EY puts people at centre of AI campaign to boost confidence

Created by Ogilvy UK, FinkDifferent and Hogarth, the 'Face of the Future' campaign promotes the new 'EY.ai' platform

By creative salon

30 October 2023

Professional services organisation EY has launched a fully integrated marketing campaign entitled 'The Face of the Future'. Through this campaign EY promotes its recently launched unifying artificial intelligence (AI) platform, EY.ai, highlighting the need to put humans at the center of the AI transformation to help deliver on the exponential value the technology provides.

Against a backdrop of real-world business, governmental and societal concerns around the adoption of AI, 'The Face of the Future' is an assertion of the EY belief that confidence in AI needs to be instilled by prioritising a people-first approach. This belief is brought to life through the campaign’s central asset, an ever-changing animated face comprising of the images of more than 200 EY people. It highlights the transformative power of AI across organisations when it is people-centric while making provocations around AI adoption, posing the question: How can AI help your organisation face the future?

The asset was developed with leading AI visual and voice technology typically used in blockbuster movie productions. It embodies the power of EY people in driving positive AI-led transformation and forms the core of an omni-channel campaign intended to engage audiences across TV, out-of-home (OOH) advertising, digital, social media, and other EY properties.

Nicola Morini-Bianzino, EY Global Chief Technology Officer, said: “Building confidence in AI requires a holistic and people-centered approach. As global leaders, organizations and entire industries contemplate the transformative capabilities of AI, we are helping EY clients face the future with confidence by emphasizing this exact approach to AI-enabled business transformation. This campaign reflects the power of EY people, augmented and empowered by AI, in driving the change to build a better working world.”

To produce 'The Face of the Future' the global organisation enlisted more than 200 EY people from across the world. Each was photographed to create static images that were then animated against a moving face and speaking to a script using a proprietary AI model. To highlight every individual’s facial architecture, a specially adapted one-shot StyleGAN was created. From there, a single professional voice recording was transformed using voice AI to develop an unlimited number of new voices that matched the film's moving faces precisely. This process yielded an asset that would previously have been near impossible to deliver and saved hundreds of filming and editing hours.

John Rudaizky, EY Global Brand and Experiences Leader, added: "'The Face of the Future' is not only an extension of the EY long-standing commitment to AI innovation but underlines the organization’s belief that people must be augmented by technology, not in service of it. EY aspires to build a brand that is synonymous with leading on AI and this campaign will serve to show EY clients, people and communities alike how we are doing just that – by placing people at the center of AI to create exponential value.”

EY collaborated with several agencies to produce and execute the content-rich integrated campaign, led by world-leading creative director Graham Fink of FinkDifferent, who conceived the creative direction in collaboration with Mark Goodwin of SquidInk. The campaign was a joint effort with Ogilvy UK and Hogarth Worldwide on content experience, Not Just Any (NJA) for production, The 5Gs for AI tech and EssenceMediacom for media planning. The EY.ai human-centric logo flowing with an animated 'i' was developed with the support of Brandpie.

The year-long campaign will seek to attain a global reach by kicking off with 30-second TV commercials on several global business channels, such as Bloomberg Television, Euronews, CNBC and through Connected TV. Animated ads will appear on OOH displays in business-focused environments at prominent airports across the world as well as at high-traffic locations aligned with prominent sporting, entertainment, business and lifestyle events. In addition, 'The Face of the Future' will feature prominently across EY channels and online platforms through podcasts, digital, social videos and banners.

Graham Fink creative director of FinkDifferent commented: “Our creative concept underscores the fundamental belief that AI must be people-centric. It highlights the human role in AI adoption, instilling confidence in our audience globally. It’s remarkable working on such an innovative campaign and being instrumental in driving home a message that continues to shape the future of how we experience and interact with AI.”

Chris Spenceley, Managing Partner, Ogilvy UK concluded: “This campaign is the future of 21st century creative communications. Developed in collaboration with a unique team of world leading award-winning creatives, clients and technologists, we were all unified behind a shared vision and ambition for the brand. Creating work with people, diversity and technology at its heart, and all empowered and enabled by AI technology, means the campaign will have serious impact.”

'The Face of the Future' campaign marks the next phase of the EY.ai journey following a $1.4 billion investment by EY in AI. Several key initiatives and offerings, including EY.ai EYQ, the private and secure conversational AI assistant, along with AI training and online courses, are being rolled out to clients and EY people. The EY.ai Confidence Index, leveraging industry-leading practices for risk, governance, and data management, is also being offered widely to clients.