How agencies balance media and creative as AI projects ramp up
As AI projects ramp up, agencies are balancing media and creative efforts by integrating AI tools into their strategies. IPG's Huge, for example, has increased AI-driven projects to 25%, working with partners like Google to create personalized, AI-informed experiences. Custom AI platforms are also being developed for analytics, audience research, and campaign optimization. Despite AI's growing role, human insight remains crucial for unique media planning and creative ideas.
As media agencies develop more artificial intelligence-driven work, they are relying on data and media tools to inform the creative side.
Whether it’s developing proprietary media and analytics applications or establishing a wider practice to guide the AI and ethical areas of their campaigns, various agencies specializing in commerce, innovation and media are incorporating these tools into their strategies.
At IPG’s design and innovation arm Huge, the amount of AI client projects has steadily increased as the company added new leadership to support these areas. This June, the agency said it expanded its client projects that involve using an AI component to 25%, including in its work with clients Google, Darling Ingredients and Hublot.
“It was a conscious effort [to increase that number],” said Lisa De Bonis, CEO of Huge, though she did not say how many brands that represented.
Yet one potential challenges with more generative AI content is sometimes the wasted creative output. CreativeX research recently pointed to 90% of global campaign toolkits never getting activated by local markets — and 45% of those core assets related to the brand image are not used in any way.
De Bonis said striking this input and output balance is important to Huge as it incorporates AI into its broader practice: “We’re not just using it to make stuff and pump it out. We’re using it to inform our thinking and to be smarter about what we put in front of our clients and out in the world.”
Read more at Digiday.
