Saint believes in data-driven creativity through artificial intelligence. The new creative tech player has developed its own self-learning, proprietary private AI platform, named Halo, to create work that’s faster, smarter and more accurate. But its creativity is also guided by Hall of Fame creative director, Poppe van Pelt, with an impressive career at Apple, Selmore and TBWA\NEBOKO and Harm-Jan van der Mark, whose strong design background was finessed at Wieden+Kennedy, Indie and Philips.
Van Pelt became intrigued two years ago by the potential of AI in the creative process, and how it could accelerate creativity. Harm-Jan van der Mark saw the opportunities with AI for innovations in design.
Van Pelt stated, “When I started delving into AI with Harm-Jan, I immediately saw the possibilities it offered, not just for us, but more importantly for our clients.”
Saint evolved from an idea into a reality during a knowledge exchange between former TBWA partners, van Pelt and Perry Valkenburg. While van Pelt had been experimenting with AI for several years during his time as creative director at Apple, Valkenburg, in the meantime, foresaw AI’s disruption of traditional advertising in his capacity as advisor and investor. Drawing from his prior experience as president international and COO of TBWA Worldwide, Valkenburg transformed Saint into a fully-fledged agency, born from AI.
The Saint business team is led by Sue Workman, BUSINESS DIRECTOR, who brings a global perspective after previous roles at DDB, VCCP, Saatchi & Saatchi, Publicis Groupe, and TBWA\NEBOKO. She stated, “The rapid advancements in AI are often impossible to keep up with for the average advertiser and their partners. Allowing employees to work with ChatGPT or other public cloud systems themselves, often produces middle-of-the-road output and poses significant risks.”
Maurits de Vries, chief technology officer and the architect behind Halo, elaborated, “Companies often inadvertently train big tech platforms like ChatGPT with sensitive client data, exposing this data to the world. That’s why Saint uses a self-developed, GDPR-compliant AI platform called Halo. All Halo models are based on open-source frameworks but run within a private cloud, meaning advertisers can rest assured their sensitive data is securely stored and does not leave the system. Instead, we use this data to develop bespoke strategies and creative work that’s more innovative, insightful and efficient for our clients.”
The Saint management team has worked on campaigns for brands such as Adidas, Apple, Bavaria, Coca-Cola, Heineken, KLM, Mercedes-Benz, Nike, Philips, and T-Mobile.
The Saint team is further strengthened by Job van Pelt, an AI creative engineer specialist with expertise in AI-driven innovation, focusing on advanced tools and technologies for strategic brand development. Blanche Verstegen, an AI visual creative specialist, brings her skills in forecasting trends and creating visually engaging, innovative brand experiences. In the coming months, additional specialists in AI, data science, and the media world will be joining Saint.
