{"id":42805,"date":"2025-08-04T12:23:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-04T12:23:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/42805\/"},"modified":"2025-08-04T12:23:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-04T12:23:08","slug":"how-emotive-brought-ultimates-luxury-proposition-to-life-using-ai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/42805\/","title":{"rendered":"How Emotive brought Ultimate’s luxury proposition to life using AI"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Emotive received the latest brief from yoghurt brand Ultimate, it faced two major barriers \u2014 a tight timeline and a tight budget. With only two weeks to deliver a large-format OOH campaign, traditional production methods were well off the table.<\/p>\n

However, through its new specialist AI unit<\/a>, it was able to bring the positioning of \u201cchampioning modern moments of indulgence\u201d to life. Emotive\u2019s CEO, Simon Joyce, and ACD, Edward Macaulay, said they not only met the brief, but worked to elevate the brand, through renaissance-style visuals.<\/p>\n

\u201cUltimate is all about this idea of savouring something decadent,\u201d Joyce told Mumbrella. \u201cIt\u2019s sweet, it\u2019s rich, and that led us to this idea called \u2018So Luxurious\u2019, where Ultimate is so decadent and indulgent that you want to eat it in a more luxurious and elegant way.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Over the conceptualisation phase, Emotive \u201chad a bit of fun\u201d with headlines, according to Macaulay: \u201cIdeas were things like \u2018so luxurious you\u2019d call your couch a chaise longue\u2019 or \u2018so luxurious you\u2019ll raise your pinky\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

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But shooting those ideas in a timeline of two weeks was not possible.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo go from shooting, to retouching, getting it out on the buses, even by the time you go through casting, agreements, the process of working with the client, it just wouldn\u2019t work. You\u2019re talking four to eight weeks minimum as a full-scale production,\u201d Macaulay told Mumbrella.<\/p>\n

These barriers made the agency consider how they could achieve this via AI, so it tapped into its recently developed<\/a> task force. Senior designer Christopher Cooper, who is among the AI unit, suggested generating renaissance-style oil paintings to bring the \u201celegance\u201d to life.<\/p>\n

With a background in illustration and a deep understanding of design composition, Cooper had already been upskilling in generative tools. He saw a way to build bespoke visuals using AI, with complete creative control, including over brushstroke, lighting, and composition.<\/p>\n

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\u201c\u200aRather than us just turning to AI, where quite often people think you just plug it in and go, in this case, we were leaning on the expertise of our own designers to really land something quite special,\u201d Macaulay said.<\/p>\n

\u201cChris wasn\u2019t just prompting an image generator,\u201d he explained. \u201cHe was shaping and constructing the work using his own artistic sensibility \u2013 starting with just a background, then layering in individual elements like trees, drapes, even moonlight. The AI became a tool to enhance his craft, not replace it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The process began with prototyping. Over two days, the team developed a series of test images based off Cooper\u2019s parameters set in ChatGPT. Pretty quickly, Emotive was able to make a master low-res image to take to the client.<\/p>\n

They then passed the low-res images onto a retoucher, who used another AI tool \u2014 Magnific AI \u2014 to upscale it for large-format OOH executions. This step was crucial, according to Macaulay, to ensure the visuals would hold up when displayed on large buses and billboards.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the big issues with AI imagery is scale,\u201d he said. \u201cWhat looks great on a phone can fall apart on a billboard.\u201d<\/p>\n

And while AI will often trying to perfect every little detail, he said the beauty of oil paintings actually lies in the little imperfections. So they kept some of the small quirks, but still made sure to avoid the \u201cuncanny valley\u201d. On the flip side, they wanted to make sure it didn\u2019t try to pass as being something real.<\/p>\n

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\u201cFrom the brief, conceptualising this, we weren\u2019t trying to trick people into thinking it was real,\u201d Joyce told Mumbrella. \u201cThis creative will stand out, it\u2019s different, but it doesn\u2019t cross that line. I understand people have different views on this, but it\u2019s clearly not supposed to be real, it\u2019s an oil painting.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said they avoided crossing the line because when audiences start asking if something is real or AI, that\u2019s when all emotional connection is lost: \u201cWe\u2019re all wired to human connection, and human connection needs something to be real. And this doesn\u2019t take us into that space.\u201d<\/p>\n

The campaign is one of the first large-format OOH executions we know to be AI-generated. For Emotive, it underscores a broader shift in how agencies are, and can, use AI \u2014 not to replace humans, but to expand creative possibilities.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re all in on AI,\u201d Joyce said. \u201cBut it\u2019s never about automation. It\u2019s about bringing our purpose of \u2018ideas that change how people feel\u2019 to life.\u201d<\/p>\n

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