Top 5 AI activations of 2023

Artificial intelligence may end up being the most significant development of the year in marketing. Brands flocked to generative AI platforms, looking for ways to enhance their creativity, while agencies integrated AI with enterprise tools intended to make marketers’ lives a whole lot easier. Recent news: AI is ANA’s marketing word of the year See our Year in Review stories here Some of these efforts were novel, exciting and substantive; others resembled stunts by companies looking to capitalize on the shiny new thing. In the background of all this activity, the AI space changed rapidly—an evolution that caromed from regulatory developments to full-blown dramas threatening the top players in the industry. These wide-reaching fluctuations will undoubtedly impact how marketers view and use AI through 2024. In 2023, however, AI marketing was mostly playful and focused on creativity. Ad Age combed the archives, separating the wheat from the chaff, to compile a list of the top five AI activations seen from marketers this year. From AI-generated animals to deep fakes to one serious brand fail, here are our selections for 2023: No. 5: NotCo proves a point with AI NotCo, a plant-based food tech company, ran a campaign in the spring, created by AKQA Bloom, that used AI to make a serious point: Animals die young when killed for food. The company placed a series of out-of-home ads that showed pigs, cows and other livestock in older age, urging consumers to consider how drastically the animals’ lives are cut short by the food industry. To create the portraits of the aging animals, NotCo used a series of generative AI tools, including ChatGPT, Stable Diffusion and Midjourney. Prompts that someone might use to query an AI platform were placed at the top of the ads, such as “Imagine a sheep growing old, like we do” and “Imagine a pig living up to 23 years.” The campaign, NotCo’s first with Fernando Machado as chief marketing officer (he has since stepped down), shows the creative possibilities offered by generative AI—creativity that can be used to deliver a powerful message. No. 4: Orange France calls up deep fakes for FIFA Telecom giant Orange France created a spot ahead of the FIFA Women’s World Cup that used deep fakes to make an earnest point about women’s soccer. The ad, created with Publicis’ Marcel AI platform, features a series of men’s soccer highlights, showcasing France’s high style of play and fans’ celebrations. But halfway through, the ad reveals that the players are actually from the women’s team, and that what appeared to be male stars, including Kylian Mbappé, was actually video magic enabled by deep fake technology. Publicis superimposed the men’s faces onto the women’s bodies, also adjusting other physical aspects to make the alterations more believable. But every incredible shot, juke and dribble was, in reality, an accomplishment by the women’s team. The subtext is that women can also be incredible soccer players, a fact that is typically overlooked by the male-dominated lens of professional sports. The effort ranked as one of Ad Age’s top ads of the year. No. 3: AI-generated brand collabs Back in early 2023, as generative AI tools were quickly picking up steam, marketers were spending a lot of time testing the technology by crafting fake brand collaborations. This kind of experimentation produced some fascinating hypotheticals and continued over the course of the year. The creativity involved deserves its own spot in our top 5 AI list—here are a few of our favorite productions. Fake crossovers between Caterpillar and Birkenstock, and Pokémon and Dr Pepper, created by BrXnd.ai: What would happen if Nike built a store on Mt. Everest? Perhaps it would look like this (created by Benjamin Benichou): Here’s Nike again, but this time the brand is teamed with the iconic Johannes Vermeer painting “Girl With A Pearl Earring” (from TikTok creator @pictelate): @pictelate Replying to @Nikki Making a Nike ad with Photoshop’s new generative fill AI tool #photoshop #photoshopai #generativefill ♬ original sound - Pictelate No. 2: Levi’s AI flop The story of AI marketing in 2023 is not all sunshine and roses. Many brands struggled to find useful adoptions of the technology. Some, such as Levi’s, felt flat on their faces. In March, Levi’s used generative AI to create a larger diversity of body types for modeling its clothes. But many on social media pointed to the move’s obvious flaw: Why opt for fake diversity when you can hire actual models that reflect this diversity in real life? Levi’s was quick to defend the activation, saying that it wouldn’t be used to replace real photo shoots. Marketers, however, saw that the damage was already done, with some pointing to the debacle as evidence of how diversity does not always mean inclusion. Others focused on how AI creations cannot be a substitute for real progress. “This is a wake-up call for marketers, agencies and allies in DE&I because it becomes lazy to create an image rather than putting in the work to find the right person,” Jerri DeVard, founder of the Black Executive CMO Alliance, told Ad Age at the time. “It’s a lazy approach to an issue that deserves better.” Read more of this year’s retail marketing news No. 1: Coca-Cola’s cumulative AI commitment Coca-Cola’s cumulative effort in the AI space throughout 2023 is worthy of the top spot in this list. The beverage giant kicked things off in February when it inked a deal with Bain & Company to use OpenAI tools to enhance marketing creativity. The next month, it broadened its commitment to the technology by encouraging fans to use tools such as DALL-E to create Coca-Cola-themed artwork. Soon, generative AI became a central focus in the beverage company’s marketing efforts. Coca-Cola appointed its first head of generative AI, Pratik Thakar, in June. A couple of months later, it hosted a three-day event with creators for the purpose of using AI to help produce ads for the brand. Coca-Cola even commissioned AI-generated QR codes from an artist, which were used in an ad paired with the company’s latest Coke Studio song. In perhaps its most ambitious AI play, Coca-Cola in September released “Y3000 Zero Sugar,” a limited-edition drink formulated with the help of AI technology. The product, part of Coca-Cola’s Creation series, was intended to taste like “what the future could look like.” The beverage giant has steadily become one of the most committed adopters of AI among consumer-facing brands, not only using the technology internally—as many companies are doing—but also placing it in the foreground of its marketing. Speaking with Ad Age in May, Thakar summed up Coca-Cola’s view of the space: “[AI] isn’t just a promise for the future. It’s available right now.” See our Year in Review stories here

Top 5 AI activations of 2023

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