NEW YORK — Meta Platforms touted its strengths in artificial intelligence (AI) and video in pitching advertisers for bigger budgets this week, explaining that the former technology drives consumption and superior performance for the latter, including on the TikTok look-alike Reels. The comments were shared as part of the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s NewFronts, a series of presentations on the latest ad innovations and programming updates from digital publishers and platforms.
“Over the past two decades, we’ve built some of the most sophisticated AI the world has ever seen,” said Simon Whitcombe, vice president of the Facebook and Instagram owner’s global business group, on a Times Square stage Thursday afternoon. Whitcombe added that Meta’s AI helps brands engage consumers and then spur them to action.
“[Perhaps] most importantly for everybody in this room today, it’s also led to a substantial increase in video consumption, especially on Reels, where people are connecting with each other and brands on a daily basis,” the executive said, noting that Reels videos are now shared 4.5 billion times daily.
To support that momentum, Meta unveiled a Reels trending ads feature that allows brands to place their messages near popular creator-led videos, either the top-performing overall or based on specific topics such as beauty, sports or fashion. The concept mirrors TikTok’s Pulse suite of products that situate campaigns near cream-of-the-crop videos from premium publishers or user-generated content. Pulse was central to TikTok’s NewFronts showcase earlier in the week.
Reels trending ads, which Whitcombe said came highly requested from the industry, will begin a “small test” soon, though specifics on the timing and scope weren’t shared. Also coming soon are video ads on Threads, Meta’s micro-blogging app that has quickly accrued 350 million monthly active users and last month expanded its advertising offerings globally.
“We know advertisers want a more video-rich experience on all of our platforms, not just static images,” said Whitcombe.
Beyond video announcements, Meta revealed several creator-oriented solutions, such as a way to identify trends bubbling up on Instagram and the early stages of a Creator Marketplace API that aids brands in discovering and matching with the right influencers at scale.
Addressing AI anxiety
Generative AI, a strategic focus for Meta, unsurprisingly factored into its NewFronts roadshow as well. The company is bringing an existing AI-powered video expansion tool that adapts creative assets for different formats to Facebook Reels. Additional AI bells and whistles on display included a creator content-recommendation interface that was already available on Instagram but is now coming to Facebook.
“Video expansion is a fabulous example of how AI will not replace creativity, but rather enhance it,” said Whitcombe to a packed audience of brand marketers and agency executives. “Our suite of gen AI creative tools are going to help mark a new era of creativity, which advertisers and agencies — all of you in this room — will have a key role in shaping.”
Whitcombe’s argument that AI serves more as assistant than existential threat follows recent comments from Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg that took a different tack. Speaking to Stratechery, the business chief envisioned a future where Meta’s AI does a lot of the heavy lifting typically handled by marketing services providers and ad-tech vendors, such as coming up with creative, targeting demographics and measurement based on the advertisers’ stated objectives, The Verge reported.
“I think that’s going to be huge, I think it is a redefinition of the category of advertising,” Zuckerberg told Ben Thompson of Stratechery.
