A new survey, “Releasing the Power of Digital Creative,” reveals current industry sentiment regarding opportunities and roadblocks for Creative’s contribution to ROAS

New York, NY - May 24, 2022 - Ad-Lib.io, a Smartly.io company and a leading next-generation Creative Management Platform (CMP), announced today the publication of a new survey, conducted by WBR Insights, entitled “Releasing the Power of Digital Creative.”  The survey explores the sentiments of major US advertisers regarding the opportunities they see to boost ROAS via investment in creative capabilities as well as the roadblocks that are currently standing in the way of creative effectiveness.  To gather these insights, WBR conducted a survey of 100 major U.S. brands and multi-brand retailers with advertising budgets greater than $50M million.  While 89% of the respondents felt that creative scale, creative team acumen and creative-driven ad addressability were leading priorities for improved ad performance, only 10% felt that their creative and media teams were aligned to make this happen. 

The survey further revealed that a majority of respondents struggle with aspects of agility during campaign execution. As one example, over three quarters of the respondents felt that they have to build creative assets from scratch when personalizing campaigns to different audiences or regions.  Also significantly, for 64% of respondents, data and creative intelligence were perceived as an important future lever in campaign effectiveness.  While the majority of survey respondents already use some form of technology platform to address creative management challenges, 97% of those who do not are actively looking for a technology solution that supports the cross-team alignment, campaign automation and creative intelligence that will help them capitalize on the creative opportunity. 

“A greater focus on digital creative has the power to transform digital advertising, but as the industry moves away from reliance on cookies and other third-party data, marketers will need to find new ways to connect their big ideas with data-driven campaigns,” said Oli Marlow Thomas, Ad-Lib.io Founder. “This survey helps to identify the obstacles that major advertisers encounter as they scale their campaigns and identifies a role for automation and intelligence to overcome them.” 

The  full survey results and methodology can be downloaded, at no cost, here. For information on future surveys in other regions globally or to provide feedback on this survey, please contact the Ad-Lib.io research team at marketing@ad-lib.io.    

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‍About the Survey Methodology

In March 2022, the WBR Insights research team conducted a phone-based survey of 100 leaders in brand, media, marketing, and creative roles at B2C brands, each with an annual digital advertising budget of over $50 million. The results of the survey informed the report. Respondents were selected via purposive sampling. Survey respondents' credentials are confirmed in advance and upon their participation in the survey. Respondents participated on a voluntary basis without compensation. 

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About the Authors

Ad-Lib.io, a Smartly.io Company

Ad-Lib.io, a Smartly.io company, provides the leading next-generation Creative Management Platform to enable marketers at the world’s largest brands to scale their digital creative. Ad-Lib.io connects creative and media workflows using intelligent automation, making it easy and fast to produce and optimize relevant ad creative across all digital channels. These ads are 60% more cost-efficient to produce, according to Ad-Lib.io’s customers which include global brands like Estée Lauder, Samsung, Deliveroo and Johnson & Johnson. The venture-backed company -- recognized as a 2021 Start Up of the Year by Campaign Magazine -- was founded by former Google executives who understood the need to close the wide gap between creative concepts and digital media execution.  Ad-Lib.io is headquartered in London, UK with offices in North America, Asia, Australia, Europe and the Middle East.   

For more information, please visit www.ad-lib.io. 

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WBR Insights

WBR Insights is the custom research division of Worldwide Business Research (WBR), the world leader in industry-driven thought-leadership conferences. Our mission is to help inform and educate key stakeholders with research-based whitepapers, webinars, digital summits, and other thought-leadership assets while achieving our clients’ strategic goals.

For more information, please visit www.wbrinsights.com.

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eTail

We launched eTail in 1999, and have been dedicated to supporting the growth of the retail industry ever since. What started off as 100 people in a room discussing where this sector is headed, has led to 2,000 senior-level eCommerce executives being inspired whilst learning and developing their company as well as their careers.

For more information, please visit etailwest.wbresearch.com

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