Multi-platform production company Spirit Studios is set to become one of the first partners to utilise Channel 4’s Generative AI Solution for TV advertising, in a move designed to unlock the power of TV for new and emerging brands.
A campaign – promoting Spirit Studios’ social-first health and wellbeing brand The Good, The Bad and The Healthy – will air on C4 from today, as part of the broadcaster’s test phase of its GenAI solution. Countryside Homes, part of the Vistry Group, will follow with a campaign in August, with further brands expected later in the year.
Channel 4’s Generative AI Solution, fully launching later this year, aims to break down traditional barriers to TV advertising such as high production costs, creative complexity, and the need for in-house creative expertise – making TV campaigns more accessible to ‘new-to-TV’ brands, from SMEs to larger businesses.
The service offers a streamlined process supported by Channel 4’s sales teams, ensuring creative is compliant with Clearcast guidelines and Channel 4’s ethical and creative standards. Going forward, the solution will also function as a lead generation and sales enablement tool, allowing brands to quickly visualise their campaigns.
Channel 4 is evaluating a two-track approach: Streamr.ai, a rapid prototyping tool that creates AI-driven TV-ready ads from brands’ existing web and social assets, and Telana, a hybrid model combining AI tech with oversight from C4 in-house teams.
Rak Patel, chief commercial officer at Channel 4, said: “Our Gen AI solution will power Channel 4 Sales’ ambition to offer the best sales and service experience in market. By augmenting and expanding our creative production services to include making ads with GenAI, we’re empowering underrepresented advertisers to realise the transformative potential of TV advertising. Our Gen AI advertiser solution will empower, not replace, the current ecosystem to support brands and people.”
Matt Campion, creative director at Spirit Studios, added: “Collaborating on the advert for The Good, The Bad and The Healthy has been an incredibly exciting experience. The world of content is changing rapidly, and to be at the forefront of this kind of production – blending AI-generated visuals with our own creative direction to tell bold, engaging stories – might feel new now, but will soon become the norm.”
