San Francisco Ballet Uses AI to Attract New Generation of Audience

San Francisco Ballet is joining forces with The Shipyard to attract gen z and millennials to its upcoming Mere Mortals world premiere performances (January 26-February 1st).  SF Ballet’s new advertising creative partner will utilise AI for an ambient campaign aiming to attract those who “don’t watch ballet” with tongue-in cheek, ChatGPT generated critiques of the ballet’s novel narrative performance.   

“Mere Mortals is a reimagination of the Prometheus and Pandora myths inspired by the ethically complicated discovery and proliferation of artificial intelligence and using an AI platform to ‘review’ the performance is an ironic, appropriate, and imaginative use of the new technology,” comments Tamara Rojo, artistic director of SF Ballet. She adds:  “We are aiming to attract new audiences and by pairing new production techniques and electronic music with a centuries-old art form, plus the introduction of revolutionary ChatGPT in our advertising, we hope to challenge the perception of what ballet is able to accomplish.”

The Shipyard’s creative team anchored its new campaign on the idea that ChatGPT is the closest thing to an AI celebrity and a surprising endorser of the classical form of dance. 

The Shipyard’s human creative team of writers and artists coaxed responses from ChatGPT, which started off ill-equipped to comment on the performance merits of ballet: “I don't have feelings or emotions, so I don't experience any emotional responses to things like ballet or any other form of art or entertainment …”

Getting from that to text responses about the relationship between art, humanity, and technology required human ingenuity and craft, ultimately prompting ChatGPT with enough context about the Mere Mortals performance to elicit review-like responses, which are used as quotes in the integrated advertising campaign. 

The agency leveraged existing SF Ballet images which were ethically crafted in a closed generative AI system from original imagery of its performers. 

Some of the out-of-home executions are written in binary code – the ones and zeros that are the native language of programming – relying on the tech-savvy population of San Francisco to decipher the quotes themselves. 

The Shipyard’s chief creative officer David Sonder man notes, “We wanted to do something that would surprise and delight gen z and millennials audiences, appealing to their wit and sense of humour. We think tapping into the cultural phenomenon and debate about AI will do just this and create intrigue for what is sure to be a provocative performance.”

The Shipyard’s approach includes building brand affinity and future growth for the SF Ballet while simultaneously driving ticket sales for the performance. The integrated campaign for the new performance will appear online as well as outdoor ‘wild postings,’ and billboards.

“The Shipyard has a track record of implementing innovative marketing  programs,” says Lisa Poppen, chief marketing officer, SF Ballet. “We’re delighted to embark on this creative experiment together and believe they are a fantastic partner to entice the next generation of balletomanes.”