From Creation to Distribution: How GenAI Is Transforming the Video Advertising Playbook

By Jonathan Gudai, Founder & CEO, AdOmni

The Shift that Matters

AI has cracked the code on video creation, but delivering those videos across a fractured media landscape remains the real bottleneck.  Amazon’s Wondery reorganization is just the latest signal platforms are doubling down on video-centric, creator-driven models.

For marketers and creators alike, the challenge has shifted from producing content to ensuring it reaches audiences in the right place, at the right moment.

GenAI Has Rewritten the Rules of Creation

Not long ago, high-quality ad video required teams of writers, directors, editors and animators working for weeks. Now, with GenAI tools and platforms, a single marketer or even a hobbyist can produce studio-grade content in hours.

Since the dawn of time, creative teams operated by generally accepted rules of the road:

If you wanted something fast and affordable, you sacrificed polish.

If you wanted it high-quality and low-cost, you waited.

If you wanted it high-quality and fast, you paid heavily for it.

GenAI rewrites the rules.  It enables marketers and creators to achieve all three: quality, speed, and affordability. For experienced creators, it accelerates imagination and output. For new creators, it lowers barriers and opens the door to participation.

Steve Jobs called the computer a “bicycle for the mind.”

GenAI is the next evolution of the bicycle.

Distribution is the New Bottleneck

The next frontier for GenAI is not just making video. It is orchestrating where and how each version of that video runs, then optimizing it across the media mix.

Social, connected TV (CTV), online video (OLV) and digital out-of-home (DOOH) offer huge reach, but each has unique workflows, specs and targeting logic. Many brands dominate one silo, like Instagram Reels, while underutilizing others where their audience also spends time, like DOOH.

This is where the power of an omnichannel approach truly emerges: connecting these screens so campaigns unfold as one integrated system, rather than a patchwork of isolated efforts.

Unlock Omnichannel Power with Tailored Creative

The breakthrough comes when a core story branches into multiple, context-specific versions, each adapted to the audience dwell time, mindset and format:

  • Morning commute: digital billboards and/or transit screens.
  • Afternoon impulse: mobile or in-store displays.
  • Late-night value: CTV or mobile ads.

Emerging “GenAI Campaign Companion” tools can translate a single concept into a cross-channel plan in minutes, guiding creative adaptation, audience targeting, and budget allocation.

The point is not any one tool. It is the shift to an AI-enabled workspace where creative, targeting and media buying connect from the start.

Multi-Channel ≠ Omnichannel

Many campaigns today are “multi-channel” in name only.

A brand might run video ads on social, linear TV, CTV, OLV and DOOH, but each is planned, bought and executed in isolation. Creative is often adapted per channel as an afterthought, and media is placed by logging into six or more different buying platforms, each with its own workflow.

Omni-channel takes a different approach.

It treats those touchpoints as parts of one integrated system. The activation layer is connected, so fewer platforms control more screens. The creative layer is unified, so stories unfold consistently across formats and devices.

This integration produces tighter narratives and greater efficiency. GenAI makes this possible by linking creative production with media activation, enabling campaigns to evolve as one organism, rather than a set of loosely related parts.

Win Attention with Skimmers, Dippers and Divers

In an attention economy, fresh content wins. As consumers, we encounter thousands of messages daily. Recency bias, favoring the newest content, is a powerful force. GenAI makes it practical to design for three attention modes:

  • Skimmers: fleeting, snackable interactions like social stories or DOOH moments.
  • Dippers: short videos, demos, or quick e-commerce triggers.
  • Divers: long-form content like streaming shows, podcasts, or brand films.

With AI, Skimmer assets can refresh multiple times a week. Dipper content can evolve seasonally. Diver material can remain evergreen yet customizable. Every touchpoint feels new and relevant, which boosts engagement and recall.

Move from Siloed Campaigns to Seamless Journeys

Audiences don’t think in channels, they move seamlessly between real-world screens and personal devices. The savviest of marketers design full-funnel, cross-screen, integrated strategies:

  • Upper funnel: bold creative on DOOH and CTV to spark awareness.
  • Mid-funnel: contextual, sequential OLV to educate and build familiarity.
  • Lower funnel: targeted social or mobile to drive action.

AI collapses the planning grind. A marketer’s intent like “Reach busy parents during weekday routines to influence them to buy your toy products” can now be transformed into a ready-to-launch plan across formats.

The human role shifts from wrangling specifications to refining the story and setting strategy.

Bring AI Video into the Real World

“Video IRL” brings digital storytelling into everyday spaces like billboards, mall displays, gas station TVs and rideshare screens. Historically, DOOH has been underutilized, but budgets are shifting. When DOOH joins CTV and OLV, campaigns become omnipresent. This matters as traditional targeting signals weaken, and marketers lean on deterministic, location-aware triggers that connect creative to real-world context.

AI and Human Creativity in Concert

GenAI is not replacing human creativity. It is reframing it. I often think of this new world process like an orchestra. The marketer is the conductor, writing or adapting the music. The AI arranges it for different instruments, monitors the harmony and assists with the delivery of the most resonant sound. The best results happen when humans define the brand voice, emotional hook and strategic narrative, while AI handles adaptation, scaling and personalization

The Road Ahead

In 2025 and beyond, the most successful brands will be those that weave human creativity and AI precision into a single, continuous process. Campaigns will be planned and executed as one connected flow, with creative and media working in sync from the first idea to the final impression. For consumers, this means a richer media experience – videos that feel timely, relevant and worth watching. For marketers, it means breaking free from siloed workflows and embracing a more agile, integrated way to reach audiences across every screen.

GenAI has paved the road. The opportunity now is to mount up and ride through this paradigm shift with intention, creativity and a commitment to telling better stories on every screen.

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