Commentary

Creative Unplugged: Teams Don't Always Connect Across Firms

Pity the poor email copywriter who sits forgotten in an organization.

The only way creatives can work is if they have access to metrics and other information, but too often they don’t, judging by a new study by Adobe.

Of the creative teams represented, 28% lack access to data, yet 40% want to be involved in the reporting on targets and results.

Direct marketing is a numbers business. How can creatives possibly know how their work is resonating with consumers unless they have access to that data?

Only 35% of professionals feel their content creation/delivery process is very well-coordinated. Yes, they communicate across teams at least once per week — but that palaver doesn’t always lead to collaboration, Adobe notes.

However, 75% of marketers and advertisers feel their creative process supports strategic objectives very or fairly well. And 71% want to be more involved in it.

Marketers believe creatives are engaged in planning and strategy 45% of the time. But 57% of those same marketers would like more creative involvement, as would 69% of the advertisers. It’s unclear whether creatives would welcome that. 

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Adobe surveyed 1,000 marketing, advertising, creative, agency and IT execs and found that the creative process is more complex than ever. 

For one thing, 77% agree that there are more people are involved. Agreeing with that are:

  • Marketers — 60%
  • Advertiser — 63%
  • Brand creatives — 66%
  • Agency creatives — 75%
  • IT professionals — 75%

Similarly, most people agree that more tools are being utilized: 

  • Marketers — 77%
  • Advertisers — 85%
  • Brand creatives — 81%
  • Agency creatives — 83% 
  • IT processionals — 83%

The major pain points? One is keeping up with demand.

On average, firms now create 21 to 30 pieces of content per week. But there’s no clear guideline on how long each should take.

And what may be worse, firms are challenged in personalizing at scale. Most stakeholders agree that this is difficult, including 59% of marketers, 52% of advertisers, 53% of brand creatives and 41% of agency creatives. 

But they’re trying: 59% overall say they now vary content to target different segments — only 10% say they’re not. And 56% of digitally mature firms feel their personalization is a key market differentiator, versus 34% of non-mature outfits. And 27% report their firms are working on very extensive personalization.   

The top barrier to personalization is time to create and version, followed by the cost of doing those things and insufficient detail for versioning.

The content has to be good — sort of. Those surveyed score importance of quality at less than 50 (out of 100 possible points).

Brand creatives put it at 47 — only slightly higher than marketers (45), agency creatives (42) and advertisers (41). 

By the time anyone drills down to email, it’s hopeless.

 

 

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