AI is on the minds of every marketer, media buyer, and ad provider/platform in the world. With new apps, tools and integrations being released daily, keeping up with all of it can be beyond overwhelming.
Even Google had AI as a core part of their keynotes at Google Marketing Live with a myriad of “coming soon” features that leverage AI to build both text and image ad creatives. Needless to say, AI is here to stay whether you are an advocate or opponent of the AI wave.
But even with tech juggernauts jumping on the bandwagon, the standard is still being set by the “OG” AI platforms—and one of the most powerful is the AI image generation system known as Midjourney.
Chances are that if you have seen a strikingly accurate, true-to-life AI image, it was created with Midjourney. All you need to do is type what you want and—like magic—it is delivered to you in seconds.
But there is far more you can accomplish with Midjourney beyond flexing your artistic skills or seeing what a pink cat with a crown driving a car might look like. Let’s get into some of the possibilities.
Create Custom Stock Images
Whether we’re looking for a photo for your website or an ad creative, we all need to dip into the stock imagery pool from time to time. But with most of these images screaming “I’M A STOCK PHOTO!”, creating your own might be a better option.
Want a kid wearing a raincoat, playing in the rain, on a city sidewalk? You got it. Want to create the same image for different markets, like in the country, on the beach, or on a roller coaster? You can do that, too.
The great thing about using Midjourney for custom stock imagery is that you can even tone the image to match your brand’s color palette and stylistic preference (e.g., photoreal vs. a watercolor painting style).
The possibilities really are endless—all you need to do is think it up and type it out.
Generate Unique Logos
Not everything needs to dance on the edge of reality. You can choose to create simple, flat, 2D images and specify “a circle logo featuring” a car, lighthouse, or whatever you want.
From there, you can choose variations of your creation until you land on something you can work with or that you can send to your designer to replicate and improve upon.
Anyone in the design world knows the frustration of a client asking for revisions on a project but not articulating what style shift they want. Midjourney can help you mock up dozens of stylistic ideas to lock down the direction before you pull the trigger on a final design.
Design Website Layouts & Landing Pages
When I discovered this, it was like a light bulb went on. Midjourney can give you clean mock-up ideas for landing pages, product pages, category pages, and the list goes on.
Granted these are not going to be images you can just plug and play, but again, you can use Midjourney to hash out a creative direction first—before spending the hours, days, or even weeks to create the finished content.
Like with my previous examples, you can change up the color palette, specify the kind of product you want featured in the layouts, like “a website product landing page for men’s watches,” and voila! If you have a SaaS product or a service-based business, ask for a “fintech” layout and you might find something more your style.
Conceptualize & Create Products
Looking for a design update for a product or want to see what a new product could look like? Midjourney has you covered there also.
Asking for something like “a line of men’s athletic clothing” gives you shockingly realistic results that you can use as a baseline.
You can add your color preferences, products (hoodies, pants, shoes, etc.) and even more details—but having this ability to create visual product concepts on the fly is truly mind-blowing.
Midjourney will not be able to add text or logos to your product (as legible text is currently the Achilles heel of the system), but you can finish this out in Canva or send the idea to your designer to complete. You could save a lot of time and cash trying this vs. waiting for samples (you might not even like) to be produced.
Use Existing Images
You may have some photos and screenshots you want to use as a baseline, and Midjourney has the capability to accommodate you.
Jsut a few months ago I would have told you that Midjourney’s ability to replicate products from images was about a 5 out of 10 at best, but with Midjourneys latest upgrades (v5.2 at the time of writing) massive strides have been made.
The image above was taken using a jacket taken from a Nordstrom site (not a sponsor) dropping it into Midjourney and simply asking “show me a man wearing this jacket in the city.” the results and detail here have been pushed to an 8 out of 10 for me.
Spending a little more time I could have easily pushed the realism and setting to be even better – but I will leave it to you to try this on your own.
Imagine being a small business and being able to generate a library of product images in the “real world” with a few clicks – gamechanger!
Dive Into Midjourney
There is a learning curve with Midjourney and many seem to find it a bit overwhelming. I think this is because we are basically being gifted a blank canvas to work with.
But you have nearly endless flexibility with Midjourney when it comes to creating whatever you have in your head. And opting for the paid version (which is cheap) also grants you ownership of what you create—meaning that you won’t need to worry about copyrights or getting flagged from Midjourney. So don’t be afraid to dive in—you will be swimming soon enough.
As always if you want to see if (or how) leveraging AI can be beneficial to your marketing strategy – don’t hesitate to contact the National Positions team today!