We at DCMN are always looking for innovative ways to bring our clients’ ideas to life. That is why we took the opportunity and created one of the world’s first campaigns using AI-generated creatives for the 10th anniversary of our client tolino. The popular e-reader was looking to bring their birthday slogan “Be who you want. With over 3 million stories in the palm of your hand.” to life.
The Idea Behind The AI Creatives
The team had been experimenting with AI-based programmes for months, and were able to come up with a special and completely unseen approach. The idea: unique characters like a Victorian noblewoman, a troll or even a futuristic astronaut, created with the help of text-to-image AI, are combined with real photography, depicting everyday scenes.
The visuals created with AI are eye-catchers that convey immersion into another world. They show what it means to “sink” into a story with a digital book and escape from everyday life. The target group should identify themselves with these everyday situations, while the fantastic characters should create an emotional connection to reading. The message behind it is clear: digital reading is possible anywhere, anytime and allows you to carry a wide variety of stories on just one eBook reader.
New Technology Calls For New Workflows
The innovative nature of the campaign meant entirely new workflows for DCMN – including the first ever “prompt artist” appearing in the credits. Once the creative idea was in place, the task was to control the AI so that usable, inspiring and unique characters could be created. Over 200 images were generated before the final six characters were selected.
“There’s been a lot of discussion about AI in recent months – when I started working on it in September 2022, it wasn’t like that. The development of the technology is rapid and it was important for me to be on top of it right from the start and to bring that to the team – that’s what we aspire to at DCMN when it comes to new technologies,” says Jan Interthal, Prompt Artist for the campaign and Creative Producer at DCMN.
Even though the AI took over some of the work, there was plenty of craft involved: from upscaling, to fine-tuning the characters, to the final compositing. Learn more about the process from the video:
Measurable Creative Impact
Our goal is to deliver creatives that will perform. That is why we have developed multiple ways of testing and measuring the creative impact. The resulting 6 motifs were tested via an AI platform for various factors such as attention, cognitive demand, focus, visibility and consumer engagement to strengthen the success of the campaign. The results were based on the world’s largest eye-tracking and EEG (electroencephalography) database.
In addition, our Insights team conducted creative testing among 500 target consumers. The campaign’s overall likability was 56% above the average of other campaign benchmarks. The brand recall at 75% was a very positive result as well. According to the respondents the campaign had a clear message (68%), it was perceived as credible (62%), and attracted attention (58%). Half of the respondents perceived it as unique and arousing their interest.
The Media Planning And Booking
The Media Planning And BookingIn addition to the creative design, DCMN was responsible for the media planning and booking. After its debut at the Leipzig Book Fair, the campaign is running across a variety of OOH placements throughout 93 cities in Germany – in both CLP and MLP formats. In order to ensure a fast coverage build-up, the circuit is mainly installed in highly frequented areas in the city centres, at bus stops, as well as, at railway stations and in shopping centres. Additionally, the campaign will be expanded online and on Social Media, where the characters will start moving!
