Simple stories that connect with people are crucial in today’s fragmented market, according to Glen Dickson, deputy chief creative officer at Clemenger BBDO.
He told the Future of TV Advertising conference in Sydney that the “old advertising basics” are key for creating relevant work.
“With more screens, more formats and more ability to tell stories across different moments to people, it can expand narratives,” he said.
“The ability to use AI to create more can be a distraction… The ability to tell a story and the ability to connect are more important.
“When we talk about making work for this current moment and the moment to come, it's the old advertising basics that have come back to the fore.
“We talk a lot about the core visual idea that is going to be replicable across every kind of screen size, every media moment and tell that story in a split second to people.”
Dickson said there has never been a more important time for creativity to take centre stage, as agencies turn to AI.
“Hopefully there’ll always be a role for creativity and ideas that extend beyond what everybody can do,” he said.
“AI image creation is getting so advanced that every one of the agencies is now using these tools to a pretty high level.
“What is going to tip something above is just that simple ability to connect.”
Dickson said agencies are using AI to generate, review and present ideas.
“Definitely feeding creativity in the first instance by using large language models and AI generated images… creativity needs fuel, and that fuel has just become multiplied,” he said.
“Then there’s the ability to convince the client that the right story for the brand. AI's super useful there and, over the last year, has become massively important to the way we present ideas and sell ideas.
“Now, I don’t know that anyone's completely cracked how to creatively make work with AI that can live out in the world and be as good as what's come before, but it’s coming.”
Dickson said the evolution of AI brings huge opportunities for creative agencies.
“The little-c opportunity is to continue to find smarter ways to optimize and to get the content seen by those you want it to be seen by,” he said.
“How AI is going to shift big-c creativity is still a massive work in progress.
“AI is like your buddy now and it's hugely exciting/scary to consider what would be possible once human ingenuity and AI fused in a really meaningful way.”
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