Growth through innovation: Gravity Road's 2023

With ChatGPT capturing the imagination of the industry - but not many agencies truly confident to know how to use it - Gravity Road pushed ahead embracing new technology and harnessing it to make a tangible difference for its clients.

So the ambitions of founders Mark Eaves and Mark Boyd to be the most platform-literate partner for brands was brought to life in 2023 with a raft of innovative collaborations, such as TikTok and Unilever (read below) and the hiring of the TikTok creator Rob Mayhew as a creative.

Creative Salon on Gravity Road's 2023

Gravity Road ended its fifth year as part of David Jones' BrandTech Group having firmly established itself as the leading agency that uses technology to seamlessly disseminate creative ideas that work across virtual, social and physical worlds.

Its work on (and on behalf of) TikTok is perhaps its most high profile, and the hiring of the key TikTok creator Rob Mayhew as a creative shows how Gravity Road leads the industry in this particular sphere. At this year's Cannes Lions festival of creativity, the agency unveiled the global #CleanTok content series - a collaboration between TikTok and Unilever to connect, share life-changing hacks, learn professional tips and gather proven product recommendations.

It also created a campaign for TikTok for Business to illustrate how easy the platform is to use, in association with the TikTok creator and star Sam Cotton. The campaign ran across Europe - further indication of Gravity Road's global reach supported by the BrandTech deal.

Elsewhere a campaign for Hotel Chocolat's Velvetizer product combines human creativity with Gen AI technology to take audiences on a playful journey into the heart of the Hotel Chocolat brand story. The campaign used Gen AI tools throughout the creative and production process, integrated with more conventional forms of CGI to generate the animated TV film and digital assets.

The agency also produced an interactive, in-game, augmented reality experience collaboration between shoe brand Crocs and gaming platform Minecraft. “Choose your mode” allowed Minecraft players to engage in two AR-powered games inspired by the footwear brand.

And following the success of the original #CleanTok campaign announced in Cannes, in November this was followed up with an influencer-led social media campaign in which bottles of Comfort, Persil, Domestos and Cif take part in a “soap opera”.

The five-part video series “Dirty Deeds: A Kitchen Crime” followed the romantic drama of various cleaning products, each given character, again by social media influencer Sam Cotton.

Creative Salon Says: While many agencies are keen to be seen to be saying things about the potential of new technology, Gravity Road gets on with actually demonstrating it - and with great success and use of creativity.

It's been five years, since Gravity Road became part of the Brandtech Group, and how pleasing to have a UK-founded agency at the very cutting edge of innovation. The agency has always been future-facing, now it's reaping the rewards. Expect even more innovation in 2024.