As an industry we are obsessed with data, and for good reason. It’s a topic that has many clients and businesses scrambling for answers. However, while there’s no doubt every creative business will require a solution around how they capitalise on the ‘data rush’, it’s important we don’t lose sight of our roots.
Creativity remains a key point of difference and a genuine reason to hire one agency over another.
Don’t get me wrong. Data is incredibly exciting and frightening in equal measure. Sure it’s not new – technically it’s been around for a long time - but not at today’s scale and level of complexity. As it currently stands, data is a key touch point.
As it becomes more accessible and our means to interpret it becomes faster and more sophisticated, it will continue to both disrupt and enhance our industry at high velocity. Data is already providing a much deeper understanding of consumer behaviour and enabling us to measure the effectiveness of strategies, ideas and media selection in real time. This clearly allows fine tuning of plans and content more efficiently and effectively.
Just as digital has become a fat word today, so will data be one tomorrow. As we move forward, more agencies will be looking to bring data analytics in house and we’ll see more sophisticated software emerge at more accessible pricing.
As agencies embed these capabilities into their processes and get smarter at understanding the customer, we will also see more sophisticated targeting with more personalised content than ever before. As we rapidly approach this ‘hyper-personalised’ world, consumers’ expectations of how brands engage with them will heighten.
So much so that brands who apply a ‘one size fits all’ with their content approach will be deemed lazy and potentially face brand rejection. Increasingly we’ll see less marketing ‘to’ people and more marketing ‘with’ people as earned content takes hold and becomes every marketers end goal over paid media.
But, while there is no doubt we’re able to create an infinitely more informed picture of what’s going on, data alone cannot provide the answers to everything.
Data tells us what, where and when, but it doesn’t tell us why. For the answers to the ever-important why, agencies will continue to require strong strategic and creative thinking.
In fact many of the skills that were deemed fundamental to delivering powerful insight driven ideas will be as relevant in the future as they were back in the 60’s when JWT’s Stephen King invented Brand Planning. To generate these insights, it requires intuitive human thinking that can’t be replaced by automated reasoning or algorithms.
The types of insights today’s agencies need to create to inspire brand ideas will continue to be realised through an understanding of human emotion and empathy mixed with (often) unpredictable trends and behaviour. Data simply can’t provide this. Consequently strategic planning will continue to add significant value to clients, and will be used to create a genuine point of difference from one agency to the next.
Furthermore, no matter how smart we are when it comes to delivering a message on time, using the right channel or technology to the right person, it’s irrelevant if the idea behind the message isn’t powerful enough to engage them.
This is why creativity will remain our most prized asset, no matter how much disruption and opportunity is brought about through data and technology. Ultimately, the value on creativity within any agency should continue to reign supreme.
While right now some agencies use data as a competitive advantage, before long agencies will have similar offerings and data will no longer be a value add or point of difference, it will be regarded as a ‘hygiene’ factor to entry; simply a means to help inform creative strategies and inspire creative content. There’s no doubt it will continue to be a vital element in an agency’s work, but fundamentally it will be the idea behind the content that will continue to determine the overall effectiveness of a campaign. As such, it will remain critical to any agency’s offering.
Human compulsion to react to powerful ideas will never change, it’s in our DNA. And it’s inspiring creative human minds that are responsible for delivering ideas that elicit an intense response from the audience. For this reason there will always be a need to invest behind creative resource and talent to future proof the agency.
To put it simply, in a data-driven world, creativity still rules supreme.
For more on what creatives think about the data debate, chek out Creative Focus in the next issue of AdNews in print, out Friday (3 October). Subscribe in print here or get it on iPad.
John Gutteridge
CEO Australia and NZ
JWT