AI panic is easing and brands are rediscovering the value of big creative ideas after chasing short-term creator-led marketing, Grey US chief creative officer Samira Ansari says.Speaking to The Australian ahead of her headline address at the AWARD creative industry lunch in Sydney next week, Ms Ansari said global clients were increasingly returning to agencies for strategic thinking after discovering that in-house content production and influencer marketing could generate short-term sales but was failing to build enduring brands.The Australian-born creative leader, who will share the stage with fellow Aussie creative icon David Droga at the event, said while brands saw AI and creators as a means to bypass agencies, the trend was unravelling. “Clients are coming to us saying, ‘Hey look, we can do the greatest stuff ourselves. We have internal agencies. We can find the people, make the deals, put stuff on TikTok, make the sales’,” she said. “Where we’re seeing that we’ve made a mistake is that we forgot about ideas and platforms and the wrapper of things, because that’s how people have relationships with brands.”Ms Ansari said while creator marketing was hugely effective at driving impulse purchases it often failed to build lasting brand equity or strong relationships with consumers. “It’s OK, but it’s not going to actually build a brand or a relationship with the audience ... and our clients are beginning to see that.”She said this was helping to drive marketers and brands back to agencies in search of strategic thinking, big ideas and brand platforms, to underpin the work with influencers and creators. “(They are saying) We can find the people, but what’s the idea? How are we connecting with them? What’s the long-term wrapper or platform?”The move heralds a correction for the market, which has seen companies increase investment in the creator economy and take more work in house with AI assuming greater responsibility for production. It follows moves by major global organisations such as Unilever, which has committed to investing 50 per cent of its media budget into social media and creators. However, with AI deployed as a productivity tool to help agencies and businesses to accelerate and analyse research and data, original, powerful ideas become even more valuable for solving business problems and unlocking growth. The challenge for creative agencies then is to ensure they can demonstrate their value to marketers and businesses. Ms Ansari warned it was crucial that creative agencies abandon the panic and fear that is driving an onslaught of safe and mediocre work, in order to prove how great creativity can drive growth.“There’s nothing worse than panic because it makes us safe,” she said. “And there’s nothing worse than safe work. Unless you’re interesting and entertaining and useful, you’re making wallpaper, which is essentially just burning your money.“AI highlights the mediocrity in our work. The boring, repetitive, familiar stuff can get done with AI because that’s what AI pulls from. There’s no creativity in it, AI is a tool.”Ms Ansari argued that economic uncertainty should encourage creative ambition, rather than suppress it. “There’s nothing worse than being frightened and frozen,” she said.“Good work will get you out of trouble. Whether it’s you for your career, whether it is you as a brand ... creativity will always get you out of trouble. If you’re not pushing boundaries then you’re doing yourself and your clients a disservice.“Out of chaos, creativity thrives,” said Ms Ansari, who believes the current market disruption presents one of advertising’s biggest opportunities. With so many brands and marketers playing it safe, the opportunities for the ones that embrace creativity are significant. “When I first started, the internet was new and people were panicking about their jobs and how things were going to be done,” she said. “As an industry we morph and we change and we create and we communicate. Look at what we did during the pandemic, we came out of it stronger and brighter and better with different ways of working. “This is the best time to be in this industry because you have to find interesting, creative ways to make things happen. Timelines, budgets, all those constraints actually make us more creative. “I’ve always said as a creative, I find it easier to crack an idea when you’re in a corner and you have a tight brief or a tight budget. You’ve just gotta just get in there and go for the ride.” Ms Ansari also points to another change happening in the agency sector – as the businesses grow leaner they are also becoming more commercially focused, with creatives now expected to understand clients’ businesses as deeply as account teams once did.“Twenty years ago, it was a different industry,” she said. “Gone are the long lunches and the four weeks to crack a brief. Now more than ever, creatives are also account people. “I spend so much time learning my clients’ business, seeing who they are and what they need to succeed and what their problems are. Proactivity is huge. So, yes it is chaotic, but it’s exhilarating at the same time. “We are solving business problems, we’re not making pretty pictures anymore. Yes, we are telling stories and we have to craft things and we have to communicate and that’s our job, but we are there to solve a business problem. “Advertising is a business. We are not artists. If we wanted to be artists, we would go and be artists. It’s a business and how cool to be able to solve business problems creatively.” Ms Ansari will be in Sydney for the 47th AWARD Awards on August 12 and will address an exclusive lunch alongside David Droga. Ms Ansari is also the jury president for the annual award show, hosted by the Advertising Council Australia, which recognises and rewards the local industry’s best creative work.Read related topics:Artificial IntelligenceDanielle LongEditor, The Growth AgendaDanielle Long is the editor of The Growth Agenda. 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