In 1983, the Kurzweil K250 was introduced as one of the first digital pianos capable of mimicking the full tonal range of a Steinway concert grand. To the layperson, the Kurzweil sounded identical to a grand piano. It was sleek, it was programmable—and it was controversial.
The music community erupted in protest.
“This isn’t a real piano!”
“It undermines artists!”
But then Stevie Wonder got behind it.
He didn’t just endorse it—he helped launch the product as its musical advisor and used it to create some of the most iconic sounds of the decade.
The Kurzweil keyboard didn’t replace the grand piano, though; it gave us all something different. And for many, it was better. It layered in new tones and instruments, and most importantly, gave access to creative opportunities for those that couldn’t afford a grand piano. It opened doors to an entirely new era of creative expression and impacted the arts in ways we could not fully grasp at the time.
Hitting the right notes—no matter the method
Why bring up pianos in a conversation about advertising? Because what the Kurzweil did for music, AI is now doing for creativity. And the creative community is beginning to open up its eyes to the possibilities.
Here’s the truth: Consumers don’t care how the work is made. They only care that it resonates. Zappi recently surveyed a nationally representative panel of 1,000 US consumers and found that a majority (52%) said the use of AI in advertising doesn’t affect their view of the brand.
In fact, 18% said using AI improved their perception of a brand, and among 18-35 year-olds, that climbed to 23%. Interestingly, that same age group was most likely to say they’d like a brand less if it used AI—34% said so, suggesting that younger audiences are both more intrigued and more skeptical, depending on the execution.
In other words: Consumers aren’t auditing your creative process. They are reacting to what they see and feel.
Puma and the brands experimenting with AI
Puma recently released two ads nearly simultaneously: one experimental concept and one made via traditional creative process, “Go Wild.” Zappi tested both ads with 400 consumers to find out which consumers liked more. Consumers viewed the ads in a reel to gauge their ability to stand out from a crowd of similar offerings, before watching through the ad in full and responding with second-by-second emotional inputs and assessing purchase likelihood. While both ads landed in the top 20% of the more than 4,000 we compared them against, the AI-generated ad outperformed the traditional ad in sales impact and brand impact.
Why? Emotion. The AI-generated ad performed 15% better in overall emotion, which is the aggregate emotions consumers report feeling while watching the ad live. When consumers were asked to comment on the ad, 30% mentioned how emotive the message was for them: uplifting, inspiring, empowering and motivational.
Regardless of who made the ad, consumers related to the AI ad strongly. And emotional resonance is a massive driver of effective advertising. Zappi found that ads that test in the top 25% for overall emotion are twice as likely to generate strong sales impact scores.
So, how can marketers embrace AI without sacrificing creativity—or consumer trust?
1. Use AI to shape early-stage ideas, then test them with real consumers
Most creatives don’t suffer from a lack of ideas but, rather, lack the resources to prioritize the right ones. More often than not, they’re running on gut instinct and briefs and testing at the last minute as an 11th-hour checkbox.
With AI, you can bring 10 (for example) early-stage ideas to life and test them with consumers to gauge the three with the highest potential. These ideas can be compared to each other and against a historical baseline of creative performance using connected data—ensuring your best ideas are grounded in real consumer response from the start.
From there, you can apply your human intuition to shape and refine the idea.
2. Be willing to fail forward
AI is evolving fast. Tools like OpenAI’s Sora are pushing the boundaries of generative video, and what seems clunky today may be world-class in a matter of months.
Brands need to experiment now, even if the tools aren’t perfect, because creative teams that get comfortable with these workflows early will be miles ahead when AI catches up.
Failure today is an experience for tomorrow. And those who avoid the space out of fear? They’ll be the ones disrupted.
3. Stay authentic: AI is an accelerant, not a replacement
Zappi’s survey found that consumers have a preference for relevance over creative process. It also found that nearly three-quarters of consumers (73%) think they can spot AI in ads. This is further indication that execution counts. It’s not enough to produce ads via AI simply to move faster, but that content should be developed thoughtfully and with the brand in mind.
The most powerful combination is AI that supports creatives. Humans excel at intuition while AI excels at crunching large data sets and identifying trends. We can use both of those strengths in tandem to get better.
As Chris Bellinger, chief creative officer of PepsiCo, put it: “Creativity is a contact sport,” and this hits close to home for creatives. But the number of touches within the contact sport keeps evolving, and the rules of the game itself are ever-changing. AI will never fully replace authentic human-led storytelling. But putting the right tools in the hands of great creatives can help shape and scale great storytelling…if we’re willing to let go of old ideas about what “real” creativity looks like.
Because at the end of the day, consumers don’t care whether you use a grand piano or a keyboard. They care about whether they like the song.
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Nataly Kelly, Chief Marketing Officer at Zappi
Nataly Kelly is Chief Marketing Officer at Zappi, based in Boston, MA. Previously she served at HubSpot as Vice President of Marketing, Vice President of International Operations and Strategy, and Vice President of Localization.
