London’s First Artificial Intelligence Poster Campaign

Background

U.K. agency M&C Saatchi experimented with artificial intelligence in a billboard campaign for a fake coffee brand that was said to take a "Darwinian approach to advertising." The artificially intelligent ads ran at bus shelters on Oxford Street and Clapham Common until 24th July and between 10th and 21st August respectively.

Idea

The AI ad technology worked using an algorithm that tested different executions based on the strength of their various features or 'genes', such as copy, layout, font and image. By installing a camera on the posters, the agency was able to measure engagement of passers-by based on whether they looked happy, sad or neutral. Genes (or ads) which failed to trigger an engagement would be 'killed off', whereas those which prompted an engaged reaction were reproduced in future executions, leading to a Darwinian approach to advertising whereby only the strongest creative executions survived. A small amount of these genes were programmed to mutate at random, meaning that the next generation of ads had a chance to naturally improve over time.

Results

RAW Play-out Stats: 1,540 adverts were automatically generated and shown.

70 generations (22 ads per generation) were created.

Over 42,000 interactions were tracked.

Preliminary results:

1. The total gene pool became more refined (i.e. lots of images tested in generation one but fewer in latter generations).
2. Shorter copy became more dominant
3. Different genes seemed to trend for a few generations before dying out
4. The interaction data appeared to reflect the typical expectation of how OOH media worked.

Our Thoughts

The future is coming and M&C are on top of it! That's what seems to be the story here. And in many ways that's true since they bought the clever folk from Lean Mean Fighting Machine, especially Dave Cox, now elevated to Chief Technology Officer at M&C and the man behind this.

It is a fascinating demonstration of AI at work. And that's the best way to judge it, as an inspiring prototype. As advertising, this all too human brain thinks that the 'genetically improved' poster they ended up with is just as insipid as the one they started with.