Dispelling Concerns That It’s An Unnatural Act To Combine Data And Creativity

The headline above is one of the objectives of the new unit at Ogilvy & Mather called OgilvyAmp.  The word “Amp” apparently, is short for “Amplify.”

While I don’t know this for certain, I’m guessing that this group will delve into data to come up with better insights for the purpose of coming up with better creative.

As the leader of this new group said, “This is a huge opportunity for clients and for us, to remove data as a distraction and position as a tool in the creative palette.”

Or, in other words, the goal is “using data to inspire creative work or creative thinking.”

Bet the creative types at Ogilvy are overjoyed about having another tool in the old creative palette.

If Ogilvy really wants to use data as a tool in the creative palette, then they should use it to measure outcome versus gathering insights.  Use data to measure how long viewers stay involved in the commercials the Ogilvy teams produce.

The longer an Ogilvy commercial involves the viewers, the more Ogilvy gets paid for creating that commercial.

In other words, use data to hold Ogilvy accountable for creating great, involving commercials.  Not for gathering info that might, and I repeat might, create a great, involving commercial.  But measuring if, indeed, the commercial did involve and engage.

Do you think this would make the commercials Ogilvy creates more insightful?  More interesting?  More entertaining?

Do you think a more insightful, more interesting, more entertaining commercial will work better in the marketplace?

Funny, isn’t it, how we don't need data to answer every question.