Dive Brief:

• WPP and Nvidia have partnered on a new content engine that uses generative artificial intelligence (AI) to render and scale creative more efficiently, per a press release.  
• The offering, which will soon be available exclusively to WPP clients, is built on Nvidia’s Omniverse Cloud solution that manages industrial digital applications. Through this platform, WPP will leverage software including Adobe’s Substance 3D and Firefly products and Getty Images to make more lifelike, brand-accurate imagery and videos.
• The companies claim the new engine outperforms traditional creative processes, where thousands of assets need to be crafted manually based on data from disparate sources. WPP is laying claim as an early leader in generative AI among agencies as the technology promises to disrupt marketing. 

Dive Insight:

The world’s largest ad agency is betting big on generative AI. The content engine developed with Nvidia has the potential to shake up a core value proposition of the business, helping creative teams produce advertising assets for clients in a way that better recognizes the breakneck pace of digital and data-driven marketing. Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang demoed the tech during a keynote presentation at the Computex conference in Taipei.

WPP hopes the platform will lend it a competitive edge as marketers express a clear interest in the emergent AI sector, which has gripped the public’s attention and sparked heated debates thanks to the widespread popularity of software like OpenAI’s ChatGPT. The Coca-Cola Company, a top WPP account, is already experimenting with creative applications of generative AI through a pact with OpenAI and consultant Bain & Company. 

The Nvidia announcement also comes at a time when many brands are cutting back on ad spending due to economic pressures, a trend that has weighed on creative shops. Meanwhile, many of the largest digital advertising platforms, including Google and Meta Platforms, are investing in their own generative AI bells and whistles to help advertisers iterate on creative at a faster clip — a potential threat to conventional agencies. 

“Generative AI is changing the world of marketing at incredible speed,” said Mark Read, CEO of WPP, in a press statement. “This new technology will transform the way that brands create content for commercial use, and cements WPP’s position as the industry leader in the creative application of AI for the world’s top brands.”

WPP and Nvidia emphasized that the work produced through the engine will be both lifelike and aligned with a client’s goals, a likely attempt to stave off concerns around AI-generated imagery that tends to land in the uncanny valley. 

Central to the new engine is Nvidia’s cloud-supported Omniverse solution, which allows WPP to access multiple industrial applications. Those include Adobe’s Substance 3D platform for immersive content creation; the Adobe Firefly suite of generative AI products for creators; and a raft of exclusive visuals from Getty Images made with Nvidia Picasso, another piece of visual design software that relies on generative AI. The end result will be large volumes of 2D images and videos for more personalized “classic advertising,” while Nvidia is also enabling WPP creatives to deploy interactive 3D experiences through its Nvidia Graphics Delivery Network. 

“With Omniverse Cloud and generative AI tools, WPP is giving brands the ability to build and deploy product experiences and compelling content at a level of realism and scale never possible before,” said Nvidia’s Huang in a statement. 

Nvidia recently became the first chipmaker to surpass a $1 trillion market valuation thanks to its bets on AI, Bloomberg reported, as the company makes almost all of the graphics chips that power AI. WPP, like many ad-holding groups, has weathered the trials of the pandemic and inflation well but is facing a second half clouded by uncertainties, including the possibility of a recession.

One of the most pressing questions surrounding generative AI is how it will impact the workforce. Time will tell whether the Nvidia alliance results in a shrinking of WPP’s creative teams.