Behind Honda’s AI-powered personalized EV campaign

Honda is leaning on the generative capabilities of AI to create custom videos for consumers interested in its new electric Prologue SUV. The “Honda Dream Generator,” developed with Amazon Ads’ Brand Innovation Lab, lives on Amazon.com, where users can generate a video upon choosing criteria for the creative. These include selecting characters, such as the driver and the front-seat passenger; an item to pack; and the setting for the adventure. Once the criteria have been chosen, the generator will compile the details and create a two-minute video in a few seconds. “Using generative AI allowed us to go from coming up with a handful of concepts to generating stories at a scale and consistency that is very high level,” Phil Hruska, senior manager for Honda Marketing, told Ad Age. The AI underpinning the effort is a platform composed, developed and provided by production service 1stAveMachine. The creative was hand-drawn and then turned into animation using AI, with over 190 variations available based on the criteria that users select. 1stAveMachine said that it trained its own stable diffusion models, called Loras, based on its own hand-painted art, to make the AI visuals. After drawing each frame by hand, with backgrounds generated by prompting Firefly, the drawings then guided the AI to produce the final scenes. Honda is the latest brand to use generative AI as a way to entice consumers with custom content. Avocados From Mexico offered a recipe generator for guacamole that was powered by AI ahead of this year’s Super Bowl. Burger King debuted a similar tool in February that produced whacky fantasies for its Whopper burger. Read more: Burger King CMO on AI and the Whopper jingle Creating short, personalized videos is a more specific use of generative AI that has become a trend. Last year, Carvana generated custom video histories for its car-owning customers. And Washington’s Lottery this month doled out AI-generated slideshows depicting how people would spend the money if they won the contest. Agencies, too, are using AI to produce custom content for employees. Publicis Groupe in January generated 100,000 short videos, one for each of its staff members, and production company m ss ng p eces depicted holiday memories based on audio recordings of its personnel. AI generators, especially text-to-image models, are prone to going rogue, but Honda’s is built with firm guardrails to prevent any unwanted scenarios. Users are presented with two to four choices for each of the six points of criteria, resulting in a video that feels more like a “create-your-own adventure” versus an unfettered creative experience, said Hruska. The risks of AI misbehaving “were absolutely on our mind when developing this,” he said. With these boundaries in place, the stories—regardless of their creative differences—each follow a similar arc, in which a family driving in a Honda Prologue goes searching for a pet that jumps out the car door. After an adventure whose details depend on the selected item to pack and setting, the pet is reunited with the family, only for the child to wake up from having dreamt the whole thing. Honda is encouraging consumers, primarily families, to create their videos on any device with access to Amazon, including Fire TVs. The activation will eventually expand to be accessible on other devices, including through voice activation on Echo Show. “Honda Dream Generator”—which plays into the automaker’s long-used Power of Dreams tagline—is part of an ongoing launch campaign for the 2024 Prologue, which hits dealerships this month. The AI aspect is a collaboration between Honda, Amazon Ad’s Brand Innovation Lab, 1stAveMachine and ad agency RPA. It will be promoted through June via call-to-action banners on Amazon.com following a homepage takeover today. Sign up for Ad Age newsletters From influencer marketing to agencies, get the latest news and analysis delivered to your inbox Click here

Behind Honda’s AI-powered personalized EV campaign

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