How AI is shaping new advertising campaigns
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is increasingly becoming a significant part of modern advertising. It’s very difficult to sit in a meeting, open a marketing newsletter or scroll through an industry report without it coming up. It’s not just the conversation around it. The actual ads on your screen, the ones you just watched and didn’t think twice about, might be AI too.
AI’s role in advertising
AI advertising has experienced rapid growth over the last few years, creating opportunities for both small and large businesses. That being said, AI itself isn’t new. A significant number of firms were already using AI to decide which ads would be relevant to you, on which platform and at what time of day through the ‘algorithm.’ For example, advertisements on Google Ads and Facebook Ads rely on user data to figure out the optimal ad placement relevant in the moment. According to the Harvard Business Review, marketing is the part of business that stands to gain the most from AI. Figuring out people, matching them with something they want and pushing them to act is one of the many things AI was built to do. The fast growth of the market reflects this. Research published in 2024 estimates that the market for AI in marketing was $15.84 billion in 2023 and is expected to reach $107.5 billion by 2028.
When it has worked
In recent years, some of the most discussed campaigns didn’t use AI to make creative shortcuts, but to push creativity into places it wouldn’t have reached on its own.
Heinz is a good case study of an effective marketing campaign led by AI. They based the advert around asking AI to generate pictures of “ketchup” and seeing what came up. The images were strange, abstract and a bit odd. However, you could almost immediately tell it was Heinz. This was successful because they had an established brand with a strong colour psychology identity. Furthermore, the company has a long and loyal relationship with its customers, which makes its brand more recognisable.
Nutella took this further. Utilising AI, they produced 7 million different label designs for jars sold across Italy. Before this, a strategy of this calibre wouldn’t have been possible. Because every single jar was different, it turned something you could grab off any supermarket shelf into a collectable.
Finally, AI has also been effective in other types of approaches for marketing. A noticeable example of this is when Nike used it in 2022. They released the “Never Done Evolving” campaign, which featured a virtual match between Serena from 1999 and 2017. The film was 8 minutes long and received fantastic feedback. Despite this, the idea, story and emotional aspect of it were all human. AI was just a catalyst towards making it physically possible.
When it hasn’t worked
It’s pretty much impossible to write about AI in advertising right now without talking about Coca-Cola’s 2024 Christmas campaign. Every year, they release their “Holidays Are Coming” ad. This iconic ad has been embedded in British Christmas culture, so that most people could hum the tune without even trying. Yet, due to being mainly built on nostalgia and emotion, the generated version didn’t make people feel what they were supposed to. The campaign still included references to their previous years, such as snow and the red Coca-Cola trucks, but something was missing. It didn’t recreate that same warmth. Nonetheless, the brand doubled down and stood by its decision the following year with an updated version. This time, they used archived footage and animated animals. Even so, it still attracted mixed reactions.
A similar situation happened when Toys ‘R’ Us released a brand film created mainly using AI. The advert told the story of the company’s founder and the origins of the brand through the mascot Geoffrey the Giraffe; it was generated entirely using Sora AI. Many viewers criticised that the visuals and strange transitions made the narrative feel distant rather than emotional. Indeed, what was meant to celebrate the brand history fell short of its remit to show the childhood sentiment that their customers once experienced.
With the increased usage of AI across campaigns like these, the question becomes simple: Does it feel real? Audiences are becoming increasingly discerning. They can tell when something has been made with care and when it’s been rushed. Brands that recognise the value of building their community and communicate with a human tone are the ones that stand out.
Does it need to be declared?
The advertising regulator the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has issued guidelines to ensure adverts across all media do not mislead, harm or offend consumers. The core principle at the heart of the UK Advertising Code is that the advert is ‘Legal, decent, honest and truthful.’ With regards to AI, the overarching premise is that brands don’t need to state that AI was used in making an ad. Whilst at face value this sounds relatively straightforward, the rules across all media are focused on one thing: whether an ad misleads people. This standard applies regardless of whether a campaign was made by a human or generated entirely by AI. Even if there are no regulations directly addressing AI use in advertising, the problem arises when it is used to deceive. Made-up testimonials, fake people presented as real, and using someone’s image without permission can also fall under misleading marketing. And if a brand claims its work is fully human-made while heavily using AI, it could fall under the same category. For production uses like editing, finishing, adapting assets, there’s no obligation to say so. The ASA also works reactively. This means that it responds to complaints after they happen, rather than signing off on content before it is posted.
Where things stand
It remains to be seen how the cards will fall with respect to AI advertising in practice. Currently, compelling examples to date suggest that AI works best not as a standalone tool, but as a helping hand in projects. Nonetheless, its application is moving fast, while regulations appear to be lagging behind as the technology evolves at a rapid rate. Every few months brings something new. Whether that is a campaign, an approach or a use of technology that nobody had thought of before. And honestly, that’s what makes it such an exciting time to be working in marketing – there’s real room to do something genuinely original.