Gabriel Schmitt: “When Everything Is Data, Nothing Is Data”

The use of data in the advertising industry is so prevalent that standalone categories which represent it at award shows may soon be a thing of the past.

​Gabriel Schmitt, global chief creative officer at Grey, is convinced after chairing the Creative Use of Data and Transformation juries at London International Awards (LIA) – one of several global award shows that spotlight the practice with its own category.

“My prediction is that the Data category will no longer exist soon,” he says, speaking with LBB live from LIA judging in Las Vegas. “I think data is becoming what cyber categories were some years ago – when everything is data, nothing is data… at least from a category point of view.

“Data is so important that it probably shouldn’t be a category anymore, because it’s everywhere. That’s what I’m thinking after spending a few days seeing work. We saw a lot of very good, very interesting work, but I don’t know how we keep evolving this when everything is data.”

For Gabriel, the strongest ideas are those that marry data with emotional resonance. That combination was on full display in the campaign that claimed the Grand LIA in the category: ‘Suzuki Index’ by Melbourne agency ATime&Place.

“I think the Grand LIA really shows that data alone is just dust,” he explains. “It’s about how you mould it into something wonderful, interesting, and engaging. I love that it used data points and really tweaked them in an overt way, not being shy about how much it was adapting the data in service of a message and a tone of voice that was so good and so coherent.”

The discussion around data inevitably leads to the bigger question of how AI is changing the creative process. Fuelled by vast datasets, it is blurring the boundary between what’s considered ‘data-led’ and ‘AI-led’ creativity. However, according to Gabriel, the distinction almost doesn’t matter.

“I think it’s everything,” he says. “Sorry, I know that’s a generic answer, but it’s inescapable. In some cases it’s freeing, in others it’s limiting. We need to take this thing and make the most of it. We’re all still discovering what this is and trying to figure out how to leverage it in the best possible way. I’m sure we will figure it out. We’re not going anywhere. We’re going to change the way we do things, and we should be open to that change.”

He also points out that AI is reshaping the role of the creator itself. “That’s the transformation creators are going through now: you have to learn how to prompt, and if you’re a creator, you’re becoming more of an editor than anything else,” he says. “The same applies to the back end of ideas and processes. With strategy and data mining, it’s about editing the breadth of information we have at our disposal. And that’s not easy; it’s hard to do.”

With that in mind, for Gabriel, the heart of agencies’ future creative success lies in bridging worlds. He believes that creative companies thrive when creatives are willing to think like businesspeople, and business leaders are equally open to creative thinking, with both sides meeting in the middle.

As he’s grown as a creative leader, Gabriel has also realised that excelling creatively means developing as a strategist, a businessperson, and a partner who can hold meaningful conversations about things like data and client relationships.

“The same thing goes for business people and strategists,” he says. “The more you grow, the more creative you have to be, and the more creatively friendly you need to be. You have to understand what feeds what.”

That mindset took root early. “From the start, when I was in college and getting my first internships, I had this insight: it doesn’t matter how talented I might be as a copywriter, if I only stay in the copywriting realm, there’s a ceiling. That ceiling won’t be as high as I’d like it to be.The only way I could keep growing my career was by understanding the other sides of it: the business, the strategy, all of it. I was trying to be the best creative I could, but I was also expanding – opening the aperture into other disciplines and trying to absorb as much as possible. I think that served me really well.”

He sees the same principle applying to data: the more open you are, the stronger the work becomes. “Be open to all the data inputs you can, welcome them, and make sure you’re making good use of them,” he says. “Have fruitful conversations with your strategy and business partners so you can filter that data in the best possible way and tell stories from it.”

That philosophy ties closely to Grey’s long-standing motto of being ‘Famously Effective’. “You’re not going to be effective if you don’t make good use of data. It’s inherent to what we do.”

That focus on effectiveness, he stresses, is non-negotiable. “Clients want it more than ever. And to me, there’s no use in being creative for creativity’s sake. This is a business. The only way we maintain the value of creativity is by applying it toward business results.If not, then you’re an artist. And I love art, but that’s not what we do.”

Beyond client work, Gabriel stresses the importance of nurturing Grey’s identity – a challenge he views as integral to effectiveness. “The most important brand I work on is Grey’s,” he says. “If we take good care of the Grey brand, it directly means we’re taking good care of our clients. It’s a wonderful challenge. When you think about a brand that’s 109 years old – much older than most of the client brands we take care of – it has had so many beautiful moments and others that were not as beautiful), across such a long trajectory.”

It’s why he opens every Global Creative Council at Grey with the same reminder. “At the highest level, what we’re doing here – all the creative leads gathering to look at the work and make it better – is creating a legacy that has to outlast all of us. One day we’ll all be gone, doing other things. We need to make sure we build a place and a culture where the people coming after us understand the psychographics of who should work at Grey, who will thrive at Grey, the creative bar, the level of service, and the relationships we’ll have with clients. That’s incredibly hard to do. But to me, that’s the summation of the chief creative officer role.”

Reflecting again on the judging, Gabriel sees a lesson that extends far beyond a single category. “Every agency says we have to do our best work on our biggest brands. And that goes for the industry as a whole – we have to take the biggest swings with the biggest brands. Otherwise, we’re watering down the value of creativity and our value as creatives.

“The Grand LIA shows and proves that in spades. You can’t argue against the scale and impact of that idea. And when you look at the client and the brand that took that swing and made that act happen – that’s what makes it special. It was a wonderful case of data being used in ways that made you feel things: you laughed, you had fun with it.”

“We can see so many well-engineered ideas and approaches that make total sense intellectually, but you just don’t feel them as much,” he says. “The irony is that in a world where you can engineer and justify anything, you have to be really open to the emotions an idea will cause.”

All of which leads him to a conclusion that, while familiar, still holds weight. “So, yes, ‘follow your heart’ is a cliché and a bit corny. But I think it’s true nowadays. Because if you only follow the brain, everything gets so boring.”

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