PJ Pereira, Founder of Silverside AI, is paving the way for AI-driven creativity in the industry. This 3X agency founder and industry legend, best known for his reign at Pereira O’Dell, insists that tomorrow’s tools have arrived and marketers must adapt or fade away. Here’s how PJ is navigating the genesis of the AI revolution and how beginners can tap into the next generation of creative tools.

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How AI will change the ad industry for the better

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The future of ideas? Having a seed idea that spawns its own ideas. 

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We asked PJ to play fortune teller and predict what the industry will look like in 5 years. He predicts that the industry will begin to feed off smaller ideas rather than the traditional big idea, or as he puts it, the ‘big tree.’ Pre-AI, marketers had ultimate control over the process and results. Now, marketers can lay the foundation and let AI do its thing. In an AI-powered world, marketers can plant a seed and see how the world influences the tree. He says this practice is alive and well in video game development, where developers build the world and the players create narratives the developers never could have predicted.

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This philosophy has led PJ to ask his team to bring the DNA of an idea instead of a fully polished concept to creative reviews. After all, carrying many seeds is much easier than carrying a giant tree.

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How a CMO can integrate AI into their business tomorrow

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Understanding the ins and outs of every AI tool is a tall task for business leaders. Most CMOs don’t have the time to experiment with it, let alone master it. So what should CMOs scrambling to join the revolution do? Start simple. As PJ likes to put it, “The worst thing we can do is get paralysed by the possibilities.” He advises using AI for small projects and learning from the experience. Your initial investment doesn’t have to be huge; get your team’s feet wet, build your confidence, and then scale your efforts as needed.

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If you’d rather tap your agency to navigate the AI waters, here are some great prompts: Reconfigure my design process to accelerate rollout, like mocking up OOO placements from around the world in real time. Scale my social and e-commerce content by automating asset production. Or, use AI-generated imagery to craft an ad that looks much better than my budget. The bottom line: AI does more at a much lower cost. What’s the downside to giving it a spin?

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What CMOs can learn from Coca-Cola’s AI-generated holiday ad

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Ok, we get it, AI is here to stay. But what if I don’t like it? You’re not alone. Change is scary, especially on the scale and pace of AI. When people see AI in practice, they are reminded that the robot can do what they or someone they know does. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing. PJ wants people to recognize this sentiment after debuting a Coca-Cola AI-generated holiday ad. The media did not react in that way, and unfortunately, many headlines about the spot missed the point. 

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PJ doesn’t regret his decision. He knew it would be controversial to drop an AI-generated spot in 2024, but that didn’t stop him. What should the headlines have read the next day? How about “Advertising is starting to flex its AI muscles.” As PJ says, somebody had to be first. Despite the next-day headlines, the business result impact for Coca-Cola was positive. In fact, this was one of Coca-Cola’s best-performing holiday campaigns… ever. Looks like AI gets the last laugh.

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How to deal with AI anxiety

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“Unless we chase AI together, the technology will outpace the industry and we’ll all be replaced.” – PJ Pereira.

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If that statement gave you AI anxiety, join the club. 

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Want some comforting news? When it comes to AI, everyone is behind. You just have to start.

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PJ says that the fears of being replaced by AI are absolutely justified. This fear is why PJ is so passionate about training creatives to retool their skills and ride the “wave” instead of fighting the wave.

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Personally, PJ feels more creative than ever with his AI toolbelt. He argues that the traditional agency creative process has become almost Henry Ford-like. There’s a certain time to be creative, and once that phase has passed, the work must be finished. With AI-powered tools, there’s much more flexibility because teams can move quicker and cheaper, allowing them to respond to new ideas and cultural insights in real time. The result is more rewarding and moves in shorter cycles. In PJ’s view, AI is not about replacing creatives, it’s about refocusing our creative energy for audiences that consume 100x more content than they did just a few years prior.

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PJ believes that with our industry’s collective resilience and resourcefulness, creativity will always win. Mic drop.

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The blueprint to winning a Cannes Lion

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Winning a Cannes Lion is a check off the bucket list for many agencies and brands in the industry. But how do you get there? As a former Cannes Grand Jury member, PJ tells us that there isn’t specific criteria that creative work needs to meet to get the win. A lot depends on the context of the year, the competition, and the power of storytelling. Will AI be a huge topic in 2025? Expect it. So what’s the secret to winning? Try every year. A winner’s mindset requires setting goals to build upon the year before, whether you lost, got shortlisted, or won. This allows you to study and compare your work to the best craft in the world – elevating your entire game. 

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PJ lets us in on a time when he was on a Cannes Jury that got it wrong: It was the early days of the internet, and the jury had to decide between an idea that was very interactive and an idea that was largely a play button leading to a series of videos. Despite loving the play button idea more, they picked the more interactive idea because it “better fit the definition” of the category. Six months later, YouTube took the world by storm. Needless to say, how you frame the work is arguably more important than the idea itself.

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That’s not all…

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Want to hear more from PJ? Like the best uses of AI for agencies? Or why business owners should keep an underdog mentality even when they’re at the top? Catch the full episode on YouTube, and don’t miss the end where PJ shares the similarities between MMA and marketing. As always, drop your favorite takeaways on our social posts and leave a review wherever you listen to your podcasts. See you next month.👋

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ABOUT THE QUESTION EVERYTHING PODCAST

Part interview, part therapy, part Price Is Right, the Question Everything podcast puts your favorite CMOs and thought leaders in the hot seat. That means while they're facing off against our game board, you'll learn from the successes and failures of the best in the biz who were daring enough to be curious.

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