What Is a Creative Doing with Data? “The Best Work of Their Life”

Data-driven creativity. It’s a buzzphrase deployed by agencies and marketing teams around the world but what’s the reality of the changing relationship between creative and data? What’s working? What’s not? And what’s the key to making sure that the two come together in a way that ensures the work is better, not blander?

Joining LBB’s editor in chief, Laura Swinton, on the Little Black Book & Friends Beach for a surprisingly spicy discussion were: Carren O'Keefe, CCO, Digitas; Kelly Abcarian, EVP, measurement & impact, NBCUniversal Media; Rob Lenois, CCO, VaynerMedia; Shyam Venugopal, senior vice president, global marketing & media transformation, PepsicC; Tina Allan, partner, data science and connections, FCB Global.

Kicking off, the panel shared the ways that data and creativity were coming together within their organisations. 

“The creative process is all about humans,” said Shyam from PepsiCo. “For any brand to break out and have a meaningful interaction with a human at the other end, it needs to have emotion and attention-grabbing context. All of that requires deeper insights, and for me, that is where data plays a big role, whether that is the insights, optimisation or learnings that you can develop. That's how we think about it - not as separate disciplines, but as one.”

Kelly from NBC spoke about how the broadcaster is actively trying to understand its viewers’ emotion, an initiative it announced last year during Cannes Lions 2022. “We're trying to measure and understand how emotion translates to impact,” she said. “We're often asked by our advertisers to help them drive their KPIs and we feel that understanding of emotion will help make us much better partners to folks like PepsiCo and help them amplify the creative process all the way upstream and amplify that impact downstream.”

“What is a creative agency doing with it [data]?” said Tina from FCB. “I think the best work of their life. I think the work you're seeing on stage that's being awarded Grands Prix and Gold is absolutely fueled by data. It's all about human centricity and data at the beginning and end. I think we need to partner and connect more, and we're partnering with our platforms, our customers, our clients, and creative is leaning in.”

Rob spoke about VaynerMedia’s non-traditional way of interacting with data in which it creates content for specific audiences and jumps the moment that any one piece resonates. “We'll get a target audience and break it down to 15 to 50 different cohorts,” he said. “Gen z becomes gen Z gamers or gen Z in the Midwest who like hotdogs, we'll break it out as much as we can, so that we can make relevant content for them. When something resonates, that's the insight and we dig in... Most of our strategy comes after the creative, which is interesting. That insight comes up and then we build from there. It's our way of really making sure we're on the pulse of the consumer. It's based on work that is resonating, and it usually leads to insights that are powerful and real because they are resonating. It's not our guess, it's not our subjective opinion, the actual work is working.”

Carren from Digitas is only three weeks into working at the agency but said one of the main reasons she joined was because she was “so blown away by the amount of depth and breadth of experience within the data capability”. 

When it comes to the biggest misconceptions about data and creativity, Tina had this to say, “The frustration is when the data is only for the insight – it starts here and you go off. We are creating a world of new teams, and those teams follow and optimise the work. That's why we have in our ethos, 'never finished'. 

“Creative and media love to work together,” she added. “They're not enemies, and the more you bring them together, the better we get because we are audience first and we have to understand in real time. All that [talk about] oil and water and that we don't work together, that's not what's showing up at the Palais. What's showing up at the Palais is traditional partners, new partners and new technology all fueled by data.”

Shyam added a personal pet peeve of his around the use of the term ‘data-driven marketing’. “Whenever someone says data-driven marketing, that suggests to people that marketing in the past was never data-driven. Marketing has always and will always be driven by human insights. The only difference... is that there is a lot more data available for us to craft insights. Let's stop calling it data-driven marketing, just [call it] marketing... Let's not minimise data-driven marketing as some element of personalisation”

“The major misconception,” added Carren from Digitas, “is that data isn't creative and that creative isn't already data driven. We should change the vernacular because I think the reason some creators are so apprehensive to lean into the space and to partner is the term 'data driven', like data's in the driving seat, data makes the decision. But that's not the case at all. Data is just information. What we get from it, what we think about it, how we use it is what's genuinely important.” This was a point echoed by both Rob and Shyam. 

Tina argued that clients were wasting money by spending on data with no real strategy or understanding. Creativity on the other hand, she argued, was a cost saver – crucial at a time of economic turbulence. “Creative doesn't only happen in paid media channels, it can happen anywhere. Marketing technology is a real use in need for our clients, but traditionally they're not creatively activated through the lens of the brand. We are holistically pulling that all together and I think there are great opportunities. Clients feel immense pressure to go on this journey of data and martech and all this stuff and we never bring creative into the conversations. Let me tell you, bring a creative in because they're going to break it, they're going to do what hasn't been done before.”

At VaynerMedia too, simplicity is the key to a happy relationship between creativity and data. Rob discussed their method – encourage creatives to make a high volume of creative ideas for social platforms to see which ideas connect live. Then the agency can pick up on the ideas that resonate and invest more in them. There are, argues Rob, numerous upsides to this approach. As a creative, there’s the satisfaction of just being able to make more stuff and bring more ideas to life. And as an ad guy, there’s a healthy dose of humility as the ideas that go viral can often be surprising. 

“[It's] amazing for the creatives because they get to put what they believe is right into the world and follow their own journey. On the flip side, it takes the risk out for the client, they can actually see the ideas resonating. They don't have to make a decision.” One of the examples Rob gave of this in practice was VaynerMedia's 2022 Super Bowl spot for Planters, 'All For One'. Through its 'Vayner Volume Model', the agency discovered a nationwide fascination with how the snack was consumed – all together or one at a time – and ran with the idea from there. 

Shyam concluded, “Data leading to a core insight drives brilliant storytelling, creative and consumer engagement.”