WPP is one of the world’s largest marketing companies. Kat Sullivan, senior director of interaction design, and Stephan Pretorius, chief technology officer, explain how its Creative Tech Apprenticeship programme is preparing marketers for a new era of creativity.
The emergence of generative AI has completely transformed the skill set required for marketers. With technology and creativity entwined like never before, the individuals destined to thrive in this new era of marketing are those ready to adopt a curious and open mindset.
At WPP, we recognised that we needed to prioritise talent if we wanted to set ourselves up for future AI success. That’s why we launched our Creative Tech Apprenticeship programme in the U.K. last year, designed to equip naturally creative people from all walks of life with the right skills — and cultivate a mindset of continuous learning, adaptability, and readiness to start anew.
Rethinking marketing with AI
AI’s creative potential is widely celebrated at WPP, highlighted by campaigns such as Nike and AKQA's Never Done Evolving. In this project, we used AI to simulate a match for tennis superstar Serena Williams — with Serena from her 1999 Grand Slam win playing against Serena who won the 2017 Australian Open. Machine learning analysed her playing style over the years, re-rendering archive footage to create new, interactive scenes.
By creating a safe haven for experimentation and embracing failure, we facilitated the convergence of rational and imaginative minds from varied backgrounds.
Many of our AI projects are powered by Google Cloud, and Merlyn Mind’s Demystifying AI series has been a valuable resource for helping us understand the potential of new technologies — and how they can be used in marketing.
Working on a range of projects revealed a clear demand for a skill set that we hadn’t really considered before. We needed creative technologists; a new wave of marketers passionate about using technology to bring innovative ideas to life.
Launching an apprenticeship built on innovation and diversity
For our first cohort of creative technologists we selected 16 individuals from all over the world. We aimed to recruit people as diverse in thought as in background, welcoming candidates of all technical levels and ages, and from any country.
To encourage the unconventional, we wanted to hire the original thinkers who challenged the status quo. As David Ogilvy once said: "Hire the kind of people clients don't have or wouldn't dream of hiring". They help bring fresh perspectives and diverse voices to the table.
Apprentices were tasked with working on live client briefs. Remarkably, their intuitive inclination towards using AI stood out.
The programme emphasises hands-on learning in creative coding, game engines, virtual production, advanced machinery, and generative AI. This encourages apprentices to explore, analyse, and innovate.
And we were lucky to get ample C-level buy-in from across the company. The CEO of Hogarth (WPP’s global production arm) even helped us create the perfect innovation lab in the basement of its office in London’s Clerkenwell. Despite the chaos and noise, the space is nothing short of magical. By creating a safe haven for experimentation and embracing failure, we facilitated the convergence of rational and imaginative minds from varied backgrounds. This synergy propelled innovation and effective collaboration.
Empowering apprentices with real-life projects
Throughout the nine-month programme, apprentices were tasked with working on live client briefs. For example, a number of apprentices assisted and ran generative AI enablement workshops with hundreds of marketers at one of the U.K. 's biggest consumer goods companies. We travelled to offices across London, Rome, and Singapore to show the client how they could use the various generative AI tools available to build a completely new brand in just one hour.
As a result of these workshops, our new cohort has been invited to do a practice pitch for one of the client’s cleaning brands. They were so blown away by the range of creative ideas our apprentices came up with that they arranged for them to pitch to the actual brand team.
It’s about crafting a solution with a seamless integration of the toolkit we’ve provided them — guided by intuition, curiosity, and a deep understanding of each tool’s capabilities.
And the intriguing aspect of this scenario is that the client did not explicitly request AI solutions. They simply sought assistance with appealing to a new audience. However, given that we’ve incorporated AI into our curriculum and equipped our apprentices with a fundamental toolkit, they instinctively thought about using AI to help solve the problem.
The transformation of 16 “ripples”
Witnessing the transformation of 16 apprentices into creative technologists has been awe-inspiring. Upon their graduation, we welcomed the majority of them into the WPP fold.
We like to call them “16 ripples”, as their global impact and ripple effect have been profound. They’ve showcased innovations at creativity conferences worldwide and helped demystify AI for top executives at some of our biggest clients. Two apprentices — Jana Aumuller and Zishan Liu — even showcased a virtual production scene at Adobe Max 2023, Creative Park, the leading global creativity conference in collaboration with Magicbox. Their "Jungle Hunt" installation was a fully immersive physical environment that people could walk into, and the content and entire concept were created using Adobe technology, such as the Generative AI-powered Firefly and 3D design tool Substance.
Importantly, when we’re training our apprentices, it’s not about forcing technology into every solution. Instead, it’s about crafting a solution with a seamless integration of the toolkit we’ve provided them — guided by intuition, curiosity, and a deep understanding of each tool’s capabilities.
While AI is ushering in a new area for marketing — one where technology and creativity are inextricably linked — the true magic will always stem from the people behind it. And it'll be the new generation of ripples who will be leading the way.
