Access to rich customer insights has been the name of the game for advertisers looking for precise targeting in their digital ad campaigns. But those troves of intel have often been neglected in favor of optimizing another critical component of advertising effectiveness: creative, a topic that will be top of mind at the upcoming Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.

A recent study by Magna Media Trials and Yahoo found that while media placement helps marketers find consumers where they are, creative quality is responsible for 56% of purchase intent. That kind of impact can’t be ignored. Insights-driven creative allows advertisers to optimize content for specific channels, audiences and goals. The right change in copy or imagery—big or small—could mean the difference between potential customers buying your product or scrolling right past your ad, especially when attention is becoming increasingly difficult to capture: 2022 research by Yahoo and OMD worldwide shows that Gen Z loses active attention for ads after just 1.3 seconds.

The market need for self-serve creative capabilities in retail media

Despite ad creative playing a big role in campaign effectiveness, many self-serve advertisers, particularly smaller brands, are challenged with accessing creative capabilities for retail media campaigns. Democratizing self-serve creative support is not new across digital advertising, but it remains nascent within retail media. And with the ongoing shift of ad dollars into retail media networks, and the growing amount of self-serve omnichannel ad experiences, access to creative services has become increasingly critical for success.

As ad formats continue scaling, all advertisers need the tools to create, optimize creative, and drive performance for these formats. Retail media networks offer a powerful way for advertisers of all sizes to connect with customers, and democratizing creative services helps to level the playing field with bigger brands.

Creating for the omnichannel shopper

With the disruption of the buyer’s journey spurred by the pandemic, customers are discovering and purchasing products across multiple physical and digital channels. How your brand shows up online impacts how customers interact with your brand everywhere. For example, display ads can be highly influential in driving in-store purchases, and we know optimized creative is integral for impact—Creative quality leads to 23% ad-recall, but this number drops to 2% recall for ads with poor creative quality, the Magna Media Trials and Yahoo study reveals.

But it’s not as simple as repurposing a single creative for multiple channels—unique environments require unique creative needs.

Value of insights-driven creative

Coupled with the omnichannel ad experience, advertisers need deep knowledge of both customer behavior and creative performance to inform creative that will resonate across channels. With 90% of the US shopping at Walmart, Walmart Connect has a unique understanding of customers’ wants and needs and the best ways to engage with them. Walmart’s first-party customer insights allow advertisers to optimize creative for performance and relevancy, helping drive campaign sales success.

Democratizing creative for advertisers of all sizes

With the growth of the retail media landscape, more opportunities are opening for advertisers of all sizes to connect with customers. Walmart Connect helps self-serve advertisers access the tools and services they need through automation, including those needed for creative services, an area that has become a consistent pain point for many.

With the recent evolution of its partner network, Walmart Connect is connecting market leaders in the creative space with insights-driven creative best practices to educate them on how to effectively connect with Walmart’s customers. Working with partners such as VidMob, WhyteSpyder, Kaizen Ad, It’sRapid.ai, and The Mars Agency to optimize ad creative can help increase performance and sales. Access to these services will become even more essential to self-serve advertisers as new ad experiences are introduced across full funnel, omnichannel solutions.

—Diana Finster, Head of Agency and Technology Partnerships, Walmart Connect