Today’s consumers have more choice than ever when it comes to the content they watch and the brands they choose. And when it comes to advertising, their expectations are just as high.

For example, a recent Kantar and Amazon Ads study found that Connected Customers preferred ads that were relevant to them (+9%), ads for things they had shopped for (+5%) or interacted with in the past (+8%), or ads that were aligned to the content they were watching or listening to (+11%). And consumers were more engaged with the ads if they were interactive – the ad featured some remote control or voice interactivity, for example (+9%).

In fact, relevance and interest-based reach are more important than ever, audiences expect brands to talk to them, not at them. The brands that break through are the ones that find ways to communicate authentically throughout the customer journey, delivering content that’s consistently relevant and engaging. 

To help fuel the kind of inspiring creative that opens hearts and minds, marketers need a deep well of audience insights, from shopping behaviours to media consumption to trending topics. 

Amazon Ads has dedicated itself to helping brands take a more customer-centric approach to advertising. One way it does that is by looking at scaled creative insights and past campaign learnings to help identify the best creative to meet a particular goal or to help guide decisions on creative elements such as imagery, headlines or colours.

“Customers are increasingly aware of when brands are being true to their positioning and when they’re not,” says Josh Hudson, head of Canada’s creative success at Amazon Ads, whose team advises advertisers on creative recommendations for their campaigns. “It’s an exciting time for the advertising industry because, with customers putting that demand on brands, it means we have to be more responsive and more creative in how we connect. It’s important that advertisers come back to the right insights as their starting point.”

So how can marketers inspire memorable customer-centric creative? “It’s really important to start with an insight that resonates,” says Hudson. “Customers want brands to engage them in an interesting way on topics or issues they care about.”

Amazon Ads is able to generate scaled creative insights through machine learning by capturing design elements and their impact on performance from thousands of creative image files and millions of impressions. But because no brand is the same, Amazon Ads also emphasizes the importance of running A/B tests to discover which insights and creatives work best for each specific use case.

Take for example CeraVe’s revolutionized Amazon.ca customer experience. 

In the wake of the global pandemic, a remarkable shift unfolded in the beauty industry, with consumers veering away from traditional makeup and embracing a new era of skincare. CeraVe, in collaboration with Amazon Ads, not only witnessed this transformative trend but pioneered an inspiring omnichannel journey that empowered individuals to embrace the journey of healthy skin.

CeraVe strategically partnered with Amazon Ads to create an immersive brand experience that stayed true to the brand’s ethos of innovation, medical anchorage, science, and efficacy.

Intriguing insights from Amazon Ads shed light on the dynamic preferences of the Gen-Z demographic – a generation that craves quick, interactive content. Surprisingly, a staggering 87% of customers on Amazon engage in quizzes and trivia widgets. Armed with this knowledge, Amazon Ads embarked on the creation of the groundbreaking personalized CeraVe Skincare Lab, a digital sanctuary designed to learn and play, while engaging with the brand like never before.

The CeraVe Skincare Lab invited customers to embark on a personalized journey of learning and discovery. By simply inputting their unique skin features into the Skincare Lab, customers receive a bespoke regimen that caters to their specific needs.

The Skincare Lab was a testament to the brand’s commitment to empowering individuals to make informed decisions for their skin’s well-being.

“The CeraVe Skincare Lab goes beyond personalized product routines. It is pushing the boundaries of the beauty shopping experience and becoming an online, offline and on chain (O+O+O) destination. The virtual experience was not only created to immerse consumers into CeraVe’s DNA but also to connect, captivate, and interact with consumers.

It’s exciting to witness just how unique each user journey is. While some will gather detailed information in every room before picking any product, others will go straight to the ingredient mixing station and test out different combinations. We leave it to the consumers to choose how they prefer to engage with us.” says the general manager of CeraVe Julie Horil. 

The secret to inspiring an audience often comes down to using the right insights to inform great creative that builds on tailored messaging across the whole customer journey. In other words, it’s time to embrace insights-driven creative because relevant content is now the expectation, not an added bonus.

“At Amazon Ads, we help marketers uncover interesting and surprising insights that challenge assumptions. When combined with the right creative approach, this can lead to a more genuine and impactful connection with customers,” says Hudson.

To find out more about leveraging insight-driven creative for your objectives, visit advertising.amazon.com.

Enjoyed this article? Learn more about how you can stay ahead of the curve in The Future of Marketing