How A Photograph Inspired Origin's Entire Creative Artificial Intelligence (AI) Strategy.
- Origin
- 5 minutes ago
- 4 min read
For this article to make sense, it's important to note that the author of this thought piece is Origin's CEO, Fred, and for the purpose of this article there are two things you should know about him:
As one of our co-founders, Fred's responsibilities include choosing the direction Origin takes when it comes to creative vision and overall strategy.
He is also a passionate amateur photographer who has held a camera in his hand pretty much since he was a small child and today uses photography to manage late onset ADHD as well as to serve as a creative outlet outside of work.
Here is what he had to say -
When I started getting more serious about photography as a young adult, I had a 1979 Pentax K1000, a dark room and my emotions to guide my attention. Take this trader at a camel market outside Cairo for example. The color and texture of his clothing, his posture and that inquisitive yet gentle gaze. Art.
To make an image interesting, I had to look at the world a certain way and find 'moments' that a 30+ year old camera would let me capture. It was art and art alone.
Today I own numerous Sony cameras, one of which has an AI chip inside that is dedicated solely to subject tracking and auto-focus. It can discern between subjects and not only successfully track something like a bird on its journey, but it uses probabilistic reasoning and machine learning to anticipate where your subject might go next.
Oh how things have changed.
In the world of photography, artificial intelligence is allowing two things to happen:
It is allowing new/young/infrequent photographers to capture images with a camera that even seasoned, practiced professionals would have struggled to capture before now.
It is allowing said seasoned, practiced professionals to carry their wisdom and experience into new areas of their photography.
In other words, commercially available artificial intelligence as it exists today is an enabler. And the same goes for advertising - at least that's how we look at it at Origin.
What do I mean? Let me explain.
What's vital to us as a creative technology company, and where I think we are seeing so many people go wrong with AI, is that we must not allow the AI available to us today to mean that 'art' gives way way 'science'.
Not at all.
Instead, we must explore how and where our art can be supported (enabled) by science.
At Origin, we look at AI as an enabler and we lean into the fact that we can now achieve things for our clients that would never before have been possible. Take this hummingbird that moves like lightning and whose wings beat 60 times a second:
It wasn't the existence of AI alone that meant I could capture this shot. It required observation, experience and practice in order to know when to press the shutter. In other words, I had the idea and AI enabled me to turn that idea into the image I wanted. It was a collaborative effort that took the best of both of us.
The same applies for advertising.
We cannot let AI touch the idea itself, but we can (and at Origin we do) let it assist us with automation, concept development (not discovery), copywriting, image generation and other highly complex code-based tasks.
Just as important to how we use AI today at our company is being vigilant about what's emerging - and making sure that we expand our creative mindset accordingly, as opposed to cramming a new capability into existing, albeit newer, mindsets.
The ideas we can now have for our clients and the stories we can now tell are still embedded in our skills as master storytellers; they are simpler broader in scope and potential.
IN CONCLUSION
We no longer need to wait solely for those moments that a Pentax K1000 will let us take. Instead, we can stare into that field of foxtail grass and turn our dream of capturing a sparrow flying between the leaves into something real.
AI is not about replacing what we do today. It's about treating it as a collaborator who has enabled us to expand our vision.
If you find this topic interesting and would like to know more, you can schedule a consultation with one of Origin's CTV specialists by clicking here.
Origin is an award winning provider of creative solutions and services for media buyers, creative teams and brands who want to transform conventional CTV ad creatives into powerful, personal and provocative advertising experiences.
With unparalleled creative capabilities and proprietary ad serving technology, Origin’s unique suite of dynamic ad overlays and native CTV ad extensions allows advertisers to engage distracted audiences and achieve the results they need.
Founded by media veterans Stephen Strong and Fred Godfrey, Origin is driven by the belief that winning viewers today requires breaking free from how it was done yesterday.
Learn more at: originmedia.tv