They are also abandoning the siloed organizational structure that has become a barrier to success in the digital age. Wang: Establish your data approach. Plato: Learn about your audience. Now, for those long-time readers who know that I tend to keep the good stuff on the top shelf or at the end of the column, whichever is hardest to reach, let me share the following strategic insights, critical data, tactical advice, and trends in the digital video marketing business. Audience Insights for Online Video Campaigns Why is it so hard to get the left-brained data geeks into the same room with the right-brained creative types when digital campaigns are being incubated? And too many senior executives at big brands have similar barriers to overcome. There is an alternative approach that was discussed the day before this session was held. Critical Data for Audience Insights Is this even possible? Trends in Digital Video Marketing So, let me close with this honest analysis of these latest trends in the digital video marketing business. Back then, Ogilvy lamented “the cult of creativity” and declared, “When I write an advertisement, I don’t want you to tell me that you find it ‘creative.’ I want you to find it so interesting that you buy the product.” He added that creative types who have a contempt for research “occasionally luck into a successful campaign, but you will run the risk of skidding about on what my brother Francis called ‘the slippery surface of irrelevant brilliance.’” And my favorite chapter in Ogilvy on Advertising is Chapter 15: “18 miracles of research.” It begins with this warning: “Advertising people who ignore research are as dangerous as generals who ignore decodes of enemy signals.” So, it’s sad that we still need to discuss the strategic symbiosis of data and creative in 2017.
One of the largest panels at Advertising Week 2017 tackled one of the classic topics in the advertising, marketing, media, and related creative industries: The strategic symbiosis of data and creative. The panel was moderated by Quynh Mai, Founder of Moving Image & Content. Her panelists included some of the best and the brightest stars in the business, namely:
- Richard Alan Reid, BuzzFeed’s International Executive Creative Director & Executive Producer.
- Renee Plato, the SVP of Media Solutions and Innovation at Nielsen.
- Becky Wang, the CEO of Crossbeat New York.
- Michelle Klein, Facebook’s Marketing Director for North America.
- Kristen D’Arcy, who runs digital marketing, social and media for AEO.
- Maureen Traynor, the Global Director, Creative Solutions at Spotify.
Since I know you’re incredibly busy, let me share the session’s conclusion at the beginning of this column: Successful brands and disruptors are inverting the traditional “top down” approach that was driven by Creative Directors, who ruled the industry for decades. They are also abandoning the siloed organizational structure that has become a barrier to success in the digital age.
Instead, they are becoming better listeners and internalizing their data-driven audience insights across teams. That means they are adopting a data-driven approach to creativity and letting these insights drive the creative process instead of sticking with the old “Mad Men” approach. Instead of retrofitting strategy to support creative, the panel urged attendees to let data and insights lead creative. That was the big takeaway. Get it? Got it? Good. Now, most of you can get back to work.
But, for those of you who want to dig deeper, there were 10 other observations that Mai was surprisingly able to capture and summarize at the end of the session:
- Plato: Differentiate yourself.
- Wang: Establish your data approach.
- Plato: Learn about your audience.
- Traynor: Create for your audience.
- Reid: Engage with your audience.
- Klein: Use your resources to optimize online.
- D’Arcy: Use your resources to optimize offline.
- Wang: Think about the data in three dimensions.
- Traynor: Consider the context.
- Reid: Grow with your audience.
And for those of you who are now kicking yourself for missing this session, relax. Watch the video: “Data <3 Creative: A Strategic Symbiosis.” Yes, it is 41:46 long, but watching it will put you about a year ahead of most of your busy competitors, who stopped reading this column after the first 250 words.
Now, for those long-time readers who know that I tend to keep the good stuff on the top shelf or at the end of the column, whichever is hardest to reach, let me share the following strategic insights, critical data, tactical advice, and trends in the digital video marketing business. Hey, if I can be replaced with a video that’s 41:46 long, then I should stop writing now and start talking into my laptop’s webcam.
Audience Insights for Online Video Campaigns
Why is it so hard to get the left-brained data geeks into the same room with the right-brained creative types when digital campaigns are being incubated? Don’t both sides realize that using your whole brain is more likely to be successful?
Well, the panelists decided that outdated organizational structures and “top down” approaches were to blame. And, it’s true that too many senior executives at ageing agencies still put too many talented people into silos like the “creative services” department or the “research” unit of the “marketing services” department. And then they put these different departments on different floors of tall buildings with slow elevators or even in…
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