'Creative data' can improve ad effectiveness

Artificial Intelligence (AI) can help brands understand “creative data” at scale, and so identify the shared traits of their most impactful ads.

Why it matters

“Creative data” is a new frontier for brands that are seeking to maximise the impact of their communications. Through assessing a sizable volume of ads, artificial intelligence can unlock insights regarding the precise creative elements that are most associated with success.

Takeaways

Anastasia Leng, CEO of CreativeX, a firm that deploys AI to assist brands in enhancing their ads, discussed this topic in a session held by WARC at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity 2022:

• AI software can analyse the content of huge numbers of ads at a granular level – say, logo placement, music use and diverse representation in casting – and help brands delineate the granular features of their communications output. (WARC subscribers can read more here.)
• At the micro level, she explained, this “creative data” reveals numerous tiny details about an ad – information, Leng conceded, that is of limited worth in isolation.
• Undertaking such an investigation at scale, however, yields significant insights, and can help develop automated tools for brands to quickly determine if their creative has the desired traits.
• Major advertisers like consumer goods firms Nestlé and Unilever, as well as brewers Heineken and Anheuser-Busch InBev, have leveraged this approach and yielded significant results.

The big idea

“Creative data is basically an untapped asset class. We all have it – we all have a ton of it. We sit on it. And it’s ours. But we haven’t been able to actually harness it and cluster it” – Anastasia Leng, CEO, CreativeX.