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<\/p>\nWhen Leeds-based agency IMA won the Autotrader account in March, they had one goal for the UK\u2019s largest digital automotive platform. To put it front of mind and the obvious choice for anyone looking to buy a car. To do that, they needed it to connect emotionally, taking a category that\u2019s associated with all things cold, metallic and mechanical and to turn it into something very human. And to do that they took a surprising left turn: they used artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n
The crux of the idea is to position Autotrader as the auto-matic go-to whenever you need to buy a car, as Ben Ducker ECD at IMA explains.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur challenge was how do you help the market leader remain the market leader in a world where competition \u2013 Cinch and the like \u2013 are growing rapidly, particularly with the 25-to-35 year old younger demographic. It\u2019s all based on ease, on simplicity. Obviously it\u2019s still tech first. We looked at those traits and actually, you guys are about getting it right. A car purchase, like a holiday, like a house, is a big ticket item. You need to get it right,\u201d says Ben. \u201cWe don\u2019t need to talk about the functional benefits, the brand needs to resonate emotionally. It\u2019s an awareness-driving brand platform piece to begin with. In order to build salience and emotional equity with the consumer, we needed to position the brand in a way that was flexible, and create consistency at the heart of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
In order to do that, the team needed to present a decent volume of scenarios so that people could get a real feel for how all-encompassing and ever-ready the platform is. One new execution every year wasn\u2019t going to cut it. Essentially, they needed to speed-run a \u2018Should Have Gone to Specsavers\u2019 in the national consciousness.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s where the IMA team suspected AI might give them a little more bang for their production buck. In order to demonstrate the breadth and flexibility of the new platform they would need to demonstrate multiple scenarios in film and in still imagery. Ordinarily, their budget and short timeframe might have allowed them to execute one-and-a-half TV ads; the new campaign launches with six still ads and three videos.<\/p>\n
Persuading their Autotrader client to jump into an AI experiment was fairly straightforward. While it\u2019s a brand that the public may associate with mechanics and car nuts and its long-shuttered print magazine, these days it’s a highly tech-forward, innovative digital business.<\/p>\n
Emily Huyton is business director at IMA. She recalls being wowed by their enthusiasm for trying new ways of working. \u201cYou\u2019re going into this Silicon Valley-esque, tech-centric brand, but actually as a result of a digital product being at the heart of that business, they are actually really in favour of agile sprint ways of working, so a long, waterfall, chronological process sort of went against the energy of that business,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s freedom to fail, freedom to get something out and figure it out as we go. They were so receptive to linking arms with us and going \u2019we\u2019ve never done AI before, neither have you guys\u2019. We did as much managing expectations up front and I was very diligent about getting together pros and cons of approaches, and they were like, \u2018let\u2019s just go\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
When it came to selecting a partner to bring this ambitious AI project to life, Ben turned to the team at Made By Humans. He had a relationship with co-founder and EP Toby Walsham, which stretched back to the days when Ben was a creative at VCCP and Toby a VFX producer at Framestore. The AI production space can, says Ben feel a bit like a “Wild West” at times, so\u00a0 Made By Humans reputation and experience as one of the first independent commercial production companies also stood out. That was all important as this job wouldn\u2019t rely on the usual spectacle and absurdity associated with AI video. The films needed to be subtle, emotional, and human, which is still a real challenge for AI filmmakers, particularly those with little experience.<\/p>\n
AI production, as opposed to live action or even traditional or CG animation could, in the wrong hands, turn into something of a black box. A script goes in, a film pops out. In order to make sure that the films and stills met the clients\u2019 exact needs, that they were executed to the highest standard and that there was space for communication, the teams at IMA and Made By Humans made sure to replicate those workflows and milestones that would be familiar from a traditional shoot process.<\/p>\n
Breaking down the production journey, so much is familiar. There\u2019s casting, there\u2019s location scouting, wardrobe, it\u2019s just that instead of presenting real places or people, they\u2019re AI generated. What does this character look like if he\u2019s bald? Tall? Skinny? Tired?<\/p>\n
\u201cWe took the workflow that clients understand, so we would do casting and location scouts, but it would just be in AI. The difference is that we don\u2019t do the shoot aspects but we take everyone along on a traditional journey so that it feels familiar and feels comfortable. Obviously it\u2019s a brave new world so there are changes within that,\u201d says Ben.<\/p>\n
That transparency and collaboration between production, agency and, of course, client is key to how Made By Humans works, says Toby. \u201cThere are a lot of AI companies out there right now where you pass a script and a budget and they come back to you with a film. But we work in advertising and everyone\u2019s got a bit of feedback,\u201d he says. \u201cEven if something\u2019s perfect, clients will have something to say. That\u2019s part of this world that we live in. We\u2019ve known that for many years of being in this space. So when we launched Made By Humans, it was very intentional to set it up to feel really familiar in its process. That\u2019s why we do all of those markers that are very traditional.\u201d<\/p>\n
What also becomes apparent is that the ads are not created solely in AI or with just one AI tool. Workflows are complex, with different tools and platforms pulled in to perform different tasks \u2013 and indeed for some tasks, non-AI tools are superior. Again, this subverts common perceptions about what AI production really looks like. To get the best outcome, you don\u2019t just lob some prompts into one platform. Tools and techniques are layered and communication and check-ins are key.<\/p>\n
Guy Soulsby, co-founder and creative director at Made By Humans, was the director on the project. He points out, for example, that visual gen AI tools are still quite unreliable when it comes to text, so when it came to adding signage into the scene or getting rid of random AI artefacts, they\u2019d turn to traditional VFX for a bit of clean up.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut that\u2019s no different to a normal shoot where you\u2019d have something in the background and in the edit I\u2019d say \u2018I don\u2019t like that, can we paint it out?\u2019,\u201d he says. \u201cWe as a business \u2013 and I\u2019m sure IMA would agree \u2013 are about delivering the highest quality thing.This isn\u2019t just taking the first prompt out of a tool, in the same way we don\u2019t post raw footage to TV, right? There\u2019s the edit, there\u2019s VFX. We still have a process involved.\u201d<\/p>\n
Guy explains that the performances were created and refined by acting out tests for what they were after and using language-based prompts to describe them \u2013 they found that some AI platforms were more successful and others were very much not so. But he explains that the act of refining the performances by rewriting and tweaking prompts wasn\u2019t unlike doing 20 takes with an actor, which also usually ends up with a lot of footage \u201con the cutting room floor\u201d. Guy says that an alternative approach, which they didn\u2019t use in this project, might be to use an AI motion capture app like Act Two.<\/p>\n
Ultimately, he describes the process of directing the spots and creating the still imagery as \u201chuman-AI collaboration\u201d. Many of the considerations and challenges are exactly the same as those a live action or animation director would have to tackle.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn terms of understanding the composition, the timing of the shots to get that comedy across, the framing, obviously that\u2019s a human reaction as well, but all of these things are working together to get across that sense, not laugh-out-loud funny but that smile in the mind that we were trying to achieve in order to build brand warmth in a category that isn\u2019t particularly warm,\u201d says Guy.<\/p>\n
The real difficulty with this campaign was to create performances that were amusing and connected emotionally. Comedy is tough enough in live action, but the team was dealing with a low-key wry humour in AI, which was a next level challenge.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s very hard in this because the humour isn\u2019t silly slapstick gags. It\u2019s very subtle nuances as well. So it was a big challenge to get that,\u201d says Ben. \u201cOn set, to get these subtle human moments is challenging with actors. So to achieve it in AI was an even bigger challenge. But that\u2019s why it was really interesting working in different ways, not only live action shooting ourselves but working with language, different platforms to achieve the results.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Where AI really unlocks for clients is that they\u2019re not limited to a set number of shoot days, and reshoots don\u2019t require clients to stump up thousands and thousands to bring back the actors, crews and kit. This is, however, something of a monkey\u2019s paw. If there are no limits, where do you stop? And how do you enforce a cut off when stakeholders know that it\u2019s kind of a fake limit?<\/p>\n
\u201cI remember saying to the client, \u2018ok, let\u2019s imagine we\u2019re on set and we\u2019re doing a shot and we\u2019ve got a producer with a shot list chipping at our heels saying, \u201cwe\u2019ve really got to move on or we\u2019re getting kicked out of the studio\u201d\u2019,\u201d says Emily. \u201cThere comes a point where you\u2019ve got to say we\u2019ve got what we\u2019ve got\u2026 we did have to try and mirror some of that mentality just to keep us on track because it\u2019s a bit of an indulgence to just go again and again.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nonetheless, that flexibility meant that if a creative or client did realise they needed a close up shot or a different angle, it wasn\u2019t impossibly difficult to go in and make those changes. However, it also requires much more discipline too.<\/p>\n
Ben reflects, \u201cWe asked the client what they liked most about working in the AI process and it was exactly that: the ability to feel like you\u2019re not in a corner in the edit and there\u2019s no real room for manoeuvre. Obviously that comes with its pain point because otherwise you\u2019re forever in production and re-touching. While that\u2019s great freedom and flexibility, it does mean that the AI process has to be even more controlled in navigation and communication\u2026. Otherwise how long is a piece of string?\u201d<\/p>\n
With three films and six stills executions out the door just seven months after pitching for the Autotrader client, the experience has given the team at IMA a much-valued crash course in AI. \u201cWe are as a business really embracing AI holistically through our whole business infrastructure,\u201d says Emily. \u201cOur leadership team are very much recognising that AI is here to stay but it\u2019s about supercharging, not necessarily replacing elements. It\u2019s another tool, it\u2019s another weapon of choice, so to speak.\u201d
But for all the technological experimentation that comes with every AI production, especially now when updates and new tools are being launched all the time and the \u2018rules\u2019 of AI filmmaking are being written in realtime, at its heart Toby and Guy say, this is ultimately still a story about storytelling and craft.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen clients start to go along on that journey with us, they go, ok, this is still a handcrafted thing, it\u2019s just using AI,\u201d says Toby. \u201cThis is still filmmaking, it\u2019s just that our lens is AI rather than glass.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Leeds-based agency IMA won the Autotrader account in March, they had one goal for the UK\u2019s largest…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":92821,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[85,46,47963,62418,125],"class_list":{"0":"post-92820","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-technology","8":"tag-il","9":"tag-israel","10":"tag-lbb-editorial","11":"tag-peek-under-the-hood-on-auto-traders-fleet-of-new-ai-ads","12":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92820","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92820"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92820\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/92821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}