AB InBev’s new work is an exploration of how AI can be used to generate hyper-personalized advertising at scale. In this case, each video tells a story of a shopper’s alternative life – if only they’d bought the products left in their cart. It’s a retargeting ad reimagined. And it started with a run-of-the-mill e-commerce brief.
The experience, ‘Abandoned Nights,’ was created by R/GA for TaDa, AB InBev’s e-commerce platform for the Latin American and South African markets. For now, it’ll launch in Mexico before being rolled out elsewhere.
Shoppers on TaDa can buy everything from Corona and Budweiser to ice, charcoal and pizza. But if they abandon their carts of booze and snacks, 24 hours later they will be sent a video that reconstructs an alternate reality of what might have happened had they gone through with the purchase.
Generative AI tools have been trained to create the script, images and narration on the fly, based on past purchases, user behavior and social patterns as well as the individual’s data.
The end video is sent via email, SMS, WhatsApp and push notifications within the app, reminding them to complete the checkout. Customers are also encouraged to share the video on their own social channels for a chance to win the real-life recreation of the scenario imagined by AI.
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R/GA first started working with TaDa almost a year ago. The initial task was an overhaul of the TaDa brand positioning. “It wanted to communicate differently and talk to its audience in a totally different way, be more spontaneous and fresh and be seen as a cool e-commerce company,” Josefina Casellas, VP, executive creative director and general manager at R/GA SSLATAM, tells The Drum. “It wanted every brand in the AB InBev portfolio to want to be on TaDa.”
The agency redesigned the site and overhauled the tone of voice and this ultimately laid the foundation for much, much bolder work that will test just how comfortable consumers are with hyper-personalized AI ads.
“It’s not just a provocative idea that came up from anywhere. We thought about the pain points and started working across different offices to brainstorm ideas. We came up with four or five. And they loved this one from the beginning,” Casellas adds.
Over the course of 12 weeks, R/GA offices globally were involved in creating the template for the AI content engine that powers the campaign. The first iterations, Casellas jokes, pulled in so much data that it pushed the boundaries on what it could legally include in an ad.
“When we started, from 10 stories we had one that was, like, legally correct. It was like, ‘Oh my god, no, this is going to be a problem,’” she says.
For the final iteration, the only identifiable information it used is a customer’s name, location and items in the cart. R/GA’s own creatives developed the story framework and the illustrations that appear in the final videos. Other elements, like storyline and narration, were created by AI tools including OpenAI, Replicate (an AI image generator), ElevenLabs (an AI voice generator) and R/GA Ventures portfolio company Imposium (a personalized video technology company).
“To get right, it’s this kind of ensemble of different techniques, both traditional design and studio production, with AI to create the narration and the imagery that we pull from the carts, as well as custom model generated images,” says R/GA’s chief technology officer, Nick Coronges.
Endless storylines can be created, but no two will be the same. If consumers were already creeped out by retargeting ads following them around the internet, how will they respond to what’s essentially a retargeting campaign on steroids?
“It’s about taste,” Coronges adds. “If this was in bad taste and if the tone was blatantly commercial and it seemed like we were using the data in a way that felt like we were stalking you or something like that… But we don’t really want people to walk away actually thinking about AI at all. We want people walk away thinking, ‘That’s a really fun and engaging experience within TaDa. It feels like it’s part of the brand.’”
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This is among the first pieces of work R/GA has revealed since it went independent from Interpublic Group earlier this year. At the time, chief executive Robin Forbes and creative chief Tiffany Rolfe told The Drum that the new offering would have AI at its heart. They promised that R/GA’s use of generative AI would innovate brand experiences, not simply allow it to do more work faster or cheaper.
“This is an exciting project for us since the carve-out from IPG, but we have a long history of working in AI. For us, it’s about getting beyond the initial hype about it or the fear of it and just getting specific about what we mean when integrating AI into the idea. We don’t want the story to be about AI, right? We want this to be about the brand and about something that’s fun and useful for consumers,” says Coronges.
“We see a lot of other agencies and a lot of industry hype around things like content at scale and using AI to just put more bad content in front of consumers. We’re not interested in creating more bad content. We want to create things that are really great, really fun and feel really on brand. And where we lean in is the customization.”
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