Last January 31, Eduard Vandelòs (Creactivitat) attended as an guest to the debate among marketing and digital advertising professionals organized by Emilio Márquez (La Latina Valley) in Barcelona. The event, attended by some of the city’s leading digital agencies, discussed industry trends such as the influence of data on the creative process, the neutrality and independence of data analytics and the design of advertising campaigns around influencers.
One of the main issues that were put forward during the dialectics was how big data is conditioning the creativity of brands. For Eduard Vandellos, creativity should be an independent pillar within agencies: “The brands have to seek originality and personalisation in their campaigns (…) Creativity should not be an alibi for data, and they will be conditioned by the interpretation of a third party with their own interests.” To exemplify the fact that creativity has an intrinsic value, Eduard Vandelòs put forward Alex Trochurt’s case, a graphic designer, illustrator and independent typograph, and that great brands such as Dior, Coca Cola or AC / DC have been employed with no condition with respect to big data.
The independence of the measuring softwars themselves was another issue that gave rise to controversy at the meeting. According to Eduard Vandelòs: “These tools work through algorithms that the manufacturer itself program subjectively. The ideal thing for an agency is to create a hybrid algorithm of its own, with access to data from different sources and thus avoid being conditioned by a single perspective of interpretation. ” The most clear cases are those of Google or Facebook. The same company “buys, sells and measures data” through systems run by an entirely custom and secret algorithm. Say Google Shopping, Facebook Ads or Google Analytics.
Other points at which the debate focused, was why an agency decided to choose an influence or another, to promote the product to which it intended to give visibility. Eduard Vandelòs referred to the case of Chiara Ferragni (16m followers at Instagram). The issue was to discern about why this is an optimal choice to lead a brand’s campaign. Can customization or segmentation exist with a great public as his own? ” Arantxa Pérez (influence) clarified that the priority for choosing an influence is “that person incorporates the product naturally into his feed and becomes an ambassador of the brand (…) something that will make the user see the spontaneity of the publication and update the user’s own need to adopt the brand as an aspirational model.”
Such discussions are necessary to share with professionals the concerns, challenges and experiences of each participant with a view to improving the services that digital agencies offer from a leading town in this sector as Barcelona, to everyone.
Abel González and Eduard Vandelòs Department of Marketing and Management