How One Ad Maker is Thinking About AI and Campaign Creative

Democratic media and consulting shop Publitics announced this week that it would rebrand to Flashpoint Strategies, a politics-focused firm focused exclusively on TV, direct mail and digital advertising.

Heading the politics practice is Henry de Koninck, a longtime principal at Publitics and veteran political creative. In an interview with Campaigns & Elections this week, de Koninck explained the rebrand as part of a larger decision to consolidate the firm’s political work, creative process and strategic approach under a single banner.

Central to that approach is the firm’s proprietary platform InfluenceIQ, which uses artificial intelligence modeling and integrated performance data to refine creative and optimize media placements. In other words, de Koninck said, it’s “the tech to ensure the right message reaches the right audience on the right channels.”

The platform isn’t a replacement for human talent, de Koninck explained. Rather, it’s a tool to help optimize the creative and strategic process.

Flashpoint isn’t the first firm to lean into the AI boom. Across the politics industry, consultants and campaign professionals have begun experimenting with AI technology to do anything from writing fundraising emails to refining ad scripts and gathering opposition research.

But as the technology spreads and advances, de Koninck said there still needs to be a human element to guide it.

“I think it’s this question of: is it the magician or the wand? The tech helps us optimize, but it’s really the human touch that drives it,” he said. “It’s a whole new world, and exactly how AI fits into the creative process and the strategic process is an ongoing discussion. But the technology is here. It’s here to stay, and the firms that succeed are the ones that figure out how to use it most effectively.”

There are also some risks that come with AI. Campaigns and consultants have faced blowback for using the technology to mimic their opponents. Some fear that AI could further erode voters’ confidence in politics, and polling shows that Americans are more concerned than excited about the tech.

de Koninck acknowledged that there are challenges when it comes to implementing AI in the creative and strategic process. Without a skilled human operator, he said, the output can be “at best pedestrian and at worst really kind of detrimental.”

But in the right hands, he said, AI can be an asset.

“It’s really the kind of aesthetic and strategic lens of the ad maker or the strategist that’s going to be determinative in terms of what is impactful and what isn’t,” de Koninck said. “AI can crank out a lot of stuff, but ultimately only certain things are going to get produced and be aired. It’s that lens of the creative strategist to pick and choose.”