How Tombras used Google’s Gemini to create over 6,000 hyperlocal ads for PODS

It’s an “impossible” mission by standard definition: Turning PODS, the portable storage trucks, into real-time digital billboards capable of auto-generating ads based on location, weather, time and hyper-specific neighborhood. Through an experimental run with Google’s Gemini AI tool, generating a total of 6,000 different ads displayed on PODS vehicles, Tombras accomplished the task. Cannes Lions coverage See all of the Grand Prix winners here Top 5 Grand Prix campaigns The agency unveiled its “Impossibly Smart Billboard” campaign during the Google Creative Lighthouse Luncheon at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity on Wednesday, offering a glimpse into how AI can be applied creatively in advertising. AI at Cannes: 5 ways tech has shown up on the Croisette The experiment began 10 weeks ago when Google tasked the agency with creating a campaign that applies AI to the creative process as part of its Creative Lighthouse Program, Ryan Edwards, chief digital officer at Tombras, said during a Cannes panel discussion. The ask for the agency was to create an “impossible” campaign using Gemini; Tombras approached its client PODS for the experiment. Unsure of where to begin, the team first prompted Gemini to develop a structure for a creative brief and campaign plan. At Gemini’s suggestion, Tombras trained a bespoke AI suite model built with Google Cloud with transcripts of conversations with PODS executives, brand documentation and analyses, podcast videos, over 10,000 Google PODS reviews and project briefing details. A key insight emerged from the analysis, pulled from a conversation Peter Warhurst, the founder of PODS (which stands for Portable On Demand Storage), had with Guy Raz on the “How I Built This” podcast. “The PODS container was our original billboard and our most effective advertising,” Warhurst had said on the podcast. This insight ultimately informed the creative brief, also developed with Gemini, which proposed the idea of an intelligent billboard capable of auto-generating ads based on location, weather, time and other hyperlocal factors. From there integrating Google AI tools went smoothly, Edwards said. “We spent, in transparency, too much time on the ‘impossible’ creative brief. That was one learning for this project. But when we had all the inputs, instantaneously a creative brief came out,” he told Ad Age. Recent news: Moving company Piece of Cake’s influencer approach With the consumer data mapped and the idea fleshed out, Tombras then moved on and asked Gemini to write a few headlines specific to a few neighborhoods in New York. These would be displayed on the sides of PODS trucks, which would traverse the city displaying ads tailored to the places it was located. “From the start it was clear Gemini was up to the task, so we decided to push its limits and create localized lines for all the neighborhoods in New York City,” said Avi Baliga, executive creative director of Tombras New York. The agency fine-tuned Gemini 1.5 Pro with Google Cloud Vertex AI to generate headlines for all 299 New York neighborhoods and stored them in a Google spreadsheet for client reviews, copywriter inputs, supervisor edits and enhancements to the system, incorporating human oversight. Tombras then developed a real-time application using Google Cloud functions that combined weather, time, subway schedules and traffic to create an API that allowed hyper-local headlines to automatically display based on the trucks’ GPS locations. Also read: Inside the buzziest campaign at Cannes That last bit of production took place over the course of eight days. Last week, the truck drove through the city for more than 30 hours, captured in a video by Tombras that was unveiled at Cannes. “We got about 5 million impressions throughout that period, a little over a day-and-a-half,” Edwards told Ad Age. “We also saw an uptick in Google Trends in the New York City area.” Since last week, PODS has seen a 51% lift in search volume year-over-year in New York City and the biggest weekly percentage increase for all of 2024, according to Tombras. More on AI: An LLM surfaces insights from big campaign datasets While fail-safes might need to be considered should this be replicated, such as accounting for loss of phone or GPS service in an area (which could affect data), panelists said it is a strong example of what can be achieved with AI integrations in creative, including how it can help reduce cost. “This is the first example that I know of using large language models in real time with GPS coordinated with out-of-home,” Edwards said. “I’m really excited to see what the medium model says, which is going to take another month or two. But the story, to me is the power of creativity and people working with AI.”

How Tombras used Google’s Gemini to create over 6,000 hyperlocal ads for PODS

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