Paramount Advertising's Now series and the future of creativity

Creativity is an essential element of the marketing and advertising ecosystem. And, given the ecosystem’s rapid evolution, creating the right balance of creativity and performance is top-of-mind for brands and agencies. Marketing and advertising leaders converged at the Creative Now event in New York on March 19 (see video below), the latest in Paramount Advertising’s Now Series, to share their thoughts on how to properly invest in building brand relevance, delivering measurable results and generating valuable action that brands and agencies are tasked with executing. Art vs. science: The impact of technology “Some predictions place the anticipated AI marketing tools marketplace to be at over $82 billion domestically by 2030; that’s a year-to-year growth rate averaging 25%,” said Dario Spina, chief marketing officer at Paramount Brand Studio. “Technology can fuel efficiency, but marketers are facing pressure from their CEOs and CFOs to show more immediate and direct results for their creative and media spends. This puts a lot of pressure on generating more performance-based campaigns.” As creator Swan Sit remarked in her keynote speech kicking off the event, “Technology doesn’t have a purpose unless it solves a problem. No matter what we call technology—what shiny shell we wrap it in—it’s just better, more efficient versions of things we’re already doing.” Spina added that leaner budgets these days means creative is being scrutinized because brands want the most for their buck. “But at the same time, if you go with an all performance-based approach, it’s limiting for brands using only bottom-funnel metrics and incremental sales,” he said. Lydia Daly, Paramount Advertising’s senior VP of audience impact and intelligence, addressed the central theme of the event head-on during her panel. “Marketers, publishers and agencies alike are all living with more data, more information and more intelligence at our fingertips,” said Daly. “This is great, but it also puts us all under a lot more pressure to track, to test, to optimize, to measure and to deliver results throughout the marketing funnel. As an insights leader with a background in creative strategy, I oftentimes find myself navigating that balance between creativity and data and the role that each of those play in driving success. Does creativity even matter in a performance-driven world? What about the role of instinct, of judgment, of bold thinking? And how do marketing teams and media teams balance all of these forces in decision making? These are big questions to unpack.” Scott Donaton, founder and CEO of Narrative Thread, addressed the role data plays for brand marketers coming up with bold, risky ideas. “Creatives used to think that data was the enemy of what they do,” said Donaton. “The smart ones who will succeed in today’s world understand that it’s a tool that gives them better insights into audiences, and that they can then factor that into what they do. When I worked at Digitas, we used to think about data as ‘humans in disguise.’ Creativity is the application of original ideas, innovation, imagination to solve business challenges. Everyone who is a performance marketer has to think about innovative ways to drive that business forward, and there’s a greater need for that than ever before.” Personal connection at the speed of culture Planting a flag within the hearts and minds of consumer audiences requires brands to generate content in alignment with the pace of cultural relevance and resonance. To do so, brands must first understand what culture means to consumers. According to the Paramount Branded Content Survey 2022—presented by Beth Trentacoste, executive creative director and senior VP of Paramount Brand Studio, and Shivani Gorle, senior manager of audience Impact and intelligence at Paramount, during the “Content at the Speed of Culture” panel—consumers define culture as a mix of current events and occurrences, social issues, popular trends and entertainment and arts/design. Knowing this, brands that want to win must produce content to effectively address consumer priorities within the context of culture. Today’s consumers expect brands to have a positive impact on society, according to the Paramount survey data. It revealed that 27% of Gen Z felt they knew a brand personally, compared with 18% of millennials. At the same time, 75% of consumers say that their favorite brands should be culturally relevant. Answering the call for a personal connection at the speed of culture requires timely content activated through channels that enable accessibility and partnerships that speak to nostalgia as well as timely relevance. “That could look like the Barbie brand securing 100 different brand partnership deals in the lead-up to the movie release, where each activation consistently went viral,” said Gorle. “It could look like Walmart bringing the ‘Mean Girls’ back together for a reunion, or Dunkin’ putting together this iconic but fake boy band of Matt Damon, Ben Affleck and Tom Brady for the Super Bowl.” Content to meet human needs Content is the vehicle through which brands show up to shape or participate in culture, especially in an age where fandom is baked into the DNA of the brand-to-consumer relationship, said Susan Kresnicka, anthropologist and founder of Kresnicka Research and Insights, during the panel “How to Be a Marketer in the Age of Fandom.” She defined fandom as a very specific type of relationship between the self and some object that is simultaneously relatable and elevating. “That relationship is excellent at meeting human needs, surrounding self-care, social connection and more than anything else, identity,” said Kresnicka. “In today’s marketing landscape, fans know they’re in the driver’s seat to steer where brands invest resources.” According to David Pangililan, manager of audience impact and intelligence at Paramount Advertising, 81% of fans agree that they have greater influence than ever before. This influence has created space for the evolution of conversation between brands and consumers where the consumer leads. Harish Sarma, global head of sports at TikTok, delivered key insights on how to define fandom, the evolution of fan conversation, and sustaining the brand-to-fan relationship. “Now we have fan-driven casts, for example, which are becoming more the norm than you can imagine,” said Sarma. “Fans are now finding their voice and saying, ‘I want to actually do my version of what [sports journalist] Stephen A. Smith does on first take. So I’m going to do my version. It turns out if I’m pretty good at this, the community will identify with me.’” Sarma noted that “it’s a shift in the consumer. In the past it used to be, you self-select where you want to spend your time. Now it’s actually a world where you can be a participant.” Fandom is now a two-way street relationship driven by the fans, so brand listening is a key to risk management in a market that demands cultural awareness, according to Casey DePalma, chief brand communications officer at Unilever. “If done wrong, the result can be extremely detrimental to the relationship. The moment we start telling someone what we think they should be doing, it won’t work.” No relationship works without listening to understand rather than listening to react, panelists agreed. It’s no different between brands and consumer audiences. Even more so, audiences are now in the habit of either consciously or subconsciously letting their actions indicate to brands what is relevant, acceptable and worth their time and hard-earned money. Multicultural marketing is marketing Speakers on the “Multicultural Marketing It’s Just Marketing” panel said that in a multicultural market, brands need to listen and respond in ways that reflect the nuanced needs of their target audiences. The modern consumer market is multicultural. It’s not a trend; it is the way society will look well into the future. How do marketers address this reality in a healthy way? By addressing cultural nuance, respecting the intelligence of the audience and being intentional about cultural strategy as it relates to the bottom line. Knowing that multicultural marketing is marketing means understanding that not everyone can do it. Multicultural marketing is a specialized skill set that is done best when strategy and creative come from the source—professionals who come from the audience communities brands aspire to engage with. The only thing worse than not being presented is being misrepresented, said Dabo Ché, CEO and chief operating officer at Ché Creative, during the panel. “Storytelling has to be authentic otherwise it’s pandering,” said Ché. “It has to be insightful, otherwise it’s just observational. It’s important that storytelling is done with authenticity from people who actually are from it. People who know it intimately, those little small details that make all the difference in the world can really shine through.” Successfully incorporating cultural nuance is a must-have if multicultural marketing is to be done correctly. It shows respect for audience intelligence. Consumers can tell when brands are attempting to engage them by casting a wide net rather than an intimate conversation. Marketers must be clear on their brand’s intentions with multicultural audiences, panelists said. It requires that multicultural audiences be seen as communities deserving of meaningful outreach driven by deep research, dialogue, and community building, informed by feedback. “When we talk to brands about connecting with culture, when they want to actually take that step, first we take a look inside because you have to build a brand from the inside out,” said Gabrielle Shirdan, founder and chief creative officer at Kitchen Table, during the panel. “Black people exist outside February. You can’t just talk to us on February 1st and stop on February 29th. It’s not just about doing the right thing. It’s great business.” If brands want a successful relationship with the modern consumer audience, they need to understand what phase of strategy they’re in, panelists agreed. Agencies, their clients and brands evaluate their business and identify the why and when behind their goal to engage the multicultural audience in association with business objectives. “The first thing we do with the client is ask their goals and objectives against our marketplace,” said Louis Carr, president of media sales at BET. “If they can’t answer that, we’ve got a problem. If they hadn’t done the work and thought about their share in their overall volume with African Americans by brands, we’ve got a problem. Most of the time we have problems because most clients haven’t done that.” How AI is forging the future As AI technology continues to revolutionize the industry, we should be excited about its propensity to help marketers address audiences in the spirit of meaningful relationship building, speakers on the “How AI Is Changing the Creative Landscape” panel agreed. AI offers a world of capabilities when it comes to intelligence gathering and sorting through the density of big data. It’s an opportunity to not only understand audiences on a more intimate level, and optimize what the modern creative role is today. “I am so excited by the fact that we can actually return to storytelling and really focus on the creative process,” said Abigail Posner, director of creative works at Google. “AI is already enabling us to do that, whether it revolves around media targeting or around some of our execution capabilities. Yes, there are going to be things along the way that we’re going to have to navigate through, but I’m excited that we can move from really focusing on precision to focusing on possibility.” During the panel, speakers elaborated further on AI. “The thing about people is, they’re always going to surprise you,” said Jen Louis Barrett, global head of entertainment at Meta. “I think now, with the opportunity that we have today with AI, with further insight and data, we can start from a stronger place of understanding what those connections are, and really lean into how people can connect for the future.” Data and strategy can sound like the antithesis of art to creative departments. Add AI to the mix one can see how art directors and designers may feel suffocated and controlled rather than inspired. With respect to this truth, it’s imperative to remember that AI is a tool, not a human substitute, panelists said. “Creatives need to be able to leverage the tools available to them, to make creativity and commerce make sense,” said Meg Moss, director of strategic development, emerging solutions and strategic partnerships at Adobe. “Things are moving quickly, and there are deliverables, as we all know, and there’s content, velocity. And part of the modern creative’s commitment to their employer, and how they work is to bring creativity in a way that meets business goals.” It’s the industry’s collective responsibility to set itself up for success in the interest of business and equally in the interest of the consumer, panelists agreed. One cannot exist without the other. As panelist James Myrick, general manager of SaaS and AI services at BENlabs, said, “AI is a technology, like the internet is a technology. It is foundational for what we can do to level up humanity.” “It will take a village for us to combine these things together to make them effective,” Steve Ellis added during his closing remarks. “Seeing as we’re all part of that village, we’re going to have to do the work.” About Paramount Advertising Paramount Global is a leading global media, streaming and entertainment company that creates premium content and experiences for audiences worldwide. Driven by iconic consumer brands, Paramount's portfolio includes CBS, Paramount Pictures, Nickelodeon, MTV, Comedy Central, BET, Paramount+ and Pluto TV. Paramount holds one of the industry's most extensive libraries of TV and film titles. In addition to offering innovative streaming services and digital video products, the company provides powerful capabilities in production, distribution, and advertising solutions.

Paramount Advertising's Now series and the future of creativity

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