The before-picture
A four-person DTC-focused creative studio in Lisbon shipped roughly six social ads per week per client. Pipeline: brief → stock library search → motion graphics in After Effects → VO booking → cut in Premiere → client review → revisions. Median turnaround: nine working days.
The switch
In early 2026 they rebuilt the pipeline around three AI tools: Flux 2 Pro for hero frames, Veo 3.1 (mostly Fast) for animation, and Sora 2 for anything needing native audio. After Effects stayed for typography and lower-thirds. Premiere stayed for final assembly.
The numbers
After ninety days:
- Median turnaround: 2.5 days (from 9)
- Ads shipped per week per client: 14 (from 6)
- Monthly credit spend: ~$420 (replacing ~$1,400 in stock + $2,000 in motion labour)
- Client-approved-on-first-round rate: 68% (from 41%)
What actually mattered
The tools were not the win. The win was rewriting the brief template. Every brief now specifies aspect ratio, first frame, motion beat, and audio note — the four things an AI stack needs. Before, briefs were mood-board pitches; now they're generation-ready prompts. That single change unlocked most of the speedup.
The mistakes they made first
Two costly ones:
- Rolling final-quality generations before the concept was locked. Fixed by mandating fast-tier drafts first.
- Ignoring image-to-video and prompting long text-to-video paragraphs. Fixed by making a hero image the required deliverable of every internal review.
What they still can't do
Anything past 15 seconds needs traditional cutting. Talking-head influencer content — clients still want real people. And any campaign that will run on cinema/OOH — the resolution ceiling still shows up.
Start with the same stack
Put this into practice in the studio — under a minute to your first result.
Start with the same stack →