Google’s Veo 3: Advertising’s new AI tipping point

Brave's Musa Kalenga on Veo 3's impact on Africa

We can’t think of Veo 3 as just another shiny AI tool. It’s a fundamental shift in conceptualising, creating, and connecting with audiences.

While global marketers rush to decode its potential, creative marketers in Africa have a unique opportunity to use this tool to leapfrog. A game changer, Google Veo 3 transforms a simple text prompt into an eight-second cinematic video with synchronised dialogue, ambient sounds, and contextually generated music. For the first time, we’re not just automating execution but imagination.

This is revolutionary in regions where time, budget, and infrastructure limit creative ambition. Imagine a township entrepreneur generating product ads with multinational production quality or a pan-African NGO building immersive campaigns without hiring film crews.

A new era, a new African story

For over a century, the global video production industry has been dominated by the United States, an era that began in earnest during World War I. More recently, Bollywood and Nollywood have emerged as regional powerhouses, each with distinctive styles, scale, and storytelling traditions.

However, with Veo 3, the US’s historical dominance can finally be challenged, enabling new industries and narratives to emerge. Young African creators no longer need to migrate, fundraise, or outsource to tell stories that will impact the world. From Cape Town to Kigali, they can now produce world-class visuals at speed and scale, using only a laptop and their imagination. This levels the playing field in a way no generation could have imagined.

This will shake up the global advertising industry. Not only will it introduce new creative voices into the mainstream, but it will also bring much-needed cultural diversity into campaigns. For South African marketers, in particular, it’s a breakthrough. It enables us to compete globally with local budgets by exporting our creative style, social intelligence, and storytelling craft without the overheads. This could be the most meaningful economic opening for agencies and production houses across the continent since the digital revolution.

AI Video making has changed the game

With a prompt laptop and Gemini subscription, creativity is no longer beholden to cost. For too long, video has been a high-investment format, but no longer. Veo 3 hasn’t just lowered the barriers to entry; it has obliterated them. Now, creatives and creators can create video on demand.

But let’s be clear: democratisation doesn’t equal commoditisation. Just because anyone can create doesn’t mean everyone will make something memorable, relevant and resonant. Veo 3 doesn’t understand why stories matter. It can’t grasp what makes a South African moment poignant or culturally sharp. It replicates emotion but not intent.

At Brave Group, we see Veo 3 as an accelerant, not a threat. It supercharges our ability to prototype and iterate. This is why we developed Forge by Brave. This accessible AI-powered platform gives time back to marketing departments by making brand building quicker, easier and better, thanks to technology. Forge reshapes how campaigns are created, developed and delivered by using one place to effect brand strategy, creative concepts, social media posts, assets, and production.

Creativity, say hello to execution at the speed of thought

With the current advancements in video AI, we’ll soon be able to ideate a TVC in the morning, generate mood films by lunch, and have campaign-ready edits by the end of the day. We applaud Veo 3, which excels at speed, fidelity, and consistency.

Veo 3 maintains object continuity, synchronises soundscapes, and simulates physics – all in seconds. It is invaluable for pre-production and transformative for performance marketing, where agility matters.

But here’s the big challenge for brand owners – the more brands lean into automation, the more homogeneous their creative output will likely become. AI-generated content is only as fresh as the prompts it receives, and prompts are as powerful as the humans who write them.

Being human is a strategic advantage

Ad agencies will remain highly relevant in the AI age because integrated thinking is a strategic advantage. AI sits inside the creative ecosystem but shouldn’t run it. Agencies that understand brands, branding, storytelling, and the creative process and who are strategically and media smart, will be a competitive advantage. Why? Storytelling must remain culturally grounded and emotionally intelligent if brands are to remain relevant and resonant.

Veo 3 will displace parts of the production value chain. Entry-level editors, animators, and production studios will feel pressure. Price points will also come under pressure as clients ask: “Why pay R500,000 for something Veo 3 generates in an afternoon?”

This disruption isn’t hypothetical; it is happening in mature markets now. But disruption means evolution, not destruction. The big challenge for agencies is to understand what parts of our craft are irreplaceable, and to bring this to the fore. Vision, originality, integrated strategy and cultural resonance are human qualities. Cultivate these and you’ll remain indispensable.

AI is a boon for the continent

Moving outside of our sector, Veo 3 will significantly benefit African creativity. Africa is a continent of technophiles used to making a lot from a little because of infrastructural limitations; we’ve always been scrappy, lateral, and daring.

Veo 3’s limitation is cultural nuance. Yes, the videos are hyper-real and photorealistic. But are they authentically local? Can this AI differentiate between a township spaza shop and a suburban deli? Between Joburg’s swagger and Durban’s cool? Not yet. That’s where cultural custodianship becomes critical. Brands that use Veo 3 without cultural intelligence will quickly be exposed. Audiences are unforgiving when authenticity is missing.

Use Veo 3 to amplify stories, not erase them. Train your models. Build prompt libraries. Push tech providers to localise datasets. Representation isn’t just about who’s on-screen but who’s shaping the machine.

The future of ad agencies

The good news is that Veo 3 isn’t the end of advertising agencies. It begins a new storytelling era where imagination and execution converge. Why? Because tools don’t make magic. People do.

Our industry will face the temptation to automate the soul out of creativity. To flood markets with slick, empty videos that say everything and mean nothing.

At Brave Group, we choose differently. We believe AI enables ideas to fly higher and faster, but it never replaces the human heart, mind and soul of advertising. Let’s build advertising’s next chapter with courage, creativity, and conscience.