Ogilvy is selling brands a way to get up to 50 finished ads from a single celebrity or creator shoot, with AI filling the gap and the talent signing off each one. What neither Ogilvy nor Creative Artists Agency has said is how the talent is paid for the extra 40.
Echo, announced on 9 November and available across the WPP network this month, builds AI models from scans held in the CAA Vault, the agency's service for capturing and licensing clients' likeness and voice. Ogilvy says a traditional shoot yielding eight to 10 assets could produce 30 to 50, potentially cutting the average cost per asset by up to 65 to 75%.
No asset can be released without sign-off through an approval portal for the talent and their agent. Finished ads carry a visible label with the talent's name followed by "Approved | Recreated with AI". Alex Shannon, CAA's head of strategic development, said talent "owns, controls, and can safely monetize their digital likeness on their own terms and only with their consent."
Creators are in scope. CAA's roster includes them, and Ogilvy's Carol Reed told Digiday that TikTok personalities and podcasters were a likely use, with pilots due to go live towards the end of the year, mostly for social content.
Consent is settled, pay is not
Echo's protections are about approval. The release and coverage say nothing about fees, and Digiday reported that negotiations would proceed as they always have.
Creator deals have usually priced the shoot day and the usage separately. A model that multiplies assets from one shoot moves value from the day to the usage, and that suggests the usage terms, rather than the day rate, become the part of the contract that decides what talent earns. For a creator whose income depends on a steady flow of brand posts, 40 extra AI assets could replace work that would otherwise have been booked and paid for.
British viewers are warier
Ogilvy's own research, across 1,200 people in the US, UK and India, found an approval label raised trust for 45% of UK respondents, against 62% in India. YouGov data cited by Digiday found 49% of Britons view AI-generated actors in ads negatively. UK brands considering Echo for creator work would be asking a sceptical audience to accept a label as reassurance.
Brands commissioning AI versions of talent can agree up front how each generated asset is counted and paid, and how long the model can be used. The legal mistakes creators make online were the subject of a session at CreatorFest this year.
Consent on every asset is the right starting point. Echo will be judged on whether the fee follows the likeness as far as the ads do.
