Pilot project set to explore AI-powered branding

Eileen Kiernan, global CEO of IPG Mediabrands

SINGAPORE: IPG Mediabrands has announced a partnership with Google Cloud to develop a suite of generative artificial intelligence (AI) powered applications for brands.

Under the terms of the partnership IPG Mediabrands would develop two pilot platforms, branded content generation (BrandVoice AI) and audience and research Insights (BrandPortrait AI).

The BrandVoice AI pilot would use Google Cloud’s latest generative AI technology to codify the essence of brands so that written and image-based content can be ideated, briefed, and drafted in an automated, safe, and on-brand manner.

The BrandPortrait pilot would use the advanced conversational capabilities of Google’s large language models to provide IPG Mediabrands strategists and planners with the ability to generate and summarise proprietary research and audience data.

All content would be approved by the brands – IPG Mediabrands clients – before being utilised by the AI pilot platforms.

The IPG Mediabrands Data and Technology Innovation department has been working exclusively on AI-based solutions for nearly four years, seeing AI as the ideal technology to augment the people and capabilities of IPG Mediabrands agencies.

With deep practical expertise in AI for optimisation problems, as well as identity and bias removal and identification, the innovation team first experimented with generative AI technologies several years ago. Since then, the team has built applications and prototypes that generate ad copy, imagery, reporting insights and SEO content, all proven out in real-world campaign scenarios.

SEO content is any content created with the goal of attracting search engine traffic.

Having achieved success with its use of AI already, IPG Mediabrands would now use the power of Google Cloud’s generative AI support in Vertex AI, specifically the PaLM 2 language model, to take its solutions to the next level.

Vertex AI is a machine learning (ML) platform that lets a person train and deploy ML models and AI applications. PaLM 2 is a language model that Google is deploying to bring AI capabilities to all of its products, including Gmail, Google Docs and Bard.

Eileen Kiernan, global CEO, IPG Mediabrands in a statement said: “We are excited to partner with Google Cloud to develop this new platform.

“Not only does this partnership let us leverage market leading technology, but also we are aligned to Google’s responsible approach on data governance which ensures our clients information is well protected.

“We know that the potential of this technology is just scratching the surface, but we believe that by placing brands at the centre of AI solutions, we get to a place where the true potential can be unlocked for brands and the industry overall.”

Google Cloud managing director, partnerships, Manvinder Singh said: “IPG Mediabrands will help to empower brands in new ways with their AI-based platform.

“The ability to quickly and effectively create content that is both engaging and aligned with brand values has the potential to help companies save money and more deeply connect with customers.”