AI’s impact on advertising isn’t limited to what brands can create with it. It’s also changing what audiences are prepared to believe. Jaye Cowle, CEO and founder of Launch, has spent her career focused on the relationship between brand building and commercial performance, and in this piece she explores an increasingly awkward consequence of our obsession with polished creative: genuine photography can now look suspiciously synthetic.
Drawing on Launch’s work with Icelandair and its remarkably successful The Real Unreal campaign, Jaye examines what happens when audiences start questioning whether even the most spectacular real-world imagery is AI-generated, and why trust, humour and a properly connected creative and media strategy could become increasingly important as the line between the real and unreal gets harder to see.
We have entered a strange new era in digital marketing. For years, agencies and brands strived for visual perfection - stunning colour grading, flawless lighting, and impossible-looking landscapes. Today, that very perfection is becoming a liability.
As generative AI tools flood feeds with cheap, synthetic imagery (“AI slop”), audience skepticism is at an all-time high. But the impact of AI isn't just that users are annoyed by fake content; it’s that audiences are now actively questioning whether real, high-quality creative is fake.
This was the exact friction point uncovered when we worked alongside Icelandair to scale digital performance across Europe and North America.
When Reality Looks Fake
During audience research with international travelers, a surprising data barrier emerged. When shown genuine, professional photographs of Iceland’s dramatic landscapes, prospective buyers were feeding back that they assumed the images were AI-generated, artificially filtered, or "too beautiful" to be real.
In travel performance marketing, cold audiences are typically served direct, transaction-focused ads pushing immediate bookings. But when audiences fundamentally distrust what they are looking at, conversion rates suffer. Media spend directed at new audiences was being wasted because the foundational trust was missing.
THE AI AUTHENTICITY TRAP
Generative AI Floods Feeds
└─► Consumer Skepticism Rises
└─► Real, High-Quality Ads Look "Too Perfect"
└─► Audience Assumes Content is AI Slop
└─► Lower-Funnel Conversions Stall
The Creative & Media Solution: Addressing Skepticism Head-On
To address this growing skepticism, working with Icelandair, and in collaboration with agencies Kubbco, Hvíta húsið and FleishmanHillard we developed "The Real Unreal" - a playful, self-aware creative platform. The campaign met deepfake fatigue head-on with a clear message: This Is Not AI, it’s Iceland.
The witty approach struck a chord, with the video content becoming a viral hit with more than 36 million views.
The creative platform was in place, but what was also needed was the deployment of a re-engineered media strategy. It was vital to join creative testing, media management, and measurement into a single ecosystem and this is where our Connected Performance Framework came into its own.
Rather than forcing immediate transactions, we changed the media playbook. This included:
Prioritising Trust First: Top-of-funnel video media on Meta and YouTube was optimised for reach, brand recall, and video completion. The goal was to build authenticity and brand memorability before asking for a purchase.
Frequency Controls & Intent Triggers: Strict frequency capping was applied to protect attention and prevent ad fatigue. Mid-funnel signals, like post saves on social channels, were monitored to measure intent.
Synchronised Remarketing: Once trust was established at the top of the funnel, users transitioned into a retargeting ecosystem across Meta, Google Search, and Pinterest to capture high-intent bookings.
Efficiency via Custom APIs: Launch deployed custom API scripts that automatically halted ads to converting travelers the moment a booking was completed, eliminating impression waste.
Proof That Trust Built Through Creative Drives Performance
The data showed that a campaign built on authentic connection and humour- rather than a chase for short-term clicks - strengthens the top of the funnel and, in turn, accelerates conversion at the bottom.
Cross-Platform Impressions: 264M delivered (+32% overperformance against 200M target)
Blended Platform ROAS: 8.64x achieved (+116% overperformance against 4.0x target)
Meta Revenue Growth: +67% growth on a 118% spend scale
Remarketing Conversion Rate: +22% lift
Completed Paid Bookings: 9,277 flight bookings
What’s more, regional performance saw substantial returns, led by Norway (+169% ROAS growth), the Netherlands (+136%), Ireland (+131%), and Belgium (+85%).
Brands will still need agencies when AI can make the work
After all, the digital landscape is becoming increasingly saturated with low-friction, hyper-polished content as AI tools make visual production faster and cheaper.
The lesson from Icelandair is clear: efficiency in production means nothing if it destroys trust in deployment.
That's why brands will always need agencies across every marketing discipline — creative, social, PR and performance - to ensure their campaigns, not just their AI, actually work.
As media buyers and strategists, our job isn't just to drive growth online; it's to understand buyer behaviour and the psychological barriers of the modern consumer.
When audiences no longer believe their own eyes, brand authenticity, deep customer insight, and intentional media deployment become a brand’s most critical performance levers.
