Beyond the Brief: All the Buzz About AI-Powered Ads
Published Jan 15
Syngenta wanted a buzz-worthy ad campaign. But, all they had was an animated explainer video. Get the inside story of how they worked closely with Superside’s world-class creative talent—leveraging AI to quickly cultivate captivating print and digital ads.
Global agricultural technology leader, Syngenta uses science to advance crop production. However, even the most cutting-edge innovations must work in harmony with nature. Attracting pollinators, like bees and butterflies, Operation Pollinator helps boost crop yields.
But what does this have to do with using AI for ad creative? When guided by human ingenuity and expertise, AI is a catalyst that lets you quickly explore and refine ideas.
Learn how partnering with Superside helped Sygenta speed concepting and nurture the storytelling of these groundbreaking ads.
The Brief: Promoting Operation Pollinator
To kick off the project, Syngenta shared an existing Operation Pollinator explainer video. There were no static images for this initiative, which meant the creative team was starting from scratch. Vidrio and Montelongo had a blank slate, a lot of freedom and only two days to complete the entire project.
I was a bit nervous at first. My initial reaction was, ‘How am I actually going to manage this?' But things started to come together once I connected with Andrea, one of the amazing members of our AI creative team.
After reviewing the brief, Vidrio reached out to Superside Generative AI Creative, Andrea Montelongo to start digging into the details and find common ground for initial concepts.
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Beyond the Brief: Scene and Bee Seen 🐝
I love the Socratic method, so I had ChatGPT ask me questions to make me think in ways that I wouldn't have otherwise explored.
During the conceptual phase, Montelongo used ChatGPT as an assistant and concepting partner. She had it create a transcript from the explainer video, which she then used to prompt probing, back-and-forth conversations. This helped her hone in on the concept of the routes of pollinators strengthening the roots of the crops they nurture.
We wanted to capture something that you could see in nature and you can really feel—something a little bit magical.
The roots and routes of the images
Inspiration for the magically photorealistic images and cleverly integrated illustrated accents stemmed from abstract representations of bees and flowers within the explainer video.
The images and illustrations, created in Midjourney and refined in Photoshop, truly demonstrated the power of generative AI in bringing concepts to life. (Including how 2D video can inform and inspire life-like 3D images.)
Only a few years ago, this wasn’t even possible. Finding images would have required a time-consuming search for stock images or even an expensive photoshoot. What once took weeks, now only takes hours.
The pathway to perfecting copy
For the ad copy, Montelongo used ChatGPT to help her refine her wording, letting her quickly explore a range of options and ensuring consistency in tone. She also turned to AI to ensure she was on point in terms of grammar and nuance.
Another novel use she shared: She'd translate text back and forth into her native Spanish, which helped her develop a natural, organic understanding of the message she was crafting.
Photo and copy synthesis
Every seed, a potential. Every plant, a promise. Every ad, in perfect balance. Vidrio and Montelongo are exceptionally proud of how everything came together. Syngenta was equally delighted with the efficiency, quality and exceptional creativity.
Takeaways for AI-Powered Ads
AI lets you take ideas from your mind that you couldn't realize before. It’s amazing and has really opened up creative possibilities.
AI continues to transform our creative workflows, turning time-consuming tasks into supercharged processes that produce dynamic results. Just as science can amplify nature, AI is a force multiplier for marketers and creatives, letting you:
- Cultivate and pollinate ideas with greater freedom and efficiency, the ability to show exactly what you're thinking and fewer barriers to evolving ideas.
- Explore new frontiers like quickly creating photorealistic images and illustrations that were once prohibitively resource-intensive.
- Stay true to your brand's nature integrating your graphic and text standards into your prompts for assets uniquely tailored to your brand.
Curious about how generative AI can amplify your ad creative and workflows? Whether you're just getting started with AI or you're already proficient, Superside acts as an extension of your team, helping you break through bottlenecks and seize opportunities.
Alex is a freelance writer and newsletter aficionado based in Waterloo, Ontario. When he’s not writing for clients, he’s putting together TL;WR, a weekly culture and events newsletter his mom says is excellent. Alex has worked with some of Canada’s largest tech companies in PR, marketing and communication roles. Connect with him on LinkedIn to chat or get ideas on what to do this weekend in Waterloo.
