Generating conversation is one of the great ambitions of brands and advertisers. Whether it’s a digital campaign, an on-street action or any type of strategy that gets people talking about the campaign itself, the use of CGI is becoming more and more widespread.
CGI or Computer-Generated Imagery is here to stay, as it is an affordable technology that allows to generate hyper-realistic images and videos, which opens a new advertising opportunity, at a lower cost than usual.
This technology is behind some of the most viral campaigns of recent years:
– Maybelline on the London Underground. In the summer of 2023, images of a tube carriage with giant eyelashes went viral and spread like wildfire on social media. It was a campaign by the make-up brand Maybelline to promote its mascara. This underground car never existed, as this viral video had been created with CGI.
– Jacquemus and its giant Le Bambino. The Le Bambino model is for its small size and this premise, taken to its opposite extreme, has been the basis for one of the brand’s most famous campaigns. Thanks to CGI, a giant adaptation of this handbag model travelled the streets of London.
– Tanqueray and its high altitude gin and tonic. In Spain we also have outstanding examples of the use of CGI. The gin brand Tanqueray has found the perfect combination in the streets of Madrid and has “filled” the famous Schweppes building on Madrid’s Gran Vía with its gin. The composition culminated with a helicopter placing a giant ice. All of it, of course, CGI.
These are just a few successful examples of the use of CGI to generate conversation but it is necessary to highlight that to achieve such a strong impact it is not enough with the isolated use of CGI, it is necessary that the action proposed is very much in line with the brand or product. The impact of these campaigns is based on generating confusion in the viewer, to the point of doubting whether what they are seeing is real, which is why digital creations must have an execution that is in line with the product or brand, as it has to look as realistic as possible.
We must take into account that users are increasingly accustomed to this type of digital creations, whether with CGI, Deep Fake or any other technology, so it will become more and more complicated to impact the viewer and generate enough confusion that leads to share in the digital universe the campaign shown.
In addition, we must take into account the danger that the generation of spontaneous conversation may pose, as it may not go where we expect and what we receive are criticisms of the product, the brand or the campaign itself.