Our first Creative Morning

Last week the IAB hosted its first Creative Morning event, showcasing a handful of the very best creative campaigns from the last 6 months. With a bustling crowd of agencies and advertisers, the scene was set for a morning filled with creativity and inspiration...

Sam Crowther from A Million Ads kicked off the morning, encouraging us all to “sound more human” by working to be relevant to listeners wherever they are.

Voicing over four seasonal audio campaigns, Sam explained how A Million Ads harnessed location data and live weather conditions to make their campaigns more dynamic. For Halfords, live conditions dictated the audio content e.g. on wet autumn mornings people heard streaky rain rattling their windscreens. Utilising the cocktail party effect, shows we selectively pay attention to information relevant to us even within busy environments, so A million Ads personalised each ad according to the listeners’ location e.g. Find your local Glasgow/London/Belfast store now, to cut through background noise. Which, I might add, he did perfectly himself with his own pre-recorded audio to compliment his presentation.

We were then transported to the oasis of Abu Dhabi by Verizon Media’s Juliette Lambert-Heduy who showed us a unique immersive VR 360º video experience. Verizon Media aimed to show that Abu Dhabi “has a lot more to offer than just its airport lounge”. To shift perceptions, people were immersed into a video VR 360º experience putting people at the heart of six key Abu Dhabi landmarks. The campaign has reached 4.5 million people so far, received 75,000 immersive video views and a 54% uplift in Abu Dhabi searches in comparison to the same period last year, proving the campaign has been successful in waking people up to all Abu Dhabi has to offer. Immerse yourselves in the Abu Dhabi experience here.

Next up, Clear Channel’s Johnathan Acton showed us how to use data for good, by reaching the right audience at the right time in a campaign developed in collaboration with NHS Blood and Transplant and 23red. Bringing to life the personal stories of people like Mary, 25, from Highbury, who benefits from regular blood donations. 

Dynamically driven DOOH ads used real time NHS appointment data layered with location data to give people contextually relevant messages about the number of appointments available that week, as well as signposting people towards their closest blood donor centre. The campaign was praised by the NHS “We’re very grateful to 23red and Clear Channel for creating powerful, innovative modern adverts for blood donation that will grab people’s attention.”

Using a Confused.com example, Charlie & Anna showed how Optimise Media use data from all available touch points to create a bigger picture of campaign performance over time and analyse what competitors were offering. With this data, they were able to creatively optimise cashback rates towards higher value customers interested in buying insurance and incremental sales. This helped achieve a 6% increase in ROI and 74% increase in quote to sale conversions, illustrating data used creatively can better help you reach engaged audiences. 

On a more playful note, Joe Friend from Pepper Studio taught us when working creatively with data sometimes you need to be prepared to go against the grain, showcasing the first ever TikTok lead influencer campaign for Chupa Chups sugar free Airheads lollies.

To complement their social media strategy, sponsored experiential areas were held at Summer in the City and London’s MCM Comic Con. It enabled Chupa Chups sugar free brand messages to be a part of user interactions using fun social media challenges to create hundreds of pieces of user-generated content. A brand affinity study run as part of the campaign emphasised the power of influencer marketing, with 27.5% of respondents agreeing that the campaign made them want to try the Chupa Chups Sugar Free lollies.

To conclude the morning, we delved into the world of Native with ADYOULIKE’s Kevin Sewell who talked us through creatively targeting ads to increase traffic to site for an on-going campaign with Hollywood Bowl.

Ads were geo targeted to locations with a Hollywood Bowl outlet and then contextually targeted towards family friendly publisher sites. ADYOULIKE used an AI tool to read publishers’ organic content to pull out the top 5 key words that appeared on a page to place ads where they might receive higher engagement. They also connected with regional news networks, to place relevant ads in the right area alongside local mentions. 

Due to this creativity, the campaign data revealed impressive engagement figures with the site, and bowled a strike with online bookings. 

Like what you’ve read so far? Are you working on exciting campaigns like these above? Get in touch and join our next Creative Morning!