How Google’s latest AI video model is creating in-flight videos for Japan Airlines

The next message passengers see on their seat-back screens could be AI-generated now that Japan Airlines is using Google’s Veo 2 to create tourism spots that will run on flights. The Japanese air carrier has been working with digital marketing agency Jellyfish and Pencil, the generative AI ad platform, both owned by the Brandtech Group, to experiment with AI video—most recently with Google’s Veo 2. On Thursday, Japan Airlines unveiled a new promotional video that shows scenes of Japan, beckoning people to visit the sites of Tokyo. Six-second snippets of the video are also expected to appear as ads on YouTube. The imagery is AI-generated and an example of how Pencil is pushing more automation and formats into its ad platform, which can serve messages to YouTube, Instagram and TikTok, among other channels. In this case, the marketing video was made mostly for in-flight screens. Veo 2 is Google’s latest generative AI video model based on Gemini, and it has been a core part of some announcements coming out of Google’s Cloud Next event in Las Vegas this week. “The types of ads that we couldn’t do before, that required video, now we can tackle with AI,” said Will Hanschell, Pencil’s CEO. Pencil has built AI creative tools that have mostly been used for writing copy, making images and subtle animations—but video is getting to a point where it’s ready for primetime advertising. Pencil has already worked with video models such as Runway and Stable Diffusion. Google’s Veo 2 also competes with OpenAI’s Sora and dozens of other video models. WPP and other major agency holding companies have also adopted Veo 2. The Brandtech Group, which owns Pencil and digital marketing agency Jellyfish, has listed Google, Microsoft, Unilever, LVMH, Morgan Stanley, Bayer, TikTok, Diageo, Reckitt and Renault-Nissan as clients of its ad platform. “We’ve always made Facebook ads and banner ads and that kind of stuff with image-generation models and text-generation models, and a lot of e-commerce work with descriptions [made by AI],” Hanschell said. “With video models like Veo 2, now we can do Instagram Reels. We’re even doing interesting streaming, TV-level advertising.” This week, Google has been showing off work with brands through its cloud computing, which is accelerating the adoption of AI into marketing. For instance, Mattel discussed how it’s using advanced data analytics to get more targeted with its marketing, using Google Cloud to carve out audience segments such as “adult collectors” and “gift givers.” Mattel said it’s shaved analysis turnaround times from months to minutes. Part of the cloud’s performance is based on Google’s AI implementations, Google said in its announcement with Mattel. Also read: How Barbie turned LeBron James into a ‘Kenbassador’ AI’s creative capacity has generated a climate of angst among the creative community worried about the future of jobs and old models of doing business in advertising. Some AI-generated commercials—Coca-Cola’s use of AI during the holidays and Puma’s AI ad experiment last month—showed major brands are experimenting with the tech. “The advances in text-to-video through Google’s Gemini models allow us to create content inspired by the incredible diversity of Japan’s destinations,” Minako Kent, Japan Airlines’ managing director of global marketing, said in its announcement on Thursday. More brands are starting to roll AI video into their ad campaigns, Hanschell said. “Clients we work with have done their pilots, have done their proofs of concept across specific placements like this one [with Japan Airlines],” Hanschell said, “and they’re ready to start scaling up use of gen AI.” So far, brands are seeing reductions in time and spend of between 20% and 30% by including generative AI in their campaign work, according to a spokesperson for The Brandtech Group. Pencil’s business model is that brands and agencies buy annual tech licenses to the platform and then get access to the AI models, which are constantly getting updated with new ones coming online. “I don’t think the goal is to upend the agency model,” Hanschell said. “I think the agency model has been upended by the arrival of gen AI, and now it’s a question of, how do clients and brands get access to the technology for the obvious efficiencies.”

How Google’s latest AI video model is creating in-flight videos for Japan Airlines

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