IBM - "What if? 2"

IBM (NYSE: IBM) today launched the first ad campaign to formally introduce watsonx, the company’s next generation enterprise-focused artificial intelligence and data platform. Global business leaders remain unclear about the real, transformative power of AI and how to leverage it. The campaign is designed to define and differentiate watsonx as a force multiplier that can accelerate impact for global business leaders as they look to apply AI solutions in new and innovative ways.

The two distinct spots feature a fast-paced, multi-media technique that aims to provide inspiration and guidance around the value proposition of watsonx, while underscoring the need to identify the right AI that will empower businesses to advance objectives and accelerate workloads. These concepts come to life through potential use cases that spotlight the importance of applying AI that is trusted, targeted, and built on the best open technology available. 

The Right AI 

With watsonx, businesses have a unified platform to tap the best of IBM and open-source foundation models to create, deploy, and manage both traditional machine learning and generative AI that can be adapted to new scenarios. Importantly, client data used to train models with watsonx is not retained by IBM or used to benefit other organizations for any future training purposes, providing a solution with privacy and security. As the ads demonstrate, watsonx is enabling organizations of all kinds to reap a wide range of benefits with generative AI – from automating customer response times, accelerating code generation, automating key workflows with digital labor in departments such as HR, application modernization, IT automation and more. 

Transforming Business

“In this new era of AI, businesses need bespoke solutions designed for value creation,” said Jonathan Adashek, SVP of Marketing and Communications at IBM. “That is why we launched watsonx, the AI platform that puts the power of foundation models and machine learning to work in the right ways, trained on a company’s own secured data and tailored to their unique needs. With this new campaign, we’re reinforcing the transformative power of AI for business to multiply output and ultimately help customers improve their outcomes.”

“In today’s business environment, companies that implement trusted AI tailored to their specific needs will have the upper hand. Laddering up to the brand's ‘let’s create’ platform, ‘watsonx yourbusiness’ is a campaign that aims to clearly illustrate how IBM can help companies create the right AI for their business,” said Matt Curry, Global Creative Lead at Ogilvy. “We wanted the work to feel generative, like AI, always morphing and moving.

The campaign uses design language in creative ways to express the benefit of watsonx — in one film we use a slot machine technique to convey that using the wrong AI is a gamble, while another uses an “x” wipe effect to show the transformative power of watsonx. In print, digital and OOH we use what we’re calling a ‘UI for AI,’ including elements of the product UI in the copy to demonstrate what it can do. Throughout the process, we used AI to inspire or create different aspects of the work,” according to Curry.  

Conceptualized and executed by the IBM Brand Marketing team and Ogilvy, the new broadcast spots were directed by Bonaparte’s Mario Clement. Golden Globe-winning and Emmy-nominated actor and producer Oscar Isaac provides the voice over. The campaign is the next phase of “let’s create,” which launched in 2022 as IBM’s most significant brand initiative in more than a decade. The spots will debut on August 28 during the US Open and run throughout the year. The campaign will include broadcast, digitally activated billboards on site at the US Open, out-of-home, connected TV, digital video, podcasts, print, newsletters, social and high-impact display.