Five ways brands can get creative with AI in experiential

AI for art. AI for writing. AI for everything. It’s everything, everywhere, all at once. And we don’t mean the movie.

AI, especially programs such as Dalle-E, ChatGPT, and Midjourney, is exploding, and businesses are figuring out the best use cases within their industry. Marketing is no different, and creative experimentation is ubiquitous. From image generation to copywriting, generative AI is making its way into the creative process more and more.

Many brands may not consider its use in experiential, but the opportunities are plentiful and can add value to an experience.

Members of our creative team shared five ways brands can enhance experiences using AI:

1. Color in the world you are building. Utilize AI to add the tedious layers that can help make your event more impactful. Small graphics and ephemera that help immerse your audience into the world you are creating. This lets the craft be seen in every corner and helps lift design needs.

2. Implement AI in the sketch phase. Every seed of an idea can be input into a generative AI program to help create the outlines of what you envision in your mind. It can inspire and spark new ideas by seeing iterations of your concept. It can even sell ideas you need to see before taking the next step into rendering or execution.

A quick sketch to sell the idea of mailing phones in pies to invited guests.

 “In the past year, we’ve used generative AI to create concept art for our projects. Humans are still doing the design, the drawings, and the implementation, but now we’re starting from a higher level. We’re kickstarting our thinking with an instant, AI-powered brainstorm. One that might take us in a different direction than we first imagined.”

– Jarrett Lantz, Design Director for Jack Morton’s Merge Mansion experience & Creative Director, Scout Expedition Co.

3. Amplify your hero idea. Focus on the most critical asset by giving a helping hand to the supporting characters.

“For Merge Mansion, we wanted the world to feel as rich and detailed as possible, and that felt like the perfect opportunity to leverage AI in multiple phases of the creative process. For example, we used ChatGPT early on to fuel our prop list ideas and enhance our brainstorming sessions. Then, during production, we created various text like the description on the back of Grandma’s recipe book. We also used Midjourney to help our Graphic Designer quickly generate vintage illustrations for ingredient labels and postcards throughout our sets. In both examples, our team still had to edit and adjust the outputs to fit our needs. Still, the AI generations provided an excellent starting point.”

– Jeff Leinenveber, Design Director for Jack Morton’s Merge Mansion experience & Creative Director, Scout Expedition Co.

4. Give your work a voice. Not like ‘Her’ – the 2013 American science-fiction romantic drama film by Spike Jonze – but with AI, voice modulars can bring life and audio to your experience, such as creating messages in character or developing an event VOG (voice over god).

“Recently, we wanted to give voice to a character and give access to fans and attendees to directly engage with them by calling a phone number and leaving a message. Using AI, we scripted a voicemail inbox message in the character’s tone of voice and manipulated a recording to sound like an older gentleman using voice.ai. Creating a lo-fi interactive experience that felt intimate to those willing to call.”

– Kali Heitholt, Creative Director

5. Unleash the possibilities. Harness the tools to create more personalization in event communication and experiences to let the interests and values of consumers be heard.

“Many attendees value personalization to feel included and special. It makes a brand feel more authentic. In our invitations to fans, we created personalized notes and a dossier enhanced by AI. We even allowed them to text our characters, generating responses with AI. By staying in the story and event narrative, attendees felt completely immersed in the world of the event.”

– Kali Heitholt, Creative Director