CREATIVITY INSPIRED BY DATA EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Advertising has long been considered by those in the industry as akin to art: a great idea sparked by powerful intuition, layered with deep insights and compelling storytelling. The big idea remains the primary focus for any advertising agency’s top talent, with copious amount of time, effort and money spent on developing campaign ideas and creative concepts. But with digital disruption, data-driven marketing is the new normal. Data is everywhere. Yet, how much of this is being picked up, filtered and applied to generate big brand ideas, powerful messages and captivating content? Not enough. In this white paper, we acknowledge data-inspired creativity, validate it and provide some frameworks, strategies, inspirations and solutions for advertisers to embrace a data-rich way of working. Data and creativity need each other. Are you ready to bridge the gap? AUTHORS AND CONTRIBUTORS Deepika Nikhilender, Senior Vice President, Xaxis APAC Thomas Wagner, Planning Director, BBH, APAC Eunice Loh, Associate Director, Global Client Solutions, Wavemaker Damien Crittenden, Director of Analytics and Insights, Xaxis APAC Stephen Dale, General Manager, Digimind, APAC Karen Schuster, Insights Manager, Unruly, APAC Martyn U’ren, Head of Research, Twitter, APAC & MENA CONTENTS • INTRODUCTION • OLD DOG, NEW TRICKS • MORE RELEVANCE, LESS WASTAGE – THE PROMISE OF DATA-INFORMED CREATIVITY • INTRODUCING THE CREATIVE COMMUNICATIONS PROCESS E STRATEGY E TOUCH POINTS E IDEA AND CONTENT DEVELOPMENT E OPTIMISATION • INJECTING DATA ACROSS THE CREATIVE JOURNEY • CONCLUSION INTRODUCTION As digital media becomes a more dominant part of marketing investments, the associated data generated is a massive by-product for brands. The use of data in media decision-making has been in practice for decades, informing everything from consumer behaviours, to better targeting and budget optimisation. Still, in many cases, this data is not being applied to shape brand messages or creative work. There is little point in being able to address clearly targeted consumers via relevant platforms if the messages being served have no relevance or resonance. Despite the phenomenal rise of digital and double-digit growth of programmatic media, we have yet to see the stakeholders of creative, content development and brand messages embrace data for inspiration. This is a missed opportunity that brands cannot afford to ignore in today’s saturated and fragmented marketplace. Insights gathered from data have the power to shape big and small ideas that form the very foundation of campaigns and the means to engage with consumers in relevant and meaningful ways. As an industry, we are still behind in the adoption of data-inspired creativity, even more so in Singapore and the wider Southeast Asia region. Smart analysis of data for actionable insights can and will provide a springboard for powerful ideas and campaigns that drive effective, impactful results. But this can only be realised if creative teams embrace the philosophy and marketers foster the culture of data. There is no doubt the time has come for a proactive union of data science and creativity. There is a perception that data and creativity are polar opposites. But in fact, data drives the insights, that drives the ideas. It can be an insight into the heart and mind, an insight into behaviour, or some other insight. It can influence the creative concept, the touch points plan, or some other part of the communications process. Damien Crittenden, Director of Analytics and Insights, Xaxis Asia Pacific OLD DOG, NEW TRICKS The creative process has become a prime example of path dependence, which emphasises the way things have always been done to the detriment of innovation. The current methods applied are not new, just slightly adapted from previous generations or past campaigns. Too often the ‘insight’ is still restricted to either a single top line fact about the audience or a product advantage. Although there are many brand owners who have developed ‘war room’ style data centres, audience data seems far removed from the start of the creative process. Training is one of the key barriers. A spectrum of digital and data related skills need to be imparted to the teams who drive the Brand, Communications, Media and Marketing decisions in any organisation. Talent at all levels will need to embrace data-driven thinking. Moreover, clients still employ a lead agency (an agency to organise all others) to handle the work which leads to agencies having distinct and individual KPIs. This means agencies are operating in siloes, leaving little or no room for digital collaboration. Often, individual agencies bring digital views that are specific to their particular individual KPIs. At a panel discussion during Advertising Week Europe in March 2017, Zaid Al- Qassab, CMO of British Telecom Group stated there were “too many agencies in the room whose objective is to get something sold”. All this, combined with a fundamental The fact you use the word ‘digital’ misunderstanding of what digital communications should be based upon, has diluted attention causes people to use the wrong and focus. metrics. What happens is those people go into the boardroom and start to look at So where do we start? Industry training is obvious but we also have to allow data to enter the creative the wrong things. They look at how much process and not restrict it to the generation of ‘cool money is spent on digital, not what stats for copy’. We need to use data to bring the audience into the room. the message is. Zaid Al-Qassab, CMO, British Telecom Group Far from posing a threat to the creative process, data complements creativity in a variety of ways. For example, the use of data to assess the impact of content on intended audiences makes the process less subjective and more objective. It gives advertisers an extra layer of assurance that their content will have the desired effect on the desired audience, further justifying the production costs and reducing media wastage. Phil Townend, Chief Commercial Officer, Asia Pacific, Unruly MORE RELEVANCE, LESS WASTAGE – THE PROMISE OF DATA-INFORMED CREATIVITY Programmatic advertising has quickly grown to become one of the biggest contributors of digital ad spend. According to a study by Zenith, programmatic ad spend globally grew from US$5bn in 2012 to US$39bn in 2016, at an average rate of 71% a year. This figure surpassed Magna Global’s 2015 projection that programmatic ad spend would hit $37bn by 2019. Programmatic ads are such a CONSUMERS’ VIEW OF PERSONALISATION popular media format because they can reach targeted audiences with customised ASIA-PACIFIC US messages at moments when 80 decisions are made. Paired with personalised creatives, it can 65% be a powerful tool to deliver 57% 60 54% effective digital campaigns that drive desired actions from target 41% audiences. A CMO Council 40 poll with senior marketers found 32% more than two in five agreed Percentage personalised content converted 19% 19% 20 15% more customers. Additionally, 46% of the respondents said personalised or enriched content 0 made for more timely and 18-34 35+ 18-34 35+ relevant interactions. Age group bands The problem is that consumers PREFER DO NOT PREFER in Asia don’t believe brands are succeeding in making ad experiences relevant and useful. Research by Adobe Digital Insights demonstrated that 65% of CONSUMERS’ VIEWS ON TODAY’S PERSONALISATION 18 to 34-year-olds in APAC prefer ads based on their interests, with a third of the same demographic ASIA-PACIFIC US believing advertisers are not 60 doing it well enough. 39% To reduce ad spend waste in 40 32% 31% digital campaigns, companies 29% should use data to better 22% Percentage 20 17% 18% understand their target 13% audience’s behaviours and preferences. Such data-driven creative processes can vastly 0 18-34 35+ 18-34 35+ improve campaign effectiveness by allowing teams to develop Age group bands personalised creatives that are more relevant, thus encouraging AGAINST ALL PERSONALIZATION LIKE BUT NOT GOOD ENOUGH curiosity and clicks. Source: ADI: Attracting Online Attention Is Costing APAC Advertisers More Additionally the introduction of the Creative Data category at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity in 2015, which recognises creative campaigns that use data as the core of the ideas, is a strong indicator of the importance of data-driven creative in today’s ad age. To succeed with producing data-driven creatives that boost the bottom line and achieve campaign goals, teams need to start by identifying the right data sets required to activate creative decisions. By focusing on collecting and analysing only data that is relevant for understanding consumers, companies will be better able to leverage trends and insights to make data-driven decisions. Today big data is readily accessible. However, the excessive amount of information in big data paired with a lack of training on analytics has prevented marketers from successfully leveraging meaningful insights. Marketers need to be able to filter big data down to make it smart data - data that is meaningful and can be acted upon to inspire data-driven creatives. Paul Vivant, CEO, Digimind There is an explosion of data availability in recent years, though it has not been used to its full potential. Clients and agencies all play a crucial role in mining these data troves for insights, since brands see the best results when data has been integral to the creative journey. Eunice Loh, Associate Director, Global Client Solutions, Wavemaker INTRODUCING THE CREATIVE COMMUNICATIONS PROCESS Creative communications are developed via a process. Working through this process in its fullest will involve many skill sets. There are also several other variables to consider, such as the nature of the brief, the timeline, the task and the budget. But despite all of this, most campaigns will see a similar process play out.