How Warner Bros Discovery is Shaking Up Ads Using AI

Warner Bros Discovery (WBD), a global entertainment conglomerate uniting brands like Warner Bros, HBO, DC Comics and Discovery Channel,is deepening its roots in AI innovation, leveraging local talent with the opening of a new GCC in Hyderabad.

The facility, established only last year as a global delivery centre, has quickly grown into WBD’s largest tech hub in India.

"I thank the team of Warner Bros. Discovery for choosing Hyderabad as the choice for setting up Global Delivery Center. Hyderabad is a growing city with huge emphasis on Media, Entertainment, and Gaming. Companies such as Warner Bros. Discovery bring diversity and add to the wide…

— KTR, Former Minister (@MinisterKTR) September 20, 2023

In a recent LinkedIn post, the company stated, “The new strategic hub for WBD’s operations in India is a symbol of our continued commitment to local talent.” WBD currently houses 500 employees in Hyderabad and hopes to expand rapidly.

Personalisation is What Customers’ Want

During the inauguration, WBD CTO Avi Saxena highlighted three focus areas for the Hyderabad facility: commerce, consumer platforms, and data platforms. The data platforms team, in particular, processes massive volumes of streaming data, enabling the company to enhance customer personalisation across its services through AI-driven insights.

The significance of AI in WBD’s strategy was brought forth by CEO David Zaslav, who said in the first quarter earnings call, “AI is going to have an increasing impact on society and our industry, and we intend to take full advantage.” 

Hyderabad is also home to a number of VFX and animation studios, local tech firms, research centres, and AI-focused companies.

Algorithmic Advertisement

The company’s push into AI is reimagining the advertising experience on its streaming platform, Max. By integrating KERV.ai’s advanced AI-powered technology, WBD rolled out two new solutions—Shop with Max, and Moments—designed to make ads more relevant, engaging, and useful.

Shop with Max leverages metadata and AI to identify on-screen items and connect them to an advertiser’s catalogue. Viewers can scan a QR code to explore or purchase products inspired by the content they’re watching, all without pausing their viewing experience. 

According to new ad formats to Max in Q4 2024, the company includes shoppable content, which enables seamless shopping during shows, and advanced contextual targeting, tailoring ads to match the emotional tone of content while ensuring relevance and brand suitability.

Moments, another AI-driven solution powered by KERV, aligns brands with thematic content. By analysing audio and visual cues, Moments can match ads to the mood and themes on screen, ensuring that promotions feel organic and resonant. 

As Ryan Gould, head of advanced advertising and digital ad sales at WBD, explains, these innovations build stronger connections between brands and WBD’s iconic shows and films.

Kara O’Brien, head of brand marketing at Wayfair, applauds the move: “These new solutions on Max will make it easy for viewers to discover and purchase items inspired by the content they’re enjoying.”

Beyond shoppable and contextual ads, WBD is introducing advanced targeting tools and interactive video formats developed with Brightline. These allow for direct brand interaction via Click-to-Contact, viewer participation through Trivia and Polls, and Viewer’s Choice features that enable audiences to select the ads most relevant to them.

WBD’s strategic shift aligns with broader industry trends. According to a Dentsu Asia Pacific global ad spend forecast, by 2027, nearly 80% of ad spend will be algorithm-driven. 

Brands are evolving by harnessing AI to match ads with audience moods, interests, and behaviours.

Kimberly Clark as a Case Study

In an interview with AIM, Sreekanth Jayabalan, CEO of the digital transformation office and enterprise markets at Kimberly Clark, mentioned that the company is using live commerce to remove friction from the advertising process for target audiences using AI.

Live commerce uses AI to show the right products to the right customers at the right time and allows people to interact directly with product experts or influencers to ask questions and see demonstrations in real time. 

Other Brands Embracing AI

WBD is not alone in its AI-driven advertising evolution.  In February 2023, Coca-Cola announced that it would be collaborating with OpenAI’s DALL-E2 model and ChatGPT for marketing campaigns.

Cadbury employed AI to generate customised ads featuring Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan, empowering local businesses during Diwali.

Meanwhile, brands like Heinz, Virgin Voyages, and Unilever are also personalising their marketing content with AI.

A Forrester report projects that by 2030, US advertising agencies may lose 32,000 jobs—7.5% of their workforce—to automation. However, roles that involve creativity and strategic thinking are expected to remain in demand, as these skills will be harder to replicate with machines.Meanwhile, WBD has named Anish Agarwal as its new VP of AI & automation. Agarwal will spearhead the development and execution of advanced AI and automation strategies to shape the future of the global media and entertainment giant.