Amazon is due to launch in South Africa (finally) in the next few months but, in the meantime, it’s rolling out innovations that will benefit advertisers on its platform. Less impressed, perhaps, will be photographers and graphic designers who used to do this sort of work.
The new feature from Amazon is intended to spice up those product images you might be used to seeing on the online storefront’s ads. You know the ones. A basic product shot on a white background with nothing to distract from what you’re buying.
Amazon’s new discovery
Only, once you’ve looked at your 20,000th image in that format, it gets a little boring after a while. Amazon Ads, the division behind the scenes helping sellers to er… sell more, has launched a beta version of its new generative AI system that will convert those plain white backgrounds into something a little more eye-catching. All that’s required is the base image and a text prompt. Oh, yes, and an advertising campaign on the platform.
The beta program intends to convert those plain images into lifestyle shots. Those image types have a 40% greater chance of converting into a click when used in an ad campaign, according to the company’s senior vice president of Amazon Ads Products and Technology, Colleen Aubrey.
“With the launch of our image generation capability, any advertiser can now use a simple tool to create unique, lifestyle creative assets that make their campaigns more compelling, and at no additional cost,” said Aubrey.
As we mentioned, this might get up the noses of photographers and creative directors everywhere. Generally, these sorts of lifestyle images are scripted and shot in a studio. That takes time and money, but it generates income.
Amazon’s not exactly unaware of the effect that it’ll have on the supporting industry but it’s pitching it as a good thing. For its advertisers. The company explains that its new generative AI images will “…[enable] those that do not have in-house capabilities or agency support to more easily create brand-themed imagery, while also supporting bigger brands, who are constantly looking for ways to be more efficient around creative development”.