By Shouvik Prasanna Mukherjee, Chief Creative Officer, Asia Pacific  

The Quest for Ideas that Earn Attention and Action 

Traditional advertising isn’t dead, but a growing number of marketers and communicators favor ideas that earn attention, which can shape broader culture, change perceptions, and spark action in ways paid media often cannot.     

The success of earned-first creative and content largely depends on three factors: relevance, customization, and speed of delivery. And the secret to improving in each of these areas is rethinking how data and analytics are used to fuel creative processes.  

What to Expect 

In recent years, marketers and PR pros have embraced data and analytics to enhance strategic planning and after-the-fact evaluation. But in 2023, we expect to see more deliberate use of both in idea development and content planning, leading to stronger campaigns from brands that more reliably earn attention.  

How Brands Can Win 

The data and analytics toolset for modern creatives is expansive, including listening and predictive analytics tools to find focus and shape vocabulary, content customization tools to explore more interactive formats, and machine learning and artificial intelligence tools to reduce the time of production and diversify content.  

To deliver the most impact, brands need to leverage datasets and tech that will help improve relevance, customization, and speed of delivery. Here are a few ways to get started:  

• Relevance. PR and marketing pros need to know what the audience is thinking and looking for right now. Resources like Google Search Console, Google Analytics, SEMrush, and SimilarWeb can help creatives get a clearer picture of the latest trends, topics of interest and vocabulary of the audience to deliver content that resonates and helps improve SEO organically.  
• Customization. ‘Choice’ is an audience must-have and the ability to offer flexibility to choose the format of interaction or letting them be a part of the content journey bolsters success. Consider leveraging basic survey and polling tools on social channels to identify interests before content production or let them select the next twist in the storyline while watching a video to increase engagement. Fresh customization tools abound – today, it’s easier than ever to let every member of the audience receive a tailored video based on their shared data. Consider making use of the nostalgic commemorative videos on Facebook or using third-party tools like Viddsee to craft custom B2B content for individuals on LinkedIn. Each can help drive results.   
• Speed of delivery. Use of AI has been a buzzword among creatives for a while – and it’s been a topic of contention. Where we see the most efficient use of AI in content conceptualization and production is in the speed of delivery. While brainstorming using AI-powered creative tools opens a new world of inspiration, the most practical benefit is developing content mock-ups in almost an instant. We’ve been testing Midjourney and DALL·E to generate content concepts and mock-ups, reducing development time by 75 percent or more and helping us get high performing content to our audiences even faster.   

Why it Matters

The impact of data and analytics on creativity and content depends on the application and effective deployment. By retooling creative processes to enhance relevance, customization and speed of delivery, creative leaders can move beyond gut instinct to conjure ideas and craft campaigns that matter to their audiences, post after post.