Creative Strategy

Welcome to the Meta Goo

| Art Director Nerd

Mark Zuckerberg somehow reminds me of DATA in Star Trek the Next Generation. That slightly-too-precise walk? That measured, almost-synthesised speech pattern? The enthusiastically grey wardrobe? He probably has his socks folded away in alphabetical order. Maybe he wants to be an android? Remember he wanted us to live in the Metaverse with him – eek!
Now he’s architecting another world of algorithmic grey goo – that includes advertising. By 2026, he plans to pump it into every Meta ad. The promise is seductive for SME’s and small brands: save time and money, gain flawless targeting, enjoy optimised CPC/CPV, and churn out slick, scalable creatives. Of course it’s appealing. It will probably work to certain degree for those brands who have little time or money for marketing or advertising.
But what about larger brands? What happens if every brand uses the same AI tools, ticks the same boxes, and generates near-identical images? What makes YOUR brand different? Meta’s AI hands you the “perfect” ad. It hands your competitor the exact same one. Suddenly, your unique message dissolves into a sea of sameness. Your brand vanishes. Yes, you’ll get technically perfect, emotionally barren ads – joyless, toneless, and culturally vacant. What’s your edge over your competitors – Budget?
Maybe I’m wrong, but I expect that Zuckerberg doesn’t hold human creativity in much regard. I wonder what he would feel staring at Michelangelo’s David or the Sistine Chapel: Would he see human genius? Or just inefficient data, thinking “Our AI renders faster with 98.7% anatomical accuracy compared with Michelangelo’s 96.4%.” Or sitting in the Louvre “The brush strokes on the Mona Lisa are inaccurate by a factor of 0.85%. AI has an accuracy on the human form of 99.9%.”
AI is undeniably here to stay; it has transformed marketing forever. But it is not the holy grail. The most successful brands of the next decade won’t be those that reject AI outright, nor those that surrender to it completely. They’ll be the ones who use AI to amplify their humanity.
John Hegarty’s wisdom strikes a chord: “A brand isn’t a logo. It’s the sum of every interaction a customer has with you.” That’s what Meta’s ad generator could destroy: your brand story, your humanity, your reason to exist beyond conversion metrics.
In a world that is starting to drown in AI generated ad sludge, the challenge now is to fight to tell human stories. And more than ever embrace imperfection and authenticity. Thoughts?
(Note: Image generated in Midjourney / Photoshop) hashtag#ai hashtag#generativeai hashtag#meta hashtag#aiinfo hashtag#artdirector hashtag#irishadvertising hashtag#advertising

Don’t be a tool: pick the right one

| Art Director Nerd
Some data advice from Sir John Hegarty
You can’t eat soup with a fork. You shouldn’t hammer in a screw. And those who bring a knife to a gunfight find themselves at a severe disadvantage. Selecting the wrong tool for the job usually delivers poor results. It’s perilous too. There’s a section on the subject to be found in a safety handbook produced by the US Navy. It cautions against things like using a chair where a ladder is necessary, or a knife when you need a screwdriver. There’s more jeopardy associated with these things at sea – but this sort of thing is still cavalier on land. The physical examples are absurd. But in the digital sphere, we’re a lot more lenient when it comes to selecting the incorrect tackle. The worst offenders are those who obsess over the power of data – specifically, its ability to predict and measure things that were unmeasurable before. Research and evidence are fundamentally important, but we’re so enchanted with the capabilities of data that it’s started to feel like we can’t come to a decision without the reassurance of a stat. This is a problem – an emphasis on what’s been prevent the imagining of what might be. Data never invented anythingAmidst all the talk of data-driven businesses, the greatest commercial achievements of recent decades have had surprisingly little to do with it. Consider the most successful product from the (until recently) biggest company in the world – Apple’s iPhone. The story of its conception involved a handful of envelope-pushing tech executives drawing on their knowledge of the consumer, and the creative capacity of their development teams. Data took a back seat to human insight. This is the case with almost every brilliant product that we deem indispensable in 2024. James Dyson’s bagless vacuum cleaner, Elon Musk’s car company, Bill Bowerman’s running shoe. These contributions to our civilisation came from imagination. Data informs, creativity inspiresThe same is true in marketing and brand-building. Data becomes useful to businesses when it exposes a truth. As I’ve often said, when an idea possesses that quality, it becomes powerful. Uncovering a fact might spark the creative engine, but that isn’t enough. It takes empathy, intuition and perseverance to bring off a campaign around it. The great brand campaigns of the last twenty years are all built around truth, whether that authenticity is drawn from a data point or not matters less than most digital zealots would have us believe. A debate is raging when it comes to how AI will impact creativity and business. More tools don’t always result in better outcomes, but as they proliferate the best entrepreneurs – like the best carpenters – will know which ones to pick up, and which ones to leave on the bench.

Aimed at the stars

| Art Director Nerd

Faced with the threat from it’s online competitors, Click&Go Holidays identified a critical disparity. While rivals boasted expansive online reach and ample budgets, their failure to deliver on promised customer service and comprehensive holiday offerings left dissatisfied customers in their wake. 

Moreover, their actions tarnished the online travel industry’s reputation, prompting a necessary intervention. In contrast, Click&Go proudly upheld its status as Ireland’s favoured online travel company, backed by an exceptional Trustpilot rating.

To highlight this advantage, we devised a campaign leveraging the company’s 5-star Trustpilot rating. Through visually striking, impactful creatives, the campaign not only reassured Click&Go’s clientele but also sowed seeds of doubt among those considering other online platforms for holiday bookings.

The creative executions allowed us to showcase aspirational locations, and are flexible enough to work across all the different types of holidays that Click&Go offer.

This campaign marked a notable departure for us due to budget constraints, making traditional photography and stock images impractical options. In response, we generated these visuals initially within Mid Journey, refining them further in Adobe Photoshop using the software’s dedicated Generative AI plugin.

The campaign is due to run during Q1 and will be on all of Clic&Go’s social media channels as well as online display and VOD.