MarTech Interview with Joaquin Cuenca Abela, CEO & co-founder at Freepik

How are new age AI art generators impacting the way modern marketers and advertisers build digital creative and media assets? Joaquin Cuenca Abela, CEO and Co-founder at Freepik comments:

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Welcome to this MarTech Series chat, Joaquin, tell us about yourself and what inspired Freepik?

I’ve always had a passion for technology and have been lucky enough to spend a lot of my career working at some incredible companies. I’m very entrepreneurial and, early on in my career, I founded a number of startups. One of these was called Panoramio – the first Spanish company bought by Google. This led me to join Google as the Technology Lead of Panoramio.

My time at Google was so important, as it’s where I found the inspiration for Freepik. The idea for Freepik started when we couldn’t easily find images when updating a website for one of our clients. We were unable to find an intuitive, cost-effective, and simple solution – so I decided to create a company that could myself.

At the beginning, Freepik hosted third-party images but, over time, we’ve invested resources to improve the quality of the content we offer by creating our own assets and experimenting as technology advances. Our innovation process begins by identifying a gap in the market through product launches and performance testing, with a user-centered investigation to ensure it meets high-quality standards.

How does Freepik’s new AI art generator enable end users and especially brand and marketing teams? 

Generative AI has completely revolutionised our ways of working, especially in creative industries. Tools such as DALL-E have cemented the fact that AI generated images will be groundbreaking for graphic design.

At Freepik, we wanted to provide our users with tools that allow them to embrace the advancements in technology. Freepik Pikaso – our new real-time sketch-to-image AI tool – is an incredible tool that can enable everyone and anyone to create great designs faster.

For marketing teams in particular, Freepik Pikaso has the potential to be a game changer. We know that budgets are stretched while workloads continue to grow so it can help to eliminate time-consuming design tasks such as sketching intricate pictures.

It allows a person to sketch a rough design that is then updated using generative AI. Users can update their creations by adding icons, more drawings, written prompts, or experiment with live video using a webcam. This is all underpinned by Freepik’s icon library – so users can speed the process up even more by choosing from thousands of icons, rather than spending a long time drawing.

We want marketers to work smarter not harder, and generative AI tools allow them to do just that. End-users have full control over the final image, and they can continue to change it as needed. Ultimately, Freepik Pikaso will help to alleviate the burden of increased workloads whilst enabling people to embrace creativity.

How can today’s digital creators, advertisers and marketers make use of AI powered image and design tools to ease the production of their online media assets while ensuring high quality?

Digital creators, advertisers, and marketers can, and should, leverage AI to both increase productivity and elevate their campaign assets. Generative AI tools allow creators to push the boundaries of creativity by quickly generating images and assets that would otherwise be a time-consuming task. This allows them to meet deadlines quickly and focus on other aspects of their job, such as strategy.

To ensure high quality assets are created, users should test AI tools prior to utilising them for campaigns. Testing not only allows creators to confirm the quality of assets generated, but it can ensure that those who will be using the tool are familiar with how it works. For example, users may need to try out various written prompts or look through icon libraries to familiarise themselves with the tools to ensure high quality assets.

Generative AI tools also shouldn’t replace the need for human intervention or oversight. Whilst they can free up crucial time, it’s important that advertisers and marketers continue to have oversight on the end product and review any content generated.

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How will the future of creatives in the digital space be influenced by the growing use of AI? 

This year alone we’ve already seen the transformative impact of AI from content creation to data analysis and much more. As AI becomes more sophisticated, creatives can expect to benefit from increased efficiency, freeing up valuable time for strategic, innovative and creative tasks.

AI can also help anyone and everyone to unlock creativity and it’s likely that in the coming years we’ll see more of AI being harmoniously integrated with unique and creative human flair. Coupled together, the potential for AI in the creative industries is limitless, so it’s likely that we’ll see more creatives leveraging its benefits.

As AI advances further, creatives in the digital space will need to adapt their skillset to ensure they can work alongside AI systems. If they haven’t already, I urge everyone, whether creative or not, to integrate AI into their lives now. Its capability is outstanding and it’s crucial we embrace it now during the beginning of its inception rather than playing catch up.

What should modern brands do more of to build better digital design frameworks that boast of uniqueness while helping their message truly stand out? 

Authenticity is key in helping brands to stand out amongst the crowd. No matter the industry, customers seek out brands that are genuine. Brand and marketing teams should infuse frameworks that reflect the identity and value of a brand clearly. Alongside this, consistent branding creates a cohesive and recognizable brand image that reinforces your message to consumers.

Modern brands must monitor and adapt to trends more to ensure they stay ahead of competitors. In today’s fast-moving digital age, new trends are constantly appearing, so advertising and marketing teams should keep an eye on social media platforms and consumer forums to understand how they can adapt their brand in line with emerging trends.

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Can you talk about some of the leading tech brands you feel have a robust online visual framework and creative-design elements that resonates well most online users: what takeaways from those would you leave us with here?

Figma, a collaborative design tool, has an eye-catching visual identity. Its website is intuitive and helps to lure users in. I love the interactive features of the homepage which make it feel like you’re already using the product.

Vercel, a cloud platform, also has a robust online visual framework. It’s worked with some huge brands like OpenAI and Meta and it’s immediately evident that they are innovative. Like Figma, it has an interesting website homepage which enables prospective customers to understand not only its product and solutions easily but also its visual identity.