In June, Hightouch ran a one-day Times Square activation where billboard ads created by its AI tool Ad Studio went live for brands including HelloFresh, Sweetgreen, and Tripadvisor. The stunt was a showcase, but the tool behind it signals a shift in how creative teams are expected to produce and test ad variations at speed.
Hightouch funded the activation itself. Ad Studio, part of a larger agentic marketing suite the company launched earlier this year, handles everything from asset generation to deployment across platforms. Media buying and budget allocation remain outside its scope.
The pressure to produce more creative, faster
Conor Feeney, HelloFresh's US head of marketing, said brands are "under pressure to produce significantly more creative than ever before." Shrinking attention spans reward fresh creative, and AI lets companies test faster and zero in on what works. HelloFresh adopted Ad Studio specifically to meet this demand for creative at scale.
One risk with AI-generated creative is losing a brand's voice or violating content regulations. Hightouch addresses this by training on a brand's own materials - product catalogues, legal and compliance guidelines, and previous ads. The platform integrates directly with tools like Figma and ad channels, so assets can be pulled in without manual uploads, though manual uploads are also possible.
Prompting, not programming
Ad Studio does not require coding or technical experience. Tejas Manohar, Hightouch co-CEO, said the tool needs "a talented, creative person" who can explain why something fits or clashes with the brand's messaging and "put that into words that AI can understand." Marketers prompt the system with natural language to tweak drafts - asking for copy that is punchier, more relevant to a specific audience, or focused on product quality rather than discounts. The first draft is rarely final.
For HelloFresh, that speed of revision is the main draw. Feeney said the company is focused on "iterating more creative" and "continuous experimentation." The Times Square ad drew on past HelloFresh promotions and emphasized the contrast between expensive takeout and the affordability of home cooking - what Feeney called "the value that's implied" by choosing HelloFresh. So far, that Times Square ad is the only one HelloFresh has produced with Ad Studio, but the company plans to use the tool for future activations.
Why this matters for creatives
Ad Studio does not write ads autonomously and ship them. It generates rough drafts that a human creative director or copywriter must evaluate, prompt, and refine. Feeney put it plainly: the tool does not "replace the creative thinkers on the team." What changes is the volume and speed of output. For creatives, the skill that gains value is the ability to articulate brand judgment in precise, promptable language - and to know when an AI draft is on-brand versus when it needs to be sent back. For those building skills in AI for Creatives or working at the intersection of AI for Marketing, the takeaway is that tools like Ad Studio shift the bottleneck from production to taste.
Your membership also unlocks:
