Production of New Zealand’s first TVC using AI set to boost New Zealand wool industry

The production of the country’s first TVC by newly developed artificial intelligence (AI) is set to boost New Zealand’s wool and media industries.

The groundbreaking new commercial, believed to be the first time a complete TVC has been created by AI for broadcast in NZ, forms part of a planned $2 million-plus advertising campaign by local wool carpet and rug maker Bremworth.

Experts say the technology could be transformative for New Zealand’s media sector and, Kiwi businesses, allowing them to develop complex video advertising assets without creative constraints and in significantly less time than would have been required using traditional methods – freeing up more budget to spend on media and increasing the number of mediums they can use to market their products.

Rochelle Flint, chief brand and product officer of Bremworth, says they originally explored the use of AI as a more time-efficient way to produce still imagery for new product launches without a traditional photo shoot.

She says the technology may also be used to reduce the cost of creating content to help promote New Zealand wool in offshore markets such as Australia and North America: “When you are launching an entirely new range of carpet with multiple colour variations these tend to be made in large batches which can take weeks to complete. The issue for businesses like ours is they are reliant on producing physical inventories before they can create visual assets.

“When the production and marketing processes are out of alignment in this way, it manifests as an opportunity cost, which in this case has repercussions for the strong wool sector.

“With AI, we were able to produce a carpet in just one colour and use the technology to bring to life an abstract rendering of our creative vision to tell the story behind each product and help consumers visualise how it could look in their home.

“For our Crafted Feels Different campaign, it has allowed us to develop content that would have been difficult, time-consuming and expensive to create in real-world conditions where life is constrained by reality and has resulted in a significant reduction in the time lag between production and going live with content.”

Flint says the cost savings from the production have been reinvested into local media platforms.

She says the technology was so new it presented a risk that they may not be able to deliver a market-ready TVC as a part of the broader campaign: “Video production is usually the most expensive element of developing a TV campaign and can easily run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

“The use of AI has allowed us to reduce the cost of production by around 60% – which has been reinvested into media space and extended our reach by an estimated 1.7 million views in local channels.

“Artificial Intelligence in this form is still in its infancy and using it in this way would not have been possible even six months ago. While we were initially apprehensive, our trials were successful and we continued to develop the full campaign

“The development of creative content in this way has the potential to increase the accessibility of the New Zealand media industry – helping to retain more spend in this market rather than with multinational tech companies like Google and Meta.

“In this instance, it enabled us to promote on local media that we otherwise would not have been able to.”

Flint says the use of AI has opened up new possibilities, allowing them to experiment with more innovative and interesting campaign content while reducing both time and cost: “While there is an interesting juxtaposition between one of our oldest primary sector outputs and cutting-edge AI, wool is an incredibly versatile fibre and the use of the new technology has been necessary to create a campaign to elevate its status.”

The new campaign will air on New Zealand television networks, TV on demand and digital media platforms from 29th September.