AVOID THE CREATIVE CRAPSHOOT: What can we know for sure?

I worked at marketing agencies for over thirteen years. And I loved the chaos.

I loved the constantly shifting priorities and the emergency deadlines. The creative briefs with super tight deadlines. And the DRAMA of knowing whether we won or lost a big RFP. 

Looking back on that time now - I have a nostalgic love for the creative chaos of it all.

But I can’t help but wonder: how different could that have all been if we'd been able to know more things FOR SURE? Less of the chaos of guessing. More of the directive power of KNOWING.

What if we could predict consumer behavior-accurately? What if our ROI calculators were based on more science and less sitting-in-the-big-board-room-best-guessing-on-a-white-board? What if every piece of content we made was easily measurable?

My clients - Brand Managers, Marketing Managers, CMO’s, Creative Directors, Strategists - were busy. And we were throwing piles of content at them, hoping to see what stuck. 

I was proud of our output at the time . But now I realize the power of overwhelm when we laid that amount of options at their feet. 

That’s one of the things that drew me to Immersion when I demoed the product for the first time earlier this year. The predictive power of Immersion’s data clearly, instantly, and objectively demonstrated how immersed the audience was for the piece of content. Their connection to what they were consuming - in real time. Do they like it? Do they love it? Could they care less?

And the data predicts consumer behavior with over 80% accuracy. 80% ACCURACY. 

I think of all the times we sat behind the one-way-mirrored glass wall in focus groups, studying a commercial or a campaign. Watching people struggle to find words to define how they felt about a reel of content. I think about the **literal** piles of analog surveys we received at viewing parties. Was this mascot more engaging for the brand? Or did people prefer the cartoon? 

With Immersion - all that time could have been saved. 

And we would have known better! Almost for sure what the right content was. 

Our creative team could have iteratively tested content they are making to get on the right track. I could have presented only the best options to my clients with clear ROI and predictive actions for the target demographic. 

Creative is creative. 

We will never change the process to create. But the data to know how our audience is connecting to the content we make? That is PURE. PREDICTIVE. POWER.