Why Brolly Uses AI in Marketing

At Brolly, we believe in being upfront about the way we build our brand.

That includes our products, our pricing, our packaging, our creative direction, and yes — our use of AI in marketing.

We know AI can be a divisive topic. Some people are excited by it. Some people are cautious. Some people are still deciding how they feel. We understand that.

But for us, as a small brand trying to create high-quality products without passing unnecessary costs onto our customers, the decision to explore AI was not about cutting corners.

It was about making smart choices.

The reality of creating content as a small brand

Marketing looks simple when you only see the finished video.

A 15-second reel. A few beautiful shots. A product in the rain. A child holding an umbrella. A soft moment that tells a clear story.

But behind that short piece of content can sit a very long list of costs.

When we explored creating a Brolly Jr. reel through a traditional production process, the initial quote came in at around $6,500. That included actors, location, product shooting, and the basic structure needed to bring the concept to life.

Then the reality of the shoot became more complicated.

Because children would be involved, everyone on the production team needed to be appropriately certified to work with children. That was not optional. It was the right thing to do, and it mattered. But it also pushed the cost well beyond the original quote, taking the production into the realm of $10,000 before we had even dealt with the weather.

And for an umbrella brand, weather matters.

Waiting for the perfect rain

The concept needed rain.

Not too much. Not too little. The right kind of rain, at the right time of day, with the right light, in the right location.

That meant we needed actors, crew, products, props, and location arrangements all ready to go at short notice. Everyone involved needed to remain available. The products needed to be on standby. The schedule needed to stay flexible.

That level of flexibility comes at a cost.

A retainer was required to keep everything and everyone ready for when the conditions were right.

And even then, there was no guarantee.

The rain might not arrive. The light might not work. The timing might fall apart. The location might no longer be suitable. A shoot that looked simple on paper suddenly became something unpredictable, expensive, and difficult to control.

The cost of making fake rain look real

The alternative was to avoid waiting for natural rain and create it ourselves.

But that came with its own complications.

To simulate rain properly, additional equipment would have been needed. Then the surrounding environment would have needed to match the weather. The sky, streets, lighting, reflections, clothing, and overall atmosphere all had to feel believable.

That meant more production work.

More editing.

More time.

More cost.

What began as a $6,500 shoot was now moving into the realm of $15,000, with no clear guarantee of when it would be made or how smoothly it would come together.

For a small brand, that is a significant decision.

Why we explored AI

At that point, we had to ask ourselves a simple question:

Is spending around $15,000 on a short marketing video the smartest use of our resources right now?

For us, the answer was no.

Not because we do not value creativity. We do.

Not because we do not value production teams, actors, photographers, videographers, editors, or the craft that goes into traditional marketing. We absolutely do.

But as a small brand trying to make a big difference, we have to be thoughtful about where our money goes.

Every dollar spent on unnecessary production costs is a dollar that cannot go into product quality, materials, packaging, customer experience, or keeping our pricing accessible.

So we looked at AI.

And what we discovered was simple: a concept that could have cost around $15,000 to produce traditionally could be explored, developed, and brought to life for under $200.

That difference matters.

$15,000 versus $200

At its core, that is smart business.

A $15,000 production may make sense for a large, established brand with a major campaign budget. But Brolly is not trying to build a brand by spending heavily for the sake of it.

We are trying to build a brand carefully.

We want to keep our product quality high.

We want to keep our pricing structure fair.

We want to create content that helps people understand who we are, what we make, and why our products exist.

AI gives us a way to do that without loading unnecessary marketing costs into the price of every umbrella.

Because those costs have to go somewhere.

And we would rather invest in better products than expensive production for the sake of appearances.

We know AI is not perfect

We also know AI is not a perfect solution.

It does not always get every detail right. Sometimes it makes mistakes. Sometimes it looks slightly different from traditional footage. Sometimes it needs several attempts before the result feels close to the original idea.

We are not pretending otherwise.

But for us, the most important thing is the core message.

If the story is clear, if the feeling is there, and if the content helps people understand what Brolly stands for, then AI becomes a useful creative tool.

Not a replacement for quality.

Not a replacement for honesty.

A tool.

The same way a camera is a tool. The same way editing software is a tool. The same way design software changed how brands create.

AI is part of where the world is heading, and we would rather learn how to use it thoughtfully than ignore it completely.

Honesty matters

Most importantly, we never want our customers to feel misled.

If we use AI in our marketing, we will be honest about it.

We believe people deserve to know what they are looking at. We also believe customers are smart enough to understand why a small brand might choose a more efficient, cost-effective way to bring a creative idea to life.

Our use of AI is not about pretending to be something we are not.

It is about finding a practical way to tell our stories while keeping our focus where it belongs: on the product.

On the build.

On the design.

On the customer.

On creating umbrellas that people actually want to carry.

Small brand. Big ambition.

Brolly is built on a simple idea: practical things can still be beautiful.

That idea guides our products, our colours, our limited-edition concepts, and the way we communicate with our community.

AI allows us to explore bigger creative ideas without needing a massive production budget behind every piece of content. It lets us move faster, test concepts, tell stories, and show the feeling behind our products in a way that would otherwise be out of reach at this stage of our brand.

Will every piece be perfect?

No.

But will we be honest about it?

Always.

Because building trust matters more to us than pretending everything was made the traditional way.

For Brolly, AI is not about replacing creativity.

It is about making creativity possible while we build something bigger.

And if using a $200 solution instead of a $15,000 production helps us keep our products better, our prices fairer, and our ideas moving, then we believe that is a choice worth making.