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Creative Production
Great creativity doesn’t have to come at the cost of your bottom line, labour-hours, or the planet
By Chris Shadrick, Managing Director at Collective
Managing director of Collective, Chris Shadrick, explains how new technology such as real-time 3D design and Omniverse can drive huge value throughout your production processes
Searching For Solutions
”Tools such as real-time 3D and Omniverse unify workflows that are currently so disjointed that it’s no wonder time and money are wasted. Disney, Amazon, Nike, BMW…they’re all using these tools and yet Adland has largely failed to seize the opportunity”
It’s little surprise that we’re still faced with endless debates about the use of AI in the industry when we’ve seen time and time again that the idea of agencies embracing any kind of change is viewed with an almost superstitious scepticism. Will doing something differently cost us more money?
Will it take too long to embed in the workplace? Will it affect our sustainability? Well, ok, hardly anyone is looking at that…more fool them.
The notion of holding on tightly to the process of cripplingly expensive ad shoots which involve flying teams here, there and everywhere, only to find it’s too cloudy to film or the DOP is off ill is bizarre. This folly is compounded by the fact that you find yourself replicating this practice every time there’s the slightest change to product packaging or you’re adapting your ad for a different market. And yet, it’s still the norm, despite eye-watering costs and the strain leading to many creatives leaving the industry.
It doesn’t have to be this way. Here’s what everything could look like:
- Everything you create forms part of your digital brand library that can be reused or adapted time after time
- Cost savings of up to 80% compared to traditional workflows
- Cost savings of 40% on TV spots compared to traditional methods
- Up to a 50% reduction in timelines compared to traditional workflows
- A green solution that is 99% more sustainable (CO2 output) than a location shoot
- Large £100m productions can now cost £25m
It might look like an explosion in a rose-tinted glasses factory, but this is achievable now. Today. How? Real-time 3D technology. Which, I hasten to add, isn’t another way of saying “CGI”. CGI is expensive and murderously time-consuming. Plus, at the end of it, if the client isn’t happy, it’s back to the drawing board. Real-time 3D was initially a gaming engine, something to keep expanding the worlds for you to explore. We’ve come a long way since those days.
Real-time 3D really does mean real-time. You are able to work collaboratively with your brand partners wherever they are in the world and see the results of your ideas right there in front of you. Colour switches; how the light catches the product; text changes – all done with a few clicks and in staggering quality. These aren’t close copies of real objects, they are photo-realistic simulations. Digital twins.
The possibilities don’t stop there.
You’ve got your perfect digital twin. Now what? You make it infinitely scalable. With tech like NVIDIA’s Omniverse, you can use your digital asset and content across all demands from TV to billboard to VR, with complete ease. Create once, use many. By creating a library of virtual assets, you can use materials repeatedly with no cost to the environment and workflow is simplified as the files created are 100% agnostic and can work alongside whatever your existing structure consists of.
The solution revolves around the files used, which are called USD (Universal Scene Description). This file type will radically democratise the creation process by eradicating the need to accommodate the way different systems work. Everyone uses the same file type, allowing a swifter, more flexible way of working together.
Imagine a charger that works with any phone rather than having to meekly ask around the office to see if someone has one that’s compatible with your particular brand. It’s exactly the same concept – you plug into the platform and away you go.
In a market that is demanding personalised content more and more, consistency is paramount. The constant requirement for ever-more complex campaigns will only lead to more wastage and inefficient processes being utilised. In fact, the tools to help agencies and brands work together in full collaboration, eradicating the need for duplication and ensuring 100% consistency, are there ready and waiting.
Tools such as real-time 3D and Omniverse unify workflows that are currently so disjointed that it’s no wonder time and money are wasted. Disney, Amazon, Nike, BMW…they’re all using these tools and yet Adland has largely failed to seize the opportunity. Not only is the value that is added huge, it means that the whole creative process is infinitely more collaborative at every stage. Creativity is a fun experience again.
We worked with Saatchi & Saatchi and EE on a campaign they were putting together which was going way over budget (using CGI) and quickly approaching deadline. We turned around the project in four weeks…no mean feat when the challenge was to create four unique worlds from scratch. With Unreal, the real-time 3D engine, we came to the rescue under (the already tiny budget) and under time.
Rachel Solomon, executive creative director at Saatchi & Saatchi, recalls: “We initially explored creating this work in a more traditional CGI approach but found challenges financially, within our timings and also creatively.”
Creative director Björn Conradi of sister agency Digitas: “At one point we joined a live session to review a version of the floating island. It looked absolutely fantastic, but the colour palette was too close to some of the other executions and had to change drastically. This is obviously a ton of work when you have just built an entire world.
“I tried my best to deliver the feedback as delicately as possible, but before I was able to finish my sentence they changed some parameters on the time of day and position of the sun and it was done immediately. Working in Unreal is not so much 3D design as it is being a god in a world of your own making.”
It saves money; it saves time; it makes the process fun. But there’s also the carbon footprint to consider. This is going to come and bite brands and agencies hard soon. With no travel required; no filming crew; no expensive set you use once and then bin; no agonising post-production rendering times – it’s little wonder that solutions for ad production are so desperately needed. And yet, they are there to use.
The desire for more personalised ads is only going to increase, which it turn puts yet more pressure on overworked creatives. This can only result in poorer quality work. Embrace technology. Embrace the opportunity to work closer with your brand partners than ever before. Enjoy the creative process. Futureproof your workflow efficiencies; see the benefits now and drive more value than ever before – don’t wait until it’s too late.