Monri Payments has created its first AI commercial, specially produced and premiered at the 31st edition of the Sarajevo Film Festival, where Monri was a proud sponsor.
Just before the film screenings started, the audience saw Monri’s AI commercial, inspired by the glamour of the Oscars and timeless scenes from cult films and TV series. The commercial always carried the same message: Monri offers top payment solutions.
The creative lead was taken by Vlado Lucić from NewsBar, the author of numerous commercials we see every day on television and social media. For the production of this video, besides fitting the script into 30 seconds, as many as 8 AI tools were used to create a spot that looks as if it came straight from Hollywood.
“My idea was to make Monri’s first AI commercial for the Sarajevo Film Festival — and for it to be a fully cinematic story,” Lucić reveals. Since the plan was to premiere the ad at SFF, his idea was to create a commercial that would blend seamlessly into the festival program.
The concept was designed as a special festival category — an awards ceremony for outstanding payment solutions — opening with a host who ceremoniously announces:
“And in the category of outstanding payment solutions, the nominees are…”
This is followed by a nomination reel featuring homage scenes — visual references to cult films and series — while always keeping the main narrative: the evolution of payments. The audience thus experiences the journey from barter trade to cheques and finally to a futuristic sci-fi genre, where Monri plays the lead role.
How AI Became a “Film Producer”
Although AI may sound like a magical solution, Lucić explains that behind it was a complex and demanding process. The production used eight different AI tools, each with its own specialization.
‘At first glance, AI might seem like a simple and fast solution, but the reality is far more complex. In this project, each of the eight AI tools had its own role. No single tool does everything perfectly — one generates excellent images, another converts them into video, and a third covers audio (but requires additional processing to be usable). That’s why the whole process is a combination of technologies working together to achieve a professional result.
It all starts with a storyboard. Then comes the generation of frames and videos — the slowest and most demanding part, essentially a trial-and-error process. Hundreds of clips are often generated just to get one that’s usable. After editing comes upscaling, since AI usually outputs material at 480p or 720p, while our target is 4K. Only then does the final stage begin — post-production, color grading, and animations — to give the commercial its cinematic look and cohesion.
The biggest challenge remains sound. AI still struggles with accents and produces limited quality, so detailed audio post-production in professional tools is necessary. This takes extra time and resources, but the difference in quality is clear.
So, while it may sound simple to say “AI,” in practice, it’s a lengthy and demanding process. These tools work on subscription and token models, meaning that creating this kind of content requires a serious budget — but without it, the result wouldn’t look attractive and professional’, Lucić concluded.
The NewsBar team had already shined in Monri’s campaign for the Start mobile cash register, with the well-known spot featuring the air-conditioning repairman and the grandma that delighted everyone — except the repairman, who had to drive her to the ATM.
For the third year in a row, Monri has premiered its commercials before screenings at the prestigious Sarajevo Film Festival — always tailored to match the festival’s style. Last year, this meant a “horror story” inspired by Alfred Hitchcock’s legendary psychological thriller Psycho, depicting a common problem with cash payments — when the cashier doesn’t have enough cash to give change. And that’s precisely why Monri’s online and card payment solutions are here.
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