This article was originally published in Campaign Middle East on September 2, 2021.

Creativity has been a big topic in advertising for a number of years. There have been many debates and panel discussions dissecting the importance of both creativity and data, along with the roles they each play in successful marketing campaigns. But which one is more important? The industry’s obsession with data always seemed to answer that question long before anybody ever stepped on stage.

In more recent times, and over the course of the pandemic, we’ve seen the amount of data available deplete, as third-party cookies disappear, Apple makes changes to IDFAs, and data privacy regulations are implemented all over the world.

Ad-Lib.io was created four years ago after we realised that the industry paid a lot of attention to media, data, and targeting, but wasn’t really interested in the messaging side of things. Over the years, studies have been conducted proving that while media, data, and targeting do provide a small uplift in performance when optimised, creative has actually driven around seven times the performance of the others.

With this insight, a next-generation creative management platform that goes well beyond standard templates or message customisation was born. The thinking was that everyone understands that good creative drives business results, but no one really understands how to deliver good digital creative.

Continue reading about Ad-Lib.io's five pillars for creative effectiveness via Campaign Middle East.