Decoding AI for Marketing Pushing the Boundaries of Creativity with AI
Mar 24, 2026
Jamie Umpherson, Chief Creative Officer at Runway and former advertising creative director, explores how AI scales creative production and builds persistent world models for storytelling. He discusses AI as a new VFX pipeline, unifying UGC and localization at scale, and when hybrid versus traditional production makes sense. He also covers agentic feedback loops, versioning strategies, and operational approaches for agencies.
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Creative Director Left Agencies To Build Runway
- Jamie left advertising after 12–15 years because many ambitious ideas were left unmade due to cost and time constraints.
- He discovered Runway (an NYU ITP research project) as a tool to realize those shelved concepts and joined in 2022 to build it.
Pilot AI In Teams Before Enterprise Rollout
- Expect operational friction when adopting AI across agencies due to procurement and existing toolchains; pilots often start on personal accounts.
- Jamie recommends starting with creatives exploring tools individually while planning enterprise integration and workflows.
Under Armour Hybrid Production Case Study
- Runway enabled hybrid productions for Under Armour where lack of talent or tight timelines were solved with image-to-video, text-to-video, and archival footage.
- A production company used Runway to create a spot they otherwise couldn't afford or schedule traditionally.