PARTNERSHIPS | COMMUNITY | PODCAST | FRIENDS
CAA And Ogilvy Launch ECHO
Courtesy of Ogilvy
CAA and advertising giant Ogilvy are partnering to launch ECHO, a new AI-powered name, image, and likeness marketplace.
The Big Picture: The tension over AI in the entertainment industry recently hasn’t been so much about whether the tech should be used, but who has control over its use. After helping clients capture and register their greatest asset — themselves — CAA is now opening the door for them to turn their digital doubles into a new revenue stream.
Behind The Vault: Deepfakes are here to stay, and CAA is looking to capitalize on them.
ECHO allows brands to shop for celebrities to appear in their ads… with the talent AI-generated, of course.
Talent will have full say over which brands they want to license their likeness to and which campaigns they can appear in. There will also be compliance checks after the ads are completed.
The deepfakes can be inserted into footage during post-production, allowing commercials to be shot a lot more quickly. (Worth noting: the actual production process of these ads will be incredibly boring, with no talent actually being filmed.)
All ECHO-powered ads will feature a visible watermark that reads, “[Talent Name] Approved | Recreated with AI.”
Final Render: ECHO’s big pitch is how much money it’ll save brands (CAA and Ogilvy estimate as much as 75%) and how much money it can generate for talent (celebrities can be in an infinite number of places simultaneously). But the jury’s still out on the cultural challenges ECHO will face—namely, which celebrities will agree to have their avatars used and whether audiences will respond positively to AI-generated spokespeople.
Granted, maybe the goal is for the deepfakes to be so convincing that nobody can tell the difference between a real actress and an AI-generated one talking up the latest GLP-1.
Coming Soon: Soon, a celebrity showing up in person may be reserved for only the most creative ads… or simply for brands they have a personal stake in.
Today’s email was written by David Vendrell.
Edited by Nick Comney. Polled and Copy-edited by Kait Cunniff.
Published by Darline Salazar.