Daniel E. Aks, President, Undertone

The convergence of DCO and generative AI creates unprecedented opportunities for creative experimentation. Implementing multiple creative advertising campaigns and logo variations is not just feasible, but potentially highly effective.

We propose a more ambitious framework we call BIG Creative:

Data + AI + Design + Structure = Expanded Creative Possibilities

Under this paradigm, entire new constructs can be brought to the market

Dynamic Creative Optimization (DCO) has long been recognized in the digital marketing industry, but its full potential remains largely untapped. While brands are beginning to explore its capabilities, most have only scratched the surface of what DCO can achieve in building brand affinity and driving sales. Studies consistently show that creative execution contributes to at least 50% of campaign success. When paired with an empowered creative team, the right tools, and robust frameworks, DCO can elevate campaign performance to unprecedented levels.

Let’s begin with a definition:

“In advertising, DCO technology rapidly builds multiple iterations of an ad using the same base creative, while tailoring parts of the ad based on audiences, context, and past performance. For instance, a beverage company's base ad might automatically adjust to show hot coffee in cold weather locations and iced drinks in warm regions, while simultaneously varying messaging based on time of day and viewer demographics. This helps the ad resonate with consumers.

However, many current implementations often fall short of DCO's transformative potential, by barely tweaking the messaging. Today’s DCO systems rely on rule-based algorithms to adapt creative content based on relatively basic factors like weather, audience behavior, funnel stage, and more. These inputs typically drive variations in elements such as:

MTV introduced a groundbreaking concept: a ch ameleon-like logo that constantly adapted, changing its visual elements to align with various programming formats, categories, and audiences. For traditional marketers, this approach was shocking—but it successfully established MTV as a revolutionary brand. The dynamic logo not only defined MTV’s identity but also became a cultural touchstone, evolving alongside th e very culture it helped shape.

Background Elements • Images • Text • Value Propositions • Calls-to-action

There is plenty of debate about the efficacy of the logo strategy but it proved effective for several key reasons:

1.  Cultural Resonance: The flexible design reflected rapidly changing times
2. Attention Generation: Frequent changes sparked conversatio
3. Event Integration: Variations tied to specific cultural moments created deeper connections
4.  Youth Appeal: Dynamic branding embodied modernity and innovation

In the 1980s, however, the MTV logo posed challenges—requiring significant labor, risking brand dilution, and navigating a crowded marketplace. DCO automates creative development and  controls exposures to manage dilution and marketplace confusion.

Before the advent of sophisticated programmatic targeting, conventional wisdom held that running multiple campaign messages simultaneously risked confusing the audience. Geico defied this belief with its groundbreaking dual-message strategy: the Gecko mascot captured emotional engagement, while the “15% or more” value proposition appealed to rational decision-making. This approach proved remarkably effective, demonstrating the power of pairing emotional and logical appeals.

Yet even Geico’s success could potentially be elevated with Dynamic Creative Optimization. DCO offers the ability to refine campaigns in ways that were once unimaginable:

• Real-time performance optimization: Adjust campaigns on the fly based on live data.
• Audience-specific message sequencing: Tailor the timing and flow of messages to individual audience segments.
• Dynamic balance of emotional and rational appeals: Programmatically adjust content to emphasize the messaging most likely to resonate.
• Automated creative variation testing: Experiment with countless ad variations to determine what works best.

Emerging generative tools make such experimentation more affordable and straight-forward than ever. With real-time campaign creation capabilities, advertisers can instantly measure performance and optimize based on engagement signals. For example, if a 15-second video is skipped after a few seconds by a particular audience, DCO enables advertisers to quickly identify and address the issue—whether it’s the content, sequencing, or even the tone. By applying DCO’s modern capabilities through the BIG Creative Prism, Geico’s dual-message strategy could have been even more impactful. Programmatic tailoring of timing, frequency, and content ensures campaigns remain dynamic, engaging, and highly effective in today’s fast-paced advertising landscape.

About Undertone

Undertone creates memorable ad experiences by thoughtfully orchestrating solutions across video, advanced TV, rich media, and social, to drive unmatched brand lift and audience engagement on virtually every screen, and every device. Their award-winning creative team uses the company's 20 years of experience, and billions of impressions worth of data to intelligently craft campaigns that can drive full-funnel KPIs while making meaningful connections with the 200MM+ unique users they can reach every month. Undertone brings the art and science of advertising together to intelligently craft campaigns that uplift consumers, brands, and publishers alike. Visit undertone.com to learn more.