Production Line: Where Next for Generative AI with Antoine Clergeot

With over 20 years' experience in communications, Antoine Clergeot has developed his curiosity over the years by working on ever more innovative formats. For the past few months, Antoine has been putting his sense of innovation to even greater use for PRODIGIOUS customers, as head of innovation.

LBB> Production used to be quite siloed, then it moved to integrated and now it seems producers can be media/platform-neutral problem solvers - what’s your take?

Antoine> Indeed, some tools or software that were in the past reserved for traditional formats and others more for social media are now complementing each other or being part of the logic of shared productions. Production processes that were very closed are opening up more and more. 

LBB> Can you talk us through one or two of the most exciting recent productions that you’ve been involved in that you think had a really interesting innovation or technological aspect to them?

Antoine> Yes, first of all, the women's football campaign for Orange, produced by our teams and created by the Marcel agency, has won many awards, including 10 Cannes Lions. It’s an excellent example of using technology to serve a significant societal cause. Additionally, we had famous scientists singing 'Don't Stop Me Now' in a pharmaceutical company’s commercial for the Super Bowl. This was made possible by animation, which is becoming increasingly accessible in post-production.

LBB> Virtual production is growing in popularity with film and TV (e.g. Loki and The Mandolorian) - what’s your thoughts about its potential in the advertising space?

Antoine> XR (extended reality) production now brings together all the factors to do great and beautiful things. LED quality that allows you to film close to screens, graphics cards that allow you to push more and more detailed real-time 3D scenes and above all the possibility now to generate high-resolution sets in AI, for the moment in 2D image, but very soon in 2.5D, in video and in a few months or years in 3D. 

LBB> It looks like, if it does catch on, it will involve quite a different workflow/process - is that something agencies and brands need to educate themselves on?

Antoine> Beyond training, it is essential to support teams in a change of mindset because we can no longer say "we are used to doing things this way", we have to open up to new ways of doing things, test, learn, understand what is becoming possible and what is not and explain to creatives what is changing in terms of constraints so that they can open up to new ideas. 

LBB> With so many platforms to produce for, what’s your preference, to maximise assets across platforms or to produce content that’s more tailored to each content - or some sort of balance? What sort of conversations do you tend to have about this sort of thing?

Antoine> My preference is for a campaign where all the touchpoints are well thought out and where the investment that is made for a TV film can also benefit all the other media without only formatting but with a real concept per touchpoint, this allows for perfect consistency while having quality work on all formats.

LBB> How have you approached integrating data with production workflows and processes? And, generally, how has data and the fact that we have constant live feedback on content performance changed production?

Antoine> Performance analysis is very interesting because it allows you to identify what is not working and correct it, but you have to be careful not to lock yourself into models that always reproduce what has worked because you end up repeating yourself without renewing yourself. You have to find the right balance.

LBB> Quite often production involves trying to solve a problem that’s never been attempted before - and that can mean hacking existing technology or trying to find new technologies. When you get a project that has such technological challenges, how do you and your team like to approach them?

Antoine> This is what motivates me the most personally; it’s a real challenge that you can’t achieve every time – only when the opportunity arises. The most important factor is to rely on the best talents. Trust is one of the core values in our business, especially in these situations. One of my favourite quotes is, 'They didn’t know it was impossible, so they did it.'

LBB> We’re seeing the line between content and commerce blur, with shoppable social content, shoppable livestreams and things like that - is that having an impact on how you approach production, or the sort of skills needed?

Antoine> No, it hasn't changed our processes because we produce very little live shopping. Either advertisers equip themselves to do it internally because on a recurring basis or they go through influencers or platforms dedicated to this format who create their content with a very light device. 

LBB> What are the technologies that you have your eye on that either are having a big impact on how production is done - or have the potential to change things in a big way?

Antoine> We are very attentive to all Generative AI solutions in image, video and 3D because they are more and more efficient. We have started integrating AI-generated images to create backgrounds, though the video quality isn’t quite there yet for content production. However, that will change soon. 3D will likely be the most interesting area, as it allows us to manage angles and perspective—something we currently lack with 2D.