AI and Authenticity Redefine Creative Effectiveness in a Fragmented Attention Economy

At Advertising Week in New York, Tina DeSarno, Chief Insights & Analytics Officer at MarketCast, cut straight to the heart of modern marketing: how to make creative work harder, longer, and smarter in an era of endless content and limited budgets.

DeSarno began by framing the marketer’s challenge that audiences are inundated with thousands of ads daily. “Marketers are faced with a challenge to really connect with consumers and understand how they’re going to break through the clutter,” she said. To uncover what works, MarketCast leveraged its always-on natural exposure database, powered by artificial intelligence, to analyze ad performance across categories and identify what drives lasting impact.

AI plays a pivotal role in this process. MarketCast’s machine learning models continuously mine creative data to detect what drives recall, emotional resonance, and brand linkage. “We look at breakthrough — that’s the ability to remember the ad and correctly attribute it to the right brand,” DeSarno explained. These AI-driven insights allow marketers to adjust creative strategies in real time, focusing on authenticity, repetition of brand icons, and emotional storytelling.

DeSarno showcased Dawn’s long-running “duck” campaign as a model of enduring creative. Introduced more than a decade ago, the campaign still performs “off the charts” in memorability and likability metrics. She attributed its success to consistent brand cues, emotional connection, and cause-driven authenticity which are all validated by MarketCast’s AI-based measurement tools.

As panelists from Wendy’s, HP, and Six Plus One joined the conversation, a clear consensus emerged: creativity that connects must be both human and data-informed. Wendy’s Stephanie Lancaster underscored the importance of emotional storytelling built on genuine consumer insight, while HP’s Edwin Rodrigues highlighted AI’s growing role in product marketing — particularly in the battle for brand ownership around “AI PCs.”

For communicators, DeSarno’s insights underscored a fundamental shift. Success in 2025 depends on pairing human emotion with data intelligence. In a cluttered digital marketplace, AI is no longer just a tool for optimization — it’s the new creative compass guiding brands toward authentic, sustained consumer connection.