The account was won following a multi-agency pitch. mSix&Partner's Mumbai office will handle the account. 

Nigel Saldanha, head - marketing OTC, GG India for Dr Reddy’s, said, “We are on a very interesting journey in building an OTC business at Dr. Reddy’s GG India, and at this juncture, having the right partners on board is of paramount importance. After rigorous evaluations, we are happy to award the integrated media mandate to mSix&Partners India and look forward to accelerating our ambitions through this partnership." 

Subhamay Mukhopadhyay, managing partner, mSix&Partners India, said, "We are thrilled to partner with Dr Reddy's and bring our data-driven approach to the table. As a data and tech-driven agency, we understand the importance of driving business growth through bespoke, dedicated, multi-disciplinary teams that closely partner with our clients. Our data-driven approach is what sets us apart, and we're excited to bring that to the table for Dr Reddy's. We look forward to adding value through our expertise in media planning and execution to deliver on the client's objectives."

This article first appeared in Campaign India.

Dr Reddy's appoints mSix&Partners to handle media for OTC business

Last week, all eyes and ears were drawn to Google’s annual I/O event, possibly the most anticipated series of these events in recent years. If you were like me, you were probably tuned in to understand Google’s next move in the race to integrate artificial intelligence (AI) into their Search Engine experience.

With AI becoming increasingly powerful and pervasive, Google aims to leverage its capabilities to enhance user experiences, provide personalised services, and streamline various tasks.

After the rather unsuccessful launch of Google’s Bard which led to Microsoft pulling ahead in the race to integrate Generative AI, this was Google’s moment to showcase their ambitious long term plans to integrate AI across its entire range of products and services.


The key highlight of the day was Google previewing their soon to be launched, all-new AI powered search engine, which they’re calling 

Google Search Engine Generative Experience

 (SGE) - quite the mouthful! SGE is currently only available through the Google Labs waitlist - which, if you’re based in the US, means you’ll be waiting weeks until you’re able to play around with the new experience (unfortunately no timelines on other market’s rollout as yet).


But this provides agencies and advertisers an opportunity to digest the changes that we already know, understand how these changes will impact the Paid Search industry and how we can prepare to take advantage and gain a competitive edge.

I’m going to spend some time touching on some vital topics that our Paid Search specialists will be addressing with your channel owners.

SGE is more conversational: Google users will be searching in a different way. Their search queries will be longer and more informative to provide Google more information (input) to receive a better response (output). In other words, we’re having to include a lot more information in our search query for Google to generate  a response we’re looking for. This means that we can expect more and more new search queries that Google have never seen before!

Google’s new Broad match keywords are even more vital than we originally believed. They offer a solution to match our targeted keywords to these new, longer search queries - therefore contributing to more reach and potential traffic to your websites.

A good or excellent Responsive Search Ad’s (RSA) ad strength is crucial. RSA’s are a machine learning product that allows Google’s algorithm to show the right variation of ad to the right type of audience. We risk limiting performance if we’re running Broad match keywords and our accounts have poor or average ad strength.

To ensure Broad match, RSA’s and other elements of your account work optimally (real-time optimisation and machine learning) - we suggest powering activity through Smart bidding strategies (preferably Value-based bidding). This will ensure performance is better aligned with your business objectives.

There’s an expectation that users might search for products in a more situational way (for example: “bluetooth speaker for a pool party”). Google’s responses will be more informative and incorporate responses such as battery length, water resistance or sound quality.

The quality of your Product feed data is going to be more vital than ever. We suggest running shopping feed audits and engaging with feed partners to identify opportunities for improvement.

From an &Search perspective, optimised on-site content is going to be crucial for organic rankings.

with our SEO counterparts - we can make better informed decisions to optimise content.


We’re incredibly excited about the introduction of SGE. Google is attempting to be the frontrunner in the race to integrate generative AI in a responsible way and these recent announcements are truly game changing.


I see a huge opportunity for all our clients to be more personalised, offering a better user experience within the Search space and inevitably drive more reach and visibility than ever before.

Over the past few months, we’ve been placing a lot of importance on the benefits of Modern Search and taking our clients through the transition journey. With Google’s latest announcement, the timing couldn’t be better. Whether it’s campaign consolidation, use of Smart bidding strategies, testing of Broad Match keywords or importance in Creative Excellence - all these elements of Modern Search will help provide a competitive edge in anticipation for the all-new 

How does last week’s AI Search Engine Experience update from Google impact Paid Search marketers?

Strong brands contribute to the commercial success of companies in a number of ways, but the most compelling reason to invest in a brand is to enable the selling of products more widely and at a premium. We believe in building brands through an audience-first approach, where the customer’s context tells us how to deliver the best brand and advertising experience.

When a category is relevant to all potential buyers - e.g. toothpaste - then it is easy to follow the principles made famous by  the Ehrenberg Bass Institute; reach all buyers consistently, when reach and reach alone is a more important factor than any targeting in determining growth. However when brands do not fit the FMCG mould, or can’t summon the budget required to cover the whole market, then there is a strong case to be made for nuance, context and crafted media placement.

In this instance, the company you keep really does matter, in behavioural economics, framing effect refers to the principle that information is not static, but fluid based on how, when and where it is communicated. In other words, people's decisions tend to be affected by the way in which the choices are framed through copywriting, imagery, tone, pricing and placement.

Lumen research provides evidence that attention drives recall and choice and therefore a medium that can deliver not just greater dwell time, but also aims to be in the time and place where the audience’s mind is most open, is going to be more effective.

Since Apple retired the 3rd party cookie in 2021 and with Google scheduled to follow, contextual advertising has always been a simple effective solution to garnering attention and from the right audiences but still requires a data-led and insight driven approach to deliver meaningful outcomes.

Research supports the need for contextual solutions. A study published last year by 

 examined 683 creative assets from 59 advertisers across more than 2,200 digital domains. It investigated the impact on attention of different “context categories” – say, a beauty brand running ads on a style and fitness site, a women’s fashion platform, and a women’s clothing property. The results demonstrated that a top-performing contextual category delivers a 94% uplift in attention versus the average.

Media measurement metrics, whether reach & frequency or impressions, only tell part of the story of how a media plan is being executed, the real power is in understanding the impact on audiences through the media they choose to consume. As audiences flow across their media, the medium is still a powerful reflection of the brand and what it wants to communicate, and therefore how we invest, how and where we place media really does matter.

Media Placement Matters More than You Think

As the TV landscape rapidly evolves, media agencies need to support brands in revamping their media planning processes.

Hybrid SVOD-AVOD models, as offered by Netflix and Disney+, has further fragmented the viewing ecosystem.
Despite premature talk of its demise, linear TV remains the most trusted media channel in the household.

However, addressable TV attracts greater attention, with viewers paying 20% more active attention per second to OTT ads than linear.

By reshaping and revamping their TV planning process to address and align with the current climate, brands can unlock new opportunities and stay ahead of competition.

Depending on a campaign’s KPIs, objectives and target audience, brands and agencies need to decide how to optimise budget between linear and addressable TV advertising.
By unlocking household-level targeting, addressable TV advertising helps to maximise the effectiveness, especially in the case of those with small budgets.

Brands can addressable TV advertising to deliver smarter creative executions that elevate the capabilities inherent to the channel, and make ads even more relevant.

Brands and advertisers are facing an increasingly challenging TV landscape. Hybrid SVOD-AVOD models, like Netflix and Disney+, have augmented the fragmentation of the viewing ecosystem. And the cost-of-living crisis is having a significant impact on budgets – meaning advertisers will face increased scrutiny over their spend for the foreseeable future.

To navigate this rapidly evolving TV market and maximise the effectiveness of their advertising campaigns, brands must revamp their TV planning process based on four key considerations.

At the outset of each campaign, brands should establish clear goals and KPIs in collaboration with their partner agencies. Everything else, from the most appropriate media channels to the creative, will follow.

Depending on a campaign’s KPIs, objectives and target audience, brands and agencies need to decide how to optimise budget between linear and addressable TV advertising. The latter is not an easy fix to TV budget cuts, but it is critical to adding incremental reach to a linear ad strategy and helps focus on a more specific customer base.

The goals of a campaign also determine the most suitable partners. Because of the increased competition in the connected TV (CTV) space, selecting suppliers offering unique advantages and inventory is crucial. To best support their clients, media agencies need to establish solid relationships with partners that stand out for their ability to provide cutting-edge targeting capabilities, which will then be directed towards the specific objectives of each campaign.

The benefits of combining linear and addressable TV advertising

Despite premature talk of its demise, linear TV advertising is still a powerful media channel, for two main reasons. First, it enables advertisers to deliver unbeatable mass reach at an enviable rate. Second, linear TV remains the most trusted media channel in the household. By running linear TV ads, brands inspire trust from viewers and enhance their credibility.

It goes without saying that brands should appear in the ‘right’ shows, meaning shows that deliver a social proof effect besides driving mass audiences, unique reach and talkability.

This impact can be built on by adding an addressable layer to a linear ad buying strategy, which enables advertisers to shift from standard audiences to custom audiences. In other words, addressable TV advertising allows to target and reach well-defined audiences with tailored messages that truly resonate with them.

By unlocking household-level targeting, addressable TV advertising also helps maximise the effectiveness of budgets. This is especially true in the case of small budgets, which might underperform in linear TV due to limited share of voice and affordability of top programmes.

Last, but not least, addressable TV advertising is instrumental in winning viewers’ attention. Recent research from Finecast revealed addressable TV attracts greater attention than its linear counterpart, with viewers paying 20% more active attention per second to OTT ads than linear.

Because of the numerous advantages it brings, addressable TV advertising has started to form a large part of omnichannel solutions. New technologies are emerging that convey the feeling of a national campaign for a fraction of the budget. One example is GroupM’s ‘Unmissable’, a data-driven solution that enables hyperlocal targeting at mass scale across different platforms.

Brands and agencies should keep experimenting with addressable advertising and combine it with linear to reach an increasingly fragmented audience in a cost-effective way.

The 30-second ad era is over: creative is evolving

As part of a comprehensive TV planning strategy, advertisers need to ensure they have the right creative in the right media environment. For too long, brands have used the same 30-second television commercial regardless of the specifics of each channel. Instead, brands should leverage the possibilities offered by addressable TV advertising to deliver smarter creative executions that elevate the capabilities inherent to the channel to make ads even more relevant.

Embedding a call-to-action within the creative is highly recommended. QR codes, for example, are effective tools helping advertisers increase engagement with users. Coinbase and its Super Bowl ad in February 2022 proved this. The company launched a 60-second ad featuring a QR code directing viewers to sign up for a Coinbase account to receive $15 in Bitcoin. Its website crashed due to the traffic.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) can be part of this process, by matching the capabilities of addressable TV with highly personalised creative. Soon, the savviest addressable TV partners will use AI to gain deeper insights on viewers’ mood and preferences and better capture their attention through truly dynamic creative.

From measurement to a test-and-learn culture

Measurement must become an integral part of the TV planning cycle, especially in challenging times. With ad budgets under the spotlight, agencies are under mounting pressure to prove the value of their work. To do this effectively, linear and addressable campaigns should be measured on their own terms. Rather than looking at general media metrics, brands should focus on the features that are specific to both types of campaigns.

From brand lift studies and econometrics to incrementality testing, a range of techniques can help measure the impact of campaigns. Brands and agencies should make the most of the measurement tools available on the market, including industry-led solutions such as CFlight’s reach and frequency visibility solution and ISBA’s Origin cross media measurement across digital platforms and broadcast TV.

By implementing regular and consistent measurement, agencies can build a robust test-and-learn culture leading to better outcomes. Not only does this approach help manage stakeholder expectations, it also empowers advertisers to keep pace with rapidly changing consumer habits. When a crisis strikes, consumers often deviate from their usual viewing patterns. For example, cancelling subscriptions that are seen as a luxury.

Leveraging the latest insights and incorporating granular learnings from previous campaigns into the TV planning process are major components of success and navigating an evolving landscape.

There is no doubt there are challenges for brands and advertisers. But it is also true that they can still deliver truly impactful TV advertising campaigns when adequately supported by their partner agencies.

By reshaping and revamping their TV planning process to address and align with the current climate, brands will unlock new opportunities and stay ahead of competition. It’s all about embracing the change and adapting to new trends and marketplace forces.

New times call for new TV planning

There are two fascinating stats that have captivated me and pushed me down the attention rabbit hole. I hope that they will challenge and excite readers to do their own digging:

According to Playground XYZ the standard attention time for an MPU is 0.5 seconds. Within the blink of an eye the most popular ad unit size is out of sight for most web users.

A study from Adnami found that for every second of attention time an ad generate, the brand receives 3 days of ad memory

From those stats alone, we are justified in keeping attention-based advertising at the forefront of our minds. It also highlights the need to question media owners further when they highlight mass reach at 80 - 90% viewability and mass reach as success.

The broader question is whether added attention leads to tangible outcomes. 

 says yes, with evidence of correlations between attention, and conversion rates and traffic-to-site.

Is attention focused advertising good for the environment?

Reducing the carbon emissions of advertising is firmly in the spotlight in 2023 and beyond. This is especially relevant given that 1 million impressions emit approximately 1 metric ton of CO2e (if 1 impression = 1g of CO2e). Research from Scope3 has identified that digital advertising as an industry contributes the equivalent of flying 1.35 million passengers from London to Paris each year.

With that in mind, ensuring more impressions are optimised toward does in fact help reduce emissions from your campaign. A recent work by 

 has found that by optimising towards minimum levels of attention and omitting domains that represent the highest emissions, emissions can be reduced by approximately 60% without compromising media effectiveness.

By optimising towards attention time unnecessary emissions from ads that are supposedly viewable are mitigated.

Attention is still the cool kid on the block with the potential to make campaigns more effective, but recent insights also point to the role of attention in sustainability. This begs the following questions:

Measurement: With so many different partners now in the space – how do we know who to use, and should use for panel-based information or eye-tracking?

Are there any hidden costs to optimising attention towards attention?

mSix&Partners is currently developing a partner-agnostic route to measuring attention in media by leveraging the tech offerings of various partners. Once the most robust partners from attention perspective have been assessed, GroupM’s Carbon Calculator can be used to stress-test these selections and quantify emissions at a channel level. The capabilities of this calculator continue to improve as emissions data from our partners becomes available.

One year on, should you still give attention your attention?

EasyJet has appointed mSix&Partners and Kepler to handle media planning and buying across the EMEA region.

It is the first time EasyJet has split its media agencies duties in a review process that was managed by ID Comms.

OMD, who has held the European account since 2003, declined to repitch for the business. VCCP is EasyJet’s creative agency partner.

mSix&Partners will lead media strategy, planning and offline media buying, and digital specialist Kepler will lead digital media strategy and investment.

The agencies will work together on media investment for both the easyJet master brand and easyJet holidays across key markets in the UK and Europe.

The remit is part of an easyJet strategy to “improve marketing effectiveness” across key European markets, including the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Switzerland and the Netherlands.

Robert Birge, easyJet’s chief customer and marketing officer, who joined the airline last year, said he was “humbled” by the quality of agencies vying for the account, but mSix&Partners and Kepler stood out.

“Their strategic thinking, insight and capability sets are truly world-class, and we look forward to these teams joining our broader marketing team as we continue to reinvent marketing at EasyJet,” he said.

“OMD has been part of easyJet marketing for well over a decade. The agency and the countless people who’ve worked with easyJet have made substantial contributions to easyJet’s growth and have lived our 'orange spirit'. We thank OMD and each person who’s been part of our team over the years.”

In the UK, mSix&Partners has had a good 2022, scoring a seven in its 

 School Report and growing media billings by 22% to £190m. Its clients include TalkTalk, Toyota, Britvic, Electronic Arts and News Corp. EasyJet will become one of its larger clients in terms of billings.

Aaron Quirk, chief executive EMEA at mSix&Partners, said: “After a really well-run and genuinely enjoyable pitch experience, we couldn’t be happier to become easyJet’s growth partner across Europe. EasyJet is one of the world’s strongest and most distinctive brands, and still has huge potential to engage and serve millions more travellers.”

Kepler is a digital marketing specialist with clients including HSBC, Sanofi, Hasbro and T-Mobile.

Martin Kelly, chief executive EMEA at Kepler, said: "We were inspired by the journey that easyJet is embarking on during this process and are thrilled to be selected. It was clear from the start that the team was looking for a deep partnership to accelerate easyJet's digital marketing program and we are excited that Kepler is the chosen partner to bring this vision to life."

This article first appeared in Campaign Magazine here. 

EasyJet selects mSix to lead media strategy, planning & buying across EMEA

How Indirect Pursuits Can Help You Reach Your Goals

Sometimes the most effective way to achieve a desired goal is to pursue it indirectly. Think of sailing, where you need to tack back and forth to reach your destination, rather than point directly at it. Similarly, in advertising, focusing on achieving fame or emotional impact can be a way of delivering against an array of goals, such as shifting brand perception, increasing awareness or creating a specific association.

Being indirect in advertising doesn't mean you are ignoring the primary goals of a campaign. Instead, you are finding creative ways to achieve those goals, by focusing on the metrics for success. An indirect approach simplifies the ask, and creates the focus needed for impact. By taking an indirect approach, marketers can often achieve more vs pointing directly at multiple goals.

We can simplify objectives by looking at three focus areas that impact brands: fame, emotional impact, and memorability. Fame connects to a brand's recognition and salience. Emotional impact connects to the ability of an advertisement to evoke strong emotions such as joy or surprise. Memorability considers how advertisers create content that maximises longevity and recall. By focusing on these factors, advertisers can effectively capture attention, drive sales, and build loyalty, for ultimate business success.

Binet & Field - Take a long term view and aim for Fame & Emotion

"The Long and Short of It" by Binet and Field is a comprehensive study of advertising effectiveness that shows emotional, fame-building, and brand-building advertising to be the most effective ways to drive long-term growth.

They advise against pursuing purely short-term sales activations and instead focus more on brand fame through evocative brand advertising that resonates with audiences. Binet & Field found that fame-driving campaigns outperform others on all business metrics studied: sales, loyalty, market share, price sensitivity, penetration, profit. They also found that campaigns that prioritised emotional messaging consistently outperformed more rational ones.

Their findings showcase the long term performance benefit of creating emotional, fame-building campaigns that resonate vs focusing on short-term sales activations.

Orlando Wood - Storytelling through right and left brain creative

Orlando Wood's "Lemon" presents a compelling argument for the power of emotional advertising, using the concept of left-brain and right-brain thinking to illustrate his point. Wood suggests that modern advertising has lost its balance between left-brain thinking, which prioritises rationality, logic, and analysis, and right-brain thinking, which emphasises intuition, emotion, and creativity. Wood suggests that this imbalance has led to a decline in advertising effectiveness, as campaigns fail to create a meaningful impact on consumers.

Wood argues that advertising must create an emotional connection with consumers to be effective and Wood challenges marketers to rethink their approach and create campaigns that appeal to both the left and right brains, stressing the power of storytelling to create emotionally resonant campaigns that connect with consumers on a deeper level. Advertisers should aim to tap into the emotions and aspirations of the target audience, creating an emotional resonance that lingers long after the campaign has ended. By avoiding over-reliance on data and rational arguments, advertisers can create campaigns that balance reason with emotional resonance and creativity, leading to campaigns that stand out in a crowded market and drive meaningful results over time.

Robert Heath's "Seducing the Subconscious" explores how advertisers can use storytelling to create emotional connections with their audience and influence their subconscious minds. Heath argues that by tapping into people's deep-seated desires and beliefs, advertisers can create a narrative that aligns with their brand messaging, and this can then create emotional resonance with their audience that makes their brand more memorable and appealing.

Advertisers need to create memories that are both durable and easily retrievable and Heath emphasises the need to have a practical understanding of how our memory works to create campaigns that can do this more effectively. Heath describes two types of memory: explicit memory and implicit memory. Explicit memories are conscious and deliberate, such as factual information about a product or service. In contrast, implicit memories are unconscious and automatic, such as the emotional associations people make with a brand. He suggests advertisers focus on creating implicit memories that tend to be more durable and have a greater impact on consumer behaviour and that the most effective way to achieve this is by creating consistent, emotionally resonant brand messaging. Heath argues that stories are more effective than traditional advertising because they engage multiple parts of the brain, making them more memorable and persuasive.

Pursuing goals indirectly

There is still a long way to go to achieve true gender equality — especially when it comes to women’s health.

Sexism is still rife when it comes to the public discourse around women. Just look at how the BBC described the resignation of Jacinda Ardern as New Zealand Prime Minister — 

questioning if “women can have it all”.

In fact, whenever you see a female leader or high profile figure stepping down, the 

 focusing on their gender and how it has impacted their decision or career never seem far away. When Susan Wojcicki stepped down from YouTube, or Serena Williams retired from tennis, they were quickly tied into wider conversations about women leaving high-profile positions.

One week on from the 112th International Women’s Day, there is still a long way to go to achieve true gender equality. Especially when it comes to women’s health. Yes, there is more open discussion than in previous generations. Unfortunately, that discussion is often through a negative lens or lacks the nuance and insight that comes from better knowledge and education.

If society, and the workplace, is going to genuinely progress and champion its women for their successes then real change is needed. That means introducing policies and initiatives that help reframe the conversation around women’s health, support women in the workplace dealing with symptoms, and enable men to play their part.

 are in the workplace than ever before. That means, at one point or another, a significant proportion of your workforce will navigate menopause and ageism stereotypes. With recent studies revealing 

over one million women are considering quitting their jobs

 due to a lack of menopause support, policies must empower women and factor in the entire journey.

At mSix&Partners, we have recently introduced a menopause policy where women can request adjustments at work and are afforded greater flexibility and adjustable working patterns when they experience symptoms. The policy also grants female employees coping with anxiety the use of a wellbeing room where they can undertake relaxation or mindfulness activities. At the end of the day, women should know their employee has their back if they experience symptoms, and managers should be educated on what support the company can offer.

Women of all generations need to show up and support each other, rather than fall into the trap of competing against one another. Mentoring is a great way to connect female colleagues of different ages and seniority levels to make sure questions you might have thought were taboo can be asked in a safe space, and we can learn from each other.

Where possible, agencies should extend those opportunities beyond their employees. For example, we also host gatherings with the Brixton Finishing School where attendees can learn from inspiring women in the industry and understand more about day-to-day agency life.

Female health is an ongoing journey and women should have the tools at their disposal to navigate their path. The key is maintaining regular conversation around the topic. Not only does this normalise symptoms in the workplace, but it educates people (of both genders) on what support to offer or to seek.

This could be in the form of regular talks and workshops from experts in the field or, as we do at mSix&Partners a subscription to an app or service centred around female health. We offer our employees access to ‘Clue’ to help navigate anything from periods to fertility, through to menopause. And a partnership with Modibodi provides all women in the agency free sustainability sanitary wear.

Creating an open and trusting dialogue — encompassing everyone from those experiencing female health-related issues, to those seeking advice — comes down to senior women in the agency speaking openly and honestly.

This doesn’t mean everyone should be forced to open up on every aspect of their life. But being open to offering guidance and advice, or at least pointing people in the right direction, can be enough to make sure women across the agency don’t feel isolated or unsure about what the next step may be. Thankfully, this type of leadership is increasingly the standard when it comes to mental health. It should be the same for women’s health.

For gender equality to become a reality rather than a pipe dream, the needs of the modern workforce need to be accounted for. By doing that, we can help women of all ages and demographics thrive — and lay the foundations for the next Jacinda Arderns of the world to make their mark.

How far have we really come on gender equality?

The hype machine was already buzzing along quite loudly at the start of the year with AI predictions when 

Described by Reynolds himself as ‘mildly terrifying but compelling’, the spot underscored that the robots aren’t quite here to steal creative jobs, but that experimentation with AI tools is rife in adland and spiking interest among clients. Where Metaverse was 2022’s buzzword, so AI has leapt into the marketing vernacular and certain brands have been quick to embrace the emerging technologies.

In the interest of research, ChatGPT was of course consulted to write this introduction. According to the chatbot sensation developed by OpenAI: “Artificial Intelligence (AI) is revolutionising the advertising industry. As AI continues to evolve, it will become an even more powerful tool for advertisers.”

It's an overwhelmingly positive synopsis – unsurprising given that the tech tool wasn’t going to underestimate its own potential impact within adland, but while there’s enthusiasm and excitement from many departments, there’s no denying that the robots are not without their challenges.

As Dickon Laws, global head of Innovation, Ogilvy states: “Like all emerging technologies, the hype around it has also created a goldrush. Brands can be guilty of foolishly chasing a headline for a ‘world’s first’ or other reputation building claim. In reality, what happens is they often think they are heading for a goldmine but wake up in a minefield. AI is incredible but also offers huge brand reputational and legal risk. Make sure you have the right motivations and risks and measures in place to navigate away from the landmines and into the gold dust.”

And while the generative capabilities of AI have driven much of the recent hype and ensuing client interest around AI, Ogilvy’s past work has explored machine learning including teaching AI to recognise facial expressions in dogs for the Petz brand. More recently, the agency used DALL-E’s outpainting feature for Nestle’s La Laitière brand, taking a Vermeer painting and giving art direction to generate new imagery in keeping with the original work.

AMV BBDO recently worked with AI tool Midjourney to create a new campaign, "Unbottling Martini", which aims to visualise the tasting notes, ingredients, processes, and flavours that come together in a bottle of Martini.

As creative director João Paulo Testa explains: “Keywords such as: botanicals, floral, petals, flowers, Artemisia, and Roman Chamomile were fed into Midjourney to generate the images of nine different cocktails made with Martini, including the Martini Non-Alcoholic Vibrante & Tonic, Martini Americano, and cocktail of the moment, the Negroni Sbagliato. The assets have been used across social and digital platforms in markets globally, and Martini was the first spirits brand to launch a creative campaign with imagery generated entirely by AI.”

But prompts aren’t always so seamless adds Oliver Feldwick, head of innovation at The&Partnership. “Write me a haiku about sunflowers is a fun prompt”, says Feldwick, but how do you prompt an AI tool to write an ad, to give it a creative task that actually improves it? “It’s actually really hard to make even a basic ad using AI end-to-end – but what is far more interesting is to use the tools to shortcut some of the more boring tasks. Write an email heading (for example) is playing perfectly to its strengths.”

Agencies are also investing in AI experimentation internally with tools such as 

 and ChatGPT to improve operational efficiencies and to prompt and fine-tune processes. And with client curiosity rising around AI, this can only be an opportunity for better collaboration believes George Strakhov, chief strategy officer of DDB EMEA.

“If these are the tools that trigger the conversations around how we come up with ideas – the guts of the creative process - and what roles humans play on both client and agency side, then, I see this as a massive moment of supercharging creativity.”

Agencies will have their own proprietary AI and digital colleagues (aka synthetics), that clients may also evaluate when considering agency partners, believes Ogilvy’s Laws. And AI could help with the rostering process, with clients using it to assess the impact of an agency relationship and agencies using predictive technologies for new business pitches.

The rapid pace of change in areas including SFX and computer animation will also result in a more fine-tuned result for AI tools which will increasingly become more plugged into workflow and processes believes The&Partnership’s Feldwick. However, he strikes a note of caution for 2023 adding that businesses may have to take a step back to overcome historic challenges.

“So many companies have been making huge strides in representation and addressing unconscious bias, in terms of the assets we show, the language we use and our casting decisions and more. All of these things have been a huge process of learning and understanding and changing but if we aren’t careful, with AI tools, all of our historic bias can accidentally be baked into that. If you use Midjourney or DALL-E to create images and without specifying, it generally generates white faces. So, if we aren’t careful about how we prompt the machine and the learning data set it uses, then algorithmic bias will occur.”

Strakhov sees the potential however for tools spotting what humans have missed in the past, stating that large teams of creatives have on occasion failed to spot bias. He explains: “We can train tools specifically on bias, on words, on how we use these as pre-screening tools, to flag either green light for fine, or flag that actually you need to look again - the machine won’t make the final call, but the machine will flag.”

Despite these reservations, there’s a palpable excitement in the industry about the advances to be made as AI tools develop and usage is refined. Strakhov cites the advent of visual and verbal intelligence coming together (art and copy) as a key beat in powering forward the creative process, arguing that real creativity happens when multiple intelligences collide – so if AI is embraced correctly, a further augmentation of this will occur.

“We need to push for multiple intelligences to now come together in terms of gender, ethnicity, sexuality, neurodiversity, and age, which is currently massively underrepresented. Why I’m excited about AI tools is not only will we see the partnership between humans and machines, we will also see that partnership to allow all the other aspects of intelligences and creativity to collide. If we do this right as an industry, there will be a massive outburst of creativity.” It's a positive outlook that is echoed by many across adland who believe that in fact, the robots are our friends.

This article was first published by Creative Salon.

The Robots Are Our Friends: How Adland Is Embracing AI

Amid the noise of the latest Westminster dramas, it would be easy to miss signs that some green shoots of pragmatic governance might be breaking through. From anti-inflation measures to progress on the Northern Ireland protocol, the government is displaying more long-term thinking than we’ve seen for years. The Labour Party, too, under the increasingly adept leadership of Sir Keir Starmer, is putting focused and practical policymaking above political showboating.

Time will tell whether Rishi Sunak’s measures will produce the goods, but that’s the inherent challenge of policymaking. Tackling entrenched problems requires commitment and resolve, a tension exacerbated when there are barely two years on the electoral clock.

Now Jeremy Hunt will try to address the challenge of setting Britain on a path to long-term growth. He must do so alongside delivering on the government’s other priorities of cutting debt while shielding us from the worst effects of the cost of living crisis.

That tension between short-term expectations and long-term goals is familiar to businesses everywhere. The parallels with chief executives, obliged to report financial results to shareholders quarterly, are obvious. However, I know as founder of The&Partnership that there’s another way. We run our business differently — as a partnership, owned and managed by a group of partners that grows alongside the business.

Partnership has been the secret of our success for more than 20 years, from early days as an advertising agency with three partners to today as a multi-disciplinary network with more than 1,500 people in 45 offices globally, led by more than 45 partners. In a market where progress has been elusive, it’s helped us to sustain average annual growth of about 17 per cent for a decade.

The biggest advantage of the model is the long-term, strategic perspective it gives us. Independence means we can set our own agenda and growth timetable, allowing us to make decisions in the long-term interests of our people, clients and business. A bit like a political term of office, at The&Partnership we do our planning in five-year phases, each with a simple goal. As we near the end of the latest phase, we can reflect on another period of consistent growth, thanks to a commitment to our clients’ digital transformation. And over the next five years we’ll focus on being a marketing commerce partner to our clients.

I’m not saying that being a partnership means a business won’t have challenges, but on balance I think the true value of partnership has been “knowingly undersold”.

Britain’s structural and economic challenges won’t be solved overnight, but we must hope the prime minister and the chancellor continue to apply a long-term perspective to policymaking that lays down strong foundations for growth. They could begin by addressing the digital skills gap, which costs the UK £63 billion annually. This is an area where we’ve taken that all-important long view, launching our The&Academy last year, the first centre of excellence for apprentices in digital and creative skills. I’d also suggest they try to provide incentives for more companies to explore partnership-oriented models — anything to encourage the eyes-on-the-horizon planning that government and business so sorely need.

Johnny Hornby is founder, global chief executive and chairman of The&Partnership

Partnership can help with that all-important long-term view

Artificial Inspiration – how AI can help when you’re stuck for ideas

As more people get hands-on experience with generative AI tools, a range of applications are coming to light. One use case, particularly close to my heart, is that it can supply an endless source of inspiration for when you are stuck for new ideas. Here are 3 ways I’ve been using AI for inspiration:

When you first receive a brief, and you are staring at that intimidating blank sheet of paper or PowerPoint template you can quickly generate some thought starters by asking questions about the brand, category and audience. At the very least it’s a quick and easy way to gain context.

One tip from Julian Cole, of the Strategy Finishing School, is to structure your request to get more useful information. Alongside the question you want answered he suggests ensuring each query includes a speaker (e.g. your audience segment, or an influencer in the category) and any requests about the form of the answer (e.g. 10 bullet points).

Act like a reality TV fan, list 10 reasons why you love 90 Day Fiancé

Crazy characters! The cast of this show is just wild, and I love it. There's always that one person who is just so out there and entertaining to watch.

’ Which could lead you to explore a responsive strand, as you identify the most entertaining characters.

Cross-cultural interactions! As someone who loves learning about different cultures, I find the cross-cultural interactions on this show fascinating.

’ Which could lead you to explore an audience cohort who are interested in learning about different cultures.

Of course, this process cannot replace traditional research, and these points should always be validated. One watch-out is to consider where bias might be creeping in – by asking the AI to behave like a reality TV fan I have asked it to adopt a stereotype, which will naturally downplay minority audience opinions.

Some briefs require you to imagine a very different mindset, which can limit your creativity. For example, you may be struggling to think about winter in the summer, or to really immerse yourself in a product’s emotional benefit. AI image generation can get you into the mood and even on your way towards ideas.

For example, if you have a brief for a Halloween launch, you can quickly explore themes with Midjourney to generate some new and visually-arresting imagery, helping you feel spookier:

By following where your inspiration takes you and generating additional imagery you can quickly put together a mood board which can also be used for brainstorms and briefings.

We tend to kick off a brainstorm with a ‘splurge’ – generating as many ideas as possible, some of which can be built up to become great ideas.

AI can replicate this, generating some starting ideas, which you can use to test your territory or strategy (does it lead to good ideas?), to give you examples to share in a brainstorm or to directly help you build a great idea.

suitable for a 35-year-old female on her car being a reflection of her personality

 generated lots of ideas, including some I quite liked:

Add a unique car fragrance that suits your personality or mood

Install a unique audio system with a personalized playlist or sound effects

Install a dashboard camera to capture her driving experiences

Add a personalized car organizer to keep her belongings tidy and organized

You can then use your research AIssistant approach to help you build. For example, with the idea of creating a car fragrance I could ask: ‘

If I was to create a car fragrance that reflected individuality and independence, what might it smell like?

A woodsy scent that evokes the outdoors, nature, and freedom. This could be a scent like pine, cedar, sandalwood, or patchouli.

 Which could, in turn build into a bigger idea about how media could be used to intensify the feeling of freedom.

Generative AI can help you research, generate stimulus, be a sounding board and can do all these things in a rapid and adaptable way. It never gets bored of a topic, or annoyed if a question is obscure or your feedback is harsh. However, while it's good at helping to assist you, you are still required to put the work in to validate, guide and build, but if you are willing to do this, you’ll likely never be intimidated by a blank sheet of paper again.

In the spirit of this article, I asked Bing Chat ‘

If I had writer's block, how might you help me?

I can help you by providing you with some writing tips and resources that can help you overcome writer’s block. For example, I can:

Suggest some writing prompts that are relevant to your genre or topic.

Recommend some books, articles, podcasts, or videos that can inspire you or teach you something new.

Generate some creative content for you, such as poems, stories, essays, etc. that you can use as examples or inspiration.

Give you some feedback on your writing and suggest some improvements or edits.

So, I asked it for feedback, and I was pretty pleased at the response:

Overall, I think you have written a very interesting and informative article that showcases some of the possibilities of using AI for inspiration. Well done!

This article was first published by WARC, click below to read the full article.