Big companies use AI-generated ads because they’re cheap

Creating an ad can be complicated and expensive, and more brands are seeing generative AI as a means to make that process less painful.

Reuters reported Large ad agencies like WPP and multinational corporations like Unilever are turning to generative AI to cut marketing costs and make more ads.

WPP customers Nestle and Mondelez, makers of Oreo and Cadbury, used OpenAI’s DALL-E 2 to make ads. A Cadbury advertisement ran in India with an AI-generated video of Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan inviting pedestrians to shop at the stores. WPP CEO said Reuters the savings from generative AI can be “10 to 20 times.”

Unilever created its own AI generative advertising tools and used them to write spiels for one of its shampoo products.

But as more brands look to use generative AI to make more ads, the question of whether they need to let people know they’re AI-powered is rearing an ugly head. Big AI companies signed an agreement with the White House to develop watermarking technology to label something made with AI tools. In theory, AI-generated ads could be subject to that rule.

Ken Sickles, product manager for digital watermarking company Digimarc, tells the edge that there should be standard policies around tagging AI-generated content.

“Marketing content is technically original AI content, and context matters when looking at something,” says Sickles. “Tagging that content is great because it provides context, but there has to be an industry standard policy on that.”

Marketing and advertising were part of the first wave of generative AI adopters, using language models to write copy: the words in an ad that convince you to buy the same cup of coffee your favorite celebrity is holding. Generative AI copywriting tool Jasper became a darling of the tech world in 2022, when it was reported the company raised 125 million dollars in Series A financing.

And online brands have also started experimenting with generative AI. For example, direct-to-consumer lingerie company Adore Me toyed with technology to figure out how to market bras and other intimates without having to deal with censorship. However, you still need to put that into action.

Companies using generative AI for advertising said Reuters they are still concerned about whether their AI ads can receive copyright protections and security risks by using AI.