How we made Stratiphy’s AI-generated launch film

A launch film has to introduce a brand before it can explain a product. For Stratiphy, a UK fintech startup, the creative challenge was to make an investment proposition feel clear and memorable within a short commercial.

In early 2025, Sidekick developed and produced the fully AI-generated “Great Timing” launch campaign. The brief was for YouTube. This is an account of the creative and production decisions, rather than a claim about a broadcast TV campaign or measured sales results.

Start with the idea the audience needs to understand

Stratiphy was introducing its General Investment Account. The campaign connected preparation and timing with a playful contrast between two characters, Carl and Alan. That gave the film a recognisable situation to work with, rather than asking a list of product features to carry the story.

The production method followed that creative problem. Stock footage was considered, but a specific recurring character and connected scenes were difficult to assemble convincingly from unrelated library clips. AI offered another way to build the visual world around the idea.

Why AI suited this particular brief

Generated scenes gave the team a route to settings and character-led moments without organising a conventional location shoot. That changed where the production effort went: visual development, generation, selection, continuity and finishing became central to the job.

It did not mean unlimited usable takes or an absence of constraints. A generated shot still has to deliver the intended action, match the rest of the film and survive the edit. An attractive image that introduces the wrong gesture or changes the character can create more work.

Character continuity was a production task

The work involved detailed character references and testing across angles. Faces, clothing, lighting and proportions needed to remain recognisable between scenes. The portfolio breakdown shows examples of that development.

A character holding a phone presents a different problem from a wide shot. The hand, device and screen need to make sense together. For a financial product, the interface also carries information: an appealing generated screen should never substitute for approved product detail.

Judge the sequence, not just the frame

Water, sunlight and movement contributed to the campaign’s visual world. The production involved refining those details while keeping the scenes coherent. The useful test was whether the shots belonged together and supported the story.

These are familiar directing and editing questions. Can the audience follow the action? Does the expression read at the intended pace? Does a transition help the joke or interrupt it? Generation changes how footage is created, but it does not answer those questions on its own.

What another fintech brand can learn from the approach

• Brief a clear message. Agree the product benefit and the audience’s next step before choosing a production tool.
• Test the demanding shot early. A repeated character, close interaction or exact interface can determine how the whole film should be built.
• Keep claims and product detail controlled. Generated visuals do not replace the brand’s review and approval process.
• Budget for the finish. Selection, compositing, editing, colour and sound still need time and judgement.
• Separate creative evidence from business results. The finished film demonstrates an approach; acquisition, sales or return-on-investment claims need campaign data.

For the wider planning questions, read our fintech marketing strategy guide. It covers customer needs, trust, channels and measurement. Our guide to what to shoot and what to generate explains how a different brief might benefit from a mixture of techniques.

See the work

Watch the Stratiphy “Great Timing” campaign and production breakdown. For a different application, our Sage mentor films show branded characters and multilingual communication.

Sidekick is a UK creative agency with a team working across the UK and Barcelona. Explore our AI video production work, or send us a brief so we can discuss the creative idea, the difficult shots and the appropriate production approach.