【Press Release】AI System for Generating Ad Creatives Developed to Ensure Alignment with Brand Image

Image of the banner image materials generated by the System

- Enhancing the production efficiency of ad creatives that deliver high advertising effectiveness -

Tokyo, Japan - January 31, 2025 – KDDI Corporation (Headquarters: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; President, Representative Director, CEO: Makoto Takahashi, hereinafter referred to as “KDDI”), Recursive Inc. (Headquarter: Shibuya-ku, Tokyo; CEO: Tiago Ramalho; hereinafter referred to as "Recursive"), and Supership Inc. (Headquarters: Minato-ku, Tokyo; President & CEO: Shingo Inaba, hereinafter referred to as “Supership”) are pleased to announce the development of an AI-powered ad creative generation system (hereinafter referred to as "the System") and the completion of its beta test at KDDI on January 31, 2025.

The System enables to semi-automatically generate ad creatives (banner images) that comply with KDDI’s brand guidelines and the creative expression methods defined in the “au VISUAL IDENTITY” (*1) to convey the essence of the au brand. After the ad creatives are generated, the System can automatically select the ad creatives with high advertising effectiveness, based on past advertising performance. Through the trial implementation of the System’s beta version in KDDI’s digital marketing and advertising operations, we have confirmed that it can reduce the workload of relevant tasks by 50%.

Moving forward, the KDDI Group will broaden the implementation of the System within its own operations. Additionally, by leveraging the technology and insights gained from developing and operating the System, KDDI will consider offering it to corporate clients as part of its efforts to contribute to the efficiency and sophistication of advertising creative production.

Background ● Unlike mass media, which targets a broad audience, online ad creative production requires flexibility and speed, taking into account online viewing behaviors and the unique characteristics of advertising platforms. ● On the other hand, creative production requires not only maintaining visual consistency by adhering to logo guidelines and brand color specifications, but also selecting creative expressions that align with the brand's values. Given the need to make decisions under a variety of constraints, this task is handled by professionals with specialized knowledge who devote considerable time and effort. This created the challenge of making the task dependent on specific individuals. ● While there are services that help make creative production more efficient, advertising performance data (first-party data (*2)) is not fully utilized. As a result, the selection of proposed creative ideas is often based on the experience of designers and planners, creating the challenge of being unable to assess the accuracy of decisions based on data. ● To address these challenges, KDDI partnered with Supership, which has extensive experience in advertising operations, and Recursive, which has rich expertise in AI utilization, to develop a system that generates outstanding advertising creatives from both brand and data perspectives.

Overview of the System ● Users enter conditions such as banner size and brand type, then provide image assets to be used in the banner as prompt input. The System then automatically generates images that comply with the brand guidelines for each brand. ● The System generates multiple high-quality banner images selected by the KPI prediction model and then allows users to choose from them.

Overview of the beta test at KDDI

1. Image generation aligned with brand image ● After entering the image generation prompt, users select one of the four value-added attributes (CLEAN, FRIENDLY, PLAYFUL, ADVANCED) defined in the 'au VISUAL IDENTITY' photo guidelines. The chosen attribute is then automatically reflected in the generated image. ● By reducing the number of decision factors that involve various constraints in creative production, the time required for design was significantly shortened. Because even individuals without expertise in brand management are now able to create ad creatives that align with brand principles, we have confirmed that the System achieves both reduced workload and effective quality control of the final output.

Example of how au VISUAL IDENTITY gets reflected

2. Data-driven evaluation based on past performance ● The System generates banner ads based on past advertising performance data (first-party data) for each media platform. In addition, the System is equipped with a model that predicts the advertising effectiveness (CTR (*3)) of the banner ads it generates, automatically selecting and presenting users with high-quality ad creative options from dozens of choices. ● Because this ensures consistent and accurate decision-making, regardless of the proficiency of the person in charge with the task, we have confirmed that the System succeeded in facilitating data-driven, standardized operations.

Screenshots of six selected ad creative options (System’s Beta version)

3. Workload reduction impact KDDI confirmed the following impact on workload reduction after testing the beta version.

Future outlook Eliminating dependency on specific professionals and inefficiency in brand management tasks, along with standardizing these processes, is a common challenge faced by all companies that run online advertisements.

The KDDI Group is exploring the possibility of offering this System to corporate clients in the future, aiming to provide a service that enhances the efficiency of ad creative production while aligning with each company’s unique brand strategy. By maximizing the use of first-party data with KDDI Group's data utilization technology, we aim to contribute to the efficiency and sophistication of digital marketing and ad creative management operations.

Reference: Role of each company

About Recursive (1) Company name: Recursive Inc. (2) Business: Research and development of AI and provision of sustainability-related solutions (3) Founded: August 2020 (4) Headquarters: Shibuya S-6 Building 6F, 1-7-1 Shibuya, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo (5) Corporate Representative: Tiago Ramalho (Co-Founder and CEO) (6) Website: https://recursiveai.co.jp/en/

About Supership (1) Company name: Supership Inc. (2) Business: Digital transformation business (Marketing Solutions Business, Data Solutions Business) (3) Founded: October 2014 (4) Headquarters: Minato-ku, Tokyo (5) Corporate Representative: Shingo Inaba (Representative Director and President) (6) Website: https://supership.jp/

(*1) The overall guidelines defined for the au brand to maintain consistency in visual expression and foster the brand image under the slogan, "Explore the extraordinary" https://brand.kddi.com/visual-identity/au/

(*2) Data collected by a company on its own, without going through a third party.

(*3) Abbreviation for "Click Through Rate." It refers to the ratio of clicks on an advertisement to the number of times the ad was displayed, serving as a key performance indicator in digital marketing.