FutureWeek speaks with Barry John, Head of Sales Operations at Channel 4, about the broadcaster’s new AI-powered ad service. Designed with partners Streamr.ai and Telana, and supported by Clearcast, the initiative aims to simplify ad creation and give SMEs affordable access to TV advertising.
In July, Channel 4 announced it would be launching an initiative that lets businesses – primarily SMEs – produce AI-generated ads to feature on the broadcaster’s streaming platform.
The new service would use AI, with help from partners Streamr.ai and Telana, to create AI-powered ads from already available information online – such as a brand’s website and social media pages.
Brands can also gain access to Channel 4’s internal creative teams, while getting support from Clearcast to ensure ad regulatory adherence.
The move is a part of a bid to let the large cohort of UK brands who don’t advertise on TV – because of a lack of funds or technical know-how – have the opportunity to – democratising the advertising realm.
FutureWeek caught up with Barry John, Head of Sales Operations at Channel 4, to find out more about the latest venture.
What was the main driver behind the launch of the initiative?
We believe television is still the best advertising platform there is, so if we can help advertisers remove some of the complexity around having access to this, that’s a positive and what this initiative is about.
It’s about allowing access to advertising that was previously more challenging to enter. There’s clearly some barriers to entry when looking at TV advertising as a whole, and this isn’t insignificant for new entrants to the market, especially around cost and knowing how to create an ad that ends up on television.
The driver here is around simplifying the ad creating process and the buying process, and allowing that to be accessible for customers who typically wouldn’t have thought they could advertise with us because of the cost involved and some of the complexity.
The advancements that have happened over the last two years has meant this is feasible now. It’s not about creating AI slop or junk, it’s about allowing access to quality advertising environments with ads that look good enough to represent a brand’s ambitions, and don’t go against the general advertising that costs significant money.
Who is this service for?
It’s primarily for small-to-medium sized businesses, but the service also extends to medium and large businesses who might want to have different or dynamic versions of their ads.
What impact could tapping into this customer-base have on the advertising landscape?
It removes the technical media knowledge you would need historically. Creating faster and cheaper ways of creating ads is a core component of removing barriers to entry. At Cannes Lions, we announced an initiative we’re working on alongside Sky, ITV, and Comcast to create a platform that is suitable for buying across all of our inventory, allowing brands to buy advertising space across TV. This in combination with removing barriers around the creative process, means it democratises means of buying television from us.
We have built in a lot of compliance rules in our tools with Streamr.ai and Telana to allow for a smooth submission process and clearance. This includes working with our partner Clearcast, who are responsible for the clearance of advertising in the UK, removing another challenge for businesses who may not be familiar with that process or these rules.
Our ambition is to go after money that would have typically been spent on social media, because it’s easy to execute and buy on those platforms.
What can brands expect if they want this service?
We’ll have a few packages in the future. There will be a full-service where we will create the ad, submit it, clear it, set it, and run it as a full set of packaging. But there is a different set of options where the advertiser can have conversations directly with us, and this is more of a guided experience.
What role does Streamr.ai and Telana play?
Streamr.ai is a solution where brands can pull together an advert from the basis of providing some high-level information – from their website and social platforms – into an automation tool. The tool helps brands create a set of creatives using AI. This lets us present some options to advertisers for ads that can run on our platform. They can then decide if they want to make any changes to the ads.
There’s an element of lead generation with this, because we can proactively go to brands having created an ad on their behalf and show them what an ad that could appear on our channel looks like – so our sales team can drum-up business through that route.
With Telana, it’s a little more hands-on – so slightly more costly and time consuming, but not significantly. This approach is less automated than the process with Streamr.ai. It’s more of a collaboration with the brand to find out the types of things they’re looking for, their brand values, and such. Then we will develop some storyboards off the back of this, which will go through the process of having a production partner join those entities together to create the 30-second spot for us.
Is there any sector that might benefit the most?
Initially, it will be digitally-focused brands who are not traditional TV advertisers and they have some measurement methodologies they expect and have acquired from their digital marketing background that TV is different at measuring.
With Project Lantern – an initiative with Sky and ITV – we’ll be able to provide pure play digital marketers with the types of metrics they expect. This includes not just delivery measurements but outcomes-based measurements too, which is a trend that has grown over the past three-to-five years.
It’s about creating tools for marketers who are used to serving themselves, measuring themselves, and paying on a credit card.
How did you work with Clearcast to ensure ad compliance?
We’ve been working with Clearcast to ensure that when creative arrives to them, it’s got the most likelihood of approval. We’re taking rules set out for broadcaster advertising and feeding them into the AI models, to make sure they are making creatives that are correct first-time.
For example, you can’t make unsubstantiated claims around discounts or relevant performance against other products in ads – so when the AI creates ads, there’s never a comparison to other products. There are also rules around providing subtitles and flash testing for people with epilepsy. All of these requirements are baked into the tools.
We had to make sure the AI tools were interpreting these rules correctly so we were meeting regulated requirements.
So, do AI hallucinations pose a potential challenge to ad compliance?
We’re aware of the flaws of AI in its current-stage. This is why it’s incredibly human-led. It’s not about letting the engine run and then the ad appears on TV straight away. We’re aware of the shortcomings of AI.
How do you think audiences will react to AI-generated ad content?
This is front-of-mind. We’re a creative brand and have a whole set of Channel 4 ethics to uphold. We did a proof of concept with our internal team where they created a promo for one of our programmes where it was fully generated with AI, but it was purposefully made to stoke debate around the use of AI. We did this to show how AI content can look if the entire process is automated.
This isn’t about creating a full production or replacing creative processes, it’s about allowing the creative to reflect a brand message that is sensible and works for the advertiser. We’re aiming to reflect a message that can be relayed without the ‘ickiness’ that can sometimes arise from a full GenAI ad – it’s not about creating ‘AI slop’.
How do you see this initiative evolving in years to come?
We will see the combining of targeting technologies with the creative and the dynamic creative optimisation. I think what this tech will enable is the customised creation of ads. The complexities of getting an ad up and out will start to be automated in a way those workflows become simpler. Ads will become more tailored and customisable, becoming a more dynamic way to operate with advertisers.
