Can AI create the perfect out-of-home? Part 2.

So, If you loved the Spewnado, and the fact it so perfectly met the criteria that makes it perfect out-of-home: audience, context, message, execution, and relevance, the question has to be, can AI create it better?

So, I’m going to ask, with a framework, labelled Mega prompt.

I’m mega excited. (I’ll leave the variables in brackets).

Megaprompt:
You are now my expert <copywriter/advertising creative>
Your job is to create <an out of home advertisement> that increases brand visibility, engagement, and ROI.
Do the following:
1. Appeal to a <student audience in the suburbs of Newtown and Marrickville in Sydney>
2. Generate <out of home concepts for Ajax multi-purpose spray and wipe>
3. Create <a top concept with a headline, a call to action, and an engaging visual that highlights the core purpose of the product>

ChatGPT (2 seconds)

Top Concept.
Headline:
“Shared house? Shared mess.”
Visual:
A chaotic kitchen counter stacked with instant noodle cups, a dirty bong, and an old takeaway box. In the middle, a sparkling clean section shaped like a spray burst—wiped clean with Ajax.
Call to Action:
Spray. Wipe. Pretend it was never there.
Ajax. For the housemates who “forgot.”

Manus ( 2 minutes)

Top Concept:
The Party Aftermath Headline: Survived the Party? Now Survive the Mess. Call to Action: Grab Ajax. Spray. Wipe. Repeat. Engaging Visual: An overhead shot of a typical student living room after a party. There are spilled drinks (e.g., a bright red stain on a white table), scattered snack crumbs, and general disarray. In the foreground, a hand (implied to be a student's) is holding an Ajax Spray and Wipe bottle, with a clean, sparkling patch appearing where the spray has just been applied, contrasting sharply with the surrounding mess. The overall tone is lighthearted and relatable, acknowledging the student lifestyle while offering a simple solution.

Deepseek (2 seconds)

Top Concept: "Dorm Life Just Got Less Gross"
Headline: "Dorm Life Just Got Less Gross"
Visual: A split-screen image—left side shows a messy student kitchen with stains and spills, the right side shows the same space sparkling clean with Ajax Spray & Wipe in the foreground.
Call to Action (CTA): "Spray. Wipe. Done. hashtag#StudentCleanHacks"
Why it works:
Relatable to students dealing with shared, messy spaces.
Highlights ease of use—quick cleaning between study sessions.

Perplexity

Top Concept: “Study Mess? No Stress!”
Headline: “Study Mess? No Stress!”
Call to Action: “Grab Ajax & Get Back to Your Books”
Visual: Split image showing a cluttered student desk covered in coffee stains, food crumbs, and sticky notes on one side, and the same desk sparkling clean on the other side. Ajax bottle prominently displayed in the center with a spray action effect.

What does this prove?

GPTs can produce work.
They cannot produce Spewnado.

The brief is everything.

How to create the perfect out-of-home. Part 1.

Vomit.
About 4 metres of it.
On a billboard.

Fortunately, I’ve saved you the displeasure of having to look at it.
However, the pleasure was all mine when seeing this piece of outdoor when crossing across the railway bridge between Newtown and Marrickville. I thought it was so good that it stopped me in my tracks.

It took the crucial elements that go to make advertising great and smashed each one out of the park.

Why? Let’s break down the reasons one by one.

But first let’s imagine the brief.

FMCG. Tight budget. Familiar problem. Oversaturated category.
And in the back of everyone’s minds: Let’s just reuse what worked before.

But someone, somewhere, accepted the challenge and pushed.
They saw the audience, the setting, the moment, and delivered. With gusto.

So, here’s why it works:

Audience: They understood the audience. Students. Partying. Mess.

Context: It was perfect. High amount of foot traffic. Time to dwell. Time to have a selfie next to a large amount of sick. Or next to the big bottle. Or even just the headline.

Message: Spewnado. Not big night. Spewnado. An elegantly conjoined word that will appeal to the target audience. Spewtown could’ve got a run, but no, Spewnado it is.And pay off not, cleans up mess, simply: Relax. The fewer words, the better.

Execution: Like the murals on every wall in the area, this was painted onto the bridge. It feels like it should be there. It stood out more by fitting in.

Relevance: It’s the perfect product demonstration. It’s not the confected cooking stains. Or 10 years of grime. It’s Friday night. Saturday morning. It’s Newtown down to the ground.

Spewnado may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but broken down, it ticks all the boxes for creativity, memorability, shareability, and so I would hazard a guess, effectiveness.

Could AI have created it? Well, we’ll find out in Part 2.

What if advertising has a renascence? And not a slow death.

For as long as we’ve been going as an agency.
Or as long as I’ve worked in it, advertising has been dying.
Digital was killing TV.
Video was killing radio.
Online was killing print. (Okay, that one could be true).
Now AI is killing creativity. And advertising.
Headlines such as this, 'There’s Never Been A Worse Time To Be In Advertising', and the accompanying article hardly paint a rosy picture.
But they talk about Tech. And precision.
Not about persuasion.
Yet, as a little ray of light, we have Director Darren Aronofsky.
Using filmmaking tools to tell compelling, character-driven stories.
And embarking on a collaboration with Google DeepMind to produce three films that
push the boundaries of AI and filmmaking.
And as Darren believes, generative tools can be “shaped by artists to expand creativity
rather than replace it.”
So, if we can work with the machine. And not against it.
The future looks bright.

(That would make a good endline).

Do AI models really reason?

Sounds a reasonable enough question.
So, Apple did some research.
They tested all the major reasoning models: Claude, DeepSeek-R, o3-mini and found
something that perhaps they didn’t want to find:
They don’t reason.
They memorise.
Until things get hard.
Then?
They give up.
Apple ran a series of complex logic puzzles past the models. Puzzles AI had never seen
before. And watched their performance literally fall
off
a
cliff.
Even when given more time, or even better prompts, the models hit a complexity wall
and collapsed.
So, what does that mean?
Here’s how AI ranks with problem solving:
Low complexity: Your average AI model does fine.
Medium complexity: Reasoning models show a small edge.
High complexity: Everything fails.
Why?
Because the systems aren’t truly logical.
They’re pattern recognisers. Predictive guessers.
They’re brilliant at mimicking intelligence.
That is, until the task requires actual thinking.
What we have are clever mimics that can perform low function tasks – which is not a
bad thing (and we’ll get to that in the next post).
So, scaling will just result in faster mimics, not thinking.
So, the complexity of creativity is their downfall for now.
And until that leap is made.
There are still plenty of creative leaps to be made in this industry.

Are ad agencies Frontier businesses? Or part of a legacy industry?

In the classic Barclays Ad, with Sir Anthony Hopkins, everyone wanted to be big.

Now?
Everyone wants to be on the frontier.

Because that’s where the action is.

Frontier businesses are the ones using AI at the edge.
To innovate, accelerate, and outthink the competition.
So, where does that leave ad agencies?
Let’s use the classic value triangle to find out:

Fast. Good. Cheap.

You can only pick two.
At least, that’s how the line used to go.
But here’s how AI messes with the formula:

Fast?
This post could’ve been written in under 30 seconds.
Or 20 different ways, with 20 different tones, or hooks to lead you in, or using proven
responsive writing formats.
Would you know the difference?
Would you care?

Good?
Who decides what’s “good” now?
A Creative Director? A marketing team? The algorithm?
Social Soup’s 2024 research found that 79% of social media users say AI has
changed how they create content.
Good is increasingly subjective. And increasingly automated.

Cheap?
This is AI’s big promise.
Unlimited outputs.
Minimal cost.
Near-instant turnaround.

So, if AI can do fast and good, for cheap.
What’s left for agencies?

Here’s what’s left:
Agencies need to become frontier operators themselves.
Not just users of AI — but shapers of it.
That means:
- Deeper research
- Smarter strategy
- Pre-tested ideas
- Smoother production
- Custom-built AI agents to support creative teams

The future agency won’t be bigger.
It’ll be leaner, faster, and infinitely more productive.
For agencies that stay relevant on the frontier.

An industry is being built on prompts. Isn’t that just a good brief?

A piece of work is only as good as the brief.

A truism nearly as beloved as:
"You can’t polish a turd… but you can roll it in glitter."

And if any industry knows how to write a great brief, it's advertising.

So why aren’t agencies leading the charge on prompt engineering?

Here’s what passes for a great AI prompt today:
“I run email marketing for a [type] of brand that sells [product], and I want to plan 5 evergreen, non-promotional campaign ideas that build brand affinity and engage our audience long-term. Our tone of voice is [e.g., friendly, educational, and slightly cheeky], and our customers are [describe audience]. Think outside the box—give me ideas that educate, entertain, or inspire our audience, with example subject lines, email content themes, and suggestions for UGC or community involvement."

Sounds a lot like… a creative brief.

Compare it to the bones of a solid one:

- Title and description
- Defined problem/opportunity
- Commercial + behavioural + attitudinal objectives
- Target audience
- Budget
- Key messages and proof points
- Tone of voice
- Deliverables
- Success criteria
- Timeline and media
- A “starter for 10”

The reframed argument:
AI delivers unlimited versions and endless creativity.
But the quality still comes down to the input.

So, if you know how to brief, you know how to prompt.

For an industry with a legacy of shaping ideas through structure, maybe it’s time we reclaimed the frontier.

Prompting is the new creative brief. And shouldn’t AdLand own that?

Is advertising still for humans?

Is advertising still for humans?
Or are we already marketing to machines?

Need a white t-shirt?

Punch it into ChatGPT and up come your selections in seconds. All ranked with sound reasoning. Click, buy, done.

Three clicks. Twenty seconds. No ads.

Compare that to Google, where you're still climbing past sponsored results.
It’s no wonder they’re seeing the slowest search growth in their history (even if it’s still 5+ trillion searches a year).

But here’s the crux:

While Google charges you to be at the top, LLMs, like ChatGPT, use a different
playbook. When asked the same product question, ChatGPT doesn’t show ads.
It references sources it trusts.

That trust isn’t bought; it’s earned.
Through:
- Editorial coverage
- Awards
- Reviews
- Thought leadership
- Long-form content
- Recognisable media

In short, AI isn’t seeing your paid campaigns. Unless, that is, someone’s written about them. It doesn’t care about impressions or CTRs. It’s learning from reputation, authority, and depth. The same things we used to rely on as consumers.

So where does that leave us?

It seems we now have two audiences:
One human
One machine

Advertising still works for the first.
For now.
But the second?
It reads.
It learns.
It curates.
Maybe the future of marketing isn’t just about buying attention.
But earning it back from the machines.

13 reflections on 13 years

And suddenly, it’s been 156 months and a few days.

So, here are 13 observations on having an Ad business for 13 years.

1. It’s not going to be like it was

I wish it were. But what we used to do and what we do now is changing faster than ever before. AI could be the reason why there’ll be no more Madmen. But, maybe like Series Seven, it’s time for a change.

2. It’s a people business

It’s who you work with that makes it. From those in the agency, to the clients you work collaboratively with, to the people behind cameras. The good ones make the hard parts easier. And the work better.

3. It’s not just ads

Starting out doing print and TV. Now it’s video and social. In 13 years, some mediums have been lost and new ones invented. But the job hasn’t changed: move someone.

4. Stay optimistic

Signing a new lease a week before COVID shut everything down wasn’t ideal. But agency people always find a way through.

5. “Marketing is dead”

Is a headline I’m reading all too often. Copywriting is dead. Film is dead. It can all be in done in 3 seconds for free. Trust me, it can’t. I’ve been on the AI train from day one. It’s getting better. But slowly.

6. Creativity isn’t dead

It’s just been quiet. Judging a lot of award shows and looking at what’s out there, the art of persuasion had been lost. Fortunately, it seems to be coming back. And that’s a good thing.

7. The data backs it

“The Effectiveness Code” by James Hurman and Peter Field proves it. The best creative work delivers the best business results.

8. Real creativity is still human generated

I wrote this a while ago. I don’t know why I love this ad so much, but it stopped me in my tracks. And I tried hard to recreate with AI. Not even close.

9. We live in an attention economy

Where getting noticed and remembered is all. It used to be grabbed by a headline in 3 seconds, now it’s scroll-stopping creativity.

10. Where we’re more connected, yet it’s harder to connect

More platforms than ever. More content. More notifications. Yet, connecting now seems harder than before. Is it fragmentation? Irrelevance? Just too much information?

11. We now absorb a lot of information

Today, the average person spends over 6.5 hours online daily, with about 2.5 hours dedicated to social media alone. To put that in perspective, estimates suggest that in a single day, people now process more information than someone in the 15th century might have in their entire lifetime.

12. Celebrate the wins

No matter how little. Or infrequent. Take a moment to celebrate with those you worked with. Work that made a difference. Work that connected.

13. Finally, be courteous

Goodwill goes a long way. Show up. Help out. Go the extra mile. People remember that. And will return the favour.

Finally, thank you for taking a minute (or three). Thank you to those that continue to support us, every day. And to those who’ve been on the journey for the last 4,751 days.

Filling an empty proposition with promise

Many years ago, I judged the Midas Awards, part of the New York Festival. In case you hadn’t heard of them, this award show celebrates the best in Global Financial Services Advertising. I was struck that sometimes you can have the blandest positioning line, but the most outstanding work; it clearly was the case of the emptier the vessel, the easier it is to fill.

Truth be told, financial services is a category often with limited differentiation. The products are largely similar, the rates charged within a few points of each other, and the service offering is much the same with some aspect of technology allowing one institution being able to move slightly ahead of another.

So, when judging how did all these brands position themselves? Overall, the stalls are pretty much set. The large banks offer you control and help; the smaller financial institutions are normally on your side. Or keeping everyone honest. However, there was one real exception to the rule: TD Bank.

TD Bank is quite different. It’s the America’s tenth largest bank and has the line: America’s most convenient bank. Not an amazing promise, not very personal. In fact, it’s just simple and functional.

The difference was when they came to producing work, they brought to life many of the more personal facets of their offering under the umbrella of ‘Bank Human Again’ and from there the campaign(s) we judged were under #MakeTodayMatter. You can see what they did here.

So how does this ladder back to America’s most convenient bank? Everything they did was community based detailing their commitment to the local area and its people. They discovered what people wanted locally and gave them the funds (30k) to fulfill that community-based ambition, but they only had 24 hours to make it happen. Going back to their original positioning it may seem tricky to line up all the threads of the positioning, campaign line and execution in words. The best way is just to look at the videos, the beautiful emotions that detail the help for the disenfranchised, those with mobility issues, kids in foster care and so many more.

The pictures tell the strategy story better than any set of words, leaving you with outtake: we support your dreams as a local. Some years have passed since, judging those awards and fortunately, TD Bank have stuck to their guns. They’ve continued their strategy of being committed to the local community, and are driving real results.

– Dylan Taylor

Ten reflections on having a business for Ten years

Ten years ago, in June 2012, we opened the business. We had no backing, no overseas brand name to fall on and one client. Julia Gillard had just been ousted as PM by Kevin Rudd. A small earthquake had just hit regional Victoria, and the Wiggles were passing on their skivvies to the next generation. Here are ten observations that hold true through the ages of having your own business.

You work with some amazing people

Fortunately, we have had some incredibly loyal and supportive people work for us and work with us as clients. Life may not always be easy as the stress of ever-crunched timelines and budgets come up against the scope of more bang for your buck. So, to those who’ve gone the extra mile and clients who have supported us in trying times, thank you.

You work with some people you really don’t want to

On the other side of the ledger are some people we’ve worked with, who we’ll euphemistically call ‘energy takers’. Some we’ve hired who literally haven’t shown up, some who have just not delivered, some who have demanded just truly unreasonable output with crazy time frames. But I thank each and every one of them for getting us closer to a better place and showing us what we won’t put up with.

You’ve got to love what you do

If you’re turning up because you have to, do something else. You need to have passion behind what you do. Desire to deliver something better on-time, on-budget. The ability for the client to see you are deeply interested in helping them out and building their brand. It doesn’t matter who you work for, if there’s not a glint in the eye and steely determination behind what you do, it’s time to move on.

You’ve got to understand what you can’t do

Everybody has limitations. Understand what makes you and the agency tick and aim to specialise in that. Quotes like this from Richard Branson are disingenuous at best ‘If somebody offers you an amazing opportunity but you are not sure you can do it, say yes – then learn how to do it later’. I wonder how many pilots at his Airline have turned up to ‘have a go’? Unfortunately, it’s just lazy thinking that undermines those with skill. So really understand what you do so that you can do it well and position yourself as an expert.

You’ve got to stay relevant

Things change. Language changes. Media consumption changes. Habits change. You have to stay across what is happening and why.

Yet you’ve got to retain your core skill.

The village of Montrachet in France produces the world’s most expensive chardonnays. In essence, due to regulation and tradition very little has changed in the production of the wine, yet the price has rocketed upward. If an advertising agency were running these vineyards, they would undoubtedly be in a complete mess with the desire to jump on new fads or trends. Ultimately, the core skill of an agency is to inform and persuade someone to pick a product or service. It is something agencies should never lose sight of and often do.

Understand the businesses you are working on

In a previous agency, I used to have a client that was a large Private Health Insurer. Whilst this was many years ago, I was convinced she thought I had no clue about the products I was selling or the differences between each. One night, as fate would have it, we ended up not only catching the same bus together but sitting next to each other. Rather than avoid the subject of products, I steered the conversation into the latest brief and the intricacies of the offering. After that, I was never questioned again, and we got on famously. It was a lesson I never forgot, so know what you’re marketing or be caught out.

Seek external stimulus

The notion of ‘curiosity’ or ‘relentless curiosity was a big thing for agencies around 8 to ten years ago. However, there’s a serious issue with it in Adland: the sad fact is that most in marketing and advertising are not curious. In fact, according to a BBH study, those in our profession are more likely to have more of the sameness of insular thinking than a lot of other professions. So, travel, read things outside your comfort zone, embrace different cultures because a flow of ideas will not come from an empty well.

Say no more often

During COVID (sorry to bring it up), we went through all those expenses we thought were necessary at the time and cancelled around 60 per cent of subscriptions and all sorts of other stuff. It’s not about running lean; it’s about being focused on what helps you.

Say thank you as often as you can

I said this in year six, and it rings true more than ever: every project, job, campaign, or piece of work that comes in the door is a vote of confidence that you’re the right team for the job. So more than ever, it’s important to be thankful. Give everything, go that extra mile, and assist clients whose budgets are tight, or who just need something done to help out. Build up goodwill – because you never know when you may need it.

If you got this far, thank you for spending the time. And to those that continue to support us, the amazing people we work with, gratitude is not a powerful enough word, but I’m afraid it’s the best we have.

– Dylan Taylor