Audemars Piguet Shoots Real, Not AI, in a Craftsmanship Campaign
Updated: 3 days ago
Watchmaker Audemars Piguet and Paris agency Bonjour Paris have built a campaign that deliberately rejects AI and 3D imaging in favour of physical sets and real cameras, producing over 400 assets across 10 watch models.
What Audemars Piguet launched
Watchmaker Audemars Piguet has worked with Paris agency Bonjour Paris on a campaign that pointedly rejects 3D and AI image-making in favour of physical sets and real cameras — keeping imperfections in shot to underline manual craftsmanship. Ten watch models were filmed using robotic Cinemotion camerawork, generating more than 400 assets across four built sets.
The work rolled out on DOOH including London's Piccadilly Circus and screens in Chengdu, China.
Why it matters
Luxury sells the human hand. For a maison whose entire pitch is painstaking craftsmanship, using AI or 3D to fake its products would undercut the very thing customers pay a premium for. The medium has to match the message — and here it does, right down to keeping the imperfections in.
Our read: this is the luxury sector drawing a line. As AI imagery becomes cheap and everywhere, the value of demonstrably real, physically-made craft rises. Audemars Piguet is protecting its most precious asset — the belief that its watches are made by people — by refusing to let its advertising be made by machines.
What businesses should do
Check that your production method does not contradict your brand promise. A craft brand using obviously synthetic imagery, or a premium brand cutting visible corners, quietly erodes the story it is trying to tell. Congruence between message and medium is a trust signal.
And recognise the emerging premium on "real". In categories built on authenticity and craft, the deliberate, provable absence of AI is becoming a mark of quality. If that is your territory, the way you make your advertising is part of the product story.
Quick FAQ
What did Audemars Piguet do?
It ran a campaign with Bonjour Paris using physical sets and real cameras — rejecting AI and 3D — to underline manual craftsmanship, producing over 400 assets across 10 watch models.
Where is the campaign running?
On DOOH including London's Piccadilly Circus and screens in Chengdu, China.
Why reject AI and 3D?
Because faking a craft product with synthetic imagery would undercut the human-made craftsmanship that justifies luxury pricing.
For a craft brand, faking your product with AI is self-sabotage — you'd be undercutting the exact thing customers pay a premium for. Audemars Piguet keeping the imperfections in, shot on real cameras, is congruence between message and medium. That's a trust signal. — Daniel Nikolla, Founder of Merx Marketing
When your brand promise is human craft, letting a machine make your advertising contradicts the story — congruence between message and medium is itself a trust signal.
Does the way you make your marketing match the promise you're making in it?
If you would like to know more about this topic, please contact us on danieln@merxmarketing.co.uk
Sources: CB News, media-marketing.com.
Related reading
Written by Daniel Nikolla, Founder of Merx Marketing Ltd and Marketing Minute
Comments