Omnicom Advertising and Google have launched an AI-powered creative intelligence system in the Middle East, with plans to expand it across Africa, the Middle East and Turkey before a wider global rollout.
The new system combines Google’s ABCD framework with Omnicom’s proprietary creative AI tools to assess advertising campaigns before they are released.
The regional pilot has already gone live with telecommunications company du, making it the first customized deployment of Google’s ABCD AI detector tool in the Africa, Middle East and Turkey (AMET) region.
Google’s ABCD framework evaluates YouTube video advertisements on four performance areas — Attention, Branding, Connection and Direction. It measures whether an ad captures interest quickly, makes the brand memorable, creates emotional impact and drives consumer action.
Omnicom has added a second AI layer called Brave Bot, designed to assess creative work for distinctiveness, innovation, cultural relevance and originality.
According to the company, the combined system converts subjective feedback into practical recommendations, such as improving the first few seconds of a video, adding earlier brand mentions or strengthening calls to action.
Telecommunications provider du became the first client to test the platform across its campaign portfolio. The AI reviewed 10 video assets and identified issues related to brand visibility, pacing and emotional engagement.
The company said effectiveness scores ranged from 44 per cent to 80 per cent, depending on campaign performance across the four pillars.
“This is about further honing our creative instinct with the power of AI”, said Noah Khan, Chief Innovation Officer, Omnicom Advertising CEE & AME. “It’s about giving our teams a creative partner that works alongside them to bring audience, culture, innovation, and platform insights in real time. When Google’s ABCD agent flags weak early attention, Brave Bot often flags the same moment as too safe or too familiar. The result is work that’s both effective and distinctive, optimized for performance and built to be remembered.”
The system also includes a cultural intelligence layer aimed at helping teams adapt campaigns to local markets and audience behaviour.
“At Google, we’ve always believed that AI is a catalyst for creative effectiveness, especially when combined with human ingenuity”, said Aishi Lahiri, Director, Advertising Solutions, Google MENA. “By taking our foundational ABCD AI detector and engineering their own proprietary cultural and creative layers on top of it, Omnicom is showing exactly how our regional partner ecosystem can innovate and drive impact using Google’s technology. This is a brilliant example of taking a core framework and customizing it to build campaigns that are culturally resonant and primed for performance on YouTube right from the source.”
du said the pilot had improved both creative quality and turnaround times.
“In a competitive market like ours, creative work has to cut through fast”, said Ibrahim Al Mayahi Al Nuaimi, Vice President, Brand & Marketing Communication, du. “This system gives us clarity on what’s actually driving performance. It doesn’t just tell us what’s wrong, it shows us how to fix it. As a result, we’re seeing stronger creative and faster turnarounds, which means we can be more agile in how we show up for our customers.”
Following the pilot, Omnicom Advertising plans to extend the system across its Middle East client base during 2026, followed by a broader AMET rollout and later international expansion.
“We’re not using AI to make the work more automated”, Noah Khan added. “We’re using it to make the work more intentional, and to make sure every great idea delivers a great result.”
