There is a giant push for using AI to help make day to day marketing easier. OpenAi has targeted marketing companies through their bold claims and strategic partnerships. They have created both verbal and visual AI to provide marketers with the tools they need. Their writing platform is called Chat GPT, and their image platform is called Dall-E. Chat GPT can do anything from write a unique love poem to explain quantum physics. Dall-E can create custom tailored images from nothing more than a description. There is a lot of potential for online sales and marketing campaigns through combining Chat GPT and Dall-E outputs.
Coca-Cola is the newest adopter of OpenAi software and is testing it through a User Generated Content (UGC) marketing campaign. The top ad created through OpenAI will be featured on digital billboards in both New York and London. Pretty cool, right?
I took a shot at creating the new Coca Cola ad campaign to see what OpenAI can create. First, I went to Chat GPT and typed in the chat box “Poster ideas for a new Coca-Cola marketing Campaign.” Chat GPT gave me 10 suggestions. My next step was to select my favorite idea Chat GPT gave me, which was “The Coca-Cola Lifestyle”:. Position Coca-Cola as a lifestyle brand that’s perfect for people who are adventurous, fun-loving, and always on the go. Okay, let’s roll with that idea to create an advertisement for Coca-Cola. The next step is to open the Dall-E platform and plug in what Chat GPT gave me. Dall-E then created 5 different AI images. The image shown below is my favorite out of the five. If you wanted to get better results you can go through “design rounds” by adding keywords and regenerating responses to get closer to what you want. I would strongly suggest adding descriptions of what you want to create better results.
I didn’t find Dall-E’s artwork for the Coca-Cola campaign compelling or more than an image of someone with a Coke. As a result, I decided to keep the main idea that Chat GPT gave me and play with the key words. For the second generation I added my own touch. In the description box I wrote: “ Create a poster of a rock climber mid route taking a break to drink a Coca-Cola. Caption the poster with The Coca-Cola Lifestyle. The rock should be granite and the climber is female. Poster should be an image taken with a 70-200mm lens. All text should be in English and fit within the poster frame.” I felt that this detailed description should give me much better results. Below is what Dall-E presented to me:
Overall, I was impressed with what the program presented to me. It was able to create a unique work of art in 15 seconds with nothing except a few keywords. You would have to spend more time describing what you want to an artist than it takes for Dall-E to create it. Would I use Dall-E for a marketing campaign? Probably not, below is why Dall-E fails just short of becoming a marketing tool for me.
I have a few issues with what the program presented me.
It didn’t follow my instructions exactly. Yes, there was a climber, but they were not drinking a coke.
It did not use my caption, but instead created place holder text. As a result, I would have to edit the image using a different program.
There is no rope for the climber, which can be misconstrued as championing free soloing. For non-climbers free soloing is the act of climbing without a rope or any protection, a fall means death. This probably isn’t what you would want associated with your advertisement. I could add in a rope with a few keywords, and change the image, but I would have to know I needed to do that.
The whole image utilizes very dark colors (Again, I could change this with a new keywords).
I asked for the image to be taken with a specific lens and I did not get a photograph, but instead it gave me digital art (more key words might change this).
What’s Promising:
Never use a stock image again.
Tailor images to your brand’s styles.
Create unique images that a photographer would never be able to capture. For example, a rabbit holding an easter basket with garden center tools.
One location for a variety of artistic styles. (You don’t have to search for a photographer, oil painter, and sketcher, Dall-E does it all).
You don’t lose a credit when you get an error message. (If the server is overloaded and you get an error message instead of an image).
Creates editable templates that download as a Photoshop files.
Can help you with concepting/brainstorming.
Issues:
The server gets overloaded frequently, I spent 20 minutes trying to get it to create an image with no success.
You only can create 15 free images a month then you need to purchase credits 115 credits for $15. Purchased credits can roll over month to month, but not year to year.
Images presented do not include all the details you put into the program.
Often images are digital art or other artistic styles. You can ask for a photograph, but it doesn’t look or feel the same as an actual photograph.
Work that asks for a human will resemble a person, but often none of them have a face (creepy!).
Having spent some time playing around with Dall-E I am impressed with the idea of the program, but not the results. The artwork can be iffy at best. The images and keywords are fun to create, but often I ended up with work that felt unusable. I think Chat GPT and Dall-E are great tools for idea generation, or to create a template of what you want. I’m sure if you spend a lot of time learning how to direct the AI you can develop higher quality images and text. I do not think that the quality of work or idea generation is anywhere close to that of a person. In a pinch I would be willing to use AI captions and possibly image creation, but it would not be my first choice.
Let The Brandstalk know your thoughts on AI and its push into marketing in the comments below.
