Top 5 AI marketing activations to know about right now

AI video took a leap in sophistication this week with the release of Runway’s new tool that “captures the essence of a performance,” the AI video startup partly backed by Google said. The Act-One tool is impressing AI creators with its ability to transform an actor into an AI-generated character. Meanwhile, AI’s role in marketing is becoming more prominent as brands such as Mattel are using the creative technology in their product designs. These and more AI advances are part of Ad Age’s latest ranking of the top AI marketing activations. Check out the latest Ad Age events and award programs Adobe’s license to video Adobe held its MAX creative conference earlier this month, where it launched its first video AI generator. The hook for Adobe is that the images, underlying its AI models, are licensed material, which provides assurances to marketers that they aren’t violating copyrights. The copyright question is one of the most sensitive ones in the AI space as some startups, such as Perplexity, have been sued for allegedly training their machines on other companies’ work. Last year, Adobe launched Firefly as an AI image generator, and its latest release upgraded the tool to include video. The image and video AI are part of a suite of AI products within Adobe, which also delivered a new version of its AI creative studio called GenStudio for Performance Marketing. The new tech can build ads that can then be launched into multiple channels, including email, display and social media. Also read: How to navigate AI legal risks in advertising Barbie’s AI dream-box Mattel is showing how AI can be used for more than marketing by applying generative AI in other parts of its product design, including to make the boxes for Barbie dolls. Earlier this month, Mattel revealed that the graphics in Holiday Barbie’s new packaging were generated with AI. Mattel used Adobe Firefly in the graphic design, which wound up having a holiday theme. The package had design elements that looked like a bow and picture frame as a background for the doll. The special edition Sue Bird Barbie doll, based on the former WNBA star, also had an AI-designed package. Mattel is using AI to streamline the process and allow its designers to experiment with more options than they’d otherwise be able to do. Meanwhile, Gatorade also recently turned to AI to help create customized bottles for consumers. Gatorade allowed customers to use Adobe Firefly to craft their own designs. Amazon’s AI audio Amazon joined other internet ad giants, including Google and Meta, in offering marketers AI tools to help create ads. At its unBoxed event earlier this month, Amazon launched a creative app for all of its generative AI tools, which can craft image, video, and audio ads. The AI audio ads were new from Amazon, and they could help brands develop campaigns on Alexa-enabled devices. Amazon released video- and image-generating capabilities to advertisers last year, and the video formats could help populate connected TV, where Amazon is a player with Prime Video. The image tools also have a feature that can add motion to images, which Amazon called “live” ads. The AI takes static products and introduces a moving design element, i.e. a cup of coffee with steam rising off it. Search and find AI ads The AI search battle is heating up as Google started putting ads into its AI-generated results earlier this month. For instance, if a person asks, “How do I get grass stains out of jeans,” they could be served ads from household cleaning brands, Google said. Google has faced criticism from publishers and their advocates worried that sharing information directly in its AI Overviews feature will keep consumers from visiting websites. Google will not share ad revenue with publishers that sometimes provide the basis of the information presented in results, according to Bloomberg News. Perplexity has been challenging Google, too, as it is developing an ad business within its AI-generated search product. Perplexity was at Advertising Week New York earlier this month to talk about its fledgling business with brands. Credit: Google AI acting Runway, the hot video AI startup, released a new tool that can take a simple video of an actor performing a scene and turn it into a sleek animation. Runway showed off the next-gen AI earlier this week, and it quickly made the rounds online. Runway’s new product, Act-One, came with a promotional video showing actors delivering lines and then morphing into CGI-looking characters. A member of Runway’s creative staff, Nicolas Neubert, shared an example of Act-One’s capabilities on LinkedIn, using it to create a music video and saying it would be good for building social media assets and stage visuals in productions. Meanwhile, another AI startup, ElevenLabs, which specializes in audio, released a product called Voice Design, which creates unique-sounding characters. On Wednesday, ElevenLabs introduced the voice designer, which creates the voices based on text prompts.

Top 5 AI marketing activations to know about right now

Featured Stories