AI-R Studio, the AI and hybrid production arm of Mexico-based Pico.Love OS, has won the inaugural Adathon contest hosted by Higgsfield in partnership with ADWEEK. The announcement came Wednesday at Brandweek 2026 in Atlanta.
Skip the deck, make the ad
Launched in July, the month-long competition invited agency and brand creatives to move directly from an idea to a finished, publishable spot using AI tools. Teams had four weeks to write and produce their work, removing many of the usual approval layers before production.
A Higgsfield spokesperson told ADWEEK the contest was designed to show what ‘becomes possible when creative teams can move directly from an idea to a finished, publishable spot.’
The winning spot: a wink at AI anxiety
The AI-R Studio entry opens with AI-generated footage of a toucan and a gorilla in a jungle. Then a director yells cut and says the client no longer wants AI. The AI gorilla is swapped for a human in a gorilla suit, who complains about the costume. A version of ‘Video Killed the Radio Star’ follows as a fish pleads for its life in a sushi restaurant and animated mechs pause mid-battle to ask if they are still being filmed.
The spot ends with the line: Don’t kill the AI stars. They’re just trying to improve your video.
Why this matters for marketing teams
The contest is a signal that generative AI is moving beyond early ideation into finished, campaign-ready production. For agencies and brand teams, the winning entry shows that the strongest AI work often acknowledges AI anxiety with humor rather than ignoring it.
AI-R Studio credited one creative prompt artist and five prompt artists on the winning spot, highlighting an emerging role for creatives who combine human judgment with generative tools.
A few takeaways for teams testing AI production:
- Treat AI as a creative collaborator, not a replacement: human concept and humor still drive the work.
- Compress the path from brief to finished spot without skipping brand storytelling.
- Score pilots on idea, storytelling, craft and realism to avoid gimmick-led output.
Judging and prize
The panel included ADWEEK CCO Zoë Ruderman, Monzo CMO AJ Coyne, WPP global chief innovation officer Elav Horwitz, and Higgsfield executives Michael Ventura and Linda Bethea. Submissions were scored equally across creative idea, brand storytelling and effectiveness, craft such as camerawork and sound design, and realism.
AI-R Studio received $50,000 in credits on the Higgsfield AI media platform, which aggregates multiple generative AI tools and has been used by musicians including Snoop Dogg, Madonna, and Will Smith.
Our take
For marketing leaders, the Adathon is a practical benchmark for what happens when teams remove production bottlenecks and treat AI as a production engine. The winning work stands out because it pairs a clear creative idea with self-aware execution—not because it hides the technology.
A useful framework is to adopt a similar scorecard for internal AI creative pilots: evaluate creative idea, brand storytelling, craft, and realism evenly. That keeps AI experiments focused on campaign outcomes rather than tool novelty.
Source: Adweek
