Once a conference for graphics experts, SIGGRAPH offers much to marketers with generative AI and 3D asset creation.

Traditionally an event focused on computer graphics and attended by the tech-savvy, SIGGRAPH doesn’t hold a privileged place on marketers’ agendas—yet. While the conference has historically been research-focused, potential applications of the technologies showcased are too significant for advertisers to ignore, and I expect I will see a larger marketing presence at the event for years to come.

Marketers seem very interested in applying new generative AI technologies in their work, but are struggling to discover the immediate, impactful utility of these technologies in their day-to-day life. It’s clear that the technology is outpacing what the marketing industry is capable of today, and this makes it more important than ever for marketers to show up, learn, and understand the benefits of cutting-edge AI innovations for their workflows.

AI made a significant impact at SIGGRAPH 2023, showing up in the contexts of interoperability, asset management, and generation, and importantly, in 3D asset creation. We’re seeing a lot of progress in terms of creating and managing 3D assets, especially from NVIDIA. The advancements in AI infrastructure, with new chipsets, workstations, and devices dedicated to AI, were also noteworthy. Additionally, licensing and ethics were prominent topics, with Shutterstock and Getty playing key roles in enabling brand-safe, licensed model training.

High-profile products and services showcase compelling, AI-powered marketing use cases.

One such platform explored in-depth at the conference was NVIDIA’s Omniverse, designed for collaborative 3D content creation and real-time simulation. This means artists, designers and developers can work together seamlessly on complex 3D projects regardless of their physical location.

The focus at SIGGRAPH was Omniverse’s integration with OpenUSD, a universal scene description framework that enhances interoperability and collaboration across different 3D tools and applications. With an entire day of sessions dedicated to OpenUSD, and with tool vendors like Blender and Autodesk involved in the Alliance for OpenUSD, it's clear that interoperable assets for 3D pipelines are no longer a thing of the past.

Showcases included 3D scene generation and rendering with Edify, as well as innovations in safe asset creation with Shutterstock and Getty using Omniverse. These developments will undoubtedly enhance our capabilities in creating and managing 3D assets efficiently—and offer immense potential in streamlining the production process through integration into AI-powered workflows like our own Monks.Flow.

Another standout innovation from the show was HP Z Captis, a material-scanning tool that has just launched. It works in tandem with Adobe Substance to instantly digitize fabrics and other textures for digital workflows, greatly enhancing 3D-to-content workflows that we’re already deploying for apparel brands. Today, we can take 3D renders of products and create thousands of variations of hyper-realistic product shots (even including generated models in photoshoots), but soon, with partners like HP, Adobe and Autodesk, we will be able to ship entire marketing campaigns before the first product even leaves the factory—a velocity that brands have only ever dreamed of.

SIGGRAPH paints a bright future for further marketing innovation.

Looking ahead, the potential for leveraging AI innovations presented at SIGGRAPH is immense for marketers. As partners of tech leaders like HP, Adobe, and Autodesk, we are at the forefront of integrating these advancements into practical marketing solutions.

For instance, our collaboration with Adobe plays a critical role in transforming end-to-end content supply chains. Through the Brand Model Practice, we utilize Adobe GenStudio, a generative AI-first offering, to help marketing teams quickly plan, create, manage, activate and measure on-brand content. Integration Monks.Flow allows for generative AI brand models that can significantly reduce costs, enhance creativity, build business intelligence and maximize the impact of your marketing efforts to drive growth. The overarching theme between this tool, NVIDIA Omniverse and HP Z Captis is that your marketing workflows are about to become a lot more integrated—and a lot faster.

Innovations in AI and 3D asset creation presented at the SIGGRAPH have significant implications for AI workflows and our own tools, like Monks.Flow. As marketers, it’s crucial to stay informed and adapt to these rapid advancements to maintain a competitive edge. The future of AI in digital marketing is developing rapidly, and I’m excited to see how these technologies will continue to transform how we approach our work each day.

As EVP of Innovation, Products & Solutions Development, I’ve had firsthand experience helping brands innovate through our brand model practice. This service, strengthened by our recent partnership with Adobe, delivers three key components: fine-tuned models, updated brand prompt guidelines for the AI era, and a prompt bank to jumpstart AI usage. Together, this enhances our ability to help brand marketing teams quickly plan, create, manage, activate and measure on-brand content.

As you can imagine from that description, building brand models relies on more than just technology. Change management and the people element are just as crucial. With that in mind, here is a recipe to bring data, people, processes and technology together to create powerful, bespoke brand models—and some of the successes we’ve seen so far with their implementation.

Data is essential to building brand models—but is only part of the equation.

First, it’s no secret that artificial intelligence relies on vast amounts of data for training, including customer insights, media data and historic brand IP. Therefore, it may seem as though the more data you have, the better—but it’s not that simple.

While a data lake is nice to have, its benefits will diminish over time. Brands seeking to build AI models tailored to their specific business needs require a constant stream of fresh data to adapt and improve over time. This begins with the adept orchestration of data pipelines: the process of designing, managing, and optimizing the flow of data from various sources to ensure it’s current, relevant and seamlessly integrated into your AI systems.

But equally critical is fostering a collaborative environment where your team can effectively leverage the technology and ultimately keep these models up to date. A Forrester report by Forrester VP, Principal Analyst Jay Pattisall—titled “Brand AI Models Will Reinvent How Marketing Creates Business Value”— discusses brand models in detail and hits on the role that people play in filling in those gaps left by historic data. There, he quotes me saying, “[Foundation] models are a picture from the past with data from the past. The future will be continuing to iterate with the model, and that’s the people.” Let’s dig deeper into how aligning your team around these data-driven initiatives can drive transformational change.

Organize people and pipelines into efficient, automated workflows.

We help brands re-engineer their workforce for AI readiness with a consultative phase focused on change management and breaking down silos. This involves pragmatic advisory to understand where you are in your AI journey and implementing a workflow infrastructure for your tech stack and teams, because ultimately the job of the orchestration layer—or the part of the tech stack that manages, coordinates and optimizes interactions between services, application and processes—is to amplify the best of the technology you have and the best of the people you have.

By leveraging technologies like Monks.Flow, for example, we can streamline how people and AI work together. Monks.Flow is an AI-powered professional managed service that connects employees, vendors, AI and enterprise software into efficient, automated workflows. This platform-agnostic environment is designed to work seamlessly across an organization’s existing tech stack, helping businesses achieve benefits like the integration of tools, people and processes; building business intelligence; and maximizing the impact of their marketing efforts to drive growth. Those who marry skillful use of the technology with deep brand expertise can provide strategic oversight throughout this workflow, thereby achieving stronger outcomes than if you relied on the technology alone.

A perfect example of this is an incredibly promising brand lift study we did with Forever 21. The fashion retailer leveraged Monks.Flow and Meta’s AI Text Generation to elevate the creative strategy of their shopping campaigns. We created 50 variations of Forever 21’s business-as-usual (BAU) creative and used Meta’s AI to generate copy variations powered by Llama 3. This conversion lift study aimed to measure the impact of these AI strategies on campaign performance. By incorporating AI to generate diverse copy and imagery, we were able to test and optimize for the best-performing creative. The results were impressive, showing significant improvements in click-through rates and conversion rates compared to BAU assets alone.

Talent is key to domesticating brand models and AI-generated output.

Just as it's crucial to prepare and collaborate with your internal workforce, it's equally important to engage with partners within your vertical for AI consultation and implementation. These experts are deeply immersed in your market of choice, understanding its nuances and dynamics, and can leverage this knowledge to fuel your strategic AI efforts. Moreover, a partner who knows your brand inside and out can provide tailored insights that align perfectly with your business objectives, ensuring a cohesive and effective AI strategy.

For instance, I spoke with April Huff, who has successfully incorporated AI into her role as VP of Research & Insights at Media.Monks to build audience personas and aggregate data from focus groups. As a researcher and strategist, she seeks intriguing differences in focus group data, because those unique viewpoints often trigger the best creative ideas.

She emphasized that because AI models excel at predicting the next most likely word when generating text, there’s a tendency toward homogenization of experiences—which can be valuable in market research, but not always. “What makes humans interesting is that they will  say something that is unpredictable,” she says, underscoring the role of talent who can parse these nuances and add depth to AI-generated insights.

One example of how humans teased a surprising creative insight from AI data is our work with Sephora on its “mAI colpevoli” campaign, which launched on International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. We used AI to analyze online data and create three scripted monologues that retold typical episodes of gender-based violence.

The team realized the AI-generated scripts had something in common: written as monologues, they each featured a speaker who blamed herself for what happened to her. The output highlighted the pervasiveness of victim blaming, mimicking societal biases, and we realized we could use this insight to encourage audiences to reflect on their own propensity for blaming victims (or themselves) of injustices. By marrying AI insights with strategic oversight, we were able to create a powerful, purpose-driven campaign that supported women's freedom and self-expression, demonstrating how deep brand expertise and AI can work together to drive transformative change.

The secret to brand model success: people and tech working together.

The integration of artificial intelligence within the enterprise is a multifaceted endeavor that goes beyond mere data accumulation or technological foundations. To truly unlock the potential of AI, brands must focus on creating self-evolving models that adapt and improve over time, driven by continuous data generation and strategic human oversight. This approach ensures that AI systems remain relevant and effective in an ever-changing market landscape.

Ultimately, the successful implementation of AI hinges on the symbiotic relationship between advanced technology and skilled human operators. It requires breaking down organizational silos, fostering collaboration, and engaging with partners who understand both the market dynamics and the brand’s intricacies. As brands navigate the complexities of AI adoption, focusing on these strategic elements will pave the way for sustained success and innovation.

In partnership with Cannes Lions, this contest showcases emerging talent globally. Open to employees with up to seven years of industry experience, participants join in pairs to compete across multiple categories. Three teams will earn a trip to Cannes, with one standout team gaining the additional honor of attending the prestigious Creative Academy.

The contest includes three categories that explore creativity in different ways:

• Film: Deliver cinematic stories for screens of all sizes, featuring elements like original concepting, scriptwriting, visual treatments, film treatments, shooting, directing, editing, VFX, post—and everything in between.
• Innovation: Turn visionary, future-facing ideas into reality using the latest in emerging tech and formats, resulting in groundbreaking experiences and new possibilities.
• Interactive: Go beyond the mundane while putting the audience at the heart of every moment, giving them the opportunity to immerse themselves in compelling, transformative digital experiences.

So, what creative challenge were they trying to solve? This year, the brief focused on a fictional beauty and skincare brand called TriVitalize. The mission: build an innovative and social-first campaign to launch a new line of sustainable, luxury shower products, with the goal of recapturing market share and shelf space.

Interestingly, all three winning teams were from Latin America, with two teams from Brazil and one from Argentina. Juan Orlievsky and Julia Calvo won in the Film category for a campaign that plays on the “shower thoughts” phenomenon; while Everton Souda and Thiago Assunção won in the Innovation category with the “feelings translator,” an AI-powered technology that turns customer testimonials into beautiful, synesthetic works of art.

But the top win went to Hitamara Tamizou and Matias Marcossi in the Interactive category. Their project, “My Side of the Mirror,” is a clever take on self-affirmations inspired by the insight that women criticize themselves on an average of four times a day. Realizing that feeling good about yourself while looking in the mirror can often be a challenge, their concept centers around an AI-powered app that features a personalized digital double, based on the user’s likeness and voice, that greets them with messages of affirmation.

We had a chance to speak to Hitamara and Matias to learn more about their winning concept and how it came to be. Read below to peek behind the scenes into the creative process.

What were your initial impressions of the brief, and how did that lead to the beginning stages of developing your concept?

Matias: First of all, we found it a little challenging to work with a brand that is fictional, because you don’t have previous information of how the brand communicates with the public. So the challenge begins there.

We started by doing our research, which was pretty easy because we had a lot of material based on the struggles that women face through their lives. As a transgender person, I remember those struggles very well—and now I have new ones. So, the first thing was to think about this fictional brand and how we could bring them to life in a way that spoke to those struggles.

Hitamara: I say myself in those statistics about women criticizing themselves. So this work means a lot to me, because I not only saw myself within it but could participate in discussions that help solve those challenges and support women by building the self-confidence that they usually lack. That focus on confidence, for me, helped shape the creative idea.

Matias: Next, we tried to think how we could universalize that experience. We are both based in Brazil, so a lot of our initial thinking focused on that experience—but given the fact that this is a global brand, we had to think of how we could connect with women everywhere.

Universalizing the idea for “My Side of the Mirror” grew from the trope of fantasy and fairy tales that are well known across different cultures. For example, you see the queen in Snow White ask, who’s the most beautiful woman in the world? And it’s not her; it’s Snow White. We wanted women to be able to seek approval from themselves through self-affirmation.

You mentioned research, and your concept draws heavily on insights and statistics. What were you looking for when embarking on the research phase?

Hitamara: A lot of our research focused on the experience of Black women in particular, as they make up a significant portion of our population in Brazil. But while our finished concept is focused on fun and self-confidence, we were initially thinking around heavier themes like harassment and the lack of safety women feel, because in order to have the opportunity to take care of yourself, you have to make it home first. In Brazil, many women face harassment on the street.

Matias: We thought a lot about external issues like harassment and violence, but realized that we were creating more fear rather than finding solutions. This prompted us to look internally at what we can change within ourselves, seeking positive solutions to more personal challenges like self-confidence.

You had a diverse range of personas in mind when developing your concept. How did their particular needs influence your creative approach?

Matias: This goes back to what I said before about universalizing the experience. The personas were a very important part here, because while the creative idea is designed to appeal to everyone, how people engage with it can be very different. How does someone in the Deaf community see themselves, how might a blind person feel their skin differently?

We didn’t have a star at the center of the campaign; it’s about putting the focus on yourself. I think brands should do more of that strategy—instead of hiring a famous musician, how can we allow the consumer to be at the center of the experience? Many people with disabilities, for example, never see themselves in a beauty campaign, but we can change that. And focusing on a minority doesn’t limit the appeal, either; it creates empathy for everyone, because empathy is a universal feeling.

Did the experience of participating in the contest give you the chance to use skills outside of your day-to-day roles?

Matias: As a copywriter, representing and expanding upon the idea through copy was routine. But for the real clients that we work with, the brand is already well defined in terms of its visuals and overall look—so we have a limited range sometimes when it comes to producing really big ideas like this one.

Hitamara: I am a motion graphic designer, but in this work, I was able to take on the role of an art director. Like Matias said, real brands often have their design language and visuals laid out, so I was excited to have the opportunity to develop all the visual aspects of the fictional brand and its campaign—and I love working with Matias! This opportunity really encouraged me to do my best and to show my creativity. When we finished the project, I felt really proud of what we accomplished.

In addition to the AI-powered experience, your pitch also touches on making the experience shareable on social and using that to hijack toxic beauty trends. Could you discuss that aspect of the work?

Matias: Effectively using social media is key for a young brand, especially on channels like TikTok where it’s easy to go viral with the right content. Still, social media harbors a lot of toxic content that shapes how we perceive ourselves, so we thought, let’s hack that to deliver a positive message to people who need to see it most. Our concept prioritizes an organic strategy to social rather than a paid one, thinking that that approach would make the message more appealing and relevant to our audience.

Your work takes a very socially purposeful approach to the use of AI. AI is a technology that inspires both excitement and unease; what’s your take on its use and potential in marketing?

Matias: I see AI as a powerful tool to change self-perception. I have a bunch of ideas that involve AI now, especially when related to the trans community. I think it has the power to amplify connections, but for that we need to develop a very responsible and empathetic vision for it. We are trying to make that here, not just with “My Side of the Mirror,” but in other ways that we use AI.

For example, we can use generative AI to aid in representation; if I type “transgender person” as a prompt and keep pressing enter, it’s going to show me a different result every time. That can teach people that we can’t be put in a box; you may have expectations about my body, but there are infinite ways we can express ourselves.

Hitamara: As an art director and motion designer, AI can be incredibly helpful throughout the creative process, but there are ethical concerns as well. Artists are afraid of their style being stolen, and there’s a similar discussion to be had about the risk of cultural appropriation in AI’s output. So while I’ve relied on AI a lot to optimize and amplify my own work, I don’t forget or shy away from those moral or ethical concerns. It’s a powerful tool, but it comes with responsibility.

Finally, your prize for winning the contest is a trip to Cannes. How does it feel?

Matias: I couldn’t sleep in the days following the announcement that we won! I was really, really excited. It’s a great opportunity, especially as a transgender person; you don’t see a lot of us in the industry, so bringing that representation to such an important place is almost like a duty.

Prior to my time at Media.Monks, I was a teacher, but decided to switch careers in search of better working conditions. So, this is a message for all the people out there like me that you can do it as well. You have such great ideas—it is achievable.

Hitamara: I had originally studied chemistry, so I made a big change in my career as well. Media.Monks is the first agency that I’ve worked at, and I’ve been here for almost three years. During that time, I’ve found it to be a great place for talent development. Winning NextUp.Monks is like a dream—I’m living a dream.

Finally, we would also like to congratulate our Silver and Bronze winners.

Interactive, Silver:

• Leah Zhao, Creative Technologist
• Ed Lee, Developer

Interactive, Bronze:

• Rodrigo Escobedo, AV Social Developer
• Carlos Cravioto, AV Social Developer

Film, Silver:

• Santiago Cifuentes, Motion Graphics Designer
• Felipe Chavez, Art Director

Film, Bronze:

• Sergio Cardozo, Designer
• Alejandra Gonzalez, Designer

Innovation, Silver—which includes a tie between two teams:

• Eyleen Camargo, Art Director
• Kyara Ortega, Copywriter
• Mariana Ramirez Feijoo, Art Director
• Evelyn Su Pérez Islas, AV Developer

Innovation, Bronze:

• Grace Tankersley, Copywriter
• Diana Backer, Senior Creative

POSSIBLE, organized by MMA Global, first launched last year with the goal of curating content and offering masterclasses, workshops, programming and more focused on the future of marketing, communication, culture and technology—all delivered by the biggest names in the business. Naturally, we were there too, where Monks from across our practices together shared a holistic view of practical ways that AI is transforming marketing right now. Touching on content, data, media and the technology that makes it all possible, here's what we covered on the stage.

Brands accelerate success with a test-and-learn approach to AI implementation.

First, our Co-CEO, Content Wesley ter Haar joined MMA’s AI Leadership Coalition (ALC), a group of marketers dedicated to responsibly and effectively integrating AI into marketing. The coalition seeks to equip the industry with tools and resources to harness AI across creative, media, and operations—and met on the stage to share how major brands are embracing the technology through a test-and-learn agenda, where ter Haar shared insight into our strategic approach to AI adoption.

We follow a three-phase process designed to create self-evolving systems that are not only efficient, but also effective. This includes an initial consulting phase where we define high value workflows quickly: ones that increase revenue, decrease costs, and most enhance productivity. Next, we integrate tools and technology into cutting edge software workflows to deliver growth, cost reduction and performance effectiveness. The process concludes with an execution phase—but that’s actually just the beginning, because as the brand rapidly reaches cost neutrality, investments can be made to fuel further innovation.

“AI has transitioned from toy to tool,” ter Haar said. “This evolution is outpacing even the most optimistic forecasts from industry experts. With these advancements, we are finally on the path to realizing the initial promise of digital advertising: enhancing precision and delivering personalization at scale.”

Augmented by AI tools, teams extract more value from their data.

SVP, Media Greg Kirby participated in a panel hosted by Tracer, the marketing reporting and analytics platform, which focused on data-driven trends that are defining digital marketing. Tracer’s technology enables brands to unify data sources to gain a holistic understanding of their audiences; likewise, Kirby shared how our focus on embracing emerging media helps brands better follow their audiences and engage with them more effectively, especially when augmented by AI-powered workflows that span the entire marketing function.

This can lead to surprising insights, three of which were covered in the talk. For example: Taylor Swift drove female viewership for the Super Bowl—but social media ad delivery to women dipped because they were so busy watching the game instead of scrolling. The finding opens up interesting conversation into ways that consumer data and content can reach new audiences in innovative ways.

On a related note, the panel moved on to how AI is driving creative analytics. Marketers increasingly rely on AI to optimize their creative, identifying variables like messaging, colors and objects or models depicted and their effects on performance. But this is also familiar territory for marketers in the data and digital media space.

Finally, the conversation turned to emerging platforms and formats, including new ones from Pinterest, which enable high-engagement, low-cost opportunities for brands. It can be tricky for a brand to understand how to best engage their audiences on emerging channels, but with Persona.Flow, an expansion of our Monks.Flow professional managed service, brands can translate their first-party data into interactive audience personas, then converse with them to quickly adapt to trends and fuel continuous learning and evolution in their marketing strategies as formats continue to evolve. This exemplifies the crucial role of a mature first-party data strategy, enabling brands to not only respond to but anticipate market dynamics data that continuously feeds into AI-driven workflows.

AI-powered platforms drive emotional relevance in creative delivery.

In addition to understanding audiences more effectively, AI-powered tools are also helping marketers make the most of their media investments. Our Head of Brand Investment Matthew Kramer participated in a panel, hosted by marketing platform business Wurl, whose tools power advertising, marketing and distribution across the world’s connected TV (CTV) ecosystem. The panel ruminated over the prevailing challenges that advertisers face in CTV today, including clutter, fragmentation and breaking through the noise.

One solution to these problems is building emotional resonance with audiences. This is being solved by a newly launched service from Wurl called BrandDiscovery, which Kramer and his team got to explore hands-on in work for a financial client. This led to impressive results, including a 33% lift in aided brand awareness and a 15% increase in purchase intent. “What’s even more promising, the campaign saw a 200% improvement in cost per engagement—as measured by EDO—when the ad creative’s emotions matched the content right before the ad break,” he told StreamTV Insider.

The use of new, AI-driven tools like BrandDiscovery to overcome significant challenges like capturing attention in the competitive CTV ecosystem, and nurturing close partnerships with the teams who build those tools, reinforce our approach to embracing new media channels and formats to better serve consumers. “From a partner perspective, we’re thinking about how we use these data tools and targeting driven by AI to make CTV—which historically hasn’t been tied to lower-funnel results—into a full-funnel driver,” Kramer said.

You can hear Kramer cover some of these possibilities in a recent episode of the Nex6 Project, hosted by John Ghiorso, where the two discuss how CTV is affecting creative and the role that AI is playing in that evolution.

Embrace the future, now.

From ter Haar's insights on AI's evolution from a novelty to a fundamental tool, to Kirby's exploration of data-driven audience engagement, and Kramer's discussion on emotional relevance in CTV advertising, POSSIBLE captured a detailed picture of how AI is transforming marketing—along with actionable strategies of how marketing teams can adapt and thrive within it. It's clear that as we continue to build and harness these tools, the potential to drive brand growth and engage with audiences in meaningful ways is not just possible—it's happening now.

First, Co-CEO of our Content practice, Wesley ter Haar, has won an award in the Individual category for his role in rallying our team around AI innovation. Our collective team has been awarded in the Organization – Strategic Planning category for our accomplishments in building AI workflows designed to help marketing teams overcome a wide breadth of creative and marketing challenges. And one of those workflows was honored as well, with Monks.Flow achieving a win in the Product – Hybrid Intelligent System category, just three months shy of the service’s initial launch.

If you’re unfamiliar with it, Monks.Flow is an AI-centric, professional managed service that streamlines how humans and machines work together. News of the win comes hot off the heels of the launch of Persona.Flow, an expansion of the Monks.Flow service that provides deep consumer intelligence by simulating detailed, interactive consumer personas that marketers can engage with in real-time conversation. But overall, the trio of wins showcase the holistic efforts of our team—from individual influence to collective experimentation and innovation—to lead the industry in the AI economy.

Monks.Flow solves high-value use cases for marketers.

The powers of generative AI grow more impressive by the day, but we noticed a key perception challenge in early discussions with brand leadership: while AI-generated visuals are certainly remarkable, marketers felt that the output still lacked the kind of quality required for their specific marketing needs. We also realized that AI’s benefits went far beyond making individuals more productive; rather, automated workflows could help align business units and enable greater collaboration across teams.

We sought to address both challenges and opportunities in the development of Monks.Flow, which empowers marketers to exercise complete control over AI’s output across the life of a campaign. The service weaves together numerous workflows designed for developing insights, building assets at scale, adapting content, measuring performance and optimization and more—meaning teams can shape and influence the AI according to their precise requirements with custom brand models that are accessed in a safe and secure environment.

We continue to expand Monks.Flow to solve emerging needs with AI.

Ultimately, our goal is to streamline the ways humans and AI work together—and our latest innovation Persona.Flow takes this goal a step further, bridging the gap between brands and their customers. Persona.Flow is an interface that allows brands to speak to their data and get inside the minds of their audiences by conversing with dynamic, AI-powered personas. The core technology behind Persona.Flow is driven by a robust RAG framework that weaves together brand-owned data and factual data from market research libraries provided in partnership with data-driven marketing firm Claritas.

All of this enables brands to build up their customer insights, identify trends that resonate with consumers in real time, and act on those trends with incredible speed. Wesley ter Haar, who was also honored with an Excellence in Artificial Intelligence Award in the Individual category, compares these smart personas to digital twin technology. “Traditionally, digital twins allow you to test different scenarios, optimize existing workload and get warning signs when it comes to wear and tear. So that's quite a tried and tested concept when it comes to supply chains and factories,” he says. “Persona.Flow is a digital twin concept in which you create digital twins of your consumer base, allowing the ability to run hypotheses of your creative and marketing space.”

From workloads to workflows, we’re transforming the service model.

Monks.Flow represents another challenge that AI presents to our industry: the need to move beyond traditional, time- and materials-based business models to better reflect AI’s impact on work.

Our win in the Organization – Strategic Planning award category honors the work we have been doing to build a new service model designed for the AI economy. Others have shied away from the existential question of how you would rebuild an existing business for today’s reality, but we’ve embraced it. In pioneering a new commercial model for our industry, we’re building proven workflows that brands engage with via an SLA-based billing model that is focused on output.

Looking ahead, there’s far more innovation to come. Following the keynote at this year’s NVIDIA GTC conference, ter Haar spoke on how the presentation focused on compute as a catalyst for transformative change that shows no signs of stopping. “If you had to make the case for what is the most important accelerator for our world at the moment, it seems to be compute. We're looking at a historic upswing in the ability to deliver that at scale."

Speaking to a Digiday reporter at the conference, he noted, “I think [NVIDIA President Jensen Huang’s] point is that everything that can either be automated or done by robots will be automated or done by robots.” With the growing importance of AI in the marketer’s toolkit, and NVIDIA’s growing role in building the foundational infrastructure that underpins it, shows like GTC will make their way onto more and more marketers’ calendars, serving as further evidence of how our industry continues to evolve with technology.

Looking ahead at accelerated technological transformation.

The world keeps changing—and fast. Our wins from the Business Intelligence Group’s Excellence in Artificial Intelligence Awards underscore our collective ambition to not only improve individual productivity, but rather fundamentally transform the entire business with AI, enabling a higher degree of coordination, speed and scale for brands.

This is marketing-led business transformation at work, adapting and evolving the enterprise to better reflect the AI economy. There is no doubt that AI will continue to play an integral role in ensuring that we operate smarter, faster and on a larger scale than ever before—and we’re excited to lead the charge along every step of the way.

Eric Shamlin, our EVP, Strategic Partnerships, joined with industry veterans on the panel to highlight the exhilarating journey of experimenting with AR, VR, and AI over the past several years. His team's foray into emerging media has not only been fun but also incredibly fruitful, showcasing AI's potential to revolutionize creativity.

Together, the panel painted a picture of how AI has transitioned from a mere experimental tool to an integral part of the creative process: whether to speed up pre-production, ideate concepts, or create assets at scale, AI workflows have become indispensable for the enterprise. In fact, these technologies not only facilitate creativity but also democratize it, allowing more people to express themselves in ways previously unimaginable—while also giving creative teams the ability to reach far more diverse audiences with personalized, relevant content.

Still, the panelists agreed that the role of human touch remains key. They shared experiences where AI-generated assets underwent manual refinement to meet quality standards, highlighting that while AI can significantly enhance efficiency and creativity, it does not replace the nuanced skills of human designers and creators.

“For creators, AI gives them superpowers,” Shamlin explains. “More people can create, like my good friend who is not classically trained as a creative–he's an accountant–but he can now let his dreams run wild.”

Looking ahead, the conversation touched on potential design trends influenced by AI, such as mashup culture and a renaissance of creativity across various mediums. The panelists envisioned a future where AI empowers creators to explore new horizons without being constrained by traditional limitations.

For brand executives who are curious about incorporating AI into their operations, this discussion offers valuable insights. It’s clear that embracing AI can lead to remarkable efficiencies and unlock new creative possibilities. However, success in this evolving landscape requires a willingness to experiment, learn continuously, and adapt strategies in line with technological advancements.

As we stand on the brink of this new era in creativity powered by artificial intelligence, one message resonates strongly: the future belongs to those who embrace change enthusiastically and leverage these powerful tools to enhance their creative endeavors.

At its core, Smaller is Better dismantles the long-held belief that bigger always means better in the enterprise, presenting a compelling case for why smaller teams are, in fact, the secret weapon for achieving agility, innovation and competitive advantage in today's fast-paced market. Through a blend of rigorous research, real-world examples, and Brim-DeForest's own experiences leading our Technology Services practice, the book offers a transformative approach for organizations of all sizes to become more efficient, adaptable, and ultimately, more successful.

Whether you're a startup founder, a leader in a large organization, or somewhere in between, Smaller is Better provides a practical guide to reimagining how work is organized and executed. It invites readers to rethink leadership, collaboration, and performance, making a compelling case for the small team model as not just a strategy for success, but as a necessity for survival in the modern business landscape.

We sat down for an interview with Brady—here is what he had to say:

Your book, Smaller is Better, challenges the traditional model of large, siloed teams within enterprises. What are some of the specific drawbacks you've observed in these environments?

The drawbacks are multifaceted and deeply impact an organization's ability to innovate and respond to competitive pressures. Such teams, structured within a traditional large-organization culture, often operate in an environment that extinguishes risk and discourages failure. This risk-averse culture significantly stifles innovation, as it prevents team members from taking meaningful risks and exploring new solutions to complex problems.

Innovation inherently involves a degree of risk and failure; it requires doing things that are not fully understood or mapped out. When failure becomes anathema, team members tend to opt for safer, more predictable paths, even if they lead to suboptimal outcomes. This leads to a culture of learned helplessness, where innovation atrophies and the organization becomes less adaptable and more vulnerable to external changes and competition.

Traditional models of decision-making in large enterprises often place the power in the hands of executives who are far removed from the day-to-day operations and front-line information. This disconnection between decision-makers and the operational realities of their business not only slows down the decision-making process but also leads to decisions that may not reflect the best interests of the organization or its customers.

The "teams model" outlined in Smaller is Better challenges this status quo by inverting the decision-making hierarchy, thus empowering individual contributors and smaller teams to take meaningful risks within their specific missions. This model fosters an environment where small-scale failures are not only allowed but celebrated as learning opportunities, leading to faster innovation, improved productivity, and ultimately, greater organizational agility.

Our industry is evolving rapidly, with new trends and technologies emerging constantly. How do you see the "small teams" approach fitting into this fast-changing landscape?

The "small teams" approach is increasingly relevant and effective in the context of rapidly evolving market dynamics and technological advancements. Small team structures, contrary to being unrealistic for large companies, are ideally suited for enterprises of any size. They scale beautifully, whether the organization is managing one team or a thousand, as long as each team is aligned with an appropriately sized mission. This flexibility and scalability ensure that the basic structure and culture supporting small teams can lead to replicable success across the entire organization.

Moreover, the "teams" framework is highly adaptable, working just as well for remote and distributed teams as for those that are co-located. This adaptability proves that autonomy is a critical structure for teams, facilitating better performance irrespective of their physical work environment. Additionally, in the era of AI and other technological innovations, the move towards smaller, autonomous team structures becomes even more necessary. As teams become smaller, the use of AI tools allows them to make an outsized impact, driving organizations towards more nimble, innovative and efficient operations. The AI revolution, in essence, necessitates and amplifies the effectiveness of the small teams model, making it an indispensable approach for navigating the complexities of today's business landscape.

Let's talk about building and optimizing small, autonomous teams. How do you define and align teams around clear missions within a larger organizational context?

It involves a meticulous process that integrates the team's purpose with the organization's broader objectives. It starts with establishing a clear and compelling mission for each team, which is crucial for ensuring that the team's efforts are not only aligned with the organization's goals but also imbued with a sense of purpose and direction. This mission must be well-defined, measurable, and achievable, serving as a guiding star for the team's activities.

To ensure effective collaboration among these teams, it is vital to promote a culture of transparency and communication. This involves regular check-ins, where teams share their progress, challenges, and learnings with one another, facilitating a supportive environment where teams can learn from each other's experiences and coordinate their efforts more effectively. Additionally, leveraging collaborative tools and platforms can enhance this inter-team communication, allowing for seamless sharing of ideas and resources.

Moreover, aligning teams around clear missions within a larger organizational context requires a robust framework that supports autonomy while ensuring coherence with the organization's strategic direction. This may involve setting up cross-functional liaisons or integrating shared goals that encourage collaboration towards common objectives. By fostering an environment that values autonomy, mastery, and purpose, organizations can optimize the performance of small, autonomous teams, ensuring that they not only work effectively within their own scope but also contribute to the overarching success of the organization.

How does AI factor into the "smaller is better" approach? How can empowered, small teams best leverage AI tools to further enhance their performance?

AI plays a crucial role in enhancing the "smaller is better" approach by enabling small, autonomous teams to make an outsized impact. In a landscape where headcount is shrinking for many organizations, the integration of AI tools within team structures allows individual contributors to amplify their capabilities, automate routine tasks, and focus more on strategic, creative and problem-solving activities. This shift not only increases efficiency and productivity but also fosters an environment of innovation where teams can quickly adapt and respond to new challenges.

AI tools can help small teams analyze vast amounts of data, identify trends, and make informed decisions much faster than traditional methods, which is particularly beneficial in fast-paced industries. This ability to leverage AI effectively allows teams to maintain their agility and creativity, ensuring they can continue to deliver impactful results despite their small size. The "teams" framework, therefore, not only supports but thrives on the incorporation of AI, making it more relevant and necessary in the context of modern organizational challenges.

Can you outline a strategy for how to maintain agility as these small, autonomous teams begin to grow, scale and replicate across an organization?

A deliberate and phased approach is essential. Here is how I recommend an organization ensures sustainable growth while preserving the agility of small teams:

1. Start with success: Begin by conducting a carefully designed sandbox experiment. This initial success serves as a proof of concept for the small teams model within your organization.

2. Enlist support: After demonstrating success, gather support from stakeholders and secure additional resources. This backing is crucial for scaling the approach across the organization.

3. Limit scope: As you add new teams, carefully limit the scope of each addition. This ensures that the growth of teams remains manageable and focused on specific missions.

4. Incubate slowly: New teams should be incubated slowly and meticulously, allowing them to develop the capability to operate independently. Only after they are fully functional should more teams be introduced to the system.

It's important to move at a pace that allows teams to deeply understand their roles and objectives, learning through experience. By starting small, validating the model and expanding carefully based on success, organizations can scale their small, autonomous teams effectively, ensuring that agility and innovation remain at the heart of their growth strategy.

Your experience spans both startups and large corporations. How can leaders within established organizations, often with entrenched cultures, begin to implement the "start small" approach, especially if they lack C-suite support?

Leaders in such a situation can adopt a "start small" approach by focusing on actions that require minimal initial consensus-building and bypassing traditional gatekeeping wherever possible. An effective strategy involves empowering small teams to operate with autonomy, allowing them to directly interact with and sell to customers without necessarily seeking permission from sales or marketing departments traditionally seen as gatekeepers. This approach emphasizes the importance of agility, speed and the ability to learn from mistakes, which are critical for fostering innovation within constrained environments​​.

For leaders who find themselves in a situation where bypassing the traditional consensus is not feasible and stakeholder buy-in is necessary, the key is to frame the small teams model in terms of potential outcomes that align with the organization's broader goals. This could involve highlighting how the model will enhance quality, increase velocity or improve capabilities without committing to a specific measurable end goal within a fixed timeline. Instead, focus on selling the concept of a measurable improvement that the transformation is expected to bring about, thus aligning with the organization's overall objectives and demonstrating the potential value of the approach​​.

How are you applying the principles of "Smaller is Better" in your current role with Formula.Monks?

In my role as CEO of Formula.Monks, the Technology Solutions practice at Media.Monks, I apply these principles by tackling complex challenges with small, empowered teams. A striking example of this approach in action was when our organization was brought in to assist a two-hundred-person company that had been struggling for years to refactor their software for municipal agencies. Despite a product delivery team of over sixty people, they had made no progress and were rapidly approaching a failure state​​.

We discovered that the solution to their problem lay within the talents of just two engineers who were capable of using modern tools and moving the software to the cloud. The bureaucracy of the larger team structure was stifling these engineers' abilities to effect change. This situation underscored how larger groups can inadvertently limit innovation by adhering to the lowest common denominator, rather than leveraging the exceptional talents within​​.

By focusing on smaller, autonomous teams, we allow for greater agility, innovation and responsiveness to the unique challenges faced by our clients. This approach not only streamlines problem-solving but also harnesses the full potential of each team member, leading to more successful outcomes and transforming the way ambitious companies operate. This strategy demonstrates the profound impact of "Smaller is Better" principles, highlighting the importance of flexibility, focus and leveraging individual strengths in achieving organizational goals.