runway’s Gen-2 platform is a text-to-video generator that helps to visually illustrate early stage ideas, said Allen Oke, global executive creative director at Huge. Creatives can plug in scripts, such as “late afternoon sun peeking through a New York City apartment window,” which the AI will interpret and output as a video.

Runway also offers text-to-image, image-to-image and video-to-video generators, but Gen-2 was the company’s most highly recommended product by ad experts. The potential for text-to-video creation is particularly useful for marketers given the need for both short-form video content on digital channels and longer-form video content on other channels.

Where does Runway Gen-2 fall short?

As with many generative AI platforms, Runway can output strange, often incomprehensible content. This means that whatever videos creatives generate via Runway probably won’t be production-ready.

How much does Runway Gen-2 cost? 

Runway costs $0.05 per second of generated video.

Also read: Top 5 recent AI marketing activations

Writer

How does Writer help marketers? 

Writer is an AI platform that integrates businesses’ data to generate tailored text. It has helped brands pen blog posts and emails, summarize virtual events, create job listings and analyze ad copy for the detection of specific language. Writer’s clients include L’Oréal and Spotify, according to Bloomberg. Spotify declined to comment for this story. L’Oréal did not respond to a request for comment.

Writer’s merits have recently grabbed the attention of investors. Last week, the parent company Writer Inc raised $100 million in a new funding round. The fresh funds, which will go toward improving Writer’s capabilities, have increased the company’s value to over $500 million, per Bloomberg.

Where does Writer fall short?

Users have pointed out that Writer could support more languages, as well as provide more text editing functions.

How much does Writer cost? 

For teams of five or fewer, Writer costs $18 per person, per month. For teams over five, custom pricing must be established.