Content PR crisis management with AI reframing
Managed a content-driven PR crisis for JD Sports and Nike by using AI and CGI to reframe existing campaign footage, redefining messaging and expanding the launch across new formats — all within 36 hours.
The challenge
What they needed
A campaign that JD Sports and Nike had invested significant production budget into hit a PR crisis. The details matter less than the dynamic: existing footage was live, negative press coverage was building, and the traditional response — pull everything, reshoot, relaunch in six weeks — wasn't an option. The damage would compound daily, and the window to control the narrative was measured in hours, not weeks. The brief was clear but brutal: limit the negative exposure, salvage the investment in the existing footage, and turn the campaign around fast enough that the relaunch overtook the crisis in the news cycle. That meant finding a way to fundamentally change what the content communicated without starting from scratch.
The approach
How I tackled it
I used a combination of AI and CGI to manipulate the existing footage, reframing the creative without reshooting. This wasn't about slapping a filter on and hoping nobody noticed — it was a genuine creative rework using AI-driven techniques to alter the tone, context, and messaging of the original material while preserving the production quality and the core investment. The campaign messaging was redefined within 36 hours. Not a holding statement or a placeholder — a fully realised creative pivot with new messaging, new context, and new formats. I then expanded the launch across additional platforms and formats that weren't part of the original plan, turning a defensive move into an offensive one. The relaunch gave the campaign more reach than the original brief intended.
Results
By the numbers
Crisis to relaunch
Footage salvaged
Wider campaign reach
What was delivered
Outcomes
This is the kind of engagement that tests whether your tools and your thinking actually work under pressure. Thirty-six hours from crisis to relaunch isn’t a timeline that allows for committee decisions or extended creative reviews. It requires someone who can see the technical possibilities, make the creative calls, and execute — all at the same time.
The AI and CGI work here wasn’t experimental. It was operational. The ability to take existing footage and fundamentally reframe what it communicates — without the cost and timeline of a reshoot — is exactly what compression economics looks like in practice. You’re collapsing what would traditionally be a six-week crisis response into a day and a half.
What made this work commercially was the expansion. Most crisis management is purely defensive — contain the damage, minimise the loss. Here, the AI-enabled speed of the pivot meant we had time and budget left over to go further than the original launch plan. The crisis ended up being the catalyst for a bigger, more diverse campaign than JD Sports and Nike had originally commissioned.
- → Negative press exposure contained within the first 24 hours
- → Existing campaign footage salvaged through AI and CGI reframing
- → Complete campaign messaging redefined and delivered in under 36 hours
- → Launch expanded across additional formats and platforms beyond original scope
- → Crisis turned into an expanded campaign with broader reach than originally planned
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