According to researchers at the University of California-San Diego, the average information consumption of a person in 2009 was almost 34 GB per day. The way content and channels have increased over the last decade in the form of TikTok videos, Twitter Feeds, Instagram Stories, and WhatsApp messages, 34 GB sounds too trivial.
While all this information makes us smarter, it can also make us slower and drown marketers into an infinite set of consumer data. In fact, experts have also come up with names for this condition like ‘infobesity’ and ‘infoxication’.
However, to help marketers cruise through the challenges of data prioritization and management, the American multinational computer software company, Adobe, carried out a survey, which included more than 2,000 marketers and 5,000 consumers across the globe.
The survey mainly provides insights into how human creativity can give purpose to intelligence by absorbing data and then uncovering insights.
Here are the major highlights of Adobe's 'The Future of Marketing is Creative' report.
Information, Intelligence, and Ingenuity
The relationship between data and creativity isn’t as uncommon as most people tend to believe. In fact, in March 2019, Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) agents Nyssa Straatveit and Jacob Eastham spoke to a room of tech-savvy innovators. Surprisingly, their topic wasn’t intelligence, but creativity.
While their support for creativity might look somewhat out of place, recent assessments of the agency’s lack of imagination made them realize that information alone can’t be taken for intelligence. Without possessing the creativity to make data actionable, information’s impact is next to nothing.
Although AI and machine learning can help in the automation of repetitive tasks, the most valuable insights come only from a seamless integration of creativity with intelligence. Leveraging AI while employing the necessary soft skills like teamwork and problem-solving is instrumental in developing and institutionalizing an intelligence practice that is built on creativity. That is why the deployment and the rise of the chief intelligence officer and a shift in their responsibilities is the need of the hour.
The Sweet Spot
Transforming into a real experience business requires unleashing human creativity to its full extent. Intelligence serves as a fuel for creativity, which subsequently fuels transformation. When all three fall in line, businesses can uncover the opportunities that they can use to establish a bond with their audience through unique and impactful customer experiences.
For instance, although Netflix gathers all our viewing and interaction data, it leverages artificial, emotional, and analytical intelligence to ascertain the programming decisions that it would take in the future. Far from the assumption that Netflix works in data-driven labs, it deploys intelligence to meet the unique tastes of its audiences.
Thus, Netflix functions at the intersection point of intelligence and creativity and serves as the matchmaker between actors, writers, directors, comedians, and the audience that is on the lookout for content that suits its taste. This way, Netflix unleashes a never-ending cycle of creativity and intelligence.
Striking the Balance Between Emotional Intelligence (EQ) and Artificial Intelligence (AI)
While AI and machine learning can automate at a speed that is impossible to achieve for humans, EQ provides context to a difficult-to-define set of skills like empathy, intuition, observation, understanding, and problem-solving. Bridging the gap that exists between hard and soft intelligence is, therefore, the most important factor in the creation of an experience business.
This combination of EQ and AI is of utmost significance at the US National Center for Exploited and Missing Children (NCMEC). With limited resources and limited time available, creative problem-solving is crucial for reuniting children with their families. NCMEC takes advantage of all the available digital channels to effectively communicate messages about the missing and exploited kids on a large scale.
By embracing creativity along with EQ and AI, and implementing new tools, NCMEC significantly lowered the bounce rate by 75% and doubled traffic to its donation pages that developed new prevention programs.
Embracing the Change
Leveraging intelligence through creativity and using EQ and AI to transform your business will require certain changes, which will need you to stay focused and utilize the right tools. Here are 5 things that you can do to give purpose to intelligence through creativity.
1. Unlock Consumer Insights Through Data
It is much easier to deploy the important channels in the case of younger audiences, especially the Millennials and Gen Z users. Collect data from all the available sources.
If possible, try speaking to your customers personally. Try finding out what they like. Nothing works like showing a little empathy in modern marketing strategies.
2. Boost Consumer Loyalty with High-Quality & Shareable Content
Nothing works like top-notch content. If you’re already dishing out high-quality content, then try analyzing what is keeping your potential consumers from accessing it. Maybe the format of your content is something that doesn’t resonate with a fraction of your audience. Try including them by creating content and serving it to them the way they like. This will go a long way in ensuring that you have a pool of loyal and dedicated customers.
3. Establish Strong Connections Both Online & Offline
Your offline service should match the standards that you have set through your online service, and vice-versa. Customers should be able to merge digital, physical, and virtual experiences.
Improve your consumers’ experience across touchpoints like website activity, in-store sales, order cancellations, return volume, and much more. This way, you will erase the lines that currently exist between e-commerce and in-store experience.
4. Make Conversions Easy & Seamless
Try integrating your marketing and creative tools with AI and machine learning. This way, you will be able to create personalized experiences for all your customers, which will lead to better conversion rates across the board.
5. Make Customer Experience Your Main Focus
Always remember that no marketing is complete without a significant improvement in the overall customer experience. Try ameliorating it as much as you can by realigning and reuniting creativity and intelligence.
Wrapping Up
While big data, machine learning, artificial intelligence, and automation have taken the centre stage in recent years, the truth remains that creativity is the future of marketing. Without having the requisite creativity to use machine learning and AI, no business can expect its marketing strategies to have the kind of impact that they intended them to have.
Creativity is the ultimate tool that will give a sense of purpose to actionable insights and help empower organizational transformations.
To delve deeper into the findings of the survey and read the full report, click here.