Fintechs and credit card companies are facing an inflection point in 2025.
Having a digital strategy is not enough anymore. With an ongoing battle for brand awareness between big players like Mastercard, Paypal and Klarna, it’s not enough to simply be on digital platforms. To cut through, content needs to be optimised for digital suitability and a brand-specific definition of creative excellence.
There is also the ever-escalating demand for content from digital advertising platforms. All brands are under pressure ”to keep producing more and more of it to feed the algorithms’ and audiences’ desire for fresh new stuff” (Marketing Week). This demand for more content, faster, has stretched fintech marketers’ content and creative production systems to the limit, resulting in declining creative quality and ad performance.
The arrival of genAI has brought to the mix both massive opportunity and risk. GenAI has the potential to help brands meet the demand for more content, faster. Spending from the sector on GenAI is set to increase 1,400% by 2030, capturing the arms race that is underway. But without visibility into GenAI content production and media spend behind that content, there is a risk that adoption of this technology dilutes creative quality and brand standards.
Some of the biggest finance brands in the world have turned to creative measurement to meet these challenges. The CreativeX platform allows them to build a comprehensive creative database by integrating with all major digital advertising platforms to turn their image and video content into creative data. They can then ensure all their content, in every market, adheres to platform-specific best practices, which are linked to media efficiencies.
Savvy brands are also using creative data to test and adopt newer advertising platforms, such as TikTok and Pinterest. By pre-testing ads for best-practice adherence, they can ensure all of their creative content is fit for its platform and placement before investing any media spend.
Companies with a comprehensive creative database and a creative technology partner can then define and pursue a brand-specific standard of creative excellence across all markets by tracking brand elements and DBAs. By tracking brand-specific creative excellence guidelines, Bayer AG drove 107% higher brand lift. Watch former Bayer CMO Patricia Corsi speaking about their creative measurement journey here.
Finally, creative measurement also facilitates safe adoption of GenAI content production tools. CreativeX works with Pencil.ai, the leading genAI content production partner, to score GenAI ads for their adherence to platform best practices. This allows brands to meet the challenges of higher demand for content and GenAI adoption confidently and protect the creative quality of near-instant content generation.
Once companies have creative measurement in place and a tech partner to manage their creative data, they can start to raise the ceiling on creative effectiveness. New research CreativeX carried out with Meta and Kantar, plus 5 global brands, identified new creative excellence levers that can drive up to 81% higher ad effectiveness.
We’ve moved beyond the age of creative optimisation to creative innovation, and only brands that are able to measure and test their creative content at scale will be able to compete.
→ See how the world's leading advertisers are using creative data to drive business impact:
