The digital media and marketing is increasingly ruling the roost. A recent report – TheCMOSurvey – says that marketers currently spend 17 per cent of their marketing budget on social media and this is predicted to increase to 20.3 per cent within a year, and 26.4 per cent in five years.

A number of experts in the industry too are batting for a synergy between creative and digital marketing methods and believe it is the key to growing brands now.

The majority say that it isn’t a single digital or creative solution that makes for a great marketing campaign but an integration between them that works.

However, with a dozen of technology solutions available in the market – Generative AI, Augmented Reality and many more – the question now is how do you stand apart and keep a balance between creativity and technology?

Integration between social media & creative world

According to Hareesh Tibrewala, Joint CEO of Mirum India, “I don’t think creative and digital sit on the opposite side of the spectrum. ‘Creative’ is building a compelling story around the brand that addresses either a consumer aspiration or a pain point. ‘Digital’ is a channel that is used to communicate this story to the audience.”

Sharing an example of a media campaign that has successfully integrated both the solutions, Tibrewala says: “AMFI is a brilliant example of a great advertising campaign (Mutual Fund Sahi Hai), which has helped to create category confidence with a potential investor. And using a series of focused digital videos and blogs, this narrative has been bought to life, to address very specific investor queries and concerns. This is a great example of an umbrella narrative being bought to life by digital.”

As for Karan Anand, SVP – Strategy, Interactive Avenues, influencer marketing and social media have helped in balancing the creative and digital marketing world. “Social media platforms, influencer marketing, and emerging technologies have significantly impacted the balance between creative and digital marketing techniques. These elements have provided new and innovative ways for brands to reach their target audience and convey their brand story. In order to leverage these elements, brands need to keep up with the ever-evolving digital landscape.”

Anand further says that emerging technologies such as non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and the metaverse can be used by brands to create immersive virtual experiences. “For instance, Patrón Spirits created a virtual pop-up event in the metaverse for a summer campaign that allowed users to visit three pop-up events dedicated to the brand’s three summer cocktails. This strategy not only helped to promote the brand, but also created a memorable experience for customers.”

Partnering with influencers is another way to leverage social media platforms for innovative advertising experiences, Anand added. Influencer marketing has proven to be effective in driving brand awareness and sales, particularly when working with influencers that align with the brand's values and target audience, he said illustrating with an example: Dunkin’ Donuts partnered with Charli D’Amelio, the #1 most followed TikTok creator, for a long-term sponsorship to promote their products through TikTok content.

Creative use of data

Viren Razdan, Managing director at Brand-nomics, explains how marketers can take data and use it in creative marketing campaigns. “Data-driven insights are a goldmine to tap into behavioral patterns that could trigger conversations and conversions. The challenge is to weave the brand-idea down to these digital bites of engagement. Take Coca-Cola, an idea while at an overall platform could be about happiness, moments and occasions build the timing of fun moments with friends or food, simplistically put. So, a fintech brand can have an overarching philosophy to put the wind in your sails but closer to conversions the conversations have to be about real-time needs and simplicity. The insights begin to take sharper tones and pitch.”

Neeraj Bassi, Chief Growth Officer, Cheil India, says data alone can’t bring the ROI but it needs a creative insight for it to become a powerful tool for advertisers. “Today, we have access to a number of data points across the customer journey, including post purchase interaction. And we use tools to do deep analysis of these data points to generate insights – the story behind the numbers. It has been my belief across the 25+ years that I have been in the industry, that it is not the data per se, but the story behind the data that leads to great communication. Data can tell us that more women are coming to test drive a certain brand of car, but unless we understand why they are and use it in an interesting way to weave a connect with that audience, that data is just good to know information.

In sum, data is a great resource to cull insights, not just for campaign development, but also to optimize elements in the campaign. What we need to focus on is creative layering on top of the data to convert insights into engaging stories, which we will then tell in the most engaging way on platforms that are relevant to contemporary consumers.”

Striking the balance

Karan Anand tells us what brands can do to create an impact through the balance between digital and creative ways of marketing. “To create engaging and memorable advertising campaigns, brands need to integrate storytelling, creative content, and data-driven insights in a balanced way. However, there is no set formula to achieve this balance. The most important ingredient for brands is simplicity. Brands often end up with a complex approach, using all the data, tech, and creativity. To overcome this challenge, brands should break down complex structures and simplify the execution for consumers. Brands need to make the most powerful personalized experiences for consumers while keeping it simple.”

Sharing another example, Razdan says: “Once in a while comes a CRED and breaks clutter with its disruptive creativity and ammo on air, creating a buzz about the brand…and then? An idea must work like an umbrella opening up with multiple tech-points as seek one-on-one relevance. Digital mediums help trigger activating the idea, bring sharper nuances into connecting with our audiences. Take the example of a food brand - it would have multiple consumer segments with their respective triggers of consumption and media habits. Influencers would work at one level while the other aspects would demand attention in their own right.”

“We have to acknowledge the rise of individualism in consumption and the power of interactivity. The drivers of demand have altered remarkably and an idea must have the power to traverse across mediums fluidly,” Razdan asserted.