AI-powered creative tools enabled HelloFresh to launch a Times Square ad in a single day. The campaign highlights how brands can rapidly scale and test marketing assets using automation.
Brands seeking to keep pace with the demand for fresh, high-performing creative are increasingly turning to AI tools that promise speed and scale. In June, HelloFresh used Hightouch’s Ad Studio to produce and deploy an ad in Times Square, demonstrating how AI-driven creative development can accelerate campaign timelines for marketers under pressure to deliver more content across channels.
Hightouch, which funded the one-day Times Square activation, showcased ads from several clients, including Sweetgreen, Tripadvisor, and HelloFresh. The Ad Studio tool, part of Hightouch’s broader agentic marketing suite, manages the creative process from asset generation to deployment, but leaves budget allocation and media buying to the brands themselves. According to HelloFresh’s US head of marketing, Conor Feeney, the company adopted Ad Studio to meet the growing need for rapid creative iteration and continuous experimentation, as shorter attention spans and shifting audience preferences demand more frequent testing of new concepts.
One challenge with AI-generated creative is maintaining brand voice and compliance. Hightouch addresses this by training its platform on each brand’s own content, including product catalogs, legal guidelines, and previous campaigns. The platform integrates with tools like Figma and major ad channels, allowing assets to be imported directly or uploaded manually. Marketers can prompt Ad Studio in natural language to revise drafts, making copy more engaging or tailoring messaging to specific audiences. Hightouch co-CEO Tejas Manohar said that while the tool may not deliver a perfect ad on the first attempt, it enables rapid iteration and refinement.
Feeney emphasized that Ad Studio does not replace creative professionals, but instead amplifies their output by combining AI-generated drafts with human oversight and revision. The Times Square ad for HelloFresh drew on past campaigns and focused on the contrast between the cost of takeout and the value of home-cooked meals, aiming to reinforce the brand’s affordability message. For now, HelloFresh has used Ad Studio only for this activation but plans to explore further applications.
As publishers and brands experiment with AI-powered creative, the question of visibility and measurement remains top of mind. Some media companies are already leveraging their presence in AI-driven environments to attract advertisers, as discussed in a recent report on AI visibility as a metric for publishers.
