Google’s latest AI success story is not a productivity feature or a search upgrade, but a playful image tool with a curious name, Nano Banana. What started as a creative side feature in Google’s Gemini app has quickly turned into a viral phenomenon, driving millions of new users, particularly younger ones, into Google’s AI ecosystem.

According to Josh Woodward, VP of Google Labs, Gemini has now hit 650 million monthly active users, a jump of 200 million since July. Much of that growth is being attributed to Nano Banana. More importantly, the app is seeing “a very big demographic shift”, with huge growth in the 18–34 age group and a notable rise in female users.

For Google, Nano Banana is more than a hit feature. It is a blueprint for how AI creativity can capture culture. For CMOs, it signals where attention is moving, how AI is reshaping visual expression, and what new marketing opportunities and risks lie ahead.

What Is Nano Banana

Nano Banana is Gemini’s AI image creation and editing tool. It lets users transform photos, invent new visuals, and remix themselves into imaginative 3D characters or scenes. Think of it as a blend of Adobe Photoshop, Snapchat Lenses and Midjourney, except built directly into Google’s AI app and optimised for virality.

Users can upload images or take selfies, then prompt Gemini to reimagine them in creative ways. The results are highly shareable and often surreal, ranging from stylised avatars to mini figurines of the user rendered in cartoon-like detail.

It is simple, accessible and visually rewarding, three traits that fuel rapid social sharing. That formula has worked. Nano Banana first went viral in Thailand, where influencers began posting 3D versions of themselves. Within days, the trend spread across Vietnam and Indonesia, then globally.

The effect mirrors how TikTok filters or AR effects can drive waves of engagement. Except this time, the creative engine is powered by generative AI, and the ecosystem belongs to Google.

How It’s Growing and Why It Matters

Nano Banana’s virality has delivered Google something it has struggled to achieve for years, relevance among Gen Z and Millennial audiences. These cohorts are spending more time with TikTok and ChatGPT than traditional Google products. Nano Banana flipped that dynamic by tapping into three key cultural forces.

1. Visual identity as social currency. Younger users see AI as a creative outlet, not a productivity tool. Nano Banana gives them a way to play with identity, self-expression and humour in formats that thrive on social media.

2. Low barrier to creativity. No design skills required, no complex prompts needed. The frictionless experience means anyone can create something worth sharing in seconds.

3. Social virality through influencers. Its global growth started with creator-led adoption, not paid promotion. That makes the engagement organic and the trend authentic, a critical factor for younger audiences.

For Google, this surge means more than app downloads. Once users arrive for Nano Banana, they stay for other Gemini features such as search, chat, planning and productivity. The company is effectively using creativity as the front door to deeper AI engagement.

How Marketers Can Use Nano Banana

For CMOs, Nano Banana represents an emerging class of AI-powered creative playgrounds that blend entertainment, interaction and storytelling. These tools are not just novelties or side features but new media environments that shape how audiences engage with brands.

1. Brand-led creativity
Nano Banana’s creative framework allows for branded experiences and collaborations. Marketers can commission Nano Banana challenges, themed filters or visual prompts tied to campaigns, turning AI art into community-driven content. This approach mirrors the early success of social filters, but AI gives users far greater freedom to remix and reinterpret brand assets.

2. Creator collaboration
Nano Banana’s viral growth was ignited by influencers who used it to generate 3D figurines and stylised portraits. Partnering with AI-native creators, artists and digital experimenters who understand how to push generative tools to their limits can deliver exponential visibility for brands and keep campaigns feeling authentic and relevant.

3. Product personalisation
Nano Banana allows users to visualise themselves with or within a product world. For fashion, beauty, automotive and travel brands, this opens up opportunities for hyper-personalised experiences, from custom campaign imagery to user-generated AI try-ons. These experiences foster personal connection and drive intent more effectively than static ads.

4. Experimentation with new formats
AI-generated visuals can power dynamic creative assets for social media, advertising and retail content. Early experimentation is essential for staying culturally relevant as generative media becomes a mainstream format. By treating Nano Banana as a co-creative tool, brands can develop richer visual narratives that stand out in crowded feeds.

For marketers exploring similar spaces, other tools such as Runway, Pika Labs, Canva Magic Studio, Midjourney and Adobe Firefly are also opening creative possibilities. Each allows brands to experiment with AI-led storytelling in ways that drive participation, personalisation and cultural engagement.

The Risks and Realities

Nano Banana’s success also highlights the challenges ahead. As AI-driven creativity becomes mainstream, brands face new risks around authenticity, control and ethics.

1. Brand safety and misinformation. AI-generated imagery can blur boundaries between real and fake. CMOs must establish clear guidelines for how brand imagery, logos or ambassadors are used in AI contexts.

2. Cultural sensitivity. Viral AI trends spread fast, often across borders. What feels playful in one market may be misinterpreted in another. Global brands must monitor and localise creative AI activations carefully.

3. Loss of ownership. When users co-create branded AI content, questions around intellectual property and usage rights become more complex. Marketers will need frameworks that protect both brand integrity and user creativity.

As AI tools become the primary interface for discovery and creativity, brands may lose direct control over how their messages appear or are reinterpreted. The intermediaries will increasingly be AI systems, not human editors or social platforms.

Looking Ahead The Creative AI Era

Nano Banana is more than a novelty. It represents a cultural turning point where generative AI stops being a background utility and becomes a driver of creativity, self-expression and community. For Google, it has re-energised Gemini’s growth and positioned the company back in the cultural conversation among younger audiences.

For CMOs, it offers both inspiration and warning. The next wave of brand engagement will happen inside AI platforms that blend creation, entertainment and interaction. The brands that succeed will treat these tools not as gimmicks but as new canvases for storytelling, spaces where users co-create meaning rather than passively consume messages.

AI creativity is now part of the marketing mix. The question for every CMO is no longer if to engage with it, but how to make it authentic, measurable and safe for the brand.