There has never been more pressure on creatives and marketers to deeply understand the interactions of every part of the marketing process, ranging from metrics analysis to creative ideas aimed at winning an award at Cannes. As the amount of available data continues to expand, it is natural to assume that ROI and insight will become easier. But in the process... in the actual practice of marketing, they can get lost in all the noise.
According to an IAB survey, 52.4 percent of creatives and marketers said they spend most of their time on audience analysis, and 73.7 percent said they expect to spend future time on "better reporting, measurement, and attribution." Content creation and optimizing consumer experiences appeared much lower on the list, at just 21.4 percent.
This myopia may prove to be short-lived. Agency creatives and marketers are envisioning that automation and artificial intelligence can help them handle the "learning" work, leaving more time for the art of marketing.
Rather than using their creativity to capture consumer and customer attention, creatives and marketers find every day that they are expected to demonstrate a broad set of skills, such as data manipulation, setting up tactical metrics, and familiarity with multiple measurement tools. In a recent roundup of skills needed to be a CMO (Chief Marketing Officer), Forbes listed "thinks like a CTO" and "embraces data and design," among others.
Creatives and marketers should be aware of the many benefits of analyzing data—from using metrics to measure success to identifying opportunities that trigger creative ideas. However, an excessive focus on data and metrics could mean spending less time on the creative aspects of their role, where they could make the greatest impact.
Art and Science
Realizing that data and measurement can become a black hole, Unilever recently announced it is investing in the artificial intelligence firm MachineVantage in hopes of using AI to market its products more effectively. The company is even already using AI learning to power its hiring process.
Publicis, for its part, has launched "Marcel," an AI-based personal digital assistant designed as a communications platform for its 80,000 employees. The goal is to make global employees aware of opportunities. For example, a copywriter in the Philippines could decide to work from a desk in Manila for the New York office on a Super Bowl commercial.
The idea behind such applications is that powerful computer analysis using massive amounts of data will reveal patterns and opportunities that escape human marketers today.
While these AI applications are still in development, the point is clear for creatives and marketers: if they could hand off analytical and sophisticated data tasks to machines, they could free up time to pursue the creative aspects of their work, right?
Algorithms can optimize campaigns to achieve 80 percent viewability and a 90 percent final impact rate. What machines cannot do—at least for now—is create an attention-grabbing campaign or make consumers see a brand in a new, different way. That is and must be the job of creatives and marketers. Leave the rest to the machines.
If you need more information on this topic, you can get in touch with Alejandro Correia P / CEO at Danilo Black