Artificial intelligence has many uses, but one that people might not expect is in advertising. M&C Saatchi has developed a new ad campaign in which the ads will "evolve" based on reactions of those viewing the ads.

The ad is only found in a single location in London, and is powered by a genetic algorithm that is aimed at testing different ad components, or "genes," and analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of each.

"Already, the design of web sites is being refined automatically using perpetual multivariate testing to make ongoing enhancements over time," said David Cox, M&C Saatchi Chief Innovation Officer, in an interview with FastCocreate. "So we set out to discover whether it is possible to accumulate sufficient data to make such an approach work for an ad, and how best to create an automatic process that could write an ad from scratch."

Components of ads that fail will be removed from circulation in the ads, and components of ads that succeed in engaging the audience will be used for future iterations of the ads. Components to be analyzed include things such as ad copy, layout, images, font, and so on.

The campaign is now under way and includes more than 1,000 images and other creative components that will be served at random to strangers, with each component getting a test outing before the selection process begins.

The campaign itself will run for three to four weeks, after which M&C Saatchi will come up with a single ad that represents the strongest combination of components. For those involved, however, it is not the final ad that is important, but rather the insight gained from the process.

"One interesting aspect of this is the ability to let the system create weird ads no one would otherwise have written, bringing to life ideas that are absurd, and seeing whether by being absurd they are more effective," continued Cox. "The power of using data in this way is that algorithms can expose things from beyond the human realm of preconceived notions and self-editing."

Of course, the process will go beyond simply finding the best components. For example, some components might work better at night rather than during the day, and some might work during the winter rather than the summer. Not only that, but as time goes on the ads will change to suit consumer trends and opinions. A "perfect" ad now might not be as attractive to consumers in a decade.

Check out the video from M&C Saatchi explaining the ad campaign below.

Via: FastCocreate