How many Tweets does it take to sell a frozen TV dinner? And is data killing creativity? Hot topics from Cannes
Is data killing creativity? That was the focus for a panel discussion at the Cannes Creative Festival yesterday, which was chaired by Adobe’s senior vice president of global marketing Ann Lewnes.
For long in the tooth ad people the debate has a familiar theme. Lets face it, they have always been concerned that something or other is killing creativity. In fact over the years The Drum has held talks variously sporting themes that include: is ‘Planning Killing Creativity’ or ‘Is Research Killing Creativity.’
Speaking after her panel discussion - which concluded that data does not pose a mortal threat to creativity (phew) - Lewnes acknowledged that this debate is not particularly new.
“Data is the new marketing research,” she said. “But the combination of market research with new data capture techniques does change things.”
There is no doubt that in this age of big data and extreme analysis, creative people are now more accountable than ever before. Agencies such as Wunderman pride themselves on having teams of creatives who can adapt, change and modify campaigns in real-time depending on what the data is telling them. Other agencies, such as San Francisco-based Organic, can analyse Twitter to such a degree that they can predict exactly what sales volumes clients can expect based on their Twitter performance.
Head of strategy at the agency, Steve Kerho, figured out how much Twitter activity it would take to sell a case of Healthy Choice - a frozen TV dinner. He told The Drum: “It seemed remarkable that people wanted to Tweet about a TV dinner, but this is a slimming product and people were using Twitter to let other slimmers know what they were eating.” So how many Tweets did it take to sell a case? The figure was 90.
So there is certainly a consensus that data is a game changer - one that requires a host of new tools and techniques, but there is no reason it will kill creativity, in fact quite the opposite seems to be true.
However the issue also gives us a chance to adapt an old saying from the past: Data is like a lamp post and should be used for illumination as opposed to support.