Celebrity ads are getting a makeover thanks to AI.
Advertising agency Powerhouse Ogilvy announced Monday that it is partnering with CAA to launch ECHO, an AI platform that allows marketers to create AI-generated ads featuring celebrities. This collaboration opens the door for talent to secure more sponsorship deals without having to spend significantly more time shooting commercials while still protecting how their digital replicas are used.
The platform uses what CAA calls its “vault,” a database that captures, stores and licenses the digital likeness, voice and intellectual property of customers who sign up for it. With ECHO, brands will be able to create a portfolio of media-ready assets from a short shoot, which could reduce costs by up to 75% and significantly reduce turnaround times, the companies said. Talent must approve each ad, with automated compliance engines checking AI-generated documents against contracts and brand safety guidelines. The major talent agency did not reveal which stars participated in the effort.
“We built The CAA Vault to ensure that talent owns, controls and can securely monetize their digital image on their own terms and only with their consent,” said Alex Shannon, CAA Head of Strategic Development. “By connecting The CAA Vault to Ogilvy’s ECHO platform, CAA provides many of the world’s leading brands with a secure, consent-driven opt-in layer, providing full visibility and protection to top-tier and verified talent and creative, in step with the brands’ culture. »
ECHO’s workflow can be integrated directly into standard post-production tools. A traditional asset capture of eight to 10 assets can be expanded to around 30 to 50 for creating ads leveraging TikTok’s hot trends, CAA and Oglivy said. All consumer products will have a visible watermark reading: “(Talent Name) Approved | Created with AI.”
In a statement, Ogilvy CEO Laurent Ezekiel said the tool addresses the “fundamental tension between speed, scale and trust” in the AI era. “We offer our customers an unprecedented competitive advantage, enabling them to lead culture in real time with complete confidence and uncompromising know-how. »
These tools represent the interest in monetizing the commercial use of digital celebrity likenesses and, perhaps, changing consumer opinions regarding the deployment of AI. Brands have largely been hesitant to wade into these waters due to resistance to deepfakes and unauthorized use of AI, but acceptance appears to be growing.
Last month, the portrait of 1930s film star Greta Garbo was resurrected in an advertisement for Swedish ball bearing market SKF. ECHO is one of the first to create an infrastructure around celebrities who choose to use their digital replicas in advertisements.
“We are seeing the ‘NIL moment’ between advertising and entertainment,” said Carol Reed, Ogilvy’s chief innovation officer. “Instead of fearing AI or using it to produce volume on the cheap, creating ECHO in partnership with CAA proves that technology can protect artists while freeing storytellers. Our global research confirms that consumers don’t want AI to marginalize the artist; they want explicit proof that talent is in charge.”
Gn bussni
