The debate around artificial intelligence replacing humans has been reignited in recent months, and it’s one that gin brand Bombay Sapphire will further stoke as it employs a robot to re-create inspirational images from humans as part of a dedicated gallery installation.
“It’s far outweighed our expectations, which shows a real curiosity and a wish to see a bit behind the curtain,” said Bombay Sapphire’s global vp of marketing, Natasha Curtin, as she discussed the Bacardi-owned brand’s creative initiative that began in London and is headed to New York.
Curtin spoke with Adweek after hosting the installation within the Design Museum in London over four days in April. She explained that through #sawthismadethis, around 3,500 people shared an image that inspired them creatively. Ai-Da—an AI-powered robot with a Mia Wallace haircut—then painted interpretations of the hashtagged images live at the event. Over the course of the weekend, more than 7,000 people visited the installation, making it one of the museum’s best-attended initiatives in recent years.
The event is part of the “Saw This Made This” brand platform, which has been led by celebrated filmmaker Baz Luhrmann, as he and Bombay Sapphire work together with the aim of inspiring people creatively. The installation is set to come to the Chelsea Factory in New York from May 10-13.
The aim of the installation series and campaign, created alongside agency AMV BBDO, is to explore “how AI can enrich and enable human creativity as scale,” Curtin explained. The initiative is believed to be the world’s largest mass participation AI art event to date.
“We’ve been surprised about the dwell time around how long people have actually gone and really looked at the work and actually wanted to go and see Ai-Da, and then the conversations that it sparked around people feeling more creative or wanting to go and create or discover more things. So it’s had a real impact on levels of interest,” said Curtin.
To tie in, Bombay Sapphire has introduced a limited-edition Ai-Da-designed bottle, which will only be sold at the installations, while cocktails made with the gin will be served to guests too. All proceeds from the sale of the special Ai-Da bottles will be donated by the brand to support emerging artists.
“We’re a champion and a real cheerleader around this global mission that we’re on to sort of unleash creativity amongst people.”
Success for the overall campaign has already been seen through “strong performance and growth” in all of the brand’s key markets, claims Curtin, who adds that how the brand features and grows in bars is the priority. The brand also hopes that consumers’ social media sentiment about the gin will inspire new cocktails and mixes.
And while there are hard metrics around sales, she added, this initiative mainly focuses on “capturing imagination” and “inspiring people to go out and create something that they never thought they would or to look at the world differently.”
The Baz Luhrmann effect
Luhrmann, the director of Elvis, Moulin Rogue and Romeo + Juliet, began working with Bombay Sapphire as its brand ambassador last autumn, introducing the brand platform through his vision to “stir creativity” for the next generation.
He has acted as the creative director of the campaign, working alongside Design Museum chief executive Tim Marlow, who proposed the initial idea of working with the robot to drive conversation.
For the latest element of the campaign, Luhrmann attended the opening of the installation at the Design Museum, interviewing Ai-Da in the process, something he will repeat at the New York launch as well.
Curtin discussed the working partnership with Luhrmann, stating, “we were really blown away by his commitment” when the conversation began on the shared belief that “creativity can be found anywhere.”
His drive within the partnership is to “find and understand people being creative in ways they didn’t think they could be,” she explained. “He’s been an enthusiastic partner and creative director, and he’s been talking about it on his social channels and he’s been looking at the submissions and choosing the ones that he’s been having reactions to.”
The AI objective
With Bombay Sapphire focused on promoting human creativity, it may seem counterintuitive to some that a robot would then be introduced into the mix. Curtin believes that as a “creative experiment,” the campaign will generate debate over whether AI can be used to “harness creativity” to create “something unique.”
“She’s there to celebrate versus compete,” Curtin continued.
“We’re using this as a creative experiment to celebrate human creativity and see what happens from it.”
From a marketer’s perspective, Curtin believes that AI will go through many different iterations. Bombay Sapphire has already considered how it can be used “positively and for creative experimentation.”
She continued: “It’s something exciting and interesting, and we’ve used it as our paintbrush. We’ve used it as a tool to express all the creativity that we’ve seen.”
