In April, Toys R Us partnered with AI marketing company Native Foreign to release the “first ever brand film” created with Sora, OpenAI’s flagship generative AI model. The result hit hard on the industry. A few hours ago, Native Foreign published the prompt. Explore it below.

The first brand to use Sora for video commercial

It’s not a secret that Sora, which hand-picked creators are testing, generated text-to-video results that were recognized as Vimeo Staff Pick. However, this is the first time a major brand (Toys R Us) is using Sora for a video commercial. Does this commercial indicate an increase in brand adoption of generative AI? We hope not! Anyway, as stated by the press release: “The iconic Toys R Us brand is leaping ahead of the curve by creating the first-ever brand film using OpenAI’s new text-to-video tool, Sora. Toys R Us Studios, the entertainment production arm of the global toy brand, partnered with Emmy-nominated creative agency Native Foreign, whose Chief Creative has alpha access to Sora – which has not yet been publicly released. Together, they premiered this brand film during the 2024 Cannes Lions Festival, showcasing it to an audience of brand and advertising industry leaders at an exclusive LBB Beach event in France. Indeed, this is the top of the first-ever brand film created with OpenAI Sora technology. It depicts a young Charles Lazarus, founder of Toys R Us and creator of Geoffrey the Giraffe, dreaming of a magical place that will change toy stores forever.

The creative industry is experiencing a renaissance, much like Toys R Us. Through Sora, we were able to tell this incredible story with remarkable speed and efficiency. Toys R Us is the perfect brand to embrace this AI-forward strategy, and we are thrilled to collaborate with their creative team to help lead the next wave of innovative storytelling.

Nik Kleverov, Chief Creative Officer at Native Foreign

How much time did it take?

OpenAI’s Sora enabled Toys R Us Studios and Native Foreign to bring a concept to reality in just a few weeks, condensing hundreds of iterative shots down to a couple of dozen. The brand film was almost entirely created with Sora, with some corrective VFX and an original music score composed by Aaron Marsh of the famed indie rock band Copeland.

How did they do it?

“When we are crafting the prompts, we use specific keywords to dial the look. Then we finished with a CGI and VFX pipeline” said Native Foreign in an explanatory BTS video release a few hours ago. And if you were wondering about the prompt, they shared it too. Explore it below:

Feel free to throw your insights/criticism in the comments section below.