TBWA creative boss says AI will boost Aussie brands globally

AI has the potential to elevate Aussie brands on the global stage as long as agencies continue to apply human-based insights, according to TBWA Melbourne’s chief creative officer Paul Reardon.

Paul Reardon is the chief creative office at TBWA Melbourne.

AI will enable Australian brands and agencies to level up with global competitors, however, avoiding mediocrity and achieving creative excellence will require greater strategic human scrutiny, according to ad agency TBWA Melbourne’s chief creative officer Paul Reardon.

Mr Reardon told The Growth Agenda that AI’s ability to accelerate the creative processes for innovative products and experiences would make it easier for local brands to better compete on a global stage.

“This is an exciting time for smaller markets like Australia, which historically have run with smaller budgets than other larger markets, because now, with AI, we can prototype and get to proof of concept so much faster,” he said. “If you have an idea for an innovation, a new product, piece of tech, or a new interactive way of talking to customers, we have the tools to get there faster.”

However, he cautions that the rush to gain efficiencies could drive brands and agencies into a race to the bottom which lead to wallpaper and sales loss because the work fails to connect with consumers.

“It’s one thing to talk about efficiency in how quickly we can prove a concept, but if we are not interrogating concepts enough or not interrogating insights enough, then the AI has enabled us to race to mediocrity faster. And because the outputs are so polished, you can polish mediocrity faster.

“If we are talking about efficiency just to produce more white noise, I don’t know whether that’s efficient, I think it’s irresponsible and certainly forgettable.

“There’s already so much white noise out there, and will consumers care? Consumers will care when you’re not interrupting them with something they dislike. So, as long as we entertain people and stand out with great human-based insights and creativity, then consumers won’t care how we got there and nor should they.”

Mr Reardon said the challenge for brands was that not all AI tools were the same and it is still early days in terms of determining where to invest.

With this in mind, TBWA has launched a suite of bespoke tools, called Collective AI, that use existing tech through partnerships with OpenAI, Adobe and Google and connect with the global agency’s creative archives and IP to create work for brands.

Mr Reardon said like a hardware store “some tools are cheap and nasty, and they don’t do what they say on the box. And some tools you take home, and the minute you start using it, you’re like, how did I ever do my job without it? And I think we’ve seen shades of both.

“That’s why you need that overlay of what (agencies) bring to the table, that disruptive, strategic thinking and disruptive creativity, because that is where the insights and the storytelling come into it and you start to make the connection to the customer base.”

While industry leaders have talked about co-creation with AI tech, Mr Reardon is less positive about this idea, suggesting the technology is not capable of capturing the disruptive thinking that powers creativity.

“AI by its very makeup is a convention machine, whether it’s a large language model, a visual model, or a multi modal model, the only way to make those things work is to feed it thousands and thousands of conventions. So you will only get back something that’s been done before. The best examples are yet to come with AI, because at the moment people are rushing to show off what a tool can do. You have to come back to great human-based insights, creativity, and then look for the tool, or set of tools, that can help.”

The comments come as the local market continues to examine the decline of its international creative ranking, after dropping to an all time low of 11th place globally at the Cannes Lions festival. Mr Reardon said while AI offers help, it’s one element of a broader opportunity for agencies and brands.

“AI is just one of the headwinds that we’re facing in Australia, we’re also in a very conservative market at the moment,” Mr Reardon said.

“You feel it with the kind of ideas that are signed off and you feel it with some of the budget constraints that we’re facing as well. That’s not a story that’s unique to Australia.

“There’s two ways through a moment like this, where things are up in the air. You can either turtle up and play it really safe and try and weather the storm.

“Or you can use the opportunity, where everybody else is a little bit more vanilla than usual, to really stand out. TBWA are the disruption company, so you can guess which camp we like to be in.”