Submitted by Golin

The Unfinished Film

Influencer Marketing

Golin Ketchum built an intentionally incomplete Adobe Firefly film for Adobe and invited four global creators to finish it, work the agency reports drove 5.7 million interactions.

5.7Mviews on Adobe's hero video
5.7Minteractions in first seven days
40+global outlets with coverage
40+positive-neutral sentiment share
40+interactions, Noméie Pino

Case in 60 seconds

Adobe had lost the creative community's trust, because a wave of AI competitors and doubt about Firefly's capabilities left many creators not merely choosing rival tools but actively hostile to Adobe's AI direction.

The campaign appears to turn on a creative community that read AI as a threat to authorship, so proof of Firefly's range had to come from creators' own finished work rather than from Adobe's claims.

The organizing thesis was to hand authorship back to creators by releasing a film made entirely with Firefly that was deliberately left unfinished, positioning AI as a collaborator rather than a replacement.

Golin Ketchum partnered with the AI filmmaker Sam Finn to make an intentionally incomplete film entirely in Adobe Firefly, then invited four global creators to finish it their own way as co-directors. Adobe's hero cut ran on YouTube, and Golin Ketchum reports that media coverage of the work appeared in 40+ global outlets.

Golin Ketchum reports 5.7 million interactions in the first seven days and 1.4 million views on Adobe's hero video, with coverage in 40+ global outlets at 100% positive-neutral sentiment. The agency also reports that Noméie Pino alone drove 2.5 million interactions.

Strategy Breakdown

The primary strategy-learning section — interpretation, not a press-release summary.

The creative community whose trust Adobe had lost, including creators who had moved to competing AI tools and those openly hostile to Adobe's AI direction.
Based on the available evidence, the tension sits between generative AI tools and creators who read them as replacements for their own authorship, which the work addressed by releasing a Firefly film that only creators could complete.
Adobe faced a wave of AI competitors alongside doubt about what Firefly could do, so the brand had to prove capability in a category where claims made in its own voice carried little credit.
Adobe appears to take the role of supplier rather than author, providing the tool and the unfinished film while the creators hold the creative decisions and the finished versions.
Hostility to Adobe's AI direction suggests that messaging from the brand would have been discounted on arrival, so the campaign routed the argument through creators whose own output the community already trusted.

Creative & Execution System

Assets & channels

  • YouTube

Partners

  • Golin Ketchum (lead_agency)

Participation mechanic

  • Four global creators were invited to finish an intentionally incomplete film their own way, so participation took the form of co-direction, with each creator resolving the same film through a version of their own.

Creator role

  • Sam Finn — creator
  • Noméie Pino — creator

Results & Evidence

MetricValueResult type
views on Adobe's hero videoThe campaign generated 5.7 million interactions in the first seven days, with Adobe's hero YouTube video surpassing 1.4 million views.video_views
interactions in first seven daysThe campaign generated 5.7 million interactions in the first seven days, with Adobe's hero YouTube video surpassing 1.4 million views.video_views
global outlets with coverageMedia coverage appeared in 40+ global outlets with 100% positive-neutral sentiment - and Noméie Pino alone drove 2.5 million interactions with just 144K followers, proving authentic content outperforms reach every time.performance
positive-neutral sentiment shareMedia coverage appeared in 40+ global outlets with 100% positive-neutral sentiment - and Noméie Pino alone drove 2.5 million interactions with just 144K followers, proving authentic content outperforms reach every time.performance
interactions, Noméie PinoMedia coverage appeared in 40+ global outlets with 100% positive-neutral sentiment - and Noméie Pino alone drove 2.5 million interactions with just 144K followers, proving authentic content outperforms reach every time.performance

Why Golin's strategy worked

  1. 1

    Where a category's users distrust a brand's direction, handing them authorship over the demonstration appears to work better than asserting capability, because the proof is then made by the people who doubted it.

  2. 2

    Noméie Pino alone drove 2.5 million interactions, which suggests that casting for creative fit rather than follower scale can carry the larger share of a campaign's response.

  3. 3

    An intentionally unfinished asset gives collaborators a defined job, which reads as a way to secure participation while allowing each creator to resolve the work differently rather than briefing them into one execution.

  4. 4

    Coverage in 40+ global outlets at 100% positive-neutral sentiment suggests that framing a tool as a collaborator rather than a replacement lowers the risk of hostile pickup in a contested category.

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