Audi’s Winter Campaign
How thjnk Used MAGROUND AI Enterprise to Produce Scalable, Production-Ready Campaign Visuals
For its current winter campaign, Audi adopted a new, production-oriented approach to image creation.
All six campaign visuals were created by the Hamburg-based agency thjnk using MAGROUND AI Enterprise Tool.
From early concept development and look exploration to high-resolution final backgrounds, the entire visual world was generated within MAGROUND’s AI tool. The final campaign assets are now being rolled out across channels, including large-scale out-of-home placements.
This project demonstrates that AI-based image generation, when grounded in real photographic data and integrated into professional workflows, can meet the highest standards of automotive marketing.
Working With MAGROUND AI Enterprise
The campaign was created using the MAGROUND AI Enterprise plan, which is specifically designed for professional production environments.
A key feature of this setup is full camera control via a 3D vehicle inside the web interface. Creatives can position and adjust a 3D car directly in the scene, controlling camera height, angle and perspective with precision.
This immediately solves one of the biggest challenges in AI-based image creation: camera consistency.
Instead of relying on abstract prompts, the camera is defined physically. The generated environment adapts to that camera, not the other way around. This ensures that layouts, perspectives and compositions are suitable for later CGI integration.
Locations Trained on the MAGROUND Archive
All locations used in the Audi winter campaign are based on AI models trained on the MAGROUND.com photography archive.
This is a crucial distinction. MAGROUND’s archive consists of professionally captured, production-ready backplates and HDR environments. These images are created with clean compositions, realistic scale, and consistent camera logic.
By training AI models on this curated data, the generated environments inherit the same qualities: believable perspective, natural light behavior and spatial coherence. The AI is not inventing random landscapes. It is generating variations of real, human-made locations.
This is the foundation for the high visual quality achieved in the campaign.
AI Placeholder Cars for Layout and Background Production
During the generation phase, MAGROUND AI uses an AI-generated placeholder car (or trained AI Models of customer Cars).
This placeholder vehicle is a preview of the final product visual. Its role is functional. It allows creatives to:
- define composition and framing,
- judge scale and proportions,
- and design backgrounds precisely around a vehicle position.
Because the camera and vehicle position are controlled in 3D, the resulting images are perfectly suited for downstream CGI workflows. Camera data like focal length, distance to object, camera height and more are stored in the user account at MAGROUND.ai.
In the final production step, the AI placeholder car is replaced with a fully accurate CGI model of the Audi vehicle. This guarantees 100 percent product correctness while retaining the generated environment and lighting.
AI builds the world. CGI delivers the product.
From Look Development to Final Assets
MAGROUND AI was used across the full creative process.
In early stages, the team explored different winter moods, weather conditions and lighting scenarios on the same locations. Snow coverage, atmosphere and time of day could be adjusted quickly without losing structural consistency.
Once a visual direction was defined, the final background images were generated and upscaled to meet the technical requirements of large-format media.
Because the environments are based on real photographic data and trained models, they retain detail and realism even at OOH scale.
Quality That Holds Up at Large Scale
The final campaign visuals are being used across multiple media channels, including large out-of-home posters.
This is a critical benchmark. Large-format usage exposes every weakness in image generation: unnatural textures, inconsistent lighting or broken perspective become immediately visible.
The Audi winter campaign proves that AI-generated environments built on MAGROUND’s trained location models can meet these demands. The images hold up in resolution, detail and credibility.
Six Motifs, One Coherent Visual Language
In total, six different campaign motifs were created.
Despite variations in framing and mood, all visuals share a consistent visual language. This coherence is difficult to achieve with purely generative approaches, especially when multiple assets are required for a single campaign.
The combination of real-location training data, camera-controlled generation and CGI integration ensured continuity across all motifs.
A Blueprint for Professional AI-Based Production
This campaign is not about replacing traditional production. It is about extending it. By combining:
- human-made location photography,
- AI-based environment generation,
- 3D camera control,
- and CGI vehicle integration,
MAGROUND AI Enterprise enables a workflow that is both flexible and production-safe.
The Audi winter campaign shows how AI can be used responsibly and effectively in high-end marketing. Not as a shortcut, but as a tool that enhances creative control and scalability.
Human-Made Data Makes the Difference
At the core of this project lies a simple principle:
AI quality depends on training data.
MAGROUND’s AI models are trained on curated, production-grade photography, not on generic internet images. For brands and agencies, this difference is crucial.
The Audi winter campaign demonstrates that AI-supported image generation, when grounded in real photography and integrated into professional CGI workflows, is ready for serious, large-scale marketing production.
Not as a replacement for creative expertise. But as a powerful extension of it.