From Agency Life to AI Startup: Pip & Amy’s Origin Story on High Flyers Podcast

Our friends over at Jellyfish built a brand from the ground up in only 24 hours. This was the challenge they took on during SXSW London in June as part of British Interactive Media Association (BIMA) House. With a combination of AI tools, they built a brief, worked on the strategy, came up with concepts and created a full campaign for the new brand in less than a day. 

Jellyfish strategists used Springboards and Pencil to come up with the name, proposition and core concept for the fictional brand. Then the creative team picked up the baton, using Pencil and Veo3 to spin up the visuals, OOH campaigns, and a super fun 30 second ad. 

What resulted was Moodlings, “a premium, mood boosting gummy brand”, and you’ve gotta admit - it’s adorable. We got the warm fuzzies when we first saw the brand. The team developed four different brand avatars, each with its own unique taste and fun packaging. 

The human team included: Tom Roach, Emily Collins, Lucas Stanley, Gemma Cotterell, Sam Yates, Margaux Dalgleish and Sahar Amer, who worked together to build everything from brand strategy to execution using a combination of AI-powered creative tools. 

Not only were the Moodlings cute, the ad also performed well when tested in potential real world scenarios. Jellyfish ran it through their own Share of Model™ platform, System1, and DAIVID, resulting in high scores across the board.

Moodlings is a masterclass in AI-powered creativity. It’s the perfect example of how AI allowed a team of strategists and creatives to get weird and push them to places they wouldn’t have been able to get alone in such a short period of time.

Let’s do more of this together.

Check out Tom Roach's post on Jellyfish here and Pencil's case study on the Moodlings that was featured in Google Cloud's latest blog.

‍New York, NY — June 10, 2025 — Today, Springboards, an AI platform accelerating creativity in advertising, and a collective of global advertising and marketing associations, creative leaders, and AI experts – including 4As (American Association of Advertising Agencies), ACA (Advertising Council Australia), APG, D&AD, IAA (International Advertising Association), IPA, and The One Club for Creativity – announced an initiative to establish the first comprehensive Creativity Benchmark designed to evaluate the creative instincts of large language models (LLMs) in the context of advertising and creativity.

Read more about the initiative in Ad Age.

The initiative seeks to answer a critical question: Which LLMs are most useful for creative inspiration, variation, and problem-solving across the advertising process? At a time when AI tools are increasingly embedded in the workflows of strategists and creatives, this benchmark fills a crucial gap in industry knowledge.

“Existing AI benchmarks test logic, accuracy, and comprehension,” said Pip Bingemann, CEO/Cofounder at Springboards. “But advertising isn’t about right answers, it’s about originality, insight, and impact. This will be the first benchmark designed around the real creative instincts we value in agencies and brands so that people in creative industries can understand what models are good for the work they do.”

An Industry-Wide Effort to Set New Standards

The initiative is supported by a technical and research team that includes PhDs in machine learning, AI engineers, and former researchers from Google. Together, they’ve designed a system that blends data analysis with human taste to reveal which models excel across various types of creative thinking.

The evaluation departs from traditional AI testing methods by focusing on creative instincts, not coached outputs. Key criteria include:

• Human judgment of insight, idea, and “wild” idea quality
• Creative variance (how different or repetitive model responses are)
• AI versus human judging comparisons to assess alignment with human taste
• Creative problem-solving tests to measure the ability to think outside the box

Participants globally will judge outputs in a "Tinder for Ideas" style experience, receiving personal insights about their creative preferences and the LLMs that best match them.

Fueling Creativity and Bridging the Knowledge Gap

"The 4As is excited to help support this important research initiative,“ said Jeremy Lockhorn, SVP, Creative Technologies & Innovation at 4As. “Our members are rapidly adopting generative AI across many aspects of their business, and actively seeking guidance on which platforms can help achieve the most innovative and impactful work for their clients."

“There's a ton of stuff about how good different LLMs are at solving maths problems, coding and logic-based tasks and tests—but that's not much use for the creative industries,” said Tom Roach, VP Brand Strategy at Jellyfish/Brandtech, on behalf of the APG. “We need to know which models are best at generating new and original creative ideas, but at the moment we're all flying blind on that. It's exciting to be involved in a project that can help us be more creative with this incredible new technology and help the industry as a whole make better informed decisions on the AI tech we use to drive better results for our clients.” 

“We’re at a crossroads in the creative industries,” said Zoe Scaman, Founder of Bodacious. “AI is already embedded in our workflows, shaping ideas and generating outputs, but we’ve had no meaningful way to assess its contribution to creativity itself. This benchmark changes that. It’s not about pitting machines against humans, but about understanding which tools can genuinely elevate our thinking, unlock new directions, and push creative boundaries. If we want to harness AI not just for efficiency but for originality, we need standards rooted in real creative instincts, not just logic and grammar. That’s what this initiative delivers. And that’s why it’s vital, especially now.”

“The future of creativity is human – but AI’s ability to stimulate human creativity is exciting. Especially when we can learn which models produce the kind of interesting, divergent, and sometimes bonkers provocations that trigger our own individual creative brains in just the right way.” said James Hurman, Founding Partner of Previously Unavailable.

The study is currently accepting participants. Interested individuals can vote on LLM outputs at CreativityBenchmark.ai. 

Read more about it here.

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Media Inquiries

Kite Hill for Springboards

springboards@kitehillpr.com 

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Built for Humans, Backed by Icons: Springboards Secures Investor Support to Shape the Future of AI and Creativity

Springboards, the AI-powered platform built to inspire creativity and not give you the answers, today announced a significant milestone: the addition of a significant number of strategic investors to accelerate its mission of keeping creative humans in the creative equation. These new partnerships follow unprecedented adoption by over 200 top agencies and underscore the growing belief that AI, when centred around humans and collaboration, is a game-changer for the industry.

With backing from leaders across the advertising, tech, and venture capital worlds including Chris Colter, Managing Director, Media Strategy, Accenture Song A/NZ Australia, Chris Savage, Business Growth Specialist, The Savage Company, Christian Hughes Principal & President, Cutwater Agency, Chuck McBride, CCO & Founder, Cutwater Agency, Connon Bray, Co-founder Tracksuit & Ideally, Ellie Rogers, former Sales Director at Snap, Gabrielle Tenaglia, Head of Marketing, Lettuce, Glen Cassidy, Consultant, Henry Innis, Co-founder, Mutinex, James Hurman, Founding Partner, Previously Unavailable, Mat Baxter, former global CEO, Huge, Matt Hermann, Founding Partner, JAM Branding, Nigel Carr, former CSO The Tombras Group, Reuben Halper , Head of YouTube, Google New Zealand, Rosie and Faris Yakob, Co-founders Genius Steals, Sammy Preston, APAC Client Council and Industry Trade Relations Lead, Meta, Simon Pound, Managing Partner Previously Unavailable, Tom Morton, Founder of Narratory Capital, LLC, former global chief strategy officer at R/GA, Zoe Scaman, Founder, Bodacious, and lead investor Blackbird Ventures.

Springboards is poised to supercharge its growth and bring its vision to more creative teams globally. Co-founded by ex-agency strategists Pip Bingemann and Amy Tucker and CTO Kieran Browne, Springboards offers a suite of AI-powered tools that help creative humans start faster, explore more and collaborate together. 

“We’ve had a lot of ‘pinch me’ moments over the past 24 months, but having this incredible group, people we’ve looked up to our entire careers, back us on this journey is something very special,” said Pip Bingemann, CEO and Co-founder of Springboards.

“We never built Springboards with the intention of keeping it for ourselves but rather knew Springboards would be at its best only when centred around creative humans. It was a no-brainer to invite these industry legends into the fold and continue to explore more possibilities with some of the best thinkers in the world,” said Amy Tucker, CMO/CCO and Co-founder of Springboards.

Springboards plans to leverage the investment to expand its toolset, grow its global user base, and continue its commitment to building AI that empowers, not replaces, human creativity.

‍Zoe Scaman, Founder of Bodacious and Springboards investor said, "I’m proud to be an early supporter, investor and board member of Springboards, not just because it’s a revolutionary platform, but because it’s been built by two brilliant minds who deeply understand both the art and science of strategy. In an era where AI is often met with hype or fear, Springboards represents a rare third path - one grounded in thoughtfulness, integrity and a genuine love of the craft. It’s not about abandoning what we know, but expanding upon it with care. We can marry the old and the new, we just need to do it with clarity, courage and a belief in building something better."

Mat Baxter, former Global CEO at Huge and Springboards Investor says, “The platform does exactly what it says on the tin, giving talented planners amazing AI-powered springboards to develop their insights, generate their ideas and design their strategies. That’s something our industry must absolutely lean into, which is why I’m not just a user, but an investor too.”  

“We love creativity. We love great advertising, bold ideas, and the brilliant people behind them. We love being agile, informed, and constantly delighted. We believe in tools and thinking that make all of us better, faster, and well paid — not replaced. We believe in growth that lifts everyone. We love nice people. And yes, we really love Springboards,“ said Rosie & Faris Yakob, Partners at Genius Steals and Springboards investors.

Tom Morton, Founder, Narratory Capital, Former Global Chief Strategy Officer, R/GA and Springboards investor added, “A lot of marketing AI helps brand owners get generic outputs for less. Springboards helps agency practitioners get strong, brand-friendly insights, briefs and media plans faster. It's a product you would welcome on the team."

“I strongly believe that the future of creativity is human - and that the tools that stimulate human creativity are advancing in incredible ways. I invested in Springboards because they're thinking deeply about how technology can, should and will support and accelerate human creativity,” James Hurman, Founding Partner, Previously Unavailable and Springboards investor, concluded. 

See what the press had to say:

• Industry A-listers invest in AI-powered Springboards - AdNews‍
• Springboards attracts top-tier backing as AI platform eyes global growth | Marketing-Interactive
• Springboards lands investment from ad industry big wigs, as more than 200 agencies adopt AI creative tech | Mi3
• Springboards secures strategic investment to scale human-centred AI for creative teams - Mumbrella
• Springboards Secures Backing from Industry Powerhouse Names - Roastbrief US
• AI Platform Springboards Secures Backing from Industry Powerhouses - B&T
• AI-powered creativity platform Springboards secures backing from industry powerhouses – Campaign Brief

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