I was watching hockey the other day on FuboTV and saw my first ChatGPT ad.

It was great. Perfect storytelling for the product. Not overly done. Simple, clean, and it delivered the intended message.

It gave context to ChatGPT for anyone curious or anyone already using it.

Interestingly, when I researched who did it, I found of all things, it was made by brilliant creative humans. The creative agency, Isle of Any, plus the production agency SMUGGLER, plus the internal OpenAI creative team, with the media-buy placement done by PHD. Shot on 35mm film.

Here’s the first one I saw:

Dish with ChatGPT

But they made a series of ads to make a campaign. Which is the point of this article. A campaign glued together with a single theme and story connected to a goal.

It’s an age-old idea in advertising that repetition sells. And it does. Why?

The more we see something, and perhaps in different contexts, the more we feel comfortable. The more we recognize it. The more we “know” the brand. This recognition leads to trust, and trust leads to buying.

Years ago, while on vacation in Kauai with my family, I couldn’t help but notice how many Toyota Tacomas I saw. The more we drove around and the more I saw, I kept thinking “that must be a good truck,” “man, people love that thing,” “I’m sure it’s reliable,” “I should test drive one of those when I get back” .... this was my actual thought process.

Repetition leads to trust.

Had I seen one, I may have generally ignored it.

That’s the thing in advertising. It can take a lot to win that trust. So a one-off may not do the trick.  The safer bet is a campaign.  One that has a familiar story or theme and delivers a consistent message that the viewer will start to become familiar with and know.

ChatGPT's campaign nailed this.

Here’s the next one:

Road Trip with ChatGPT

And another:

Pull-Up by ChatGPT

One More:

Space by ChatGPT

People often have to see things over and over and hear the story in various ways to feel they know the brand or are at least curious. No one said selling was easy. It takes what it takes.  Smart teams know this and focus on doing it extremely well.

It costs more in time and money, but my feeling, most likely supported by data, is that in the long run, it costs less. The one-off is easy to forget. The beautifully executed campaign less so. Think “Got Milk,” “Red Bull Gives You Wings,” or “The Ultimate Driving Machine” -- these are all built with campaigns.

The goal is to build recognition and trust, which form the brand and drive demand.  And it takes a campaign to do that.