Meta Festival London: Key Takeaways for Creative Strategy and Paid Media Performance

1. Understanding how audiences make decisions

One of the most interesting insights came from Olivia Attwood, who discussed the importance of understanding how audiences make decisions, rather than focusing solely on demographics and interests. Using Gen Z as an example, Olivia explained how her content approach focuses on providing information rather than directly encouraging people to purchase. Instead of telling audiences what to buy, she presents different options and allows viewers to make their own decisions.

It’s a simple distinction, but an important one for creative strategy.

For paid media marketers, this highlights the value of considering how audiences prefer to receive information and what influences their decisions. While direct calls to action still have their place, content that helps audiences explore their options may be more effective in certain contexts.

Understanding these behaviours can help marketers develop creative messaging that feels more relevant to the audience.

2. Using cultural insights to inform creative strategy

Maxime Menant explored how brands can use cultural insights to create more relevant content and engage with audiences.

Maxime introduced three approaches to brand engagement: participating with culture, through culture and at the speed of culture. One example was Coca-Cola’s music festival campaign, which demonstrated the importance of understanding what motivates audiences.

Rather than assuming festivalgoers were primarily interested in artist line-ups, the campaign drew on insights showing that the overall atmosphere and experience, or the “vibes”, were important cultural motivators. This understanding helped inform the creative direction and the selection of creators based on their cultural relevance rather than simply their reach.

Maxime also explained how Meta analyses publicly shared content across Facebook, Instagram and Threads to identify emerging interests and trends. These insights can help brands develop content themes, identify relevant creators and respond to cultural moments.

The session also highlighted the importance of timing. Short-lived trends may create opportunities to promote existing products, while sustained trends can provide insights for longer-term planning.

For paid media marketers, the key takeaway is that audience data can be valuable before a campaign launches, not just during optimisation.

Using cultural insights to guide creative development could help brands produce content that better reflects what audiences are genuinely interested in.

3. Why creative diversification matters for performance

Another interesting perspective came from Emil Bielski at Tube Science, who discussed the risks of relying too heavily on existing top-performing creative.

While producing variations of successful ads can help maintain performance, repeatedly using similar concepts may eventually limit opportunities to reach new audiences.

Emil suggested that 30% of creative assets should be entirely new concepts rather than iterations of existing ads. He also highlighted the challenge of consistently producing effective creative. According to the figures shared during the session, average in-house teams achieve a creative hit rate of around 5%, measured by ads meeting CPA targets, while Tube Science aims for 25%.

The discussion emphasised the importance of testing genuinely different creative approaches rather than continually refining existing assets.

One example was The Farmer’s Dog, where shifting from high-production storytelling towards more personal, relatable content helped support the brand’s acquisition strategy.

Emil also discussed the value of working with a wider range of smaller, authentic creators who align with the brand, rather than relying exclusively on high-profile partnerships.

Exploring different formats, including personal stories, skits and game shows, can also help brands identify new ways to engage audiences.

For performance marketers, this reinforces the importance of creative diversification as part of ongoing campaign testing.

Optimising successful assets remains valuable, but introducing new concepts may help uncover additional opportunities for growth.

4. Connecting creator content with paid media performance

Rachel Redman’s session focused on how Meta is making it easier for brands to connect creator-led content with paid advertising, while demonstrating how partnership ads can contribute to lower-funnel performance.

One of the key announcements was the global rollout of Creator Marketing Hub, bringing together the former Creator Marketplace and Partnership Ads Hub into a single platform.

The integration aims to simplify creator discovery, content management and paid activation, helping bridge the gap between organic social and paid media teams. Rachel also highlighted practical updates, including tools to make creator content ad-ready by removing elements such as copyrighted music or stickers, alongside streamlined permissions and content usage expiry dates.

Beyond these workflow improvements, the session explored how creator-led content can support measurable business outcomes.

Meta shared results from fashion retailer New Look, which incorporated creator marketing and partnership ads into its business-as-usual advertising campaigns. The retailer reported a 19% lower cost per incremental online sale and a 35% lift in combined store and online sales.

Meta also discussed opportunities to combine partnership ads with Advantage+ catalogue ads, connecting creator-led content with product-focused advertising.

For paid media marketers, these developments highlight opportunities to incorporate creator content into existing performance campaigns rather than treating it solely as an awareness activity.

The New Look example demonstrates how creator partnerships can contribute to commercial objectives when integrated into a wider paid media strategy.

What does this mean for paid media marketers?

Across the sessions, a consistent theme emerged: effective creative strategy requires more than producing engaging content.

Understanding how audiences make decisions, identifying cultural motivations and testing different creative concepts can all contribute to a more informed approach.

The discussions also highlighted how creator-led content is becoming more closely connected with paid advertising, supported by tools designed to simplify activation and performance measurement.

For paid media teams, the opportunity is to use audience insights earlier in creative development, maintain a balance between optimising existing assets and testing new ideas, and explore how creator partnerships can contribute to measurable campaign objectives.

While the right approach will vary by brand and industry, Meta Festival reinforced the importance of treating creative strategy as an ongoing part of performance marketing rather than a separate activity.

As the relationship between creativity, audience insights and advertising technology continues to evolve, finding practical ways to connect these elements will remain an important consideration for paid media performance.