The Works: Why Creatives Shouldn’t Fear Data & Why It’s The End For Lazy Marketers

The Works: Why Creatives Shouldn’t Fear Data & Why It’s The End For Lazy Marketers

Douglas Nicol is partner at the independent creative agency The Works, plus he’s speaking at Daze of Disruption on the 19th and 20th of September. Here he tells B&T about the rise of AI in agencies, why it’s still as much about the ‘art’ as it is the ‘science’, and why it’s the end for lazy marketers…

The Works are a creative agency with data at its heart. Do you think too many agencies have been late to the data phenomenon and to their detriment?
Yes, there can be a fear of data amongst the creative community and that’s because they see it as potentially forming a ‘formula’ for creativity; they feel that anytime you try and get a creative person to work to a tight formula is the day you actually weaken the creative process. At The Works we think of data purely as a description of a human being. Data is no more than a description of our behaviours, our needs, frailties and our habits, and once you think of it like that the more enlightening it is and the more inspiring it can be.

Douglas-Nicol-BW-600x600

Won’t data make all the ads look the same? The Works, as an example, have Jim Beam, wouldn’t the data be the same for every person who drank bourbon no matter which brand?
It’s not just about that. If you look at the data you can also see how and where they follow trends, and they will make up trends, it’s ever-changing. It’s not like consumers are a consistent and predictable group of people. Today’s consumer is far more surprising than they’ve ever been and, because of that, it’s why all advertising doesn’t look the same. People are always at different stages and phases in their lives and data allows you to live in their world. Data is as much about psychology as it is about marketing.

Data’s not creativity’s silver bullet, however? You still see plenty of crap ads?
You have to remember that the creative process will always be part art and part science. And, yes, advertising sometimes fails. If you just make it all about the art then the likelihood of it failing is greater. Where if it’s a nice combination of art and science then you increase your chances of success. There’s no algorithm in the world that’ll predict if a campaign will be a success because it (creativity’s) not a perfect science.

There’s been rumours some of the mar-tech firms are inventing some sort of “super computer” to replace human creatives. Do you ever see that happening? Ads made by algorithms?
The question is: will artificial intelligence have a role in agencies? For sure. But that role will be for outsourcing all the boring, repetitive jobs. I don’t believe AI will replace the idea of conceptualising an idea because AI has no conscious; well, not yet anyway. There’s a lot of talk about it but the application in the next 10 years will be about removing boring repetitive work, not replacing the creative process. Bots will continue to automate our lives and do more in less time but the fundamental conceptualising of an idea, AI still has a long way to go.

Brands have a heap of data on loyal customers but none on the new customers that they want. Would you agree with that? 
Data teaches you about the customer’s emotional journey. For example, if they’re buying a house or car or whatever it is, they go on an emotional journey, sometimes 12 months before even purchasing it. And one of the interesting things we’re finding very successful is emotional data. You understand the highs and the lows of the pre-purchase cycle. You can map those. Then we find if a brand can play a role in reducing those emotional lows in buying a product and give them more emotional highs; they’re the brands that are more likely to be bought and that requires a lot of data to do that. And when you do that you start talking creative people’s language. Data that can map people’s emotions is right in the sweet-spot of what drives creatives’ thought processes.

Taking a punt, what do you think the agency of the future will look like?
The agency of the future will have a role to play in channel health. Channel health doesn’t get talked about enough. What marketers do is build their own channels, be it messaging or apps or whatever. But few put someone in charge of the health of those channels. That’s also about respecting your customers, understanding the privacy issues and understanding what will take an increase of reach and frequency on those channels. Take email, as an example, you see a declining response to it and that’s because it’s an unhealthy channel with decreasing response rates and, at the moment, no one is looking after the health of them. With the increasing number of paid channels, where brands have to pay to talk to their customers, the issue will be channel health and agencies will play a role in that. Agencies will start to employ psychologists, data analytics people; plus, we’ll always have great ideas people. But I think channel health will become a really important thing.

When you have change, you have disruption, someone typically gets left behind. Who don’t you see surviving?
Lazy marketers who see their job as being very narrow will disappear. The marketer who isn’t asking questions about ad blocking, who isn’t exploring new channels like messaging platforms, who isn’t understanding the issues around data that the industry faces, the marketer that isn’t willing to learn new stuff, to re-educate themselves, skill themselves for a changing world, they will become dinosaurs. And that’s true in agency land, too.

Daze of Disruption is on at the Art Gallery of NSW from September 19-20. Buy tickets here.




Latest News

Archibald Williams Wins NBA Digital, Activation & Fan Engagement Accounts For APAC
  • Media

Archibald Williams Wins NBA Digital, Activation & Fan Engagement Accounts For APAC

Independent brand and digital agency, Archibald Williams (AW) has been appointed to lead the NBA account across the APAC region. The NBA is one of the most prestigious sporting leagues in the world and basketball is one of the fastest-growing sports in Australia. Effective immediately, AW said it was “excited” to work across all digital, […]

QMS Champions Creativity As First Most Contagious APAC 2023 Sponsor
  • Advertising

QMS Champions Creativity As First Most Contagious APAC 2023 Sponsor

Leading digital outdoor company QMS has announced it is the first-ever inaugural partner for Most Contagious APAC, the landmark London event by creative and strategic intelligence company Contagious, which will be showcased in Australia on Tuesday, 12 December in Sydney and Wednesday, 13 December in Melbourne. Most Contagious is an event that delivers key advertising […]

OMG’s Annalect First To Get Meta’s Advanced Analytics
  • Technology

OMG’s Annalect First To Get Meta’s Advanced Analytics

Omnicom’s data and analytics division Annalect has partnered with Meta, giving it access to Advanced Analytics (AA) – one of Meta’s privacy-focused measurement solutions – to provide Omnicom’s clients with future-proof, next-level measurement. Omnicom is the first holding company to have access to AA. AA allows advertisers to combine their first-party data with Meta’s ads […]

AKQA Launches Eco-Conscious AI DIY Assistant Encouraging People To Gift More Sustainably
  • Technology

AKQA Launches Eco-Conscious AI DIY Assistant Encouraging People To Gift More Sustainably

WPP’s AKQA has launched Fixmas.gift, an environmentally conscious AI-powered DIY assistant, affectionately known as Fixie, for a one-stop solution for all things repair. Fixmas.gift hosts an array of guides and inspiration to empower people to prolong the lives of their belongings or purchase pre-owned items that need a little love and care. Fixie can: Help […]

Marc Collister: AI & Automation Set To Revolutionise Creativity In 2024
  • Opinion

Marc Collister: AI & Automation Set To Revolutionise Creativity In 2024

Marc Collister (pictured) of P2 Content Creators spills the beans on his 2024 predictions drawing from two decades of experience in the advertising, film and television industry. I’m certain it will come as no surprise that in 2024, we can expect our industry to move at breakneck speed again. With even more rapid shifts in […]

Opinion

by B&T Magazine

B&T Magazine
Zeno Group Australia Bolsters Client Offerings With An Expanded Creative Services Portfolio & New Senior Leader
  • Marketing

Zeno Group Australia Bolsters Client Offerings With An Expanded Creative Services Portfolio & New Senior Leader

Zeno Australia has announced expanded creative design capabilities and the appointment of Jim Michell (lead image) to its senior leadership team. The new moves support strong growth in the region. Zeno Australia’s clients, including Abano Healthcare, Motorola and Yorkshire Tea, can now tap into a suite of creative design services to augment the agency’s work […]

Assembled Media Inks TikTok Creator Campaign for BIC
  • Campaigns

Assembled Media Inks TikTok Creator Campaign for BIC

Assembled Media, is drawing upon the creative power of TikTok Creator Marketplace to help generate unique, impactful content for iconic stationery brand, BIC. The social activation campaign titled ‘A Pen for Every Side of You’ promotes the flexibility of BIC’s 4 Colours pen and is active nationwide on the BIC Stationery TikTok account. The campaign […]

Big data and analytics visualization technology with scientist analyzing information structure on screen with machine learning to extract predictions for business, finance, internet of things
  • Media

IAB Launches Fourth Module In Its Marketing Measurement Innovation Series

IAB Australia has launched ‘Evolution in Market Mix Modelling’, the fourth module in its Marketing Measurement Innovation Series, which has been developed by IAB Australia’s Ad Effectiveness Council. The module explores what is driving the increased use of MMM and how the technique is evolving with advances in computing power and machine learning to provide […]

Aerial view of a coal fired power station with large cooling towers emitting co2 into the atmosphere. With its lights already turned on the power station is illuminated in moody twilight.
  • Media

Scope3 Expands Carbon Measurement Capabilities To Include DOOH Advertising

Scope3, the collaborative sustainability platform leading the decarbonisation of media and advertising,  announced the addition of digital out-of-home (DOOH) to its emissions measurement. With DOOH ad spending predicted to grow from $17B in 2023 to nearly $24B by 2028, measuring this channel brings us one step closer to understanding the total impact of digital advertising […]

January 14, 2023 - New York, New York, USA: 2023 NRF Big Show press conference with Composition 2024 NRF Singapore.    Photo by Ian Wagreich / © Ian Wagreich Photography
  • Marketing

Now Open For Registration – NRF 2024: Retail’s Big Show Asia Pacific

NRF 2024: Retail’s Big Show Asia Pacific, is now open for online registrations for the main conference. Jointly organized by the National Retail Federation and Comexposium, Retail’s Big Show Asia Pacific will take place from 11 – 13 June, 2024 at the Sands Expo and Convention Centre in Singapore and is expected to draw thousands […]