It’s the real-time thing: how Omniverse could revolutionise advertising
Since WPP and NVIDIA Omniverse joined forces to build an AI-enabled content engine for creating digital ads, there's been much commentary on the impact of real-time 3D design. Kicking off shots focus on The Future, Steve Barnes of Collective explores how this new tech is empowering agencies and clients by turbo-charging collaboration.
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NIVIDIA’s Omniverse is a hot topic right now, but to many, it’s simply an abstract concept; a collection of buzzwords that belong in Silicon Valley. But the truth is, it offers solutions and help in more ways than even early adopters anticipated.
Spiralling production costs, overly complicated workflows, ever-changing (by which I mean shrinking) budgets, and the slow desedimentation of any joy of being a creative used to hold, means that we must look at other ways of not only creating and delivering content but also in how we fundamentally work, with our brand partners and for ourselves. And Omniverse, as part of a real-time 3D offering, can be just that.
There are three main pillars which turn this technology from pie in the sky to a complete game-changer: Its based on a universal language (USD) - that allows true interoperability and collaboration from anywhere; it’s a development platform - which means you can build custom tools, extensions, micros services that can automate the grind from production pipelines and, thirdly, it's real-time components make production faster and therefore cheaper.
It’s difficult to get your head around how revolutionary having one universal asset is until you have it or see it. Or better still, introduce the concept to clients or a creatives and see that lightbulb flick on and their faces illuminate as they suddenly get it.
It’s as if the internet we’ve always known has been in black and white 2D and we’ve suddenly entered the multicoloured 3D equivalent.
For a simple analogy, it's like everyone being able to plug their phone or laptop into the same socket using the same lead; they can play any game from any system on any console; you can suddenly speak any language fluently to anyone at any time of day. Whatever programmes, software, hardware or systems you use, they all plug into Omniverse’s platform and work seamlessly, breaking down the silos and walled gardens that existed before. That’s USD, and we’ll all be using it in no time and wondering what the fuck we were doing before.
It’s as if the internet we’ve always known has been in black and white 2D and we’ve suddenly entered the multicoloured 3D equivalent. So, you’ve got your key to the secret room - now what?
In your new technologically agnostic world, you can work in real-time with your clients. The feeling is almost intoxicatingly empowering. Whereas existing workflows mean meeting after meeting to determine when someone will run away and mock-up something that costs you a small fortune and isn’t in any shape or form what you asked for, you can now work together…at the same time…and see the results right in front of you.
Saatchi & Saatchi collaborated with Collective and Digitas to launch the EE Game Store campaign, much of which was built using Unreal Engine.
Here’s how Björn Conradi, Creative Director, Digitas, with whom we worked on the EE Game Store campaign, felt about the process of using Unreal Engine: "At one point we joined a live session to review a version of the floating island. It looked absolutely fantastic, but the colour palette was too close to some of the other executions and had to change drastically. This is obviously a ton of work when you have just built an entire world. I tried my best to deliver the feedback as delicately as possible. Still, before I could finish my sentence, they changed some parameters on the time of day and position of the sun, and it was done immediately. Working in Unreal is not so much 3D design as it is being a God in a world of your own making."
Every lightbulb moment can be tested - the great ideas you always regretted letting float away can stick.
Just think how that makes the client feel. There's an immediate level of trust which comes from recognising that the creative completely understands your vision. You can both see what it looks like and critique it there and then. Need to make changes? Done – right there and then wherever you are in the world. No waiting; no paying extra for the time it takes to go away and do the work (which may not be suitable anyway); no pressure to make a snap decision.
Every lightbulb moment can be tested - the great ideas you always regretted letting float away can stick. Your clients want to work with you because they know that after the call there is something tangible to come from it. Sharing ideas… testing leftfield thoughts.
This opportunity to super-charge your relationship with your client isn’t simply based on the fact you can have fun changing the colour of a 3D model of your product in a click of a mouse - it’s the fact that this is far more than an impressive graphic - it’s a literal digital twin.
‘Digital twin’ doesn’t simply mean it’s a really good representation of the real thing, it means it behaves in exactly the same way. The viscosity of a liquid; how bubbles move through it; how the light refracts through both the container and the liquid. Once you’ve created the product into your library, Omniverse allows you to return to it indefinitely, using the platform to adapt it in ways that are useful to you - a language change on the packaging for a different market; a graphic change for the Christmas market; testing ideas as they come to you completely risk-free.
The opportunity is for letting the tech take the strain and allowing your talent to work closer than ever with your partners. Risk? What risk?
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