Last month I was at the Web Summit in Vancouver. AI dominated the conversation, as you’d expect right now, but the sessions that stood out were the ones that went deeper than the hype. The standout for me was a talk by Jason Carmel, global lead of Creative Data at VML, one of the world’s largest creative and advertising agencies.
He was an engaging speaker, refreshingly practical for someone working in data, and his framing of how the industry actually uses data really landed. The pattern he described will feel familiar: data gets used at the beginning of a project to predict outcomes, and again at the end to measure results. But in the middle, where the creative thinking happens and ideas actually take shape, data is largely absent. And that gap, he argued, is where the most interesting work should be happening.
He made another point worth sitting with. Fifteen years ago, having big data was a competitive advantage. Now every organisation has it, which means the data itself is no longer the differentiator. What matters now is what you do with it, whether it connects with people in a way that actually means something to them.
The examples he shared made this tangible: British Airways billboards that updated in real time based on which planes were flying overhead. Spotify Wrapped, essentially a marketing message but personalised enough that millions of people share it voluntarily. A food delivery app that used eye tracking to identify what users were genuinely craving, then served recommendations accordingly.
The conclusion was straightforward but it can be harder to execute than it sounds: creative teams and data teams need to work alongside each other, not in sequence. That kind of collaboration doesn’t emerge naturally in most organisations – the silos are too entrenched. It has to be built deliberately.
It’s also a dynamic that’s shaping how Redspot and our sister company Orangebox work together more and more. When clients bring their data to Orangebox, the question we’re increasingly asking together is: what could you do with this information that’s genuinely creative, something that pushes beyond the expected? That’s where Redspot comes in. Having our creative team working alongside the data means we can focus on exactly the gap Jason Carmel was talking about: the middle part, where the real opportunity is.
You can watch his full presentation here: https://vancouver.websummit.com/summaries/van26/making-the-case-for-creative-data/
About Thomas: Thomas co-founded Orangebox with Stephen Bennett in 2003 and purchased Redspot in mid-2025. Redspot provides the creative web development, brand identity and digital marketing, helping clients connect the creative and strategic sides of their marketing so ideas don’t just look good, they perform.
