Agencies dive into the gen AI ocean
WPP, the largest ad agency holding in the world, announced a partnership in May 2023 with chipmaker Nvidia to develop ads utilizing generative AI. According to the agency, the collaboration would empower its creative teams to seamlessly incorporate content from entities like Adobe and Getty Images into campaigns using generative AI, resulting in increased efficiency and scalability. In India, WPP collaborated with Mondelez on an AI-driven Cadbury campaign featuring Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan. The campaign produced commercials in which an AI-generated version of the actor encouraged passers-by to visit two thousand local stores during Diwali. The same month, French ad behemoth Publicis Groupe said it would acquire a full stake in Publicis Sapient AI Labs, the AI joint venture it launched in 2020 alongside tech firms Elder Research and Tquila.In the following month, Omnicom Group announced its inaugural generative AI tool in collaboration with Microsoft. This tool takes the form of a virtual assistant designed to aid ad agency professionals in various tasks throughout the advertising process, including tasks like compiling audience insights and creating media plans. In August 2023, the Interpublic Group of Companies (IPG), the fifth-largest ad agency group worldwide, partnered with Google to advance the utilization of AI in brand marketing. On month later, Japanese ad giant Dentsu revealed a new generative AI-related tool known as d.Scriptor. The tool aims to boost paid search, particularly in the realm of ad copy development.