• by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer, March 22, 2024

Advertisers and agencies will one day use a new form of generative AI (GAI) to create TV commercials, as technology increasingly brings non-traditional companies like Dassault Systemes into the industry.

Dassault's 3DExcite already provides agencies with 3D digital images of cars -- including ones that don't actually exist -- to help build campaigns for automakers, but using GAI for TV commercials is still on the horizon, CEO Tom Acland tells "Media 3.0."

The shift to TV will require much higher performance data and materials to drive customer attention, he explains.

GAI has significant implications for marketers because it enables a new form of product storytelling ensuring authenticity and personalization.

Marketers showcasing a new car heating system for a brand, for example, require different approaches in different locations across the world. Consumers in Sweden are likely to care about different weather-related capabilities than those who reside in the United States.

“It matters where the consumer lives,” Acland explains, citing other factors such as “whether or not they have a family or dog.”

With updates made to its system, companies can now use 3DExcite to generate accurate content about their products in any local setting.

They can also demonstrate any product feature without burdening the graphics department of the brand or the agency.

At Nivida’s recent GTC 2024 conference for developers, 3DExcite showcased a scientifically accurate rendering of Hyundai's IONIQ 6, which appeared in alternating AI-generated environments, as well as in a variety of trim colors. 

The print-ready images pulled data from the car’s engineering specs, and rendered images of the car depicted in mountains and on city streets using simple text commands that are familiar to anyone who has used ChatGPT. 

Acland says the platform also uses voice commands, and shared a video image of the Hyundai IONIQ 6 during a Zoom call. He instructed the program to create a background described as a "breathtaking" Swiss landscape in a cinematic afternoon setting.

The technology generated the environment — featuring water, mountains and trees — that reflected off the car’s paint in a moving image.

The models were trained on Shutterstock images. Shutterstock took the commercial data sets and used video technology to create a large GAI model, which created the scenes.

3DExcite took the scene and an image of the car and generated a background for Hyundai.

“It will enable car manufacturers like Hyundai to tell a story about the vehicle’s features,” Acland says, adding: “You can show the same feature to different people in different ways. It will help to drive programmatic advertising and, we think, help to build better products.”

Acland stopped short of sharing additional names of brands, but said 3DExcite works with many automakers worldwide as well as in other industries such as aerospace, and with industrial equipment such as robots.