Audi uses AI to illustrate emotional response to new car
In a recently launched ad featuring supermodel Coca Rocha, the automaker sought to convey not only the look but also the feel of its new electric Q8 Sportback e-tron.
Coca Rocha dons “an array of biometric sensors” in a recent ad for Audi Canada. / Bensimon Byrne
Can artificial intelligence (AI) be used to visualize human emotions? A recent campaign for Audi Canada sought to demonstrate that it indeed can – and that this, in turn, can give viewers a deeper sense of what it’s like to get behind the wheel of an Audi Q8 Sportback e-tron.
The campaign, dubbed ‘Feel the art of Audi’, featured supermodel Coca Rocha wearing what the brand described as “an array of biometric sensors” as she views and drives a Q8 for the first time.
The brand then fed the biometric data gleaned from her emotional reaction – ”which ranged from awe to exhilaration, and serenity” – to an AI model, which translated them into vibrant visual imagery “to capture the lifelong Audi driver’s genuine responses o the new Q8’s design, performance, and refinements.”
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Each of the visual representations of Rocha’s emotions resembles a multicolored explosion of tiny particles, like sand or beads. The imagery for ‘Awe' used in the ad, for example, looks like a blue and orange wave of tiny spheres crashing onto itself.
The campaign, which launched last month and was spearheaded by Toronto-based agency Bensimon Byrne, arrives at a time when several brands and agencies are seeking to leverage AI – and generative AI in particular – in novel and engaging ways.
“When you drive a vehicle you love, it creates an emotional reaction, and that insight provided us with the inspiration to measure and visualize a devoted Audi driver’s reaction to the Q8,” Joseph Bonnici, chief creative officer of Tadiem, Bensimon Byrne’s parent company, said in a statement.
Under Armour used AI to compose the script for its latest campaign. Check it out here.
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