Creativity thrives on vision, especially in the world of competitive advertising. So when Critical Mass, a forward-thinking global creative agency, landed one of its strongest client partnerships to date — the launch of Lipton Iced Tea’s newest campaign across Latin America — vision alone wasn’t enough. It took flexibility, speed, and an innovative approach to leverage Adobe Creative Cloud for enterprise and Adobe Firefly generative AI throughout the creative process.

“This project was a first for our team in so many ways,” says Rodrigo Ruiz, senior art director at Critical Mass, an Omnicom agency. “We had to adapt, create, test, and execute all at once. There was no roadmap — we just had to trust our instincts and push forward. We were building the blueprint as we went.”

Lipton needed a bold, high-impact campaign to increase brand awareness and recruit new consumers. The challenge was twofold — introduce new audiences to Lipton’s refreshing taste while ensuring the campaign resonated across diverse markets, including Brazil, Mexico, Guatemala, Chile, and Panama. With tight deadlines, multiple stakeholders, and an ambitious creative vision, Ruiz and his creative team had to move fast without sacrificing quality.

“This was a milestone project for us,” says Alejandra Campos, director of client services at Critical Mass. “It was the first time our LATAM team led a major production for Lipton, and it gave us a chance to prove our creative and operational strength. That trust led to an ongoing partnership that’s now in its third year.”

By integrating Firefly creative AI into their workflows, the team streamlined everything from concept ideation to casting approvals. This helped them produce a visually compelling campaign that achieved 142% of its original reach objective.

Bringing Lipton’s vision to life.

Developing a campaign of this scale — with 25 unique stories under 3 campaign pillars for 4 countries with 7 bottle designs — was no small feat. To maintain brand consistency across all markets, they worked closely with Ana Villarreal, brand manager at Lipton LATAM, to understand the brand’s distinct visual language, ensuring every creative element — from color palettes to lighting styles — felt authentically Lipton. With Firefly features such as Structure Reference, which matches the composition of a reference image, and Style Reference, which applies the style of a reference image, the team was able to visualize concepts in minutes, speeding up creative ideation and reducing time spent on manual tasks.

“We used Firefly to generate visuals that would help us explore ideas early in the process, giving us a fast way to share concepts with our clients and get approvals without having to go through several iterations of traditional design work,” Ruiz says. “Now, instead of spending time refining brand details like backgrounds and lighting manually, we can generate assets that align perfectly with the brand’s identity from the start.”

With this foundation in place, the Critical Mass team began exploring creative concepts. Firefly-generated imagery helped them develop a cohesive aesthetic that blended Lipton’s signature bright yellows with rich, dynamic blues.

These bold, eye-catching backdrops perfectly highlighted the images of iced tea surrounded by picture-perfect slices of fruit. The campaign’s tone, style, and visual identity took shape quickly, and with Firefly seamlessly integrated into Adobe Photoshop, the team could refine their ideas in real time.

“Before, we’d spend hours searching for reference images and still end up with something that wasn’t quite right,” says Ruiz. “With Firefly, we can use the text-to-image feature and get results instantly.”

With Firefly, the team developed over 100 storyboards, generating more than 2,000 AI-driven images and refining their vision through 500 carefully crafted prompts. The result was a visually stunning and cohesive narrative that flowed seamlessly across different campaign assets and regional adaptations, bringing Lipton’s brand story to life with precision and creativity.

From AI to reality.

With the campaign’s visual style in place, the next challenge was casting. Lipton needed talent that could resonate across Latin American markets — someone who embodied a sense of global citizenship. Rather than searching blindly, Critical Mass turned to Firefly to help define the ideal cast.

Critical Mass understood the importance of nuance. They knew that the term “Latin” is not a monolith — it’s a vibrant tapestry of cultures, ethnicities, and regional identities. Instead of seeking a single archetype, they turned to Firefly to generate AI-driven visual references that reflected a broad spectrum of identities to help guide the model casting process. Using detailed prompts, they generated dozens of images inspiring casting and prop direction. Armed with this vision, the casting process moved faster than ever, finalizing the casting of people for the campaign in just one week.

While only real models were featured in the final campaign, Firefly played a crucial role in shaping the artistic direction for the overall style and vibe of the campaign, ensuring that when casting and production began, everyone was aligned on the creative vision.

Setting a new standard for creativity and speed.

Audiences responded well to the campaign. The energy and relevancy of the images and messaging yielded more than 12% of viewers watching the entire ad — far surpassing the 3% benchmark.

“We exceeded our original target in just six weeks,” Villarreal says. “The video views completion rate was four times the benchmark — our engagement rates were also higher than planned.”

This level of engagement translated into real brand impact, with a 4.4% lift in brand association in Brazil — a significant jump compared to the 0.9% industry benchmark. By leveraging AI-generated visuals tailored to diverse Latin American audiences in pre-production, Lipton was able to optimize its consumer targeting. This strategic approach ensured that every creative asset felt natural and relevant to its audience, leading to higher recall and stronger emotional connections with the brand.

“The success of this campaign set a benchmark for how we work moving forward,” says Campos. “We’re not just using AI to work faster — we’re using it to push creative boundaries and bring our clients’ visions to life in ways we never could before.”

Building momentum for future innovation.

The success of the Lipton campaign has inspired Critical Mass to continue exploring new AI capabilities, such as integrating Adobe Firefly Custom Models into its workflow, to further push the boundaries of creative storytelling while maintaining brand authenticity for its clients.

“Custom Models will be a game changer for us,” says Enrique Ottone, VP Creative Director, Critical Mass. “The relationship we’re building with the Adobe Firefly team provides us with a blank canvas to experiment with AI and discover new, faster, and better ways to approach the creative work we deliver for our clients. Ultimately, this benefits everyone involved. We’re excited about the ability to train AI on a brand’s unique assets and open up endless, exciting possibilities.”

Elliot Sedegah is Director of Product Marketing at Adobe, shaping B2B go-to-market strategy for Creative Cloud and Generative AI. With over 15 years of experience spanning software engineering, product management, and IT consulting, he has partnered with global brands and government agencies to drive innovation and business impact.

Elliot holds an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management, an MS in Engineering Management from George Washington University, and a BS in Computer Engineering from the University of Maryland.

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