In part one, we looked at how automation is making media more efficient but also more interchangeable. Here we explore what that means for the role of creative now plays inside algorithmic systems.
Automation has shifted where control sits in digital advertising. Campaign systems increasingly reduce manual levers for marketers: audiences broaden, placements automate, and bidding becomes machine-driven. The instruction from platforms is simple: define your objective, provide your assets, and let the system optimise.
Within that environment, algorithms decide who sees an ad based on predicted performance. Rather than relying solely on predefined audience segments, they learn from behaviour: who watches, who clicks, who engages, who converts. And that changes everything about the role creative plays.
Creative is no longer just the message layered on top of targeting. It becomes a form of targeting itself. Every headline, image, hook, and call to action acts as a signal. A testimonial-led ad might resonate with one behavioural segment. A price-led execution might surface another. An emotionally driven story may unlock a completely different audience.
If a brand supplies only one type of creative, it constrains the system’s ability to learn. If it provides multiple distinct angles, it enables discovery. Creative diversity fuels optimisation. The broader the inputs, the more sophisticated the learning.
In outcome-based systems, creative strategy moves from the edge of media planning to the centre of it.
For brand and marketing teams, this means the briefing process needs to change. If the creative is doing the targeting work, it cannot be developed in isolation from media strategy. The two conversations need to happen together, earlier, with the diversity of a creative angle treated as a deliberate input rather than a happy accident.
Understanding how your creative is working inside algorithmic systems requires more than intuition. Dentsu X combines strategic expertise with proprietary technology to help brands get more than what they put in. Get in touch.
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