By NDA columnist Tom Ollerton, founder, Automated Creative
Amy Chiwaye is the Head of Business Development at DraftLine South Africa, Anheuser-Busch InBev’s in-house creative agency, where she advocates for data-led creativity that drives a good return on investment.
When it comes to creating impactful, relevant messages, Amy’s best marketing tip is to remember that the consumer does not speak boardroom.
This means that marketers need to step away from the heavy presentation jargon that might work within organisations, and become attuned to how “regular people” speak and interact. For a strongly empathetic person like Amy, this equates with speaking to others frequently, understanding what drives consumers’ interest in her products, and ultimately, how people actually run their lives.
Amy does lots of consumer deep dives and spends a lot of time taking in outside energy from those around her. At the end of the day, this can be draining. Through her career, she’s realised that the best way to balance out such an empathy-heavy activity is by meditating and using therapy to re-ground herself. Meditation helps Amy separate herself from others, giving her a greater sense of understanding different people.
Going beyond empathy, however, how can brands leverage their consumer intelligence to ensure they achieve their desired results? When briefs are backed by strategy but not data, this keeps campaigns from succeeding. Instead, Amy believes that brands need to extract the correct and relevant data from all the sources at their disposal (with the appropriate levels of empathy) and use it to inform their decision making.
Find out more about how Amy wishes to employ data-led creativity, how she stays grounded through meditation, and more of her marketing tips, on the podcast.
