"Production Costs Drop with AI"... Which Ad Made Hwang Hyun-sik, LGU+ President, Burst into Laughter?

AI Technology 'Ixi' for Youth Rate Plan Advertisement
Production Cost 50 Million KRW... Produced in 20 Days
Interdepartmental Collaboration... Expanding AI Utilization Base

Park Sang-hoon, Head of Vision Technology Team (left), and Kim Hee-jin, Head of Integrated Brand Marketing Team at LG Uplus, who created an advertisement for the Youth Rate Plan using artificial intelligence, are introducing their AI technology 'Ixy'.
[Photo by LG Uplus]

Last year, there was an LG Uplus advertisement that made CEO Hwang Hyun-sik burst out laughing. It was a YouTube ad for the youth plan ‘Uth,’ enhanced with artificial intelligence (AI) technology. The ad, created with themes relatable to the MZ generation (Millennials + Generation Z) youth, received a positive response. The ad is as long as 2 minutes and 40 seconds, yet 70% of viewers watched it until the end. Actress Joo Hyun-young, playing a new employee at an advertising agency, appeared in the ad. It captures the bittersweet feelings of the MZ generation who, despite receiving continuous work instructions from their boss, desperately want to leave work.

This advertisement was produced swiftly in response to a government request to expand the base of 5G communication plans. The LG Uplus marketing team and vision technology team worked intensively for about 20 days, not hesitating to work overtime. Thanks to the collaboration between the two departments and the power of AI technology, production costs were reduced to about 50 million KRW, and the production period was shortened to one-third of the usual time.

Kim Hee-jin, head of integrated brand marketing, cannot forget the time of the ad demonstration for executives including CEO Hwang last year. Before the demonstration, when Kim explained, "The ad target is the MZ generation, and please consider that it is intended to promote the youth plan," CEO Hwang lightened the mood with a joke, saying, "So, I’m not the target, right?" and laughed intermittently while watching the ad. At the end, he asked, "So this was made by ‘ixi’?" Ixi is LG Uplus’s AI technology launched in October 2022. It is a communication-specialized AI model of LG Uplus based on LG Group’s super-large AI ‘Exaone.’ Various images, videos, and voices used in the ad were created using Ixi.

The Youth Youth Plan advertisement recently won the "Good Advertisement Award" in the digital category at the "2024 Consumer-Selected Good Advertisement Awards." Team Leader Kim Hee-jin (right) and Seo Ji-hyun, Head of HS Ad Integrated Solutions Team, are seen taking a commemorative photo.
[Photo by LG Uplus]

Kim, whom I recently met, said, "At the time, AI technology was emerging as a hot topic, and we planned the ad with the idea of providing customers with a new content experience." It was not easy for the marketing team, mostly composed of liberal arts graduates, and the vision technology team, composed of engineering graduates, to collaborate. There were spatial limitations between Yongsan and Magok in Seoul, and communication difficulties arose because even the terms used and the conceptual images were different.

Park Sang-hoon, head of the vision technology team, said, "At first, it started off feeling overwhelming, but thanks to Ixi generating results so quickly, the work process proceeded swiftly," adding, "The process of generating ideas and making revisions was almost in real-time." The number of cuts generated for the ad reached 30,000, of which 200 to 300 cuts were selected.

Both have been invited to various AI conferences, including the Busan International Marketing Advertising Festival last year, to share their know-how. Kim evaluated, "The mindset of understanding each other and collaborating was the driving force behind producing good output."

He also previewed, "LG Uplus’s TV commercial to be released in the first half of this year will also utilize AI technology." He added, "Currently, legal and institutional regulations for the commercial use of AI technology are unclear. Once principles and standards are established, I believe the use of AI in marketing will increase." Park said, "With rapidly changing trends and AI technology development, I feel we are at the center of recent changes," and predicted, "I expect AI agents to appear in the advertising field as well."