Indian AI-focused ad agencies share the most peculiar client briefs they’ve received

Time and again, the ad industry has talked about receiving absurd and out-of-the-world briefs from their clients. In pursuit of crafting the next viral creative or campaign, brands have often resorted to simply uttering the four golden words –– ‘Kuch viral bana do!’. If these unrealistic and often vague requests weren’t challenging enough, marketers have yet another bridge to cross as clients make bizarre requests when it comes to the ‘Use of AI’. 

In recent years, the adoption of AI in the marketing world has witnessed exponential growth. Advertising agencies are expanding their AI divisions, brands are introducing roles like the Chief AI Officer (CAIO), and increasing their ad spends for AI-related expenditures. Naturally, the desire to maximize returns on these investments has also increased.

From getting celebrities to make personalized birthday wishes to making ads that directly converse with the audience, AI has created multiple opportunities. Despite the advancement in tech and innovation, AI is still in its adoption stages in the Indian A&M landscape. But for many brands, it has already become a must-have for their marketing strategies. In this race to become the next ‘trendsetter’, however, brands have forgotten that AI needs to be viewed as a strategic partner in their creative journey rather than a standalone solution, giving rise to some more peculiar client requests.

We asked AI-first and digital agencies about that one ‘bizarre’ AI brief they received from their clients recently, which had them shaking their heads. Here’s what they had to say –

Can AI do the impossible?

Anuj Rathod, Associate Creative Director at Blink Digital said, "Early last year, one of our multi-specialty e-commerce clients sent us an influencer brief to create a designated AI-powered influencer for their brand who, in their words, could match the wit and tonalities of writers such as ‘Zakir Khan, William Shakespeare, Varun Grover, and Gulzar’, and could then be deployed to craft copy with the flair that these eminent writers could - but for daily social posts to sell furniture, electronics, and baby food.

Our initial reaction was why would someone need poetic lines to convince themselves to buy baby food?

As expected, they ultimately retracted the brief for budget reasons. But it was certainly a brief that left everyone in our team scratching their heads, wondering if this was an April Fools’ prank or a genuine brief.

Can AI predict trends?

Arjit Sachdeva, CTO - VDO.AI said, "In a recent encounter with a client, we found ourselves at the intersection of innovation and hilarity. The visionary request? To infuse a client’s social media strategy with the predictive prowess of AI — predicting trending hashtags before they even trend and foreseeing the preferred food choices of the masses next week. 

As laughter rippled through our team, we couldn't help but appreciate the whimsical brilliance of our client's ask. In the world of social media, where trends unfold at the speed of a click, this request injected a dose of humor and urgency into our strategic planning sessions. Who knew AI could have such a deliciously comical side, helping us not only stay ahead but also predict what's on the menu for next week's lunchtime escapades? The future is deliciously hashtagged."

Can AI do this overnight?

Aayush Vyas, Executive Vice President - Brand Solutions, Schbang said, "This was a few weeks into the AI trend - EVERYONE wanted in on this. The funniest part for me has been the fact that early into the trend - very few actually understood the use case of AI. 

Many brand managers and agency folks thought everything and anything was possible with AI. I remember a demand for an overnight print creative. Overnight. They really believed that the AI tools could actually deliver a print-ready creative over a few hours. 

What was funnier was that the team did deliver the design but it was the hard work of the design team sitting all night to crack this. 

In the morning when we sent the creative the response we received was 'See we knew AI could deliver it'."

Opening new possibilities

Rashi Agarwal, Founder Megalodon - AI Marketing & Communication Company said, "There is a huge gap in the industry amongst marketing and communication leaders and managers around the operational possibilities with AI.

Even when we are almost a year into AI entering the branding, marketing and advertising industry, it is very often that we come across briefs that are impossible to execute considering the practical limitations of AI, especially from a creative agency perspective. While I say this, we definitely agree on the point of pushing boundaries and creating something 'never seen before' but that should be more from the perspective of storytelling as at the end of the day, design is just a creative presentation of the story.

One such case was of one of the finest production houses in the country. In a blink, we took the project, and thereafter came the brief which asked for the creation of multiple protagonists in one image. It's like having more than three heroes in one film, each one having equal roles. This got tricky, we just nodded our heads at the moment, but had absolutely no idea how to execute this. Moreover, the client demanded the minutes of details to be incorporated in the picture from the pants to the scarves, bracelet, and watch. They wanted everything to be on point. Believe me, this was too difficult to gulp. But we being we, we knew we couldn't back off. So we took a week but executed the campaign and it came out amazing.

The team loved the output too and we thought our hard work paid off. We could finally boast about onboarding this brand but a huge problem came thereafter. Some senior management person at the client's side decided to scrap this AI idea and walked over our hard work and wine weekend! 

But we are glad that we ended up with a crazy impossible brief and made it possible. Moreover, we learnt several new things while attempting this brief too.

So now we welcome all crazy briefs and execute them, we fail and we win in equal portions."