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AI in Digital Marketing: The Future of Advertising in 2025

When was the last time you saw an advert and wondered if it was created by AI? If you’ve been following Adidas lately, you might have caught yourself doing exactly that. Their September 2024 campaign showed us just how far AI in digital marketing has come – and trust us, it’s revolutionising the way we think about advertising.

Ranking among the best AI ad campaigns of 2024, Adidas showed us what’s possible when you combine RunwayML and Midjourney’s capabilities. They created virtual clothing designs that looked incredibly real, generated months worth of social media content in hours, and predicted trends before anything went into production.

The old way of doing things – physical samples, lengthy photoshoots, months of market testing – suddenly felt very outdated.

 

Floral, AI Generated Ad by Adidas

Floral: AI-generated advertisement by Adidas

AI in Advertising: How Adidas Changed the Game

Let’s break down what made Adidas’s AI approach so powerful.

First, they ditched the traditional cycle of photoshoots and sample creation. Instead of shipping samples around the globe and coordinating massive shoots, they generated and tested designs digitally. This transformed their entire creative process.

Then there’s the forecasting piece. By analysing vast amounts of data, their AI tools spotted emerging trends and predicted consumer preferences before their competitors. This meant smarter inventory decisions and less waste, a win for both business and sustainability.

However, there’s one area where AI still falls short: emotional depth. While the visuals might be stunning, AI-generated advertisements can sometimes miss those subtle human touches that make people feel something.

McKinsey’s latest research shows businesses integrating AI are seeing revenue jumps of 3-15%, with a 10-20% boost in sales ROI. The big players are going all in, putting over 20% of their digital budgets into AI tech. Makes sense when you look at what it can do – creating and testing hundreds of ad variations in the time it used to take to produce one.

 

Would you ever think twice about the fact this was made by AI? Does it bother you?

Would you ever think twice about the fact this was made by AI? Does it bother you? 

How do AI ad generators work?

AI ad generators work by training on massive datasets of successful ads and creative content. They analyse everything from image composition and colour schemes to copy length and tone of voice, learning which elements drive engagement.

When you type in a prompt, the AI starts with random digital noise and transforms it step by step into a clear image, checking thousands of times against what it knows about effective advertising. 

Take Midjourney, for instance. Feed it a text prompt like ‘summer fashion campaign, bright colours,’ and it’ll generate dozens of unique visuals by combining patterns it learned from millions of fashion ads. The system understands that summer campaigns often use warmer colours, lighter clothing, and specific lifestyle settings because it’s analysed so many successful campaigns before.

Every image goes through automatic quality checks, making sure they’re sharp enough for marketing (high resolution), the colours match your request, and everything stays appropriate. What used to take creative teams days or weeks now happens in seconds.

 

Does this Ad feel more personal because it features real people?

Does this advertisement feel more personal because it features real people?

But there’s a catch. The best advertising campaigns happen when AI handles the heavy lifting of content creation, while humans curate and refine the output. The AI can create endless variations, but it takes human insight to know which ones will truly connect with your audience.

This sweet spot between AI efficiency and human creativity is exactly where we operate at CRKLR, and we’re always excited to show brands what’s possible. If you’d like to learn more, book a free consultation today.

AI in Digital Marketing: The Human Factor

AI in advertising is reshaping our industry at breakneck speed, but it still falls short in one critical area: the human touch. The essence of truly effective marketing lies in conceptualisation, strategy, and brand messaging:

1. Conceptualisation

AI can spit out a thousand ideas based on what’s worked before. But it can’t understand why that John Lewis Christmas ad made your mum cry, or why that Tesco campaign about cost of living really hit home. Cultural nuance, emotional triggers, reading the room – that’s still very much our job.

2. Strategy

Adverts form part of your bigger story. AI can help tell that story, but it needs someone who actually understands your business goals and what keeps your customers up at night. It can’t sit in strategy meetings and understand why you’re different from the other fifty companies doing the same thing.

3. Brand Voice

Your brand voice represents years of building trust, understanding your audience, and knowing exactly when to push boundaries (and when not to). While artificial intelligence advertising can mirror your style guide, it misses the values and personality behind your brand. It can replicate your words but lacks the authenticity that makes your brand uniquely yours.

Want to make AI in digital marketing work smarter for your brand? Here’s what we recommend:

  1. AI + Human Expertise: Most brands use AI as a production tool. Smart brands use it as a creative partner.
  2. Brand Consistency: Provide clear AI instructions on tone, aesthetics, and messaging to keep content on-brand. Our team can help make your approach sustainable and scalable.
  3. Monitor & Optimise: AI gets smarter the more you use it. We track performance data obsessively, using insights from every campaign to refine your AI’s output. Our PPC team turns these learnings into real revenue gains.

AI ad generators are reshaping how brands create and optimise content. The tools keep getting smarter, and in 2025, knowing how to use them effectively is crucial for staying competitive.

Fancy being the next Adidas success story?

From virtual fashion shoots to predicting trends, you’ve seen what AI can do. But turning possibilities into performance? That’s where we come in. We’re CRKLR, a Brighton and London digital marketing agency obsessed with making AI work brilliantly for your brand.

Book a chat with our experts.