Ogilvy and CAA launch partnership to clone celebrity talent for AI ads. Body doubles are a popular subject in horror cinema. Usually, the doppelganger is the villain of the piece. But now, one of the leading gatekeepers in Hollywood is set to begin working with creative agency Ogilvy to run brand campaigns featuring entirely AI-generated celebrity appearances. The WPP agency has inked a partnership with Creative Artists Agency (CAA) to generate AI ads featuring the actors, athletes and high-profile creators on CAA's roster. "We are witnessing the 'NIL moment' between advertising and entertainment," said Carol Reed, global chief innovation officer at Ogilvy, referencing the Name, Image and Likeness industry that has grown around college sports influencers in the U.S. in recent years. "We've created a system where the biggest stars can license verified digital replicas safely... unlocking unprecedented agility for brands and assured control for talent." Brooklyn Nine-Nine star Terry Crews is among the actors who have opted in. Reed declined to name clients using the system, but said several campaigns were already being planned. "We are in the process of negotiating a few pilots right now that should be going live towards the end of the year," she said. 'The next frontier of content' The solution, called Echo, gives Ogilvy access to material kept in "The Vault" an in-house digital scanning facility built for CAA by tech company Veritone four years ago. Ogilvy and CAA's partnership was a year in the making, per Reed. The studio uses 204 cameras to capture every facet of an actor, athlete or creator - from their voice to body language, facial expressions and the way they walk. That material, which is refreshed by CAA clients every 3-5 years, is already used for de-aging or post-production fixes in films. Now, the agency's staffers can pull it into WPP Open, the system behind the holding company's various endeavors in creative production, agentic media buying and self-service creative tools, for internal storyboarding, mock-ups or final creative assets. While the negotiations between actors or creators, their representatives and Ogilvy's clients will still play out the same as always, the partnership is expected to yield more assets than classic shoots, at a faster pasce, and reducing cost-per-asset by 65-75%. The combination of digital capture and AI content generation could "fundamentally change celebrity endorsement economics," according to Gartner analyst Nicole Greene. David Raichman, executive creative director and global AI creative lead at Ogilvy, called the system "the next frontier of content... more of it, faster, and - for the first time - more trusted, not less." If that sounds outlandish, consider the campaigns launched by Coca-Cola and Snickers earlier this year featuring soccer coach and CAA client José Mourinho - or rather, his digital clone. Ogilvy's partnership with the agency, which Reed said could stretch to include other talent companies in the future, gives it the chance to scale up such projects. 'A first-mover advantage" Echo isn't Ogilvy's first effort in this realm. Five years ago, Ogilvy used digital scans of Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan to advertise small businesses across India during the Hindu festival of Diwali. That project served as a kind of "prototype" for Echo, according to Reed. She said the agency expects the partnership to be particularly useful for ads featuring sports personalities. "They're locked into training and seasons, so there's long periods where they're not available," she said. "Now they can kind of engage and work throughout a season where normally they wouldn't be available." AI tools have become increasingly common in agency and in-house creative production efforts, though they're typically deployed with performance media assets in mind - ads for digital display, paid social or mobile app environments - rather than campaign materials featuring a famous face. Though Reed said the agency expects to use the system initially for social assets, Ogilvy's partnership gives it an edge for clients looking to take advantage of AI gains across the entire spectrum of advertising production. "Agencies need a first-mover advantage right now," said Greene. For CAA, it's a chance to "grow the pie," according to Alex Shannon, the talent agency's head of strategic development. Stars can take on commercial work unfettered by the schedule of their day job on the pitch or in the movie studio - allowing them to work with more brands overall, but also capitalize on moments when their profile might be highest, such as the climax to a sporting season or during the launch of a film or TV show. "Now, brands have the ability to move at the speed of culture, and athletes are able to do even more to engage fans at times when that relevancy is so critically important," she said. 'Still a human behind it' The partnership between Ogilvy and CAA includes a framework designed to govern how and when the agency's clients can use the likeness of talent. CAA clients own their digital likenesses, and are able to pick and choose which businesses and markets they're happy to appear in ads for or formally endorse. "Talent always gets to see everything and approve everything at the end," said Reed. AI advertising materials will also include a watermark that clearly marks a video or image as both AI-generated and approved by the star in question. Reed said the measure is a means of reassuring consumers that "this isn't a deep fake", as well as staying ahead of future AI regulation. (The European Union, for example, has mandated gen AI providers put watermarks on content produced using their tools since August.) CAA has been aggressive in defending the value of its clients' likenesses, signing an agreement with YouTube to remove celeb deep fakes from the video platform in 2024. But while watermarks might keep Ogilvy clear of future AI rules, they might not aid consumer comprehension. "The whole point of talent is to scale authentic relationships and credibility," said Greene. Yet consumers, when asked, are typically cool on the idea of AI-generated glitterati hawking brands. Nearly half (49%) of Britons have a negative view of AI-generated actors appearing in ads, according to YouGov, while 92% said AI generated content makes it harder to trust information online in general. Reed argued the system is principally an extension of Ogilvy's "palette", rather than a means of flooding the web with celebrity slop. "The intention is that still there is a human craft and a human behind it," she said, adding that the agency still expects to recommend a traditional shoot when a situation demands it. "Authenticity is one of those things that is going to be even more important," she said. Reed said that the partnership could mean brands find it easier to work with several lower-profile names (and skip the usual scheduling difficulty) rather than shelling out for a single movie star. "I'm hoping that you'll see more [brands] opening up to B-tier athletes," she said. That use case may prove particularly important to Ogilvy. CMOs place an increasingly high importance on their agencies' ability to manage their large rosters of creators and influencers, and to do so in a cost-effective manner. Eliminating the need for a TikTok personality or podcaster to actually be on location could add a sharp edge to the agency's current pitch.

Ogilvy and CAA launch Echo, a consent-first AI platform for celebrity ads. The ad giant and the Hollywood talent firm want brands to use AI-generated stars only with permission, starting with Terry Crews Ogilvy, the ad agency behind campaigns for Dove and Coca-Cola, is teaming up with Creative Artists Agency to build a platform for AI-generated celebrity ads. The platform is called ECHO, and its central promise is consent. That promise carries weight. Unauthorized digital likenesses rattled Hollywood badly enough to become a core issue in the actors' strike three years ago. Now two of the industry's biggest players want to sell AI as a licensed product rather than a threat. What ECHO is supposed to do. ECHO is described as a consent-first generative AI platform. It is built for creating celebrity-driven ads and content under controlled conditions. According to the research on the partnership, the platform puts talent rights, intellectual property protection, and brand integrity at the front of the process. It aims to let brands generate engaging ads while keeping creative control. It also relies on consent mechanisms meant to preserve consumer trust. The public unveiling is scheduled for November 12, 2026, at 11 AM EST. It will happen during an OgilvyOn Live webinar. The presenters include Carol Reed, Ogilvy's global chief innovation officer, and David Raichman from Ogilvy. CAA is sending Liz Randall and Alexandra Shannon. AI, tech, and the markets they move - in one daily briefing. Daily. Free. Join 34,000+ readers across crypto, finance, and policy. Terry Crews signs up first. The most recognizable early participant is actor Terry Crews, who has lent his likeness to the platform. Crews signed with CAA for representation in November 2024. His reasons stand out. Concerns about how digital likenesses could be used without consent or pay pushed Crews to join the partnership. Why Hollywood cares about digital likenesses. The fight over digital replicas did not start with ECHO. The 2023 actors' strike made performers' rights in a digital world a central labor issue. Actors worried that studios could scan their faces once and reuse them indefinitely. The celebrity endorsement market is valued at approximately $25 billion. That much money attracts counterfeiters. ECHO is positioned as a way to protect that market from deepfakes by requiring talent consent and IP safeguards. What this means for brands, talent, and agencies. For brands, ECHO offers a clear trade. They get the speed and flexibility of AI production. They also get legal and reputational cover from documented consent. For talent, the stakes are about leverage. Opponents of AI likenesses in Hollywood have focused on consent and compensation. A platform where a talent agency sits at the table, rather than only a studio or brand, gives performers a structural voice in those deals. That does not settle every question. A consent-first platform depends on how consent is defined, how long it lasts, and what happens when a celebrity wants to withdraw. Those details will decide whether ECHO works as a safeguard or mostly as branding. The November 12 presentation is the first chance to see how Ogilvy and CAA answer them. Disclosure: This article was edited by Diego Almada Lopez. For more information on how Cryptobriefing create and review content, see its Editorial Policy.