Advancements in Technology reshape the way people interact with everything — even with each other. Brands recognize this fact, and they’ve adjusted their outreach accordingly. Just consider the amount of data and analytics that goes into the creation of a simple ad. Marketers use data-derived insights to create content that inspires people to act.

Marrying creativity and technology is the key to modern storytelling. Remove one, and the impact won’t be the same. In fact, much of the innovation in the marketing space today is derived from this pairing. If you want to connect more intimately with customers, your brand must utilize both elements.

The problem is there’s often a disconnect between the creative and tech worlds. When this happens, brands become more ethereal and less practical or relatable. It’s not intentional; no one wants to end up with bad marketing materials. It just happens when you rely too heavily on either creativity or technology. The result is a watered-down version of what could’ve been impactful marketing.

Whenever technology comes into play, creativity must follow. Otherwise, your efforts won’t resonate with target audiences. Even if the sole purpose of your efforts is to build brand awareness, you can’t take the human element out of the equation. The same can be said for creativity. If you don’t have technology backing up your initiatives, they won’t be as effective or meaningful. The whole idea is to use all available resources to listen, anticipate, and create with intent.

Coming to a Better Understanding of a Brand

Apart from consumer data, the area where technology really shines is brand intelligence. By analyzing thousands of images and identifying which visual features drive engagement, machine learning can reveal a lot about your brand and its relationship with consumers.

Take Disney, for example. According to Alvaro Melendez, co-founder and CEO of the creative machine-learning company CRANT, dishware is a top visual feature for Disney’s theme parks. Machine learning (ML) discovered that images such as a child holding a bowl of ice cream or a couple sharing a glass of wine increase engagement. They don’t even have to display the Disney brand!

Every engagement-driving feature becomes an ingredient in your marketing secret sauce. Tweets, posts, captions, reviews, videos — virtually anything can be quantified. When analyzed together, each becomes a data point contributing to a holistic view of the brand. They can also show the impact the brand is making through its marketing materials, especially when it comes to organic social.

Crafting the Most Impactful Story Possible

Once you understand your branding, you can use analytics to determine awareness levels. Melendez suggests monitoring awareness by following brand love, or the strength of your brand in the eyes of an organic audience. Is your brand interesting, engaging, and relatable? Delve deeper into your pillars, identifying where your brand is strong and where there’s room for improvement. If one of your pillars is entertainment but your main attributes are food-related, then you may need to refocus.

This information allows you to strengthen the pillars of your brand by using your attributes strategically. It also gives creative teams very specific insights they can use to craft new stories, whether through text or pictures. With AI, experimentation becomes easy. The data is available almost instantaneously, so your creative team can make engagement-improving content adjustments right away. You become more effective and efficient with your marketing efforts.

If you’re authentic to your brand and deliver something interesting to people, your content will perform better. Results don’t necessarily depend on high production values, so smaller brands can do this, too. Ultimately, you analyze what happens and use those insights to improve your content. It’s all about marrying technology with creativity and learning from success and failure. The information is out there, ready to be used for better stories.

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Originally Published on Martech Zone: Marrying Creativity With Technology for Brand Awareness Innovation