Media Buying Briefing: Gen AI creative emerges as new battleground between TV and platforms

"TV broadcasters and walled garden platforms are competing to lower the cost of ad creative. Amazon, Google, Comcast, ITV and Channel 4 are each hoping to capture their share of the long tail of ad spend as AI removes a longstanding barrier to entry for small business advertisers. Although media agencies don't necessarily benefit from the competition, there are incentives for them to encourage clients to use these options - especially as media and creative find ways to work more closely together."

"Last week, Comcast's Universal Ads business - launched in January to hoover up budget from brands like skincare company Palmer's and QB1 Jerky, a snack brand founded by a former Miami Dolphins football player - launched a generative AI creative solution, powered by tech firm Creatify. It offers small businesses in the U.S. the chance to build out creative assets for free based on existing photography and product info, and then run them on linear and streaming TV."

"The initiative followed similar launches from Google and Amazon (the e-commerce giant added gen AI capabilities to an existing product) in September, and earlier efforts floated by British broadcasters Channel 4 and ITV. The latter has been the market's unlikely pioneer, adding a gen-AI enabled creative tool to its in-house production offering last September in an attempt "to make TV advertising accessible for all brands and democratize creative production," Jason Spencer, ITV business development director, told Digiday."

TV broadcasters and walled garden platforms are deploying generative AI to lower the cost of ad creative and capture the long tail of ad spend. Amazon, Google, Comcast, ITV and Channel 4 are offering or piloting AI-enabled creative tools to remove barriers for small business advertisers. Comcast's Universal Ads uses Creatify to generate free creative assets from product photos and information and to place those assets on linear and streaming TV. Google and Amazon have added similar capabilities, while ITV and Channel 4 have introduced tools to democratize TV creative. Media agencies may steer clients toward these options as media and creative teams integrate more closely.

Read at Digiday