Digital twins are highly accurate virtual replicas of physical products, built from precise CAD data and enhanced with real-world datasets, often augmented using AI for added realism and immersive contexts. Writing for WARC, Oliver Disney, Chief Growth Officer of Collective World, explains that digital twins are a pragmatic route to “create once, use many” giving marketers control over quality, sustainability and spend.
Why are brands using them?
Budget pressures, channel proliferation and sustainability demands are pushing traditional imaging workflows to breaking point. Digital twins solve this by providing one brand-approved file that can be used in social media, e-commerce and much more, eliminating multiple physical photoshoots, reducing logistics, and ensuring consistent visual quality across markets. According to a market estimate from Fortune Business Insights, the global digital twin market size is forecasted to increase from nearly US$13 billion in 2023 to US$259 billion by 2032.
For instance, Unilever is pioneering a creative shift with the help of cutting-edge AI-powered digital twins. By integrating platforms such as NVIDIA Omniverse, they are not only speeding up content production, they are redefining how product imagery is conceived, executed, and delivered across channels. According to the company, this shift has resulted in a 50% cost reduction in product image creation with twice as fast asset development timelines.
According to Esi Eggleston Bracey, Chief Growth and Marketing Officer at Unilever, “We’ve transformed what was once a complex, slow process into a marketing system that frees up our teams to focus on what they do best – think bigger, be creative, push boundaries and create magic for our brands.” She further added that “This isn’t about pushing out more content – anyone can do that. It’s about starting with a deep understanding of people’s needs and desires, executing our campaigns with creativity and backed by a high-quality content creation machine to deliver desire at scale. Our product twins can be deployed everywhere and anywhere, accurately and consistently so content is generated faster and on brand. We call it creativity at the speed of life!”
Digital twins offer marketers a powerful way to streamline content production while enhancing brand consistency. Real-time rendering engines allow for quick updates to product variants, reducing the need for costly reshoots and minimizing human error. Alongside this, by automating routine production tasks and removing the physical constraints of traditional shoots, digital twins free creative teams to focus on more strategic work. It is important to note that brands are encouraged to begin with one hero product to test gains in speed, cost-efficiency, and engagement before expanding into a twin library. In other words, start small, scale smart.
