Why agencies are rethinking data’s role in strategy and creativity

Joining the conversation were Peter Wallace, general manager for EMEA at GumGum; Emily Lesinski, group director of analytics at Boston-based Rightpoint; Andrea Cortes, senior insight and strategy manager at MG Empower; Michael Loper, head of strategy at Green House; Matt Binz, senior director of martech and applied intelligence at The MX Group in Chicago; and Simon Collister, head of the human understanding Lab at Unlimited.

The session kicked off on a philosophical note, asking participants what “data” really means to them in their roles as marketers in 2025. While perspectives varied, one word recurred throughout – opportunity.

“I see data as opportunity,” said Emily Lesinski. “We’ve only just scratched the surface of data that’s available to us… there’s a lot of opportunity to expand data access as well as data usage through collaboration and smart data structures.”

Andrea Cortes shared a similar view but brought a strategist’s caution: “It goes beyond just the numbers on a spreadsheet or beyond what social listening is telling us. What is something that is truly revelatory, something that breaks the paradigm of how we’re approaching a problem? That’s where data as a signal is more important than data as a statistic.”

Yet not everyone is starry-eyed about data’s potential. Michael Loper was blunt: “To me, data has always been dangerous… I feel like it’s a car. It’s powerful, it’s moving fast, but if you’re not trained on it, you don’t know the purpose, you don’t know the risks. It can easily drive brands, experiences, people way off course.”

GumGum’s Peter Wallace echoed that sentiment, adding: “We’ve ballsed up the use of data pretty significantly across our industry, consistently. In some instances, we’ve oversimplified it. In others, we’ve over-engineered. We need to find a way to better use data, to dig into what’s important, drop what doesn’t make sense and find our sweet spot.”

Spotting the right signals

With so much data pouring in from social channels, martech platforms, CRM systems and AI models, knowing just which signals to build strategy around is no small feat. The group agreed that, too often, brands chase short-term metrics or rely on convenient, siloed datasets without understanding the context or the customer.

“There’s the idea of data,” said Simon Collister, “and then there’s how we use it. And then there’s a gap in the middle. I often find that people want to be ‘data-driven’ but don’t understand what that actually means. Sometimes the concept of data is scary or off-putting, especially to planners or creatives.”

Matt Binz described his daily reality as navigating three types of data mindsets: “People who don’t believe in data at all, people who are in paralysis by analysis and people who make hasty judgments based on a black and white read of something.”

This fragmented understanding, the group generally agreed, leads to flawed decisions, disjointed strategies and missed opportunities for creativity.

The creativity conundrum

A recurring theme during the conversation was data’s complex relationship with creativity. Can it spark more compelling work or does it only serve to stifle bold ideas and edgy executions?

Cortes offered a passionate defense of instinct: “Data is just part of the puzzle… sometimes you just have to take the leap. I think this is the insight that will drive this campaign forward. Yeah, I don’t have a backbone of data to pull it through. But sometimes, that is actually what works. That explodes, not just on virality, but actually makes a shift in culture.”

Lesinski agreed: “It’s really that marriage of art and science. Like, you still have that human element to it.”

Meanwhile, Wallace made the case for more joined-up thinking: “We’re seeing media and creative starting to sit a lot more closely with one another, which I think is a super positive step. Media placements have been scrutinized for their performance, when in reality, creative dictates the outcome more than 50% of the time.”

The literacy gap

One of the most pressing issues raised was the widespread lack of data literacy – particularly among non-technical stakeholders and client teams. “I might get a T-shirt printed saying, ‘What am I looking at again?’” joked Collister. “You can show people a dashboard or a report and if they don’t understand what it’s saying or what it means, what’s the point?”

“People see data as black and white,” added Lesinski. “They want that crystal ball. But improving the literacy of people outside of these roles could really help get clients on board with testing and experimentation.”

Binz pointed to the need for internal education: “We’ve made data literacy a pillar across our agency… helping teams understand that it’s not as simple as one metric, one campaign, one conclusion.”

The perils of vanity metrics

Unsurprisingly, the conversation turned to KPIs – and particularly to the industry’s ongoing obsession with vanity metrics.

“I think it is absolutely bonkers that we determine the success of a campaign based on a 1% click-through rate,” said Wallace. “In what other industry does that fly?”

Binz agreed: “So many clients are still creating the number of impressions as a thing they go to the C-suite with. We know it’s going to be a longer path with them.”

Loper took a broader view, arguing that even so-called qualitative data can be undervalued: “A quote is no different than someone clicking. But when clients ask if something is culturally relevant, they don’t actually want a sample of 100,000, they just want to believe. But they’re tethered to their fears around trusting a quote from one person.”

What comes next?

Looking to the future, the group expressed cautious optimism – particularly around the potential for AI, provided it is fuelled by the right data and used responsibly.

“My hope is that the advancements in data, along with AI and new technologies, will get us all to a point where we can predict real-time consumer behavior,” said Cortes. “Where emotional sentiment goes beyond social listening tools. But there needs to be more democratization of access. Smaller agencies just don’t have the dollars yet to get that access.”

Binz warned of the temptation to collect everything: “As AI gets more and more into everyone’s day-to-day, I hope it doesn’t go into the world of ‘let’s just collect all the things.’ It needs to be the right data that drives real outcomes.”

Loper summed up his mood as hopeful: “Fear is turning into exhaustion. Exhaustion is turning into experimentation. We are the arbiters of Uncle Ben’s intent: with great power comes great responsibility.”

And Lesinski had the final word: “My hope is that thinkers like us are included in more of the planning and strategy conversations. That we can help usher in this age of more data understanding and take some of that responsibility away from fear and towards something more creative.”

The signal and the noise

If this roundtable made anything clear, it’s that data is no longer a tool to be deployed in isolation. It is part of an ecosystem, one that blends numbers with nuance, science with storytelling and insight with instinct.

The challenge for marketers now is not just accessing more data but asking better questions. It’s understanding context. It’s knowing when to trust the numbers and when to listen to a single human voice. In the end, the signal that matters most may be the one we’re not yet measuring.