GroupM Brew 2024: When data and creativity tie the knot

New Delhi: In today’s world, when most decisions are data-driven, it becomes vital to think about creative storytelling in the context of data. 

The seventh edition of GroupM’s ‘Brew’ was hosted on July 24, 2024, in Gurugram, India. The day-long event featured an interaction where Georgia Brammer, Managing Director of Flashtalking APAC, shared her thoughts on the intersection of data and creativity.

Kickstarting the session with strong data pointers, Brammer said, “According to a McKinsey report, 71% of consumers expect a personalised interaction with brands. When we are communicating through channels like social media, which is such an intimate experience, a connection that inspires people is fostered. A generic ad is not going to do anyone justice in terms of performance. Thus, marketers need to see something that mirrors consumer aspirations, interests, and purchasing behaviours.” 

Introducing the idea of creative intelligence, Brammer mentioned the challenge of balancing creative and data-driven personalised marketing. “The challenge for marketers is to maintain an equilibrium between using sophisticated data sets on the media side and utilising those methodologies in terms of ideating and activating creative communication for the audience. And that introduces the concept of creative intelligence,” said Brammer.
In other words, creative intelligence refers to identifying the relationship between creativity and the different data signals that exist. 

The abundance of data in the marketing mix is making marketers scratch their heads about using this data for creative intelligence. Commenting on the challenge of abundant data, Brammer said, “In a marketing survey that we carried out this year, 91% of the respondents said that their major blind spot was creative insights and intelligence.” 

Speaking of a misconception among marketers, Brammer said, “Most marketers tend to think of creative intelligence as a post-campaign analysis opportunity. Whereas, they need to be thinking about creative intelligence across the entire activation cycle. From the ideation and designing stage to planning for the next campaign. There is a need for that synergy of data powering creativity in the context of media at the forefront.”

Suggesting a change in the operating models to prioritise a data-driven thought process from the very beginning and throughout, Brammer affirmed that marketers need to keep using that audience data to optimise and avoid creative wear out. Segue into the second challenge is activating that data. This is where we need to lean into the right technology. We need to invest in AI and automation to help us unlock creative intelligence.

“If we tried to activate creative intelligence manually, the old teams aren't going to sit there and manually tag up creative labels of a thousand different versions. They're also not going to have time to optimise whether the big logo or the little logo drives better performance. So this is where we can start to use AI for content labeling. We can use it for auto-optimisation to take into account viewability and audiences,” Brammer further added.

What makes AI special is its ability to make automated changes to its algorithms, providing marketers with the flexibility to optimise advertising while on the move.

Advocating for the intersection of human creativity and data, Brammer said, “I believe that machines will make humans more creative. Considering the operational ability of AI to decrease the burden on humans, it is increasingly assisting us in making creative decisions. AI allows us to think about more impactful, big work and come back to the whole foundation of creativity, which is imagination, humour, and empathy.”

To reaffirm her thoughts, Brammer gave the examples of Blinkit and Zomato. “Recently, there was the Blinkit and the Zomato campaign, where it was just two simple billboards placed together using very playful copy referencing each other. The campaign generated a whole conversation on social, a whole lot of buzz, engagement, and exposure. But such contextual advertising needed specialised AI algorithms, and I don't think AI could have figured out the perfect local spots for this campaign.”

In conclusion, there is a need for marketers to be able to use data, whether it is first, second, or third-party data, by powering it through automation and creative intelligence technology. When marketers analyse and identify what works and what doesn’t, it allows the analytical left brain to inform strategies. This frees up the creative, empathetic right brain to produce engaging and inspiring content that resonates better with audiences.