Tech MVP 2022: Publicis Groupe

Creative Vault

By Publicis Groupe

In China’s fast-paced digital marketing ecosystem, the need to keep pace with competitors is critical.  Yet in a market in which more than 71% of media spending is digital and more than 50% is deployed in channels that are not effectively monitored, there is a pressing need to move beyond imprecise ad-hoc monitoring methods such as hand-captured screen shots of brand activity.

In response, Publicis Groupe China has conceived and developed Creative Vault. Working with major client partners, including L’Oreal, the solution uses AI to recognize, capture, clean and visualise advertising materials in full video format, automating the main parts of the systematic reporting process.

Creative Vault now captures over 50 major platforms and publishers with 15 different ad formats, including native ads and feeds. Agnostic to buying and adserving methods, the product captures up to 80% of programmatic ads, while its AI engine interrogates creative assets, classifying brand, product, visual elements and offers, building a searchable data bank. The product dashboard, meanwhile, provides a standardised view of competitor assets, phasing, pacing and messaging strategy with full journey analysis of content, interaction and landing page experience. Fully automated, the algorithm always remains on, continually cleaning, analysing and onboarding competitor assets within a period of three days.

But the product is only as valuable as its usage. Since Q4 2021, 400 additional unique users are using the platform in 2022 (a 200% gain) for nearly 20 minutes each session with a 79% retention ratio. Client survey feedback reports that an average of at least 2 hours per brand per day is saved, adding up to 3000+ hours of efficiency gain for current clients over the 10 months since the full launch. Business wise, Creative Vault delivers eight times more direct revenue for Publicis compared to other subscription products, but more importantly Publicis China claims it has been integral to the Groupe’s RMB 2 billion ($300 million) in annual new business wins.

Creative Vault is now used extensively by clients to gain sharper, faster insight on competitor activity. Within the L'Oréal business, the product has received high recognition with the China CEO actively involved in development and elevating to their global network to scale up expansion. It has already rolled out to the wider APAC region with Taiwan as a regional hub. New plans are afoot to move from Chinese and English-speaking markets into Spanish ones. Meanwhile, the product continues to be improved with over 60 new feature upgrades set for the next six months including new tagging parameters, new visualizations and new dashboards based on user feedback.