During the holiday season, major advertising platforms are encouraging marketers to use generative AI for creating ads. Both Meta and Google have introduced corresponding tools, urging advertisers to utilize generative AI for holiday ad campaigns.
Meta's holiday marketing guide suggests advertisers use the generative AI creative features in its Advantage+ ad platform to change image backgrounds, expand ad image sizes to fit different aspect ratios, or generate different versions of ad copy. Jyotika Prasad, Senior Director of Retail Advertising at Google, also recommends brands use similar functionalities to create new holiday lifestyle images, generate new image variants, or automatically change titles and descriptions in ad campaigns.
Image source note: The image is generated by AI, provided by the image licensing service Midjourney
However, advertising agencies report that clients are hesitant to try generative AI. Some companies may use generative AI in certain parts of the creative process, such as idea generation and copywriting, but most large advertisers have not yet fully handed over control to AI.
Nonetheless, generative AI is making its mark in holiday ad creativity. Jacob Posel, AI Director at e-commerce growth agency Common Thread Collective, says generative AI content creation tools can help small businesses produce more ads without media buyers or agencies.
Ashvin Melwani, Chief Marketing Officer and co-founder of supplement brand Obvi, notes that generative AI can help small businesses overcome creative resource limitations. However, he also states that current generative AI tools are not advanced enough for customer-facing campaigns.
As creative AI capabilities continue to evolve, they could bring more profit to brands. Katya Constantine, CEO of ad agency Digishopgirl Media, which collaborates with DTC brands, particularly sees the potential of AI-generated content in videos, which are expensive to produce but a crucial part of the creative portfolio.
