Beyond Recoupling: How Data and Media Insights Amp Up Creativity

The fact that this is the third instalment of our ‘Beyond Recoupling’ series illustrates how much detail there is to discuss around the subject of bringing creative and media into closer alignment. But there are some simple principles underpinning that complex discussion. One is that media has a lot more data in the bank than creative.

Global chief data and intelligence officer at FCB, Tina Allan can’t overstate this. “When it comes to bringing creative and media closer, brands need to be timely in getting it right across consumer, content, context, channel, and culture. That requires a unique combination of media math and creativity magic. The richness in the data has always been on the media side,” she says. “Media historically had the scaled access, granularity, and technology. Now, there’s an opportunity for creative agencies to tap into that same data for creative intelligence across the entire ecosystem.” 

That’s hard to disagree with, but accessing that opportunity is still fraught with challenges. “That requires trust, transparency, one source of truth, and the right talent – the latter being one of the most crucial players in the success of bringing these two disciplines together but is often one of the most overlooked,” says Tina. “Creative insights teams that are trained in media strategy – with a love for creativity and craft – are hard to find, but these unicorns do exist! I’m lucky enough to work with many of them every day. Their knowledge of both worlds is paramount in helping clients understand the value across input, output, and outcome, while being careful not to negate the goal of each team towards results. For example, using media precision to understand audiences beyond traditional personas with Addressable Audiences, is foundational at FCB. It allows us to both open the aperture on the growth opportunities through richer insights and enable personalisation at scale with media precision.” 

Let’s get a little more specific about what sorts of creative insights media data contains. Because it’s not just turning a person into a set of characteristics. As Simon Spyer, CEO of data-driven and performance marketing at Iris lays it out, these data points are all about understanding how people will experience your marketing in their real lives. “In an era of growing consumer apathy and rising media costs, integrating creativity and media is more crucial than ever,” he says. “To fully unlock this synergy, one guiding principle stands above all: the customer experience.” 

Instead of treating creative and media as separate functions, he suggests that we should see them as two interconnected forces, working together to craft a seamless, impactful journey for the consumer. And the key to achieving this lies in letting the consumer’s perspective drive every decision.

 

“Data is the vital link that connects creative and media effectively,” he says. “Just as creativity sparks engagement and media drives reach, data provides the insights needed to align these efforts. Data should be recognised as a third pillar of marketing, on equal footing with creative and media strategy. With real-time insights into audience behaviour and preferences, brands can craft campaigns where both the message and its delivery are precisely tuned, creating personalised and resonant experiences.”

 

This means that data-driven marketers must equip both creative and media teams with the intelligence needed to craft these campaigns. “By translating data into actionable experience insights, marketers can help align creativity with the channels and moments that matter most,” says Simon. “This creates a more unified, consumer-focused approach where every element of the campaign is designed with a shared understanding of the customer journey.”

 

The details of that journey can be examined closely with the right data, used to anticipate needs, identify friction points, and align creative content with the most relevant media channels. Brands can optimise not just reach but relevance,” says Simon. “This approach doesn’t just capture attention; it creates experiences that feel intuitive and natural for the consumer. When creative and media teams share a unified objective grounded in data-driven insights, their collaboration becomes sharper and more impactful.” And ultimately that will be a human impact. “Brands that master this integration won’t just cut through the noise – they’ll build meaningful participation and foster lasting connections with their audiences,” he says.

While the great recoupling may be slowly undoing the chasm that opened in the ‘80s and ‘90s, Quigley-Simpson has always maintained an integrated approach, never unbundling the creative and media functions. This long-standing philosophy positions the agency as champions of the idea that as Jeff Ratner, president of media, analytics and data posits: “the right message should be delivered at the right time to the right person.” 

But as the media ecosystem becomes increasingly homogenised through the rise of programmatic placements and automated buying processes, the role of creativity becomes even more critical in that dynamic. Again, it comes back to understanding the person at the end your media buy. “In a world where ad placements are often dictated by algorithms, standing out requires more than just precision in targeting,” says Jeff. “It demands creative ingenuity supported by robust data insights. This is especially true with the increasing prominence of video placements and the expansion of free ad-supported streaming television (FAST) platforms. These formats offer new canvases for creativity but also demand a keen understanding of audience behaviour and content consumption patterns.”

“While still effective, traditional ad units need to be utilised in ways that not only capture attention but also resonate deeply with the audience,” he says. “Data-driven insights play a crucial role in this, informing creative decisions and enabling us to tailor content that speaks directly to specific audience segments. Creative testing further enhances this process, allowing us to refine our assets in real time, optimising them for greater impact.”

Using the full range of media options available also allows for stories to be told in ways most appropriate to each platform, with many newer platforms allowing for more immersive and engaging content experiences. 

“Ultimately, by fostering closer collaboration between creative and media teams, underpinned by data, continuous creative testing, and a strategic approach to emerging video platforms, we can develop campaigns that are not only well-targeted but also culturally relevant and compelling,” suggests Jeff. “This ensures that our messaging resonates in a crowded marketplace, blurring the boundaries between creativity and media and leading to more holistic and effective strategies that deliver greater results.”

Thankfully, it’s a two-way street. Rather than the media experts trying to impose their data and insights on the creative side of the business, the best creatives are curious about what these insights can unlock for them. Brian Melarkey, group creative director at Ogilvy Group Ireland is one of them. “To create impactful work with cut-through we need to develop a truly integrated approach. Creative and media need to come together earlier in the process empowering creatives to leverage data as a source of inspiration, unlocking a new level of strategic and resonant storytelling,” he says. “Imagine handing an artist not just one canvas, but an entire gallery, each surface primed with insights into the hearts and minds of those they wish to reach.”

But it’s not as simple as understanding all the formats. Again, understanding where brands enter people’s experiences is what Brian wants data to show him. “The digital age has shattered the limitations of traditional advertising formats. Interactive narratives, personalised content journeys, and immersive brand experiences are no longer futuristic fantasies – they're the new battleground for consumer attention. By fostering cross-disciplinary teams empowered to experiment with emerging technologies, we can unlock the true potential of this exciting new landscape,” he says. “The agencies that will thrive in the years to come are those that embrace this new era of creative-media symbiosis.”

At Ogilvy and WPP, the teams are actively working to build beneficial relationships across creative and media to ensure they find ways of telling client stories in the most engaging, effective and exciting ways. “It’s becoming clear that when we ditch the silos, allow data to fuel creativity, and have strategy inform artistry, we can better help brands connect with consumers on a deeper, more meaningful level,” he says.

Chief creative officer at Digitas North America, Atit Shah is also submerging his creative teams into as much data as he can get his hands on. Digitas has long had media, creative, data, and tech practices at scale, “so there has been a lot of time to test kitchen approaches to elevate the chemistry and flow,” says Atit. “At the core of success is identifying a shared language, a common code.”

Digitas has found that code, Atit believes. “When creative and media minds come together, the shared language for us has proven to be behaviour over beliefs. Beliefs are vital to brand building and storytelling, but they can be confounding and gaseous for teams when you try to aim them at innovative media shaping and planning, when you want teams to do more than colour in the canvases – or in fact, create canvases where they don’t currently exist. Behaviours are far more instructive and action-oriented, a filter even the most junior members of a team can put into play. It’s far more impactful to direct a cross-capability creative and media team (…and their network of social platform partners, publisher partners, content creators, etc…) with an ask like ‘let’s turn anxious, scary Sundays into holiday Fun-days’ (behaviour) than it is to activate ‘holiday magic is alive in the tiniest moments of family time’ (belief). By bridging the language, you create a better launch pad and deliver more breakthrough experiences.”

Lisa Lewis, senior creative director at AKA NYC, is also more than on board with media knowledge influencing her creative ideas. “Without a doubt, a tight collaboration between media and creative leads to some of the most exciting brand opportunities,” she says. “In New York City, I’m always on the lookout for interesting new media placements, but it’s our crackerjack media team who really has their finger on the pulse of what new buys are available, from subway multi-screen video installations to animated site takeovers to unique out-of-home opportunities. With their insight, the creative team can formulate ideas bespoke to the medium – after all – it is the message, as savvy Marshall McLuhan told us.”

She goes on to detail the conversations that support this. “Some of the most fun I’ve had ideating is when a member of the media team says, ‘Hey, there’s a giant digital billboard with three connecting screens that you can run separate creative on – want to make something for that?’ Hell yeah. Or, I’ve gone to them and said, ‘I’ve got this idea that I think would be really cool on, say, multiple site-specific placements around the city. Is there a buy that makes sense?’ And the conversation takes off. It benefits clients. And it benefits our internal teams, who feel like they all have a part in the creative process. Breaking out of our silos of creative team versus media team is imperative as the media landscape becomes ever more complex and the creative possibilities endless (within budget, of course!).”

In fact, media’s interplay with the process should go beyond creative and into production, insists Lisa. “Anytime we do a shoot, it needs to result in a huge asset cache. With our media team in lockstep we can plan and capture content that is future-forward. Rather than retrofitting creative for multiple placements, they can help us think across platforms and possibilities so we can be ready for any opportunity.

“A close relationship, ideally in the same agency, means that creative and media can have an immediate and fluid interplay. Creative teams can react quickly to buys and be in constant conversation about what’s on the horizon. That agility is key in a voracious consumer environment where creative fatigue can happen fast, and the need to move swiftly is imperative. At the end of the day, it’s just so much more fun for all of us.”

The results of this mentality are projects like AKA’s multi-screen Times Square take over for Alicia Keys' Hell's Kitchen Kaleidescope music video drop. Each screen had different intersecting creative, a QR component that allowed viewers in Times Square to listen to the song as played on the TSX Megascreen, as well as an in-person, earned media UGC element with the cast and passersby.

DAC, which merges media and creative offerings as often as its clients want both, emphasises the value of creative testing to iterate and optimise content. At the outset of a new programme, the agency can recommend creative work that is informed by robust data insights, based on past campaigns and all customer or audience data it’s compiled. This includes leveraging audience research, performance metrics, and media analytics to guide creative decisions.  

“This approach takes the production of assets out of a solely creative field and into a performance marketing mindset,” say Damian DeNobrega, senior director of creative services, and Jenna Watson, senior vice president, Digital Media at DAC. “Then, as the creatives go live and performance data is returned, we share that data with the creative team/creative agency in real-time to inform future iterations. By grounding creative development in data, we ensure that the campaigns we produce are not just aesthetically pleasing but also highly effective in achieving our clients' business goals.” 

Below is an example of a report shared by DAC with a client and its creative agency post-campaign (in a monthly inter-agency team meeting) to show how each asset performed, and providing recommendations for future creative testing:

At VaynerMedia, testing and iterating according to media performance are intrinsic to how work is created, as well as how content is targeted. “Creative is the variable when it comes to media performance,” says Ed Turner, SVP of media at VaynerMedia EMEA. “Everything we do is focused on three things: attention, relevance and business results. To capture consumer attention at scale, it's essential to have contextual creative paired with deep audience segmentation.”

That’s why the agency resources creative and media even if it doesn’t have an explicit scope for both on all of its accounts. “If we don’t, there’s a limited opportunity for us to deliver business outcomes for our clients,” says Ed.

“Social media is the ultimate insights engine for understanding whether your creative and media are working well,” he says. “The measurement? How real people respond and engage with the work. By removing subjectivity from the process, your creative and media teams can work together in real time to evaluate what is working and what isn't, moving spend and resource as a campaign evolves. It also means that campaigns are continuous, evolving projects that deliver better value and business outcomes. Rather than being planned and locked for the duration of the campaign only to find the moment has gone and the work is ineffective.”

Erin Joyce, head of social media and content at Grey New York expands on that, providing a neat conclusion to our ‘Beyond Recoupling’ series: “If there’s one thing we as advertisers can all agree on, it’s that the industry at large can be slow to embrace change. Insert eye roll emoji here. The reality is that even within a single creative agency, most disciplines continue to work in silos. The future of advertising lies in creating content at the speed of culture, where creative ideas and media strategies are deeply integrated from the outset. As the head of social media and content for Grey New York, my perspective is admittedly biased, but it’s also shaped by a belief that collaboration is the ultimate cheat code in the creative process and an essential tool to future-proof our business.

“Rather than forcing a brand's story into culture, agencies need to work cultural moments into a brand's storytelling. This shift in perspective is crucial and demands a change in how we think about creativity at large. It’s no longer just about a big, one-off campaign; it’s about a continuous, iterative creative process that adapts to the pace of social media. This requires a mindset where experimentation is encouraged and quick pivots are possible, ensuring that brands can be a part of the cultural discourse. Tactically, this is achieved through social listening, agile workflows, and, above all, an understanding of the norms and behaviours of each platform. Media planners enter the chat.

“To continue to survive and thrive, creative and media agencies must foster a collaborative partnership to achieve cultural relevance for their clients. Going beyond the once-a-month IAT meeting, creatives and media should be working together, sharing their collective expertise to help brands create natively. Collaboration to meet these new norms isn’t just playing nice in the sandbox; it’s an adaptation to the realities of how consumers engage with brands in 2024. As with many species before us, the need to adapt may just be how we prevent extinction.”