Ep70. Dustin Callif: Creative at the Speed of Culture and GenAI

Ep70. Creative at the Speed of Culture and GenAI: Move Over PR Stunts & Discover A.I.’s Business Value in Commercial Advertising from Dustin Callif, President of Tool

From innovating custom A.I. solutions in advertising since 2016 to revolutionizing how brands create content at the speed of culture, meet Dustin Callif.

“Tool has been working in the fields of innovation, A.I., AR, VR, mixed reality since 2016, and we’re leveraging it both for content creation and in our workflows with clients.”

Dustin Callif

As President of Tool, a creative production partner based in Santa Monica, Dustin leads a team that blends traditional filmmaking with cutting-edge A.I. technology to create groundbreaking commercial content for some of the world’s most recognized brands, like Toyota, T-Mobile, and Coca-Cola. He is also responsible for founding Tool’s Experience group, which has been at the forefront of experiential design and creative technology.

Dustin’s projects have been recognized with over a thousand awards, including two Emmys, a Cannes Lions Palme d’Or, and honors from the Webby Awards, the Clios, One Show, SXSW, and many more. In addition to being a Forbes contributor on A.I. and advertising, Dustin is also a sought-after advertising judge and speaker, gracing the stages at conferences like SXSW, Collision, Cannes Advertising Festival, and more.

Dustin and Creativity Squared host Helen Todd were both speakers at MAICON, the Marketing AI Institute’s conference, where he shared on stage Tool’s approach to developing their evolved creative production model. They blend traditional filmmaking and creative strategy with A.I. to provide unique solutions for brands, including training A.I. on a brand’s owned assets.

In today’s conversation, you’ll hear how Tool is pushing the boundaries of A.I. in advertising while maintaining high creative standards and commercial viability through their campaign work in addition to workflow and content pipeline optimization. Dustin shares impressive case studies, including how they created a television commercial for Under Armour in four weeks without the actual talent, all enabled by A.I. and traditional post-production editing. Another one is an innovative approach of creating modular content for Starburst that is different every time for the viewer, deploying what he calls “A.I. Style Transfer.”

Not only does Tool put A.I. to work, but they also identify world-class A.I. talent, matching directors, like Creativity Squared guest Nem Perez, with innovative agencies and brands. We also discuss the evolving legal landscape around A.I.-generated content for brands.

Join us for an insider’s look at how A.I. is transforming advertising and content creation from one of the industry’s leading innovators who not only embraces the creative possibilities but leverages A.I. to drive real business value and efficiency.

Continue reading to discover more about Helen and Dustin’s conversation!

The Evolution of A.I. in Creative Production

Tool’s journey with A.I. began in an era of bespoke solutions and predictive analytics. Dustin recalls an early project with Toyota that required four months to train A.I. on 20 headlines written by copywriters to generate thousands of personalized Facebook ad variations. While groundbreaking at the time, this process seems almost quaint compared to today’s capabilities.

“Fast forward to now, and ChatGPT and all the other LLMs… the things that we had in our minds and the things we wanted to do, we’re now on the cusp of being able to do them.”

Dustin Callif

The emergence of generative A.I. in summer 2022 marked a turning point, enabling the creation of images, video, audio, and text with unprecedented ease.

Case Study: Under Armour’s A.I.-Enhanced Commercial

One of Tool’s most innovative recent projects showcases the power of their mixed media approach to A.I. content creation.

When Under Armour needed to create a commercial featuring Anthony Joshua ahead of his boxing match with Francis Ngannou, they faced two significant challenges: no physical access to Joshua during his training camp and a tight three-week production timeline.

They took a mixed media approach which Dustin explains is a really smart approach to creating marketing content with A.I. tools.

“If you are trying to do a commercial at the level of fidelity that a Fortune 1000 brand is going to need, A.I. is probably not going to be at the fidelity level that you’re going to need.”

Dustin Callif

The solution combined traditional CG for high-fidelity elements like Joshua’s face, A.I.-generated imagery for backgrounds and motion graphics, and existing commercial footage. The team generated over 5,000 images, ultimately selecting 52 for the final commercial.

Perhaps most impressively, the voiceover was entirely A.I.-generated using ElevenLabs, trained on Joshua’s voice tonality — a solution that proved both authentic and practical, allowing the athlete to focus on training.

Ensuring Commercial Safety and Brand DNA

In today’s evolving legal landscape around A.I.-generated content, Tool has developed a methodical approach to ensure commercial safety for brands.

“Our success has been in helping a brand train on owned assets, meaning taking licensed assets from a Getty library or an Adobe-generated, and these are specifically the approved images that are also permitted for use with A.I.”

Dustin Callif

This careful approach helps legal teams feel confident about A.I. implementation while maintaining brand integrity.

To further enhance this process, Tool created TOOLKIT, a proprietary software that helps brands train A.I. on their visual DNA. By the end of 2024, this managed software will become fully autonomous, allowing brands to upload their images and styles for A.I. training. The result enables consistent, brand-compliant content generation across platforms like Adobe Firefly, Leonardo, and Canva.

Representing A.I. Artists and Cultural Innovation

Tool’s innovative approach extends to talent representation, with the company maintaining a roster of A.I. directors and artists alongside traditional creative talent.

“We have a roster of A.I. directors. We have a roster of experiential directors. Our roster of A.I. directors is about four people right now.”

Dustin Callif

Among these talents is King Willonius, whose song “BBL Drizzy” made history when Drake and Metro Boomin sampled it — marking the first instance of A.I.-generated music being leveraged by major artists. Recently named to TIME’s 100 most innovative people in A.I., King Melonius exemplifies how A.I. artists can tap into cultural moments to create viral impact. Another notable talent is Creativity Squared guest Nem Perez, a filmmaker and A.I. artist whose work bridges traditional filmmaking with innovative A.I. applications. These partnerships allow Tool to offer brands cutting-edge creative solutions while staying ahead of cultural trends.

Modular Creativity: The Starburst Case Study

Tool’s innovative approach to A.I.-enhanced content creation is further illustrated by their work with Starburst. Working with agencies DDB Chicago and Critical Mass, the team addressed the challenge of Gen Z audience ad fatigue by creating multiple versions of content using a modular creative approach so the audience sees “something different every time.”

The project combined traditional filming with A.I. style transfer to generate 84 unique versions of the advertisement, plus over 300 versions when including different aspect ratios. This innovative solution demonstrated how A.I. can help brands maintain engagement while efficiently scaling content production.

The Future of Creative Production

When asked about the future, Dustin emphasizes the importance of interoperability and open-source thinking in A.I. development. Rather than creating walled gardens, he hopes to see more collaboration and sharing of knowledge across platforms and the industry.

“I hope that we’re moving into an era where it’s more interoperable, and we can use APIs and things because, without that, I just find that we kind of block off innovation.”

Dustin Callif

Tool exemplifies this philosophy by openly sharing their processes and pipelines, helping to demystify A.I. and demonstrate its potential as a force for positive change in the creative industry.

As the conversation draws to a close, Dustin leaves listeners with a powerful reminder about the role of human creativity in an A.I.-enhanced world:

“There is craft in creating content with A.I. — are some of the roles in our world of creativity going to shift and change? Absolutely… But I want people to understand that there can be a high level of craft, and we shouldn’t just be okay with crappy A.I. content.”

Dustin Callif

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Thank you, Dustin, for joining us on this special episode of Creativity Squared.

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