L-R: Katie Dally, Hoang Nguyen, Jessica Coulson, Renee Hyde, Joanna Rose, Chris Howatson, Effie Athanassiou.
Howatson+Company has launched a sister agency Plus Also Studios, with AI enabled creative technology.
It is independent of Howatson+Company, cofounded by data and technology leader Hoang Nguyen, and operated under the leadership of managing director Jessica Coulson and creative director Effie Athanassiou.
Plus Also Studios co-founder Hoang Nguyen said 2024 was the tipping point of AI being a viable alternative for branded asset creation and high-quality creative rollout.
"Where other market offerings have aligned to an AI partner, we remain agnostic, creating value in how we train, secure, fine-tune, and combine multiple AI models to create the perfect, highly crafted output to the brief," Nguyen said.
"It’s not unusual for over 50 AI models to be ‘canvassed’ to create a campaign visual indistinguishable from the traditional production process. In this way, the Plus Also difference is in the people, compliance and process. We leave the AI development to well funded global tech innovators."
Howatson+Company group managing director Renee Hyde said Plus Also Studios is investing in people.
"Plus Also Studios offers a blend of traditional and AI production methods, but most importantly is investing in people and process with a view that 85-90% of brand asset creation will be informed by AI in the next three years," Hyde said.
"PAS will ensure all our clients benefit from the most cutting-edge applications of IP compliant AI in marketing communications."
The foundation client of Plus Also Studios is Endeavour Group and their portfolio of retail and hospitality consumer brands.
Endeavour Group CMO Jo Rose said the company's vision is to be the leading platform enabling social occasions.
"A key part of this strategy is to deepen how our customers experience the benefits of Endeavour Group as a whole, more fully than the sum of their engagement with each brand alone," Rose said.
"This experience is core to Endeavour’s transformation from being a family of retail, hospitality and product brands to an intuitive ecosystem of beloved brands that come together to make good times happen for customers."
Howatson+Company CEO Chris Howatson said they are "inverting the traditional focus on rollout that exists in production models and reinvesting in upstream strategic, creative and technology roles".
"This enables content to be more strategically aligned to audience and business needs, and therefore play a more fundamental role in commercial performance," Howatson said.
"This is not a me-too AI capability. Instead, Plus Also Studios reflects three years of significant investment, application and testing to create a market leading proposition."
Plus Also Studios is also licensing its technology to enable internal production teams at Qantas, Foxtel and Petbarn across static, motion and email use cases.
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