News
There’s a new myth sweeping through the boardrooms of modern marketing: the idea that generative AI in marketing is the cheap, quick fix for creativity. You’ve seen the TikToks and Instagram Reels — a few lines of “prompt engineering”, a splash of cinematic music, and voilà: an ad that looks like it cost half a million rand, created in an afternoon.
Except… it wasn’t.
Behind every “five-prompt” viral miracle is a creative director quietly tearing their hair out, reprompting a scene for the forty-third time, compositing takes in Runway Gen-3, colour-grading footage from Pika, syncing lip-synced dialogue in ElevenLabs, and then spending the rest of the day in DaVinci Resolve just to make sure it all fits the brand’s tone.
AI didn’t replace the creative process — it just re-engineered it.
The Great AI Mirage
The flood of “How I made a Netflix-level advert with three AIs!” videos has convinced many marketers that the tools do the work. Search queries like “What’s the cheapest AI for video and image generation?” spike every week, as agencies and clients alike go hunting for shortcuts and AI video tools for marketers.
The truth? The question is flawed. It’s not about which AI is cheapest — it’s about which one can deliver your idea with precision.
Creative excellence has never been a race to the bottom. Whether you’re using Midjourney V6, Leonardo.ai, or Runway Gen-3, the output still demands one essential ingredient: taste.
Anyone can buy paint; not everyone can paint a masterpiece.
And here’s the kicker: AI in advertising agencies isn’t about replacing human teams — it’s about equipping them with faster brushes, not cheaper minds.
The Real Work Behind the Prompts
Generative AI isn’t magic — it’s a collaborator that needs direction. For every polished AI campaign you see online, there are hours of failed renders, lighting mismatches, voice inconsistencies, and re-prompted disasters that never make it to the timeline.
It’s like film production: the director doesn’t just shout “Action!” and walk away. They craft tone, emotion, framing, and pacing.
AI follows that same rhythm. The difference is that your actor is a neural network, and your lighting rig is a string of tokens.
The muse hasn’t left the building — she just speaks in Python now.
And if you’ve ever wondered, is AI cheaper than hiring a creative agency? — consider this: agencies spend just as long editing, refining, and iterating AI content as they do on traditional campaigns. The only thing that’s changed is the toolkit.
The Credit Conundrum: When “Cheap” Gets Expensive
Here’s another fun misconception: that AI content creation for brands is “low-cost”.
If you’ve ever tried to budget across tools, you’ll know the chaos. Each platform hides its pricing behind credits and tiers that make a mobile data plan look straightforward.
- Midjourney works on subscription tiers, but quality generations burn through fast.
- Runway Gen-3 and Pika charge per video second or resolution level.
- Synthesia and D-ID invoice per minute of generated voice-over.
- ai locks advanced models behind “boosted credit” structures.
Try comparing them and you’ll quickly realise: there’s no “cheapest AI” — only purpose-built ones, each with their own financial fine print.
Clients who assume “AI = free creativity” are missing the invisible economy of credits, upscales, and re-renders that creatives quietly absorb. When your agency delivers a flawless AI-driven brand storytelling campaign, you’re not paying for a tool — you’re paying for the person who knows which tools to combine, how, and why.
What’s the Most Powerful AI Model Right Now?
There’s no single “best” model — only the right one for the right story. But here’s a snapshot of where the creative landscape stands in late 2025:
| Application | Best AI Models (2025) | Notes on Use |
| Video Generation | Runway Gen-3, Pika 2, Veo, Sora (preview) | Best for cinematic ad concepts and motion studies. Veo excels in photorealism; Pika in stylisation. |
| Image Generation | Midjourney V6, Leonardo.ai, Adobe Firefly 3, Flux 1.1 | Ideal for storyboards, campaign visuals, and brand tone exploration. |
| Voice & Audio | ElevenLabs, Play.ht, Resemble AI | For voiceovers, dialogue dubbing, and multilingual ad variants. |
| Text & Ideation | GPT-5, Claude 3.5, Gemini 1.5 Pro | Used for scripting, concept refinement, and creative AI misconceptions correction. |
Each of these has strengths and blind spots — but none can replace your agency’s insight into why a message should move someone. The algorithm doesn’t know your audience’s cultural heartbeat; you do.
One Platform, Many Personalities
Here’s a simple experiment. Take the same prompt — “a young South African entrepreneur launching her first brand” — and run it through Midjourney, Flux, and Leonardo.ai.
You’ll get three entirely different worlds.
Now go to Freepik’s AI hub and scroll through its endless catalogue of AI models for creative projects. You’ll find hundreds of tools, each trained differently, each interpreting your words through its own stylistic lens.
Some give you pastel minimalism, others hyperreal gloss.
The point? “AI” isn’t a single creative entity — it’s an ecosystem of personalities, each demanding its own direction.
The skill lies not in knowing which prompt to write, but in knowing which AI to trust for the story you’re trying to tell.
Revaluing the Modern Creative
So, what happens now that the myth has cracked?
We return to something refreshingly human: value through craft.
AI is not here to make creativity disposable — it’s here to magnify it. The agencies and brands that win in this new landscape are the ones treating AI as an amplifier, not a shortcut.
They’re the ones combining algorithmic efficiency with emotional intelligence — building content that doesn’t just look good, but feels right.
At FGX, we’ve seen this first-hand. Every AI advertising South Africa project that lands on our desks starts with a human brief, a conversation, and an idea worth amplifying. The AI simply helps us paint faster — not cheaper.
The Bottom Line
The next time someone asks, “What’s the cheapest AI for video and image generation?” you might reply:
“The cheapest? Probably a bad idea.”
Because the real advantage isn’t in finding the lowest-priced model — it’s in working with people who know how to harness them meaningfully, ethically, and beautifully.
Ready to see what AI can really do — when guided by human hands?
Collaborate with FGX’s creative technology team today at fgx.co.za/contact.