Why Most AI Content Is Useless for Brands (And How to Fix It)

0:00Simon Davis:AI can generate content in seconds, but most of it is still unusable. I think today the problem is that a lot of AI content looks great. It looks like it could be branded, but it just doesn't look like your brand.

0:11Ian Shepherd:That's the frustration Simon Davis kept running into. After more than 20 years building games, he hit a wall with AI tools that promised speed but delivered chaos, and so developed SecretSource.

0:23Simon Davis:SecretSource is an AI platform that's designed to solve what we think is actually the biggest gap in AI content production. which is taking AI generated output and turning into creative that you can actually use.

0:34Ian Shepherd:One founder rebuilt an entire campaign almost overnight using the tool.

0:38Simon Davis:She refreshed the entire product catalog. She redid all of her socials, all of her website. And she cut marketing time down from dozens and dozens of hours a week because she was doing like almost like a full-time job to about two.

0:51Ian Shepherd:If you're experimenting with AI right now, this conversation will change how you think about creative production.

1:04Ian Shepherd:Timon, what is SecretSource?

1:06Simon Davis:SecretSource is an AI platform that's designed to solve what we think is actually the biggest gap in AI content production, which is taking AI generated output and turning into creative that you can actually use. You know, so it's cohesive and always on brand. I think today the problem is that a lot of AI content looks great. It looks like it could be branded, but it just doesn't look like your brand. And that's the issue we ran into. And so this was really born out of necessity when we were making 50-odd games and we realized that we couldn't actually use any of the existing AI solutions in production.

1:37Ian Shepherd:Got it. Well, I'm really interested to get into the details of it. What's that before and after moment for somebody that uses the product?

1:43Simon Davis:Yeah. So if you're using AI platforms today, like depending on the platform you're using, you will either have something that's quite generic and prompt-based. And so you'll give it like an idea and it'll spit something out. And maybe one time in 10 or probably more like one time in 50, you can actually use what comes out. And then you kind of have to edit it and slap your brand on top. Or the alternative is that you have something which has lots of boxes and lines connecting them and drop down menus and you're selecting models and whatever else. And it's supposed to give you more control.

2:14Ian Shepherd:I actually think that's an illusion, but that's a whole other topic.

2:16Simon Davis:And then at the end of that, you have something that you might be able to use. but like if you want to iterate on that like it's just very difficult because every time you regenerate it's almost like a slot machine you're getting a different prompt out the way the secret source works is a bit different it learns your brand so that can be via sharing your web address with it or uploading some of the assets and then there's an ai agent that builds memory over time and builds its own kind of knowledge base of what your your brand is and what your products are and then at any point you can just type i want to create a campaign i'm just picking an example for like this skincare product and I want this type of model in this setting.

2:50Simon Davis:So the logo will appear correctly. The product would appear exactly as per your brand guidelines. So there are certain colors, positions. For example, one partner we're working with there, product always has to be in the middle of the screen and you have to be able to see the logo here. And that was quite tricky to get down. But anytime you generate something, it will now appear perfectly like that as well. So everyone from the creative team to social media intern can create on-brand assets within 30 seconds. That's basically what we're going for.

3:19Ian Shepherd:I know exactly the problem you're describing. How are people solving this before?

3:24Simon Davis:They're not.

3:24Ian Shepherd:It's a trap.

3:26Simon Davis:So like people talk about, with AI we could churn out all these assets super fast. I said, yeah, we can't use any of them. So there's a lot of reworking done. So it's no faster. I suspect people that don't really like AI love that because it makes them feel smart because they get to use all these tools and they have to go and work on top. But in general, actually the existing solutions, They're good for one-off assets, maybe, but for naming or branding, getting that consistency, they don't really work.

3:50Ian Shepherd:So talk me through the product. How does it work? How does somebody start to use it?

3:54Simon Davis:Yeah, so, I mean, just to take a step back, like the product was built because we were developing games and we had a real need to create a lot of assets at scale. And in games, like if your characters look different from screen to screen, like it doesn't work. That's actually a bit of a problem. And also we were a small studio, And so we couldn't dedicate art resources to the marketing team. And obviously they have to create social media assets wherever else. And so this was hacked together really initially to solve an internal production problem. Then so the marketing team. And so the way it works today was designed basically for non-technical people to be able to get the results they needed while still being useful in production by like technical teams.

4:32Simon Davis:And so it's prompt based. Once it knows your brand. So like I said, you can just create your brand memory. You can tag what you want. So you could say, I don't know. I have just picking something up here, but at iPhone, and then it would know, okay, this is this product. I want it in this shot. And as a user, you can say, hey, give me ideas for an iPhone campaign for Chinese New Year. And it'll ask you clarifying questions. It will tell you what formats you want because you've been through so many cycles with this and run into all the different issues. And once you've clarified what you want, you can either keep giving a guidance, you can say, go off and create something for me.

5:06Simon Davis:And so it will know the seasonality, the kind of vibe you're going for, the format, whether it's video, whether it's static, whether it's animated, even user-generated content. And then it will load the product within the setting you want. And so if you want social media assets for Chinese a year, like you could specify that or you could say, hey, I'm working with this creator. Create something using that influencer demoing our product. And so it will have knowledge of who the influencer is and the product, and it will combine them together in ways which have been predefined by you as being like acceptable and not brand.

5:38Ian Shepherd:It sounds really interesting. And we were talking beforehand about how it looks. It's slightly different to sort of a more traditional piece of software, right?

5:45Simon Davis:Yeah, I mean, it's essentially we're using chat because, again, it has to be accessible to anyone. And so if you're a very technical person, you can use like very sophisticated prompting and you can specify lighting and even like camera exposure and angles and whatever. You could just say, hey, I'm doing a social media campaign for my products and give me 10 ideas that are cute and have, I don't know, like a spring vibe.

6:10Ian Shepherd:And it will throw out some ideas and generate stuff to you and then you can just iterate on that.

6:14Simon Davis:But the idea is that it's basically conversational. So it's text based. Obviously, if you have some kind of dictate feature on your machine, you can just use that. We're probably going to add a native one at some point. And the idea is that people can start generating stuff pretty much instantly. Actually, I use it. I'm not, I'm not an artist. I use it myself to create all the, all the, so like the logo for it was built by me using our internal tooling and company logo and a lot of the socials and stuff that we create. And is it just production or does it distribute the content as well? So today it's just production.

6:46Simon Davis:distribution is actually the next thing on the roadmap. So I think before long, you'll be able to see how your content's performing on social media. And then the agent should learn from that and keep refining itself. And then suggesting improvements to you as well. So say you go in and say, okay, I want to do a new campaign. It'll be like, hey, just so you know, like the last campaign you did, like this is the angle that worked best. Like, would you like us to explore this? It's never going to overwrite your preferences, but it will suggest things. And then you can speak to your agent and decide whether that's something you want or not.

7:13Simon Davis:But yeah, that's coming. Makes sense.

7:15Ian Shepherd:Makes sense.

7:16Simon Davis:And who's your ideal user here? It's a good question. I'm going to say something very trite. It's people that really care about their brand. Because that's the one thing we're really focused on, right? And so we found that startups and the direct-to-consumer companies love it. And it makes a lot of sense, right? Because if you're a startup, like your brand is kind of everything. And if you're doing direct-to-consumer, like often the brand is a differentiator. So we work with, sorry, skincare brands, food brands, lifestyle. But also we're working with big agencies. agencies like agencies who your listeners would have heard of as part of that backend stack because if you're a you're an agency like and you're working with big brands you need to make sure that the output actually looks like the brand and is on brand as well so if you're creating branded assets of scale as like an enterprise or an agency it works super well but we're releasing a self-serve solution quite soon actually within the next well you'll be covering this yeah the wait list is going live very soon and hopefully we'll be opening that up And so anyone can just, you know, for 20, 50 bucks a month, depending on your package, you can get started as well for your little startup or your side project.

8:20Ian Shepherd:Excellent. And you mentioned influencer and creator. How do you envisage them being used within the tool?

8:26Simon Davis:So that's a great question. We haven't shared very much of this, but we're building some very, very cool tech for these people where they can capture themselves and their voice and it will help them with generating more content based on themselves. So say like I'm a creator and I'm busy and I want to just have a quick video of me in the park. Just talking about spring because March is coming up. Talking about how spring is coming and whatever. Like I could feel myself at home on my phone and then using the software recast myself to be in the park. And actually it works like pretty flawlessly. And so obviously that will save creators a lot of time.

8:58Simon Davis:If you're a creator that works with a brand as well and you have an agreement in place with a brand where they can use your likeness within some parameters. that means the brand can then just quickly create content and you don't have to make the effort to go there and like film every time as well. So for anyone that's doing like photo shoots or videos, like it's a real, it's a massive, massive time saver.

9:17Ian Shepherd:Wow, it sounds amazing. I'm fascinated to see it. Can you tell me about a user who's using the product already?

9:23Simon Davis:Yeah, so we have a number of people who've been using it, but there's one that's really stood out to me, which she's the founder of a company called Borderless Butter. and she used it to create an entire Chinese New Year campaign. Chinese New Year obviously being a huge deal out here in Singapore. She refreshed her entire product catalog. She redid all of her socials, all of her website. And she cut marketing time down from dozens and dozens of hours a week because she was doing almost like a full-time job to about two. And so you can see the output from the link we shared with you as well. But it's pretty incredible.

9:57Simon Davis:It's just one person essentially running an entire brand now. I'd say she's a power user. Obviously, as the CEO of the company, I'm one of the admins, so I can see how people are using the product. Yeah, the amount of value and usage she's getting out of it is pretty incredible. And to us, it's very inspirational because I've been making games for 22 years, and I love games, but we've built a platform where people can actually pursue their business ambitions, build the companies they've always wanted to do. And even if you're not resourced with having the funds to hire a full production studio and digital agency or whatever, like you can at least get started yourself now.

10:33Simon Davis:And so allowing like small companies to really get the ball rolling and get that brand out there is actually like kind of, it's kind of mind blowing to me is actually like the kind of impact you can have on people like that.

10:43Ian Shepherd:It's great to hear. And do you think the tool, I mean, a great example there is saving time. Is that going to be the, it's going to be efficiency saver or are there other things that you think it will help creators and users with?

10:53Simon Davis:I think efficiency saving is like the easy one, right? It's the easy one. But I think the important thing is that it learns over time and it gets smarter with you. And so the more you use it, the more it knows your brand to the point where like it will sometimes argue with me about whether what I'm doing is on or off brand and say like, you really sure you want to do that? And I was, yeah, you're right. And so it almost becomes like a creative director in terms of how it suggests things. I think the other value add is that just through the learning, once you plug it into your existing socials, like you can get pretty deep insights into how people are interacting with your brand online and how you can get the most value out of that as well and so yeah look it's great i mean it's amazing right to be able to do things 200 times faster like create something in two minutes instead of six hours like if you're creating a completely new visual from scratch whatever uh you know and agencies will charge four figures for that you can do it for a couple of dollars but i think more importantly will actually be the insights and the value and having someone to debate and spar with on this stuff as well because people underestimate actually how smart these agents are getting and how much they learn the more you interact with them i'm curious how do you price secret sauce yeah i mean there's a couple of tiers so there's a 20 a month tier for people that want to get started and it has a certain number of generations you get access to a codex which is what we call your brand memory and so it will learn your brand and you can start interacting with it then it's pretty pretty powerful and then people want to get more use out of it there's like a 50 a month package has more generations has more support you can access additional codexes so you can run maybe more than one brand on it uh players sorry players users will be able to top up as well like if you've you know maxed out your allowance there's this allowance you can buy a few more credits obviously for enterprise customers that's a bit different so they have much bigger needs there is one client was supplying api access and so that's more of a custom pricing so you know they're generating thousands and thousands of assets and so we have to set up a bit differently also they're not using just like the normal like web interfaces like plugging into their stack.

12:57Simon Davis:So it really depends on the person. But for the average person, like 20 bucks a month is more than enough to get started.

13:03Ian Shepherd:Do you need to be technical to use this or can a basic user pick it up first time?