Pet food brand Pedigree is embracing AI in order to create picture perfect ads of shelter dogs in need of a home in its new ‘adoptable’ campaign.
Taking the amateur dog headshots captured by shelter workers to the next level, the Adoptable technology gives every pup a professional-grade photography ‘glow-up’, helping them get seen by potential pet parents.
Using just a few original pictures, the AI tech can reposition the dogs into different poses and create assets that can be used in any Pedigree advert, while still keeping the authentic characteristics, look and personality of each shelter dog.
It also allows the displays to change which shelter dogs are being advertised based on the viewers location, and to switch out in real-time when a dog is adopted.
A digital dog double provides information about the pose and general characteristics, before a machine-learning tool refines all the features to make the final image look just like the specific dog that is available for adoption.
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Global marketing manager Mehgan Recker explained that the Adoptable tech allows any ad made by Pedigree to live its purpose, whether they are adoption ads or not.
“If we help shelter dogs be seen, we can help them be adopted. Now every dollar we spend on media doesn’t just take our products to the world, it takes adoptable shelter dogs too,” she said.
Nexus Studios’ technical director Vegard Myklebust said: “This is an amazing opportunity to use bleeding edge technology for good.”
“There’s simply no other way that this could have been done at the global scale with such important hyperlocal impact, than by harnessing the latest machine learning technology and our digital image making expertise.”
Global brand VP Fabio Alings added: “Adoptable is a transformational step for us at Pedigree. We’re committed to helping end dog homelessness around the world.”
“Now that commitment can be at the heart of everything we do – in every ad.”
