A team can deliver 40 new assets and still give its platforms very little new to work with. Different crops, shorter edits and rewritten headlines may improve an execution, but they can all repeat the same message, feature the same person and tell the same story.
As buyers become algorithm managers, creative diversity becomes a shared responsibility across media and creative. We need to give platforms different ways to connect with people, develop the executions that work and continually introduce ideas that move the brand forward.
Marketing Brew recently reported that Meta has been clarifying how similar-looking ads, or ads that share the same opening hook, may not rank as highly because its systems can view them as fundamentally the same creative. That reinforces the distinction between producing more assets and giving platforms meaningfully different ideas to work with.
One brand platform can support many ways in
Imagine a wellness brand built around making everyday wellbeing achievable. Its advertising features a young fitness creator explaining their morning routine. Twenty variations might improve that execution, while leaving other relevant experiences unexplored.
A parent struggling to find ten minutes for themselves has a different story. Someone returning to exercise may need reassurance about getting started. An older customer may offer a perspective missing from the advertising. Each expresses the same brand promise through different needs, talent and experiences.
Those differences can help expand the audience the advertising connects with. TikTok explicitly links varied content with reaching new audiences. In Google’s account of Coach’s creative strategy, its Creative Works lead describes how bringing in more voices and perspectives broadened the brand’s audience. TikTok, Google.
The implication is that creative planning influences audience expansion. Different angles, pain points and stories can make the brand relevant to people our existing advertising hasn’t connected with, creating opportunities for incremental growth.
Winners should inform the next round without defining every round
Once an execution performs, we should develop it. Stronger openings, different talent and clearer demonstrations can extend its usefulness. But if every brief becomes “make more like the winner,” we risk concentrating our effort around the same motivations and familiar audience responses.
A sustainable approach includes three ongoing activities: introducing diverse creative, iterating on winners and developing new concepts within the brand’s creative platform. Those concepts should build on what we’ve learned while exploring needs, cultural contexts and stories the brand hasn’t addressed.
That requires media and creative teams to plan together. Performance can tell us which executions deserve further investment. Customer understanding and creative judgment help identify where to go next. The current winner gives us evidence about what works today; it cannot tell us the potential of ideas we haven’t introduced.
At Supergood, we believe creative development should support both current performance and future growth. That means protecting room for new thinking while continuing to improve what works. Each round should give the platforms more meaningful ways to connect with people, with the brand’s promise and creative identity holding the work together.