How R/GA Used AI to Make an ‘Impossible’ Ad

Earlier this year, R/GA received a daunting task: create an ad that would have been impossible to make without generative artificial intelligence (AI).

The challenge came from Google, which wanted to show off the capabilities of its generative video model, Veo. Adding to the pressure, the tech giant gave R/GA just four weeks to make the ad.

“It was slightly terrifying,” said Nicholas Pringle, chief creative officer, EMEA at R/GA.

The result, unveiled in June, was “From the Mountains to the City,” an experimental spot created with Veo and featuring luxury fashion brand Moncler. The short film sparked conversation on social media and at Cannes Lions earlier this year, where Google showed it to a group of creative leaders. 

While the platform had limitations, Pringle said it forced his team to develop a new way of working and showed how far AI has advanced in a short time. 

ADWEEK spoke to R/GA about how using the generative tool changed the creative process.

Embracing randomness

Filmmaking is typically a linear process—from writing a script and creating a storyboard to shooting, editing, and post-production. 

“At no point would you want to go back a step, because it’s cost-prohibitive,” Pringle said.

But with AI, the process became much more fluid, he observed. Staying flexible was essential, because when creatives prompted Veo for each scene, it didn’t always produce what they had envisioned. 

It could be “frustrating” when a specific scene couldn’t be generated, Pringle noted. For example, Veo failed to render a scene in which a man zipped up a tent. But at other times, he called the tool “amazing,” producing unexpected results that were woven into the narrative, such as the ice sculptures that appear in the final ad.

“In that way, AI becomes like a creator, because sometimes the randomness of the technology presents you with something you hadn’t anticipated,” Pringle said.

Filmmaking with AI enables more “real-time direction,” said Sadie Thoma, director of Google Ads marketing. “It opens up the aperture for creativity, because you don’t have to shoot exactly what’s in your storyboard.”

But that randomness and fluidity can be challenging with a client like Moncler, which has high standards as a luxury brand, Pringle said, adding that Moncler was enthusiastic about experimenting with the tech nonetheless. 

Creating with Veo also changed the client approval process, because “you’re expressing your idea through a scene that is moving and living, so there’s less of a ‘ta-da’ moment,” he explained. “You have to have a clear vision.”

Building a new workflow—and dealing with limitations

Adopting AI for this project pushed R/GA to develop a new internal system for collaboration. The agency built an app called Shot Flow—built with Google’s AI assistant, Gemini—which served as “a shared workspace where we could deconstruct every element of a scene,” said Pringle.

As team members prompted their versions of Veo from different offices, Shopflow helped streamline global collaboration and deliver more consistent results, he added.

Despite these rapid advancements, AI tools still have notable limitations for creatives. 

Pringle pointed to character consistency as the biggest challenge. He noted that in R/GA’s Moncler ad, characters subtly shift in appearance from scene to scene. Visual glitches like the distorted tent zipper also persist. Tech giants like Google have yet to fully solve these issues.

Legal concerns pose another hurdle. 

“There’s a big limitation around the legal framework of using AI commercially,” Pringle said, noting that brands and agencies are still learning how to avoid copyright risks.

Humans + machines

Veo may have accelerated R/GA’s creative process, but it’s no replacement for human creativity, said Pringle. 

While the video was AI-generated, the score was not, composed by musician Tom Gallo. And the script, prompts, and visual direction came from creatives, who brought their taste, experience, and storytelling instincts to the project.

“The combination of all those things made it feel like the vision of people, not just a machine,” Pringle said. “There’s a tool that enables us to create, but it requires human ingenuity, taste, tactical prompting, and understanding how to leverage that technology.”

For creatives hesitant to explore AI, Pringle advised: “Get into these tools and start playing around with them, no matter how idly. Just try and make your first thing.”