5 Minutes with... Anthony Khaykin

Adobe Firefly is a proud supporter of LBB. As part of the sponsorship of the ‘5 Minutes with…’ channel, we spend time with some of the most innovative and creative minds in the industry.

For today’s edition, we spoke with Anomaly's head of data, Anthony Khaykin.

In February 2023, Anthony Khaykin joined the entrepreneurial, non-traditional creative agency Anomaly, after spending seven years at Droga5. Forging his career as an analyst and data strategist, for the last four and a half years at Droga5 he was group data strategy director - priming him for his current role as Anomaly's head of data. Here, he is responsible for building and leading the data analyst team as part of the agency's expanding data offering, spearheaded by recent growth from the company's London hub with clients like Diageo, Google and the Expedia Group.

Helping to infuse Anomaly's culture with data and to improve the effectiveness of its creative output, Anthony relocated to London upon starting the job, where he's gradually becoming immersed in British culture - all while ensuring his data team continues to impact every one of Anomaly's decisions at a global level. A child of Belarusian immigrants who grew up in the States, and is now located in the UK, his varied cultural lens has shaped his creative outlook, and now he seeks to integrate data with the creative process via a combination of "mathematical rigour with human intuition".

Speaking to LBB's Ben Conway, he discusses how soviet cartoons influenced his definition of creativity, how data can be a true catalyst, and his need to observe and analyse human behaviour. 

LBB> What creative content inspired or interested you most when you were growing up? 

Anthony> My family emigrated to the States from Belarus before I was born. As a result, I grew up simultaneously watching classic American cartoons like 'Tom & Jerry' and their soviet equivalents like 'Nu, pogodi!'. I remember being fascinated by the parallels. The universality of a cat-and-mouse trope, but nuanced to different cultural sensibilities; then seeing those nuances be translated beyond just language, into distinct senses of humour and visual styles, too.

Thinking about it now, I believe it shaped how I define real creativity. That it is the expression of a human truth, one that holds universally but can also be expressed distinctly on different (cultural) canvases.

LBB> What’s the most important lesson/piece of advice you received early on in your career? How does it influence you and your work today?

Anthony> In my discipline, a lot of time is spent gathering data. Then you collate and clean it. Then you analyse it, applying a mix of simple and complex methodologies to unlock an interesting insight or kernel of truth.

If I had to quantify this process (which I’m known to do), 80% of time is sifting between datapoints to get to an interesting pattern or insight. The remaining 20% is spent visualising and communicating that information in a compelling or meaningful way. It’s very human to want to show your work. However, I trained myself to fight that urge and to consolidate the 80% of what I do into the 20% of what I share. People care about the sausage more than the sausage-making - the ‘so-what’ more than the ‘what’. So I’ve learned to orientate myself toward the outcome more than the process.

LBB> Before joining Anomaly, you were group data strategy director at Droga5 New York - what were some of your proudest achievements there? Why did you make the jump to Anomaly and what lessons have you brought with you from your previous role?

Anthony> The relaunch of an iconic institution like The New York Times. The three-second Under Armour ads that broke the game - and all Twitter best practices. Sending 'Game of Thrones' off with the epic '#ForTheThrone' campaign (but to be clear, I had nothing to do with season eight).  those are some of my proudest achievements at Droga5. But more importantly, I got to stretch the role that data could play in pushing brand and creative thinking. That meant training and growing a team with different skillsets and perspectives. Developing proprietary tools to support strategists, creatives and producers alike.

These experiences taught me to be a lateral thinker and to care about the full answer, and not just the one I can address from a data perspective. This is invaluable at a place like Anomaly, where the aim is to create business solutions - not just ‘ads’.

LBB> How does Anomaly currently utilise data - and how are you hoping to evolve those processes? What are some new and exciting ways you’re exploring data usage - both internally and with clients?

Anthony> Anomaly’s philosophy around surrounding the business problem was one of the many reasons I joined the team. To support this ambition, data must do more than just measure. At Anomaly, it’s seen as playing a key role in both upstream and downstream decision-making. This means working with clients in different ways, from investment optimisation and audience segmentation through to dashboarding and reporting.

Given the global nature of the work we do in London, I’m especially excited to continue unlocking new applications. While it’d be incredible to localise and personalise every interaction a brand has with consumers, it’s unfortunately not pragmatic from a resource or investment perspective. And frankly, the juice wouldn’t necessarily be worth the squeeze most of the time.

Enter data, which helps us (1) find patterns and deviations across markets, consumers and journeys, and then (2) prioritise when and where it makes most sense to activate. That cost-benefit thinking can be applied to everything, from targeted communications through to product innovation and customer experience. By thinking about the brand experience holistically, we can start breaking silos and help ensure that different marketing budgets are working harder by working together to deliver against the consumer experience.

LBB> You’ve said before: “data often serves as a barrier rather than a catalyst for decision-making” - firstly, can you elaborate on that point and why you believe it? And secondly, how do you aim to ensure it’s used as a catalyst at Anomaly?

Anthony> Data paralysis is a real issue that affects clients and organisations overall, today. I firmly believe that single datapoints and predictive models alone shouldn’t be making the decisions. Instead, we should be using data to instil confidence, debunk myths and remove some of the guesswork in what we do.

As such, we need to combine mathematical rigour with human intuition – never just one or the other. I often remind colleagues and clients alike that datasets are just structured observations about people. By uncovering the human story behind the datapoints, they can serve as inspiring springboards for creative solutions.

So, for data to truly serve as a catalyst, my role is more than just providing datapoints. Instead, it’s to unpack what those datapoints tell us about people – whether that’s consumers, collaborators, or competitors.

LBB> When it comes to data strategy, what do you think agencies and brands should be focusing their time, efforts and investments on in the coming years?

Anthony> I work with clients of varying levels of data investment and maturity. However, no matter what level they’re at, there’s always a lot of data or insight that remains untapped - we’re too busy hunting new datasets or a silver bullet solution.

Instead of investing in more data, I think the industry needs to make more use of what we have. I tend to choose direction over perfection because the ability to direct teams and decision-making is more impactful than perfecting a single analysis or a single model. Don’t get me wrong, accuracy and rigour are non-negotiable, but they must be balanced and paired with meaningful implications at key points of the process.

Now more than ever, I think agencies and brands should be focusing their resources on recruiting, growing and retaining the right kind of talent who can think laterally and serve as agents of change rather than number-crunchers.

LBB> What were some of your main targets in your first year with Anomaly? Do you have any exciting projects coming up?

Anthony> Data means a lot of different things. My goal for year one was to build a clear plan to continue to deploy data in a way that’s innovative and most effective – complementing other teams’ skillsets, both internally and within client organisations. In short, prioritising what data should (rather than could) be doing is the biggest challenge.

At Anomaly, it’s less about just the creative work I’m helping make (although there’s a ton of great work, too), and more about the broader business challenges clients are asking us to help address. Less and less is it about an audience run or a social listening request. More and more, it’s becoming about answering the questions that keep our clients up at night: 'How do I optimise my total budget across production and media?', 'What should my investment strategy be to achieve long-term business outcomes?', 'How do I better identify new revenue models?'. Receiving more questions like that is my personal KPI.

LBB> Outside of work, what do you do to decompress or stay fresh? And what do you think it is that drives and motivates you in work and in your life?

Anthony> I moved to London for the gig. So, a lot of my downtime nowadays is spent pursuing activities that immerse me in British culture. That means cycling around London (I particularly enjoy the ride between east and west London along the Thames). That entails going to local gigs (preferably at EartH) or attending festivals (I welcome all tips and tricks for securing Glastonbury tickets next year). And going to the markets on weekends - a regular rotation between Maltby, Columbia Road and Primrose Hill.

So if I had to tie that all together in a neat bow, I’d say I find myself driven by a need to observe and analyse human behaviour. I do so with data in my professional life and with good ol’ people watching in my personal one.