Creativity and data must work together for truly effective advertising
by Dominic Tilson, marketing director, Inskin Media
With any new technological breakthrough, there will be a natural surge in uptake, and invariably other things fall down the agenda while everyone focuses on the exciting new toy. A few years ago, programmatic was that fresh, dazzling opportunity: agencies created divisions dedicated to it, specialist businesses sprung up in their hundreds, and millions of column inches were given over to discussing its pros and - as time went on - its occasionally worrying cons.
Our love-hate relationship with programmatic has gradually settled down as the transparency and brand safety issues have been ironed out, but only now is the industry starting to return its attention to the crucial element that slid down the agenda as programmatic boomed: creativity.
As the limitations of data-driven tech have been exposed, creativity has emerged once again as the secret ingredient of advertising effectiveness, leading agencies and brands to consider programmatic hand in hand with the creative concept, each feeding into the other to maximise the impact of campaigns, regardless of how they are bought.
The truth is, ad-tech businesses that rely heavily on the use of data now have very little choice but to shift their focus, at the very least broadening it out to include a wider variety of methods of engagement. Those who have not already started to make moves to counter the disappearance of third party cookies are naive and, in all probability, not long for this industry. The evolution of ad-tech is unrelenting and an over-reliance on data has been a risky strategy for some time.
Perhaps the most notable bellwether came recently with the announcement that WPP had set up a creative arm to its digital media business, Xaxis Creative Studios (XCS). WPP CEO Mark Read makes no secret of his belief that creativity should regain equal weighting, and when a behemoth like WPP makes such a statement, the rest of the industry knows it’s time to sit up and pay attention.
In this context, creativity is something of an underrated commodity - always there but not widely given its due during years of blind faith in one-to-one targeting. We know, for instance, that creativity is the number one driver of trust in advertising, accounting for a 47% contribution to sales, against 9% for targeting, while bad creative typically means bad sales outcomes.
Creativity deals in brilliant concepts and ideas, but it also needs an appropriate frame, which is why high impact advertising increasingly looks like an essential piece in the online advertising effectiveness puzzle. Powerful creative placed within premium, relevant environments has been proven to command 20 times the attention of standard display ads.
High impact ads make a lasting impression without interrupting the browsing experience, but they need to strike a careful balance: catching consumers’ eyes while blending seamlessly into their environment; walking the line between impact and user experience. Those who know how to harness creativity for high impact executions can show you how.
One of the other "double edged swords'' with digital is the ability to get campaigns live quickly - which inevitably leads to rushing everything once space is booked. With other more traditional media ideas are inherently creative led, and deadlines are binary - if you miss the printing deadline, that's it. This often means digital has to make do with press and TV assets built in advance. I dream of the day we have the luxury of time to A/B test a digital creative concept prior to the go live date!
But for now, the role of data is changing, but it hasn’t gone away. The foundations of marketing success depend on data insight and creativity in tandem. Advertising techniques that see these two elements working hand-in-hand represent the future for successful, impactful campaigns.