2024-05-22-EB-11: The Performative Marketer

Author

Ate A Pi
May 22, 2024

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Here’s today at a glance:

EB-11: The Performative Marketer

Who

Romain Torres (LinkedIn), the co-founder of arcads.ai

What

  • Arcads leverages AI to generate video ads featuring realistic "AI actors." These actors are created using a two-minute video from real human creators, known as "UGC creators."

  • The platform allows marketers to A/B test different scripts and AI actors to find the most effective combination, driving higher engagement and conversions.

  • This is the tweet that started it all. At 4.7 million views, it is now my (dubiously) top-performing tweet ever. Also my first real community note (a clarification rather than denial). This young woman is an animated advertisement avatar, built by arcads.ai. She never said those words about a product designed to remove body odor.

When

May 14th, 2024

Highlights

  • On the surreal experience of overnight success. "So the day we went viral, it was around 3 a.m. France time. So I woke up, it was around like 7 a.m. I opened my computer and I see notifications everywhere."

  • On building B2B momentum through tech-focused communities. "When you go viral on TikTok, you will get a massive... consumer adoption... But when you go viral on Twitter, you get a lot of people from the tech industry, like companies."

  • On the blurring lines between organic content and advertising. "On TikTok and YouTube shorts... you want your ads to look like something that is not an ad."

  • On the surprising efficiency of AI training data. "Our recommendation is a two-minute video, one video."

  • On capturing organic energy instead of studio polish. "We don't have a studio... we want them to be as natural and energetic as possible."

  • On overcoming limitations of human-centric processes. "Basically everything that's involved human is very hard to scale."

  • On unlocking unprecedented scale in performance marketing. "You can write one script and select 10, 20 actors, 50 actors if you want... and take the results.

  • On building a company around a real problem, not just cool tech. "A lot of companies are starting from the technology and try to find a use case... We really started from the use case."

  • On the challenges of handling unexpected viral success too early. "We just understood that we would reach the goals that we had for the next three years... much, much faster than we anticipated."

Listen On

EB-11, the eleventh episode of our podcast, dropped this week. Before I continue, the rules of the game are:

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Listen on

Why

  • Romain and his co-founder were driven to create Arcads by their own experiences with the pain points of creating high-performing ads.

  • They aim to democratize video advertising by making it accessible to businesses of all sizes, enabling them to compete with larger companies through the power of AI-generated content.

  • A core focus for Romain is ensuring the safety and rights of UGC creators, addressing ethical concerns surrounding deepfakes and unauthorized use of their likeness.

How

  • Arcads technology starts with a UGC creator submitting a two-minute video of themselves in a natural environment.

  • The platform's AI algorithms then analyze and train a model on this video, learning to replicate the creator's voice and appearance.

  • Marketers can use these AI-generated avatars to create various video ads with different scripts, backgrounds, and CTAs.

What are the limitations and what's next?

  • Arcads is navigating the ethical complexities of deepfakes and the potential misuse of AI actors. Romain stresses the importance of moderation, clear contracts with UGC creators, and responsible application of the technology.

  • Future developments include enhancing the emotional engagement of AI actors by refining their voice, movement, and overall realism.

  • Arcads also plans to integrate real-world products directly into the ads, allowing for more dynamic and interactive content.

Why It Matters

  • Arcads is at the forefront of AI-powered advertising, offering a glimpse into a future where engaging, personalized video ads can be created quickly and affordably.

  • The company's commitment to creator safety sets an important example for ethical AI development, emphasizing the responsibility that comes with using this powerful technology.

  • Arcads' success could contribute to a more diverse and competitive advertising landscape, empowering smaller businesses to create compelling content that rivals larger brands.

Transcript

Transcript: Arcads

[00:01.053] 👩‍🎤 Ate-A-Pi: So Romain, what is ArcAds? [00:06.485] 👨‍🏭 Romain: Our cards is a platform that helps marketers create winning ads with AI actors. [00:15.453] 👩‍🎤 Ate-A-Pi: Okay, so when we, so the background to this is that about one and a half months ago, we had a super viral tweet, which I think was a actress or was an arcade, where there was a young woman, she was speaking into the camera and she was talking about a, I think like a body odor product.

Background

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The source

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