In the first in a series of articles based on Automated Creative’s new book, Using Creativity and Data in Marketing, Tom Ollerton uses interviews with senior marketers from brands including Bose, Mars, Mastercard, and McDonald’s to explore how creativity and data can work together to unlock real value.

At the heart of the book is a deceptively simple question: why should marketers bother mixing creativity with data? The answer is as straightforward as it is powerful, because when you do it right, your brand sells more. Yet in today’s marketing landscape, where “best practice” has become a lazy shorthand for copying what’s worked before, it’s easy to lose sight of what really makes campaigns effective.

A story I return to often, and one of the book’s case studies, is about an infant formula brand. The job was to sell directly from the brand’s own site rather than through the big online retailers. Everyone assumed the most effective creative would be the tried-and-tested images of mums with babies. But the data told a different story.

The ads that performed best featured dads. It wasn’t a theory, it was hard evidence that challenged industry cliché. And it revealed something powerful: while mums may have expected to see themselves in ads, the presence of dads made the work more noticeable, more memorable, and ultimately more persuasive.

That is what happens when data and creativity meet. You reveal truths the industry’s received wisdom obscures. You stop following the herd and start standing out. And in a world where AI can churn out thousands of “best practice” mum-and-baby stock shots in minutes, it’s insight like this that cuts through.

The book is full of voices reminding us that blending in is the first problem to solve. You’ve heard the mantra of “customer centricity” a million times, but as Amitava Chattopadhyay explains in his interview, that’s not a strategy, it’s the job.

True customer centricity means solving your audience’s problem, which leads naturally to commercial success. Too often, marketers end up focusing instead on what one contributor jokingly called “Cannes centricity” which is work designed more to impress juries on the Croisette than to serve customers in the real world.

One of the strongest examples in the book is McDonald’s “Raise Your Arches” campaign. Research revealed that the most emotional part of a McDonald’s experience wasn’t the first bite but the moment when someone suggested going. That single insight unlocked a wonderfully creative execution, a cheeky eyebrow waggle, that generated over a billion impressions and a seven percent sales lift. It’s a reminder that the best creative work isn’t just about flair, it’s about finding the human truth that data can uncover and creativity can elevate.

Of course, not everyone is comfortable with data. Several interviewees in the book shared how some creatives see data as a constraint or even a threat, as if relying on it somehow cheapens originality. But as Tash Beecher argues, some of the most emotional campaigns in the world are those that have embraced data, not avoided it. And as Becky McOwen-Banks puts it, data can help brands tell different stories in different contexts, ensuring relevance in an age where audiences are fragmented across countless platforms.

This is especially true in the context of generative AI. Many of the marketers we spoke to acknowledged its potential to create content at speed and scale, but also warned of the risk: more noise, more sameness.

One contributor told us, AI is only valuable when it’s paired with data that reveals what matters and creativity that makes it memorable. Without that, it’s just guesswork on fast-forward. With it, AI can become a powerful amplifier of the data-and-creativity partnership.

The lesson, echoed across dozens of interviews in the book, is clear: data is not your boss, it’s your best mate. It should inspire, not instruct. It should open up new possibilities rather than shut them down. The brands who thrive in this new landscape won’t be those producing the most AI-generated content, but those who use data and creativity together to find the surprising angles that make their brand matter to real people.

This is the first of several articles we’ll be sharing from Automated Creative’s book, Using Creativity and Data in Marketing. If you want to dig deeper, you can buy the book HERE.

Tom Ollerton is the founder of Automated Creative and host of the Shiny New Object podcast.