3 Strategies Fueling Today’s Creativity, According to Top Marketers

When looking for what drives creativity, the Uber Villa at Cannes Lions is a good place to start.

In partnership with ADWEEK, the Uber Villa hosted a Creativity in Motion: Exploring New Media Landscapes panel during last week’s Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, with top industry experts discussing what fuels today’s creative marketing.

Moderated by ADWEEK CCO Zoë Ruderman, the panel included Megan Ramm, head of Americas for Uber Advertising; Ian Trombetta, svp of social and influence marketing for the NFL; Sarah Larsen, CMO of Samsung Home Entertainment; and Domenic DiMeglio, chief marketing and chief data officer of Paramount Streaming. Throughout the event, the execs discussed innovation, new media, data and how it all comes together within today’s creative.

Here are three ways marketers are fueling creativity today:

Stay flexible and reframe success

During the panel, executives stressed the importance of keeping an innovative, flexible mindset regardless of a company’s situation.

For instance, though Uber has been around since 2009, its dedicated advertising division has only launched in the last few years. With that in mind, Ramm views Uber Advertising as a startup, navigating the market and relationships with flexibility that giant companies aren’t known for.

“We’ve been having to be nimble. We have to go after and get the resources we need, the engineering resources we need and seek out the partnerships that help us do that internally and externally,” Ramm said.

For the NFL’s part, Trombetta said the league is “constantly reframing” what success looks like and focusing on new opportunities, including global expansion, building player profiles, flag football and more.

By reframing what success looks like, Trombetta said the league “opens up so much opportunity for creativity across the board, whether that’s our internal teams or great partners like 72andSunny.”

Lean into culture

According to Larsen, part of staying relevant to consumers is leaning into today’s culture and not having creative “provide a sea of sameness.”

“For Samsung, it’s a very well-established, legacy consumer electronics brand. It couldn’t get more staid and traditional,” Larsen said. “So the only way we can break through when it comes to our marketing is to lean into culturally relevant material and change up the marketing playbook.”

However, leaning into culture starts within a company, with DiMeglio noting that a culture of creativity within Paramount Streaming facilitates innovation.

“We’ve always had a culture of always questioning things, trying to innovate and certainly feel like our content creates a lot of moments for creativity,” DiMeglio said. “We have a lot of moments that matter.”

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Use data to tell your story and get buy-in

When it comes to effective creative, data is your friend.

“For me, I’m constantly on my creatives, constantly on my influencer teams as well, to measure everything,” Trombetta said. “Then we can map that back and tell powerful stories as to what it’s doing for us.”

Ramm noted that uncertainty about any adverse effects of advertising on the passenger experience may have been a reason that Uber’s advertising division was delayed for so long.

Data helped prove that wrong, providing a “lever” for Uber Advertising to negotiate internally.

“Turns out it’s quite the opposite,” Ramm said. “It’s more personalized. People like to see the ads, and we’re proving that every day through the formats that we’re developing.”