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There’s never been a better time to be a creative. In an increasingly cluttered world, there’s more need for big thinking and enormous power in great ideas. Research backs up what we intuitively know to be true: Creative assets are still the most important element in driving sales, according to Nielsen Catalina Solutions. 

Marketers understandably tend to obsess over purchases. Even if they know that there is an entire journey leading up to a purchase, the actual sale is the tangible result of all their efforts and the thing that puts money in the coffers. That means many end up focusing on where that purchase gets made, online or in-store.

With today’s complex consumer journey, it’s more important to know your customer than ever before. But knowing your customer has never been more difficult — partly due to the fact the customer journey has become fragmented, but also because most marketers organize their data around legacy systems, rather than the customer.

The launch of Fenty Beauty highlighted the importance of inclusive marketing, which jolted the industry and shifted the beauty landscape. Sandy Saputo, chief marketing officer at Kendo Brands, which includes Fenty Beauty, shares the inside story.

when it comes to digital, advertisers have long aimed to reach audiences with a relevant message at exactly the right moment. However, few advertisers have taken this phrase as literally as IKEA Canada, with their Complete Sleep campaign.

IKEA Canada recently partnered with YouTube and agencies Jungle Media and Rethink to create their first digital-led video campaign, “Complete Sleep.” Together, they created a personalized video campaign rooted in deep consumer insights to influence sleep-deprived Canadians to visit IKEA stores to buy new bedroom products.

As consumer expectations grow for more personalized, relevant, and assistive experiences, machine learning is becoming an invaluable tool to help meet those demands. It’s helping marketers create smarter customer segmentations, deliver more relevant creative campaigns, and measure performance more effectively. In fact, 85% of executives believe AI will allow their companies to obtain or sustain a competitive advantage.¹

Data empowers marketers to make better decisions and take smarter risks, but sometimes the best intentions lead to the wrong solutions. Interpreting data isn’t always easy, and I’ve seen marketers come up short by not allowing themselves the space to learn, grow, fail, and improve from their collective experiences.

A campaign that falls short of its goal can teach just as much as one that succeeds. And marketers that wish to do the right thing, well, can learn from how they do the right thing, poorly.

This is the second in a regular series on Think with Google Canada, in which thought leaders share their insights and guidance on topics that are top of mind for marketers. In this installment, Leith Mellors, Senior Vice President of Talent, Canada at IPG Mediabrands, talks about how agencies can play a key role in fostering the next generation of digital marketers, and how to nurture and retain the best talent in a time of industry upheaval.

We know that more than half of web traffic comes from mobile.¹ Despite these numbers, mobile conversion rates are lower than desktop.²

Mary Ellen Coe is the president of Google Customer Solutions. Here she explains why more businesses, even beyond e-commerce, should look to mobile site speed as a growth driver.

I meet with hundreds of business owners and executives a year, from Merz Apothecary, a local pharmacy in Chicago to major international brands. And what they all have in common is that they want to grow. While there are as many growth strategies as there are types of businesses, there’s one area where nearly every business has room to improve: the mobile web.