AI Test Drive
CLIENT: FOOTACTION
AGENCY: HEAT SF
Deloitte Digital (née Heat) acquired an AI startup that could predict trending topics in social media three days before they started. Deloitte suspected it could apply to ads, but didn’t know exactly how. Footaction signed up to be the guinea pig, and I was brought in as co-CD to lead a team to figure it out.
It was a creative and logistical challenge. All the social media trends were a legal landmine: how do you run ads that reference Billie Eilish, the Lakers, or Aladdin without using any of their IP? We’d be helped out on the SEO/keyword side, which ensured our ads ran alongside the trends themselves, but our landing pad was small. Over six months, we developed a systematic approach that worked for everyone: Footaction was satisfied, nobody was sued, the creatives on the team worked normal hours, and Deloitte had a new service to offer their clients.
This video uses some of our earlier creative concepts to show how it works.