• by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer @lauriesullivan, April 7, 2025

Data has always had a major influence on creative. Now with AI agents, the data has an even greater impact.

When asked about Vidmob’s role with AI agents, newly appointed president at Vidmob Mark Mannino said “we think we’re a good input into AI agents, generative AI in general. We already work with many companies that have built creative AI tools.”

These tools need the data to tell the creative what the image or video should look like. The key to Vidmob’s technology is that it can compare many parameters in the creative to determine whether each complies.

For example, when drawing an ad for a bottle of water, sometimes the ad shows a paper carton and sometimes it shows a plastic bottle. The data reflects that an ad featuring a paper carton increases sales by approximately 13%.

“Think of that type of data to build AI agents,” he said. “As creative AI scales, companies will need these types of inputs.”

Mannino, who is the newly appointed president at Vidmob, believes the company’s data will be key to the world of AI. He feels fortunate to have led at MediaMath, to have helped launch Amazon’s demand-side platform (DSP), and guided Flywheel as chief operating officer. He also supported programming, search and retail media.

When recruited by Amazon, “I had no idea what I was getting myself into,” Mannino said, trying to explain a different way of buying media. “I went from programmatic to retail media. Both were not just technology changes, but how brands and agencies had to do things.”

With all that experience behind him, he now takes responsibility for operational leadership-- market strategies, revenue, and finance -- at creative data company Vidmob, reporting to CEO Alex Collmer.

Vidmob, which has analyzed more than 3 trillion individual pieces of data throughout the years, in 2024 demonstrated how it works with a team at Amazon Web Services’ Generative AI Innovation Center (GenAIIC) to gain insights in creative data using Amazon Bedrock.

The collaboration uses natural language to analyze and generate insights on performance data through different channels like TikTok, Meta, and Pinterest. It also generates information from research for context such as the value proposition, competitive differentiators, and brand identity of a specific client.

“Its really early for creative,” he said. “A lot of brands and agencies are just figuring out how to do it. A few clients are building in-house capabilities with teams or individuals who are becoming creative data experts.’

It reminded him of the early trading desk when working with VivaKi, a marketing communications company within Publicis Groupe that provides digital advertising solutions.

What’s interesting about creatives is the audience is changing and those who put together these messages for brands will need to attract AI agents along with people.

Mannino pointed to a study released by the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) last week that notes creative is a real focus for many CMOs, with more than two-thirds believing it’s one of their most important focuses. Many are not confident to measure creative return on investment.

Operational processes will need to ramp up this year, because Mannino sees a need to scale quickly to support agencies and brands with creative.