Creative Intelligence Set to Transform Marketing Effectiveness as Investment Surges Toward $140 Billion

Forecast: Adoption of Creative Intelligence Solutions to Ramp Up

Creative content, often dismissed as ‘non-working’ media, actually drives 40-70% of an advertising campaign’s success. Despite this, it has been undervalued and deprioritized. With global advertising spend expected to hit $1.12 trillion (€0.98tn) by 2026, investments in creative and content are projected to exceed $140 billion.

A new report from Winterberry Group, a strategic growth consultancy, challenges the outdated split between ‘working’ and ‘non-working’ media. It emphasizes the need to combine media, audience, and creative intelligence for true marketing effectiveness. The report defines creative intelligence as the ability to gather, organize, and analyze creative decisions alongside performance data to continuously optimize assets for better engagement and results.

“It’s time to rethink the idea that billions spent on creative production is non-working,” said Bruce Biegel, senior managing partner at Winterberry Group. “To maximize marketing effectiveness with financial discipline, media, audience, and creative data must come together to create a personalized, measurable experience at scale.”

Brands and agencies now have the tools to connect every phase of creative development and campaign execution to measurable outcomes. Creative intelligence supports smarter briefings, pre-launch analysis, real-time activation, ongoing optimization, and evaluation of creative lifetime value (Creative LTV). With AI advancing fast and budget pressures mounting, Winterberry predicts widespread adoption of creative intelligence within the next 24-36 months. This will start in channels rich with creative data like social media, email, and mobile messaging, before expanding to programmatic digital formats including display, video, audio, and connected TV (CTV).

Key Findings from the Report

• Nearly half of marketers (49%) still see creative intelligence mainly as ideation, not as a system for measurement and optimization.
• Almost all marketers (99%) agree measuring creative LTV is important, with 72% considering it very important. Yet only 54% say their organization measures creative LTV effectively.
• Creative intelligence helps most with understanding brand awareness (41%) and performance outcomes (38%).
• Creative quality is the top metric valued for assessing creative intelligence, followed by brand lift—cited by 49% of brands and 38% of agencies.
• Brands focus more on conversions (33%), while agencies prioritize audience relevance (31%) and engagement (28%).
• Marketing strategy and operations are expected to lead creative intelligence efforts. Brands rely on agencies for executional support, while agencies see themselves focusing on technology and strategic integration.

Laura Desmond, CEO of Smartly, notes, “Intelligent creative isn’t an emerging trend, it’s the new standard. With audience data and AI accelerating content demands, brands using creative intelligence are turning guesswork into a performance engine.”

Wesley ter Haar, Chief AI and Revenue Officer at Monks, adds, “Creative has been underused as a driver of marketing effectiveness. Our goal is to build AI-powered systems that unify creative, media, and audience data for measurable, scalable results.”

Rob Rakowitz, VidMob’s head of marketing, highlights that creative intelligence is a system involving inputs, outputs, and feedback loops that make creative a measurable asset throughout marketing.

Nancy Smith, CEO of Analytic Partners, confirms this aligns with over 20 years of research showing creative is the second biggest driver of marketing effectiveness after spend. She stresses the need to integrate creative into optimization and measurement programs to maximize impact.

This report is based on surveys of over 200 senior marketing and agency executives, plus interviews with 50+ industry experts across the UK and US.

For creatives looking to stay ahead, understanding and applying creative intelligence is no longer optional. It offers a clear path to making your work more effective and measurable, helping you prove the value of your craft in concrete terms.

Explore more about AI-powered creative tools and courses to enhance your skills at Complete AI Training.