McCann’s AI creative director made a music video for a Japanese pop band before the music was written
McCann’s AI creative director, AI-CD β, created a music video brief for Japanese pop band Magical Punchline based on the optimal elements it needed, before the band set off to create four songs for the video.
McCann was briefed on the task in September, with the concept being to use inspiration from successful musical TV ads to help promote the songs that haven’t yet been written.
The AI looked at music-based TV ads, deemed what would work best for Magical Punchline, and created a concept which was then shot. The band then wrote four songs for the video which have now all be released, all with the same video.
After inputting the musical TV ads, McCann Millennials, the unit behind AI-CD β, said it spat out the following direction: “Create a [stimulating] video that conveys [hunting instinct] through a tone of [ennui] using a [school] motif and [objectification]”.
Based on this direction, the production team and the music video director shot the video without music. To make sure the video would fit the songs, a BMP was decided ahead of production and similar videos with singing were used in reference, so that the band members could act singing movements, avoiding close-ups which would show that there were no words.
AI-CD β was ‘hired’ by McCann in 2016 and has since worked with Mondelez, as well as Japanese pop singers. Not long after AI-CD β starred in a Drum documentary about the relationship between AI and creativity.
