The APAC landscape is experiencing a creativity crunch. While customers increasingly demand hyper-personalised experiences across a growing range of digital channels, brands find themselves falling short. Only a quarter (25%) rate themselves as “good” at creating and delivering content, a recent report finds.

Marketers are juggling several campaigns at any given moment. They’re crunching numbers, forecasting, managing stakeholders and preparing presentations — all of which leave very little wiggle room for creativity to blossom. No wonder two in five (41%) APAC marketers cite lack of time to be creative as a barrier to delivering excellent customer experiences. 

It’s not the only barrier, though. The fear of the unknown also hinders marketers from taking creative risks. It’s safer to stick with the tried-and-true standard route to success. While this aversion to the unknown may provide a sense of security, it can also stifle innovation and limit the ability to captivate audiences with fresh and imaginative campaigns.

Even more, it opens brands up to being leapfrogged by their competitors. In an era where trends evolve swiftly, and consumer preferences constantly shift, staying ahead requires a dynamic and flexible approach. Brands must quickly adapt their campaigns to ensure their messaging speaks directly and compassionately to the customers they’re targeting.

Overcoming creative roadblocks with data-driven insights

We’re seeing a landscape where consumers increasingly embrace customised ads and anticipate tailored experiences. That means there's a transformative opportunity for marketers to capitalise on data-driven insights. While Gartner suggests a potential reassessment of personalisation efforts by 2025, we see this as a pivotal moment to reshape strategies and amplify creative impact.

Considerable effort is invested in leveraging data to define and reach target audiences. However, the true potential lies in applying this data-driven approach to creative endeavours. Research underscores that robust creative elements can contribute up to up to 89 per cent to the success of an ad. 

So rather than adhering to a one-size-fits-all approach, brands can harness the power of data to craft compelling and relevant stories for every individual within their target audience. By seamlessly aligning creative content with data-driven insights, they can ensure a personalised and engaging experience for each user, steering clear of potential roadblocks and charting a course toward unprecedented success.

Data-driven, in-stream video ads, for example, offer brands a powerful way to monetise their content while providing viewers with more personalised and engaging experiences. By leveraging data analytics and segmentation, publishers can optimise ad targeting and create a win-win situation for both publishers and advertisers.

5 Benefits of data-driven, in-stream video ads for publishers and advertisers

• Higher Engagement: Personalised ads are more likely to capture viewers' attention and lead to higher interaction rates.
• Improved Ad Relevance: Viewers are more likely to find the ad content relevant to their interests, which can result in higher conversion rates.
• Enhanced User Experience: Data-driven ads can create a seamless and less intrusive ad experience, leading to increased viewer satisfaction.
• Increased Revenue: More engaging and relevant ads can both command higher advertising rates and potentially boost publishers' revenue.
• Better Insights: The data collected from user interactions and behaviour can provide valuable insights for future ad campaigns and content creation.
• Improved Brand Metrics: Personalised ads have been shown to positively impact brand metrics, such as 'brand recall, brand favourability, active attention, purchase intent and intent to find out more’, offering a comprehensive enhancement to overall brand performance.

As an example, Nexxen Creative Studio offers full services for testing and optimising creative ad campaigns before they’re even launched, thanks to its unique four-step method: test, learn, optimise, launch. Let’s take a closer look:

• TEST your asset against your identified audiences with Nexxen’s proprietary tools
• LEARN how audiences respond to your creative and receive actionable recommendations across all metrics
• OPTIMISE your asset to be most engaging to audiences and add functionality to drive media goals
• LAUNCH the optimised assets to match your media plan and increase ROI

Setting the bar higher with data-driven insights

With Nexxen Creative Studio, creative decisions are no longer guided solely by intuition but are empowered by data-driven insights. Our clients, spanning diverse industries, are witnessing remarkable outcomes:

• A prominent image-sharing and social media service has experienced a staggering 244% increase in Click-Through Rate (CTR) and a notable 59% improvement in consideration. This transformation is attributed to the application of creative insights, customised optimisations and audience-driven strategies.

• An app-based gaming company has achieved a remarkable 53% reduction in the cost per install by leveraging Nexxen's creative services to fine-tune creatives specifically for CTV screens.

• An iconic outdoor apparel company has realised a significant 38% enhancement in attention compared to its standard assets. This accomplishment is a result of employing Nexxen's creative insights to inform and guide the optimisation process.

Delivering next-gen creative capabilities

Data-driven, in-stream video ads not only offer publishers a robust tool for monetisation but also pave the way for viewers to experience advertising that is both engaging and tailored to their preferences. This convergence of creativity and data signifies a new era in advertising – one where insights drive narratives, and personalisation is the key to resonating with audiences in an ever-evolving landscape.