The creative industry has spent years learning how to win attention. It has mastered the art of showing up across formats, feeds, moments and screens. But the challenge is no longer about simply being present in people’s lives; it is about becoming valuable enough to matter when everyone has access to the same tools, the same channels and increasingly similar levels of production capability.
In a conversation with Campaign Middle East , Marco Venturelli , President and Chief Creative Officer, LEO Constellations , reflects on the changing role of creativity in a world shaped by data, artificial intelligence (AI), economic pressure, fragmented media and changing consumer expectations.
Venturelli explains that craft is not disappearing, but it is being forced to prove its worth all over again. As automation takes on more of the rational heavy lifting, he argues that the emotional, experiential and exceptional parts of creative brand-building will become even more important.
The discussion moves from insight and intuition to synthetic personas, AI agents, customer experience, long-term agency relationships and gaming culture. Through the conversation, a theme emerges: technology may make more things possible, but it does not automatically make them meaningful. The industry’s real opportunity lies in using new capabilities without losing the courage and care that make creativity worth paying for.
Creativity’s role is changing, but its purpose is not
Venturelli begins the conversation with the fundamentals, explaining that the basic commercial reason for creativity has remained unchanged. It exists to help brands gain an edge. What has changed is the environment in which that edge has to be earned.
There was a time when brands competed on relatively equal ground. The formats were fewer, the rules were clearer and the battleground was easier to define. That world has now been replaced by one with more complexity, more noise and more pressure to make every connection count.
Venturelli says, “Originally, creative brilliance had the responsibility of giving our clients and brands a competitive advantage. When media was limited, it was much easier to define the field of fight. We all had a 30-second spot. We all had an outdoor moment. We all had a radio spot. So, during that time, everything was fair game – and creative brilliance was the key differentiator.”
As media multiplied, the industry’s attention shifted heavily towards reach, distribution and presence. That was understandable. Brands needed to find people across a growing number of touchpoints.
But Venturelli argues that the pendulum is now swinging back towards the quality of the connection.
He adds, “This is why the industry is trying to put so much emphasis on media – not only how you can capture attention, but also attract actual eyeballs and a moment of space in people’s minds and lives.”
Venturelli also cautions against becoming so focused on technical optimisation that brands forget the long-term work of building memory.
He adds, “Brands really still need to exist in the right conversations because it takes a very long time to build presence in people’s minds, but it takes very little time to lose it.”
This is why simply reaching people is not enough in a fragmented media landscape. The challenge is to make the encounter feel useful, memorable and emotionally resonant.
Venturelli says, “We have reached a point where people are so overwhelmed in crowded media ecosystem…