PhotoRoom, an artificial intelligence (AI)-based photo editing app, joined forces with Warner Bros. and their marketing agency Bond to create the official filter that allowed fans to turn themselves into Barbie characters, ahead of the widely anticipated release of the Barbie movie. The AI-powered selfie generator, released on April 3rd, 2023, signifies PhotoRoom‘s huge potential usage for the creative and marketing industries.
The interactive tool, barbieselfie.ai, which has been used over 13 million times, took less than an hour to implement and provided fans with an instant, sharable Barbie-aesthetic image, with the same quality as the promotional posters for the film’s cast. As a result, Warner Bros. achieved a not-to-be-missed viral, global moment that resulted in fans, brands, influencers, and celebrities – including Rihanna and Pedro Pascal – participating in this cultural phenomenon.
CIO INFLUENCE: World Password Day: Password advice for CIOs
“PhotoRoom always set out to make photo-editing easy and flawless”, said Matthieu Rouif, CEO of PhotoRoom. “We started by helping small businesses, and it’s amazing to see some of the most well-known companies in the world using our technology. The biggest challenges marketing teams face with user-generated campaigns are maintaining quality and protecting the integrity of the brand. With PhotoRoom, brands can scale user-generated content like never before.”
To create the selfie generator, PhotoRoom‘s API provided Warner Bros with the ability to remove backgrounds from user-generated content. PhotoRoom‘s ability to handle millions of API calls, and superior output quality were instrumental in meeting Warner Bros.‘s creative needs. The filter Warner Bros. used to create a viral moment showcased the ability for other brands to use visual AI to create a personalized and immersive user experience at a global scale.
CIO INFLUENCE: CIO Influence Interview with Lior Yaari, CEO and Co-Founder at Grip Security
“PhotoRoom shattered all expectations by seamlessly integrating user photos into captivating Barbie movie posters. Its unparalleled ease of use became the catalyst, propelling the Barbie Selfie Generator into the digital spotlight and captivating audiences worldwide,” said Cameron Curtis, EVP of Worldwide Digital Marketing at Warner Bros. “There are boundless opportunities to harness the power of generative AI for our upcoming campaigns. Its potential to create captivating and personalized experiences is truly remarkable, opening doors to innovative storytelling and audience engagement that were once unimaginable.”
Downloaded more than 80 million times globally from mobile app stores, PhotoRoom has become increasingly popular among small businesses, e-commerce vendors and content creators to create high-quality product imagery. Now the Paris-based business is looking to expand its API offering, bringing the category-leading technology to more global brands across many industries.
CIO INFLUENCE: CIO Influence Interview with Russ Ernst, Chief Technology Officer at Blancco
[To share your insights with us, please write to sghosh@martechseries.com]