O2's Bubl Generator Creates Custom Gen-AI Models

VCCP’s AI creative agency, has launched new AI-enabled tools for their founding client, O2 - extending the practical use of Gen-AI in marketing communications beyond concepting into creating.

The Bubl Generator creates custom imagery of O2’s brand character Bubl based on client prompts, so it can be used in channels where cost or time constraints previously limited its use. The second Gen-AI tool, The Copy Checker, focuses on the tonal consistency of the brand’s written marketing communications.

faith has trained a Gen-AI model to create images of Bubl for external use by O2 marketers, in line with brand guidelines and giving multiple options from the clients’ prompts. This means that O2 is able to use Bubl in scenarios which would have previously been prohibited by cost and time considerations, limiting its usage to appearances in more premium media such as AV, print and OOH campaigns.

faith made a bespoke platform and UI for The Bubl Generator enabling simple prompts to create images of Bubl in any imaginable scenario. For example, if an O2 marketer needed a brand image of Bubl with a rugby ball, the model could generate one on request - allowing for quick, reactive work across channels including social, web, apps and internal comms. 

The Bubl Generator is the product of multiple rounds of training for the AI to create high-quality usable images consistently. To enable this faith needed a 3D model of Bubl so that the AI could be trained on poses of the blue robot that had not been seen before. Previously, Bubl had only been seen from the front, which limited its use. To remove these barriers and enable images to be generated of any potential scenario, further design work and modelling was necessary.

The Copy Checker allows O2’s copywriters to simply paste in text to get detailed feedback and suggestions. This model was trained specifically on the brand’s extensive tone-of-voice documentation and evaluates against specific metrics co-developed with the Head of Copy and Tone for Virgin Media O2, Oeil Jumratsilpa to ensure brand-compliant messaging. The tool was built to incorporate all of O2’s guidelines and legal requirements, streamlining a complex process and ensuring quick, efficient and consistent results.

The Bubl Generator and The Copy Checker were created for O2, founding clients of VCCP, and both demonstrate a practical, public-facing application of Gen-AI as part of the wider work faith has been doing on behalf of clients including Virgin Media O2 and Sage.

Previously Gen-AI’s usage in creative communications was limited to concepting and simple suggestive processes within agencies, such as storyboarding. This work represents a step forward in what is possible with Gen-AI for big clients and moves beyond previous industry applications.

Simon Valcarcel, marketing director at Virgin Media O2, said, “The Bubl Generator and The Copy Checker are tangible results of our Gen-AI explorations with faith and how we might deploy the technology in our marketing. The models we’ve developed together create consistent, high-quality distinctive brand assets and copy at speed - allowing us to work in ways which would not previously have been possible. It’s exciting to keep learning by doing, as the GenAI space continues to evolve.”

Morten Legarth and Ben Hopkins, creative directors at faith and VCCP, added, “Gen-AI tools often lack the creative control and brand identity needed for production assets. This limits the practical usage of AI to concepting or simple background tasks - we wanted AI to do more of the heavy lifting and prove its worth in creative applications, this is what this work represents.”

Alex Dalman, managing partner and head of social and innovation at VCCP, said, “Gen-AI doesn’t understand your brand, it doesn’t get your guidelines or your need for consistency - but we do. That’s why we trained this model to understand what’s important for our client O2, helping to build out their brand world and expand on what’s both possible and achievable with the same budgets and same timescales.”

faith was founded last year by VCCP, the UK’s leading creative agency, with faith that AI, used responsibly, will be an unparalleled accelerator of human creativity and imagination. With the belief that AI should only ever be used for good, faith launched with a detailed generative AI policy based around four principles:

• Be Transparent when AI is being used
• Be Authentic, fact-check AI-generated content
• Be Compliant and break no laws
• Be Ethical, only use AI for good