Tag: big tech
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Behind the A.I. Boom, a Boring Business Is Soaring With Better Ads
DribbleUp, a sports equipment company, says it used to spend its own time and resources figuring out whom to target on Facebook. For the last two years, it has placed those ads “entirely through Facebook’s artificial intelligence tools,” according to The New York Times. Since then, the company says sales have outpaced marketing expenses. It…
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Spaghetti Monsters, De-Aging, and AI Twins: This Week’s Top 5 Brand Plays
ByteDance’s Seedance (now in its second generation) is the new video model fueling equal parts creative glee and IP panic. Creators have been stress-testing it with the internet’s favorite benchmark—Will Smith + spaghetti—except the latest flex is Smith fighting a spaghetti monster, posted by Magnific AI founder Javi Lopez. AI producer Billy Boman summed up…
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Bought the Spot, Built the Ad: Artlist’s 5-Day Super Bowl Flex
Artlist, an AI design platform, ran a regional Super Bowl spot that was generated entirely with its own tools—and the plot of the ad is basically “yes, we really did this with AI.” The 30-second narration positions the Super Bowl as advertising’s biggest creative stage, then pivots to the pitch: with Artlist’s generative video product,…
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Brands wrestle with authenticity vs. AI
As AI-generated marketing proliferates—and fumbles—some brands are reaping rewards by leaning hard in the opposite direction: showing off the real, the tactile, the definitely-not-CGI. A spec Pepsi ad from filmmakers Luke Barnett and Noam Kroll pokes fun at synthetic storytelling with a self-aware script featuring six repetitions of the word “real” in just 60 seconds.…
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Tom the Turkey Books It: Google’s First AI-Generated TV Spot
Google’s latest ad stars a plush turkey fleeing Thanksgiving via Google Search’s AI Mode—and notably, the entire spot was built using generative AI. Created with Google’s in-house Veo 3 video model, “Quick Getaway” follows Tom, the stuffed bird, as he ditches turkey season for a spontaneous holiday. The prompt? “I need to go somewhere with…
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R/GA Makes AI-focused Acquisition
R/GA just closed its first buy since splitting from Interpublic Group, scooping up AI studio Addition—a tight team of about a dozen that’s already punched above its weight with work for Google, The New York Times, and others. Founded in 2021, Addition excels in AI strategy, personalization, and rapid prototyping, thanks mainly to its “AI-native”…
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Copilot, Who Scored the Fastest Goal Ever?
The Premier League just kicked off a five-year collaboration with Microsoft, aiming to give fans smarter, faster, and deeper ways to follow the beautiful game—without needing to memorize 30 years of match stats. At the heart of the deal is the Premier League Companion, an AI-powered sidekick built into the league’s app and website. Backed…
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Microsoft used GenAI for a new ad, and no one noticed
Microsoft’s creative team recently pulled back the curtain on its first ad crafted almost entirely with generative AI—an effort born out of tight deadlines and tighter budgets. Tasked with launching a new Surface for Business campaign in just one month, Microsoft’s Visual Design team turned to AI tools for speed and scalability. The final spot…
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Metaverse Marketing: The Top 5 Brand Plays Right Now
The metaverse may not be dominating headlines like AI, but brands are still betting big on virtual worlds. The NFL scored a touchdown inside Roblox with an interactive Super Bowl event, letting players take on challenges as the Chiefs or Eagles, earning in-game currency for digital rewards. Meanwhile, Meta continues its push for a mixed-reality…
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Perplexity’s $1M Tweet Scores Big During the Super Bowl
While OpenAI and Google shelled out millions for Super Bowl ads, Perplexity AI took a more budget-friendly—and arguably more effective—approach. The AI search engine skipped traditional TV spots and instead posted on X (formerly Twitter), encouraging users to download its app and participate in a contest with a $1 million prize. The rules? Simply install…
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Bill Murray Wants Your Help—Yahoo’s Super Bowl Email Stunt
Yahoo is making a quirky comeback with a regional Super Bowl ad featuring Bill Murray—without even showing its own logo. The 15-second spot, airing in 18 major U.S. markets, plays out like an interactive puzzle, where Murray appears distressed after seeing a dog staring back at him in the mirror. His plea? “Email me!” Viewers…
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AdAge Top 5 Metaverse Moments July
McDonald’s and Meta are among the brands in this month’s roundup of metaverse marketing moments… Top 5 for July: Ikea hiring metaverse employees Google’s new gaming strategy Restructuring at Meta Reality Labs McDonald’s returns to the metaverse Walmart’s metaverse commerce experiment Full details at Adage.
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Google Cloud Sphere Takeover
The latest big tech activation on The Sphere is for Google Cloud and apparently features an easter egg for developers…
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Microsoft turns holiday memories into AI works of art
The Redmond tech giant is out with a new holiday spot showing off AI tools in Image Creator by Microsoft Designer. It’s a feel-good commercial that showcases the power of Generative AI in the hands of a skilled artist, who is able to transform a few memories from strangers into works of art that seem…
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Ramp up your next Teams meeting with virtual Maybelline makeup
Maybelline teams up with Microsoft to enhance video conferencing. To help people express themselves while virtually communicating with colleagues, Microsoft partnered with Maybelline New York to launch the Maybelline Beauty App within its Microsoft Teams group messaging application. The Maybelline Beauty App allows Teams users to select from 12 virtual makeup filters that are applied…
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Google and Omnicom team up on Generative AI for advertising
The generative AI arms race was on full display last week in Cannes, with Omnicom touting a new partnership with Google as the first commercial use of the platform’s generative AI models for both text and image creation. Google is apparently also offering copyright protections, which should in theory make the assets more readily available…