Ogilvy launches AI platform to protect talent rights

The platform allows brands to produce localised, platform-specific campaign assets while maintaining human oversight of creative decisions and the use of talent likenesses.

Ogilvy has launched ECHO, a consent-first artificial intelligence platform that enables brands to turn celebrity and ambassador production shoots into scalable, real-time advertising content.

Developed in partnership with Creative Artists Agency (CAA) and integrated with WPP's technology infrastructure, the platform aims to accelerate content production while protecting talent rights and intellectual property.

Led by Carol Reed, Global Chief Innovation Officer at The Ogilvy Group, ECHO combines verified digital likenesses with automated governance and mandatory talent approval.

Ogilvy and CAA establish framework for AI advertising

The launch addresses challenges in the $25 billion global celebrity and athlete endorsement market, where traditional production processes and rapid creative asset fatigue can leave brands without fresh campaign content for extended periods. At the same time, the growth of unauthorised deepfakes and synthetic media has increased concerns about talent ownership and consumer trust.

Through a strategic partnership involving WPP and CAA, ECHO connects Ogilvy's creative activation technology with The CAA Vault, CAA's platform for capturing, storing and licensing talent's digital likenesses, voices and intellectual property.

Brands can use verified talent scans to generate campaign extensions from a single production shoot. Machine-readable contracts govern how digital likenesses can be used, while a dedicated approval portal ensures that talent and their representatives must sign off on every asset before publication.

ECHO expands creative production and protects talent rights

ECHO is designed to integrate with WPP Open and standard post-production tools. Its core capabilities include:

Consent-first governance: Automated compliance systems check generated content against talent usage agreements and brand safety requirements. No asset can be published without final approval through a secure Agent & Talent Approval Portal.
Expanded campaign production: The platform can turn a traditional shoot producing eight to ten assets into approximately 30 to 50 media-ready variations for different markets, platforms and cultural moments. Ogilvy estimates that this could reduce average cost per asset by 65 to 75 percent.
Verified likeness protection: AI representation models use high-fidelity scans stored in The CAA Vault, supporting talent ownership and control over digital likenesses.
AI transparency: Approved consumer-facing assets carry a visible watermark reading [Talent Name] Approved | Recreated with AI, identifying content created using verified digital representations.

Ogilvy positions talent consent as a competitive advantage

Laurent Ezekiel, Global CEO of The Ogilvy Group: "Ogilvy has always delivered iconic work by combining creative ambition with commercial impact. With ECHO, we are solving the fundamental tension between speed, scale, and trust in the AI era. By pairing Ogilvy's creative ingenuity, CAA's world-class clients and leadership in responsible AI, and WPP's enterprise scale, we are giving our clients unprecedented competitive advantage – allowing them to lead culture in real time with total trust and uncompromised craft."

Carol Reed, Global Chief Innovation Officer, The Ogilvy Group: "We are witnessing the ‘NIL moment’ between advertising and entertainment. Instead of fearing AI or using it to produce cheap volume, building ECHO in partnership with CAA proves that technology can protect artists while setting storytellers free. Our global research confirms that consumers don't want AI to sideline the artist; they want explicit proof that the talent is in control. By embedding talent consent, machine-readable contracts, and creative craft directly into the platform, 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."

CAA Vault provides verified digital talent identities

Alex Shannon, Head of Strategic Development, CAA: "We built The CAA Vault to ensure that talent owns, controls, and can safely monetize their digital likeness on their own terms and only with their consent. By connecting The CAA Vault to Ogilvy's ECHO platform, CAA is giving many of the world's leading brands a secure, consent-first activation layer, delivering full visibility and protection for talent and high-craft, verified creative at the speed of culture for brands."

The platform's creative development is led by David Raichman, Executive Creative Director and Global AI Creative Lead at The Ogilvy Group, and Guillermo Vega, Chief Creative Officer for Ogilvy North America.

David Raichman, ECD and Global AI Creative Lead, The Ogilvy Group: "Trust in advertising has always come from two things: someone you believe and an idea worth believing. AI has challenged both. ECHO puts them back together: the talent's consent on every asset, and a creative idea strong enough to deserve it. That's the next frontier of content: More of it, faster, and – for the first time – more trusted, not less."

Ogilvy research highlights consumer demand for talent approval

Alongside the platform launch, Ogilvy released findings from proprietary research involving more than 1,200 respondents in the US, UK and India. The study examined consumer attitudes, intuitive responses and advertising appeal across different forms of AI disclosure.

The research identified several findings:

Talent approval and transparency: More than 80 percent of consumers across the three markets recognised talent-approved messaging as a clear indication that AI-generated content had been authorised by the individual.
Advertising appeal: Explicit talent approval strengthened advertising appeal among more than 76 percent of respondents globally, outperforming generic AI disclosure.
Consumer reassurance: Talent sign-off increased trust, credibility and reassurance among 62 percent of consumers in India, 45 percent in the UK and 43 percent in the US.
Human creative involvement: When brands disclosed AI involvement without providing context about talent approval, up to 44 percent of consumers felt that human creative involvement had diminished. Identifying the celebrity and confirming their approval helped restore that connection.

ECHO becomes commercially available across WPP

ECHO operates through WPP Open, WPP's agentic marketing platform, connecting secure talent data infrastructure with creative production capabilities.

The platform became commercially available across the WPP network in November 2026, giving the group's clients access to AI-assisted campaign production with talent consent, rights management and creative oversight built into the workflow.

www.ogilvy.com

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