How dynamic creative is making ads smarter, faster and less boring

Author: Kyle van Rooi, product and search director at dentsu.

Fast forward to 2024 and we are no longer just testing ideas. We are delivering tangible results with fully launched DCO campaigns for major clients.

So, what is DCO exactly?

For anyone unfamiliar with the term, DCO is a powerful advertising technology that adapts creative content in real time. Headlines, images and calls to action can all change based on live data signals such as the weather, location, time of day or browsing behaviour.

Imagine an advert that responds like a person in the room. It understands its environment and speaks directly to the moment.

2023 to 2024, our year of learning

We experimented, made mistakes, ran tests and searched endlessly for answers. We built mock-ups, manually rotated creative content and slowly began to understand what worked and what didn’t.

The real shift came when we invested in the right platforms, tools and, most importantly, people. From DV360 to Meta and TikTok, we built flexible and scalable frameworks tailored to each client’s objectives.

2024, the year we launched and learned fast

Our first major leap came with an insurance client. Weather-based messaging allowed us to serve creative that responded to real-world conditions; think 'Sunny day, drive safe' compared to 'Rainy day, insure today'.

The results spoke clearly. We saw stronger engagement, improved click-through rates and confirmation that this approach was more than just clever tech.

We followed this with a campaign for an FMCG client that delivered compelling outcomes:

• CPM and CPC almost halved
  
• Media spend dropped by 25 percent
  
• User interactions reached an all-time high

Why did it work?

Dynamic creative offers breadth. It avoids fatigue, responds to varied contexts and simply makes sense to more people. Rather than placing all your bets on one perfect ad, DCO lets algorithms build the right combination for the right viewer. This is artificial intelligence with purpose.

Where we are now

We have moved from 'What if?' to 'What’s next?' with dynamic campaigns running across Meta, TikTok, DV360, YouTube, LinkedIn and X (yes, we still feel tempted to call it Twitter).

With platform integrations, automated content feeds and tailored logic, we are now building campaigns that are not only faster but also much smarter.

What’s next?

If your static creative has reached its limit or worse, is being ignored, DCO might be the refresh your media plan needs. We have the case studies, the creative thinking and the data obsession to make it happen.

Let’s talk dynamic. Because in 2025, static advertising feels like something from a different era.