Matt O'Dowd

Ads, music, assorted madness.

[Zentrix⌚️ @ZentrixHQ]

📖SEEDANCE 2.0 IS SETTING A NEW STANDARD FOR AI FILMMAKING.

In a 20-minute video, you'll find out what you might not have guessed

With the right workflow, you can create cinematic AI videos with consistent characters, natural voiceovers, and professional-quality visuals.

The pipeline is simple:
• Nano Banana Pro for character sheets
• Multi-shot prompting for coherent scenes
• Seedance 2.0 for video + voice generation
• Topaz for upscaling
• Premiere Pro for the final edit

A repeatable workflow that works for AI short films, commercials, and client projects.

I found some good material that I have reviewed many times and decided to share with you. The author explains everything in great detail. This is not just a review - it is a pleasure.

📥Tomorrow I'm covering the one that surprised me the most this month.
🔖The guide below has some interesting information. One bookmark, one workflow, one result.

[Matt O'Dowd @Matt_ODowd]

@aiamajedi Amazing work. What AI tools are you using for the sync?

[Matt O'Dowd @Matt_ODowd]

What a headline.

[Matt O'Dowd @Matt_ODowd]

@danielhberger Community boards and HOAs can be inherently annoying and obstructionist. But I understand why people resist dramatically changing their neighborhoods.

Nobody wants a new airport or asylum in their backyard. Who draws the short straw?

[Matt O'Dowd @Matt_ODowd]

@danielhberger Should distant state actors be making local decisions?

[Matt O'Dowd @Matt_ODowd]

@CrystalHope1979 @grok Estimate how many calories in this dish.

[Matt O'Dowd @Matt_ODowd]

@Roxass24 @MomsPostingLs The omnigrift.

[Matt O'Dowd @Matt_ODowd]

@CatCaboza @Zvbear @humanizeonsol Lisa is Carrie Coon.

[Matt O'Dowd @Matt_ODowd]

Huh. @tunguz

[Bojan Tunguz @tunguz]

Oh, now we know how ChatGPT imagines himself.

[Matt O'Dowd @Matt_ODowd]

@JustAllowItAll @yonejutsu @JohnQ27899645 @SuppressedNws Always been backed by force.

[Matt O'Dowd @Matt_ODowd]

@danielhberger "Get out of the way and let me cook" is the main takeaway. Taxes, regulations, social upheaval all forms of obstruction. Parties have the political capital to get away with one, but not three.

[Matt O'Dowd @Matt_ODowd]

@guyfawkesgirl @andrewr_heppner @orenmeetsworld Want to know this.

[Matt O'Dowd @Matt_ODowd]

@jack_gladney @webdevMason All artists steal.

[Matt O'Dowd @Matt_ODowd]

@adjoro @dieworkwear I wear these often with more casual outfits, but the menswear guy would say these are the wrong aesthetic language for suits. Mixing tactical utility with western dress is forbidden.

[Matt O'Dowd @Matt_ODowd]

@joshgondelman One of life's great pleasures, but: have you ever had one of these make things extremely weird?

[Matt O'Dowd @Matt_ODowd]

@TrungTPhan @adamscrabble This has to be a feint. I’m waiting for the reveal.

[Matt O'Dowd @Matt_ODowd]

No corporate entity doubles down on a Pepsi Kendall Jenner misfire this hard. Has to be part of the plan.

[Jaguar @Jaguar]

@DK_Able Soon you'll see things our way.

[Matt O'Dowd @Matt_ODowd]

Prediction / hope: this turns out to be a genius fake out and return to their iconic styling.

25M+ views, widespread outrage, but doubling down hard. If true, this is the best ad of the year.

[Lulu Cheng Meservey @lulumeservey]

Taste aside — from a purely strategic perspective, this brand marketing is disastrous for Jaguar.

For context, Jaguar sales have been plummeting (down 70% in the US in five years). It’s a crisis. Their #1 strategic imperative for comms and marketing should be to sell cars. So let’s analyze it through that lens.

Up to 2018, Jaguar was actually growing quickly, doubling sales in a few years. Their subsequent decline was caused by two main things:

1) LAGGING INNOVATION AND ENGINEERING

Jaguar went five (!) years without releasing a new production model, and their technology felt outdated.

2) UNCLEAR POSITIONING

Jaguar got stuck between lanes. They used to be associated with classic sophistication and luxury, competing effectively with Bentley and Aston Martin in a rarefied space.

But then they shifted down to premium, competing with the likes of BMW and Mercedes in a more crowded market. Jaguar SUV sales are cannibalized by their own sister brand (Range Rover).

Now they’re not upscale enough to compete in the luxury market, and not cutting edge enough to compete in the premium market.

DOUBLING DOWN

Even at a basic level, we know that any Jaguar rebrand should (1) highlight innovation, and engineering, and (2) pick a clear lane for branding.

Here they’ve done the opposite.

This campaign is about “collaborating with a collective of original creators across the arts,” according to Jaguar’s website, which has been taken over by the rebrand.

That message is roughly the opposite of what Jaguar should be saying, which is some version of “our cars are engineered to the gills and go very very fast.” Art school grads simply aren’t associated with elite engineering ability, I’m sorry.

It’s possible a marketing exec read too many think pieces about how millennials shop based on values and forgot that people want cars that are really well built.

On top of that, instead of choosing a clear lane, Jaguar’s brand has meandered further into no man’s land. Literally — this is NOT for men. While men have been an important audience for Jaguar historically (it’s a favored ride for James Bond and Bruce Wayne), the latest campaign features six women and two people of indistinguishable gender (one appears to be a man but I don’t want to assume).

If they’re going to abandon the male audience, they should replace it with a more lucrative audience, and it’s unclear who they’re going for here. Vegans?

So the same way Jaguar lost the ultra luxury segment without winning the premium segment, with this campaign they’re losing the “classic sophistication” audience without winning the “Just Stop Oil” audience. It’s risky to be an orphan brand.

MISSED ZEITGEIST

Lastly, Jaguar simply failed to read the room. We are in an era of NOSTALGIA. People want to RETVRN. Tradition, heritage, and classics are more in demand than they’ve been for a long time.

Jaguar was perfectly positioned. Jaguar’s iconic image of an old school British gentleman — think Sir Roger Moore, a known devotee of the brand — would have been a massive asset in today’s environment. Why not a retro themed campaign contrasting state of the art technology with a 70s aesthetic?

TIME FOR A TURNAROUND

This is like when movies used to come out in other countries a year after they were done showing in Hollywood. The vibe of this rebrand might have worked in 2021, but to drop this in late 2024 only emphasizes the reasons for Jaguar’s brand decline in the first place: it’s outdated and confusing.

Apparently Jaguar is planning a broader brand reset for 2025. From early indications, that reset is misguided and likely to fail. Jaguar is a luxury product so their brand can make or break sales, and in this case, they’ll need a U-turn to get back on track.

[Matt O'Dowd @Matt_ODowd]

@firstadopter This is extrapolated from a sample of 5,854 Americans, self reported data, somehow weighed to represent the population after. Almost no way this adds up.

[Matt O'Dowd @Matt_ODowd]

@nickconfalone Incredible. What are the steps?