Where will AI take the bleeding edge of creativity?

CultHealth, It Just Fits

Where will AI take the bleeding edge of creativity?

By David Stemler

There are many ways to distinguish an ad agency, and staying ahead of the creative curve has always been at the forefront of the quest for distinction. Today, agency execs and junior art directors alike are exploring how generative AI can expand their creative product, improve their technological prowess, and increase efficiency in order to set them apart from the competition.

That is why, when CultHealth recently chose to run an ad in Med Ad News promoting its newly inked position at the heart of Indegene, we made generative AI central to the briefing. The brief itself was simple: CultHealth is known for creativity. Indegene is known for technology. Let’s show the industry how powerful the combination of those forces will be for prospective clients and talent.

That’s it, but there was a catch. We invited the entire creative and technology department to participate, and we insisted that they must use generative AI in the development of their work. Adobe found that 62% of creatives believe that AI will help them come up with new angles and ideas that they otherwise would not have imagined. Well, we thought, let’s see if they’re right, and let’s include everyone because, if they are, we need the entire agency — not just the tech-leaning futurists among us — to infuse generative AI into their day-to-day practice.

The results were wonderfully weird. The winning concept was a pair of a silicon-chipped stilettos that symbolized the merging of high design and avant-garde technology, punctuated by the line, “It just fits.”

CultHealth, It Just Fits

When CultHealth ran an ad in a recent issue of Med Ad News to promote its newly inked position at the heart of Indegene, they made generative AI central to the briefing. The winning concept was a pair of a silicon-chipped stilettos that symbolized the merging of high design and avant-garde technology.

Mission accomplished.

Or so we thought. Leadership quickly realized that, because of the ease and speed of the AI’s output, we had more than a pair of shoes and a print ad on our hands, we could have an entire fashion line, a social media campaign, an online store, and so much more. Now, a matter of days later at the time of this writing, we have all the above, and the results speak for themselves. Within 48 hours of launch, we saw a 406% increase in CultHealth site users, a 245% increase in time-on-site, and over 10,000 impressions on LinkedIn alone.

While many are rightly asking who AI will replace, I’m busy wondering what those who participated in this offbeat self-promotion challenge will produce for their clients? How will they approach their next brief? Where will AI help them take the bleeding edge of creativity? And how can it make the world a better place?

Will this be the last fashion line we create? Maybe. But leveraging technology and innovation to stay ahead of the creative curve will never go out of style. It’s what distinguishes one agency from another. The question for marketers of all stripes—as is true on the runway—will remain: Who are you wearing?

David Stemler, CultHealth

David Stemler is chief creative officer at CultHealth, an Indegene company.