The ad they couldn't afford to make.
How a challenger SaaS brand turned an office joke into a cinematic mockumentary — using AI production to pull off something that would have been out of reach otherwise. A competitor ended up dissecting the Easter eggs on Reddit.
It started as a joke in January.
Jennifer and a few teammates were sitting around the office riffing on the doom-and-gloom documentaries their competitors were pouring money into. Someone said the quiet part out loud: if we had all the money in the world, we'd make one of those. Then someone else pitched a send-up of it, played completely straight, Monty Python style.
Everybody laughed. Jennifer drove home that night and couldn't let it go.
I remember crossing my arms, looking at the floor, and thinking, I have to do this.
Jennifer LuPiba, VP of Marketing, CayosoftThe film
Every marketer has had that idea. The one that's actually good, and that you assume you'll never get to make.
A great idea, and every reason not to make it.
Three walls stood in the way.
The category sells fear. Every competitor in the space leans into panic. War rooms. Midnight crises. Disaster around the corner. Cayosoft wins by being the opposite: relaxed, confident, this doesn't have to be dramatic. Sending up the fear-mongering was perfectly on brand — which is exactly why it needed to be executed well enough to be funny instead of petty.
The budget didn't math. Two actors, sets, a crew, and 12 to 18 months of usage rights is a serious number for a company their size. Jennifer was genuinely wondering whether she'd have to go out and buy a desk for the set.
The team was nervous. Not everyone was sold on using AI, and some worried the mocking angle could backfire. Those were fair concerns, and they shaped how we ran the whole project.
The idea was never in question. Confidence was.
So we built the process around checkpoints — each one a place to stop, look, and say yes before spending anything on the next stage.
- A Storyline Workshop to lock alignment on goals, audience, and tone
- A character write-up so the team could see we understood exactly who these people were
- A mood board built together, because working from inspiration beats working from a blank page
- Proof-of-concept audition clips to test the AI approach before committing to it
- Character design sign-offs on look, angles, and voice
- Storyboards
- Iterative edit reviews with clear notes at every pass
Every step of the way, all those continued checkpoints were really good.
Jennifer LuPiba, CayosoftThe character write-up was the turning point. Jennifer called it spot-on, and once she saw that we'd nailed who these characters were, the AI question stopped being scary and started being interesting.
Those audition clips worked so well they now live on Cayosoft's website.
One of the audition clips
From two actors and a desk to a cast they own.
The project started as a traditional shoot. Two actors, build or rent a set, film at the studio.
It became something better. A fully AI-produced mockumentary with characters Cayosoft owns and can bring back whenever they want. One production yielded a whole library: the hero film, an "in a world" trailer cut, platform-specific cutdowns, behind-the-scenes content, and the audition clips.
And Jennifer got the details she never would have gotten on a set built to budget.
I got everything I wanted in the background, even my funny poster.
Jennifer LuPiba, CayosoftBehind the scenes
Then it went to work.
The film went live with a company-wide watch party. The whole team was in on it. Then it went to work:
- A 20% view-through rate on connected TV, tracked as site visits within 30 days using intent-based targeting
- Strong LinkedIn performance, running a cut that withholds the ending to drive clicks to the full film
- A competitor spotted it and posted about it in a monitored community, specifically calling out the Easter eggs. Jennifer's read: they thought it was funny, and were maybe a little jealous
- A friend at another company in the space reached out to ask what tools they used
You took my vision and brought it to life.
Jennifer LuPiba, CayosoftAI as the underdog's tool.
At a conference, someone challenged Jennifer on the AI question. Isn't this taking work away from people?
Her answer is the most interesting thing to come out of this project. Going the AI route, Cayosoft employed more people than they otherwise would have. They'd never hired an agency before this. And the project simply would not have existed without the AI approach.
The point was never cost savings. It was flexibility, characters they own and can reuse, and the ability for a smaller company to attempt something ambitious. For a technology audience, it also signaled something useful: this is a company that knows its tools.
Good work isn't frictionless.
And pretending otherwise helps nobody.
AI has real limits. Some nuanced performances can't be nailed, and chasing them gets expensive fast. Sometimes 80% close enough has to be good enough, and knowing when to stop is part of the craft.
Small quirks need cleanup. Badges and lanyards that don't match across shots. Faces that drift. A voice that shifts. Motion design and careful editing handle it, but you have to budget the attention for it.
Sign-offs matter more here than in traditional production. Reopening a locked stage means regenerating, not scheduling a quick pickup. Clear stage-gate approvals are what keep an AI project on the rails.
Got the idea but not the war-documentary budget?
If you're a challenger brand with a sharp point of view, the budget isn't the wall it used to be. AI production can put a cinematic, character-driven, endlessly reusable campaign within reach — and leave you with a cast you own and can bring back for the next story. The idea and the strategy are still what matter. That part hasn't changed.
Let's talk about the one you assumed you'd never get to make.