Power of Forecast-Driven Creative

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🎯 Forecast-Driven Creative: Building Ads That Fulfill Operational Goals

Most creative briefs start with messaging, mood boards, and hooks.

But what if they started with COGS volatility, return rates, SKU velocity, and forecasted margin windows?

Because in DTC, a beautiful ad that sells low-margin or high-return products isn’t performance, it’s brand erosion. It drains cash, spikes support costs, and creates fulfillment lag that your CX team has to clean up later.

The best CMOs today aren’t just briefing creative teams to drive revenue. They’re briefing them to drive operational outcomes.

The Brief Is the Bottleneck

Ask your creative team what metrics they’re given. ROAS? CTR? CAC? Great.

Now ask what they know about the SKU they’re promoting:

• Is it overstocked or at risk of selling out mid-campaign?
• What’s its refund rate relative to others in the catalog?
• Is there enough post-discount margin to support a flash promo?

In most teams, that info lives in someone’s head, or not at all. The result? Creative that converts… but compromises LTV, margin, or retention.

Building the Forecast-Informed Creative Brief

Here’s how to shift:

1. Start With Operational Goals

Pick one:

• Reduce overstock on high-margin SKUs
• Push low-return products during high-volume windows
• Delay sales on high-demand, low-inventory variants

Then build creative to fulfill that goal, not just stop the scroll.

2. Inject Forecast Data Into Briefs

Add this to every brief:

• SKU-level stock runway
• Forecasted net margin (post-promo)
• Return-risk indicators
• Fulfillment lag impact

This reframes your creative team’s mindset: from “What will convert?” to “What can convert profitably and sustainably?”

3. Use Forecast Tools That Speak Creative

This is where Drivepoint becomes a creative unlock.

Trusted by True Classic, Curology, and Oats Overnight, Drivepoint’s templates help CMOs pull SKU-level forecasts directly into campaign planning, so creative teams don’t just ideate blindly, they design around margin, inventory, and fulfillment reality. Here are 3 Free Forecasting Templates from Drivepoint to sync ad planning with operational health, right from the first slide.

Creative isn’t just a growth lever. It’s an operational tool when guided by the right inputs.

If you want ads that scale margin, not just hype, start your creative process with a forecast.

Together with Levanta

Amazon’s not broken. But your mix might be.

If your Amazon growth is slowing while ad spend keeps rising, it’s probably not the platform—it’s your strategy.

Top brands like HyperIce, Caraway, and Goli are shifting their spend to something smarter:

Performance-based affiliate marketing that drives high-quality external traffic and only costs money when it converts.

Why it works:

✅ Drive traffic from trusted creators, publishers, and review sites
✅ Boost your organic rankings by bringing in off-Amazon traffic
✅ Get paid via Amazon’s Brand Referral Bonus
✅ Only pay for performance—not impressions or clicks

With Levanta, you get access to a vetted network of over 10,000 creators—plus the tools to track performance, optimize your program, and grow sales without wasting spend.

Curious what kind of lift this could drive for your brand?

Get your Projection for free today!

📌 Generation Zeitgeist, Understanding Gen Z's Social Pulse
Insights from Meta

Gen Z makes up a third of the global population and is already influencing how culture and commerce evolve. Their habits are rooted in short-form video, curated content, and fluid app usage. Meta’s study across five countries reveals how brands can meet them where they are.

The Breakdown:

1. Content is Connection - Sixty-seven percent of Gen Z share videos on Instagram or Facebook to express emotion and stay connected. They shift between apps and tones depending on context, often chatting with the same person across three platforms. 

2. Culture is Curated - Sixty-three percent actively curate their feeds to feel more in control and engaged. They rely on short-form video for everything from entertainment to education, with 81 percent using Instagram for self-improvement. Even creators they don’t follow gain attention if the content is relevant.

3. Shopping is Discovery - Seventy-eight percent say they discover new products through video content. Gen Z often saves products they see for future consideration and prefers fast, AI-supported responses. Repeated exposure works, with 67 percent more likely to buy after seeing a brand multiple times.

4. Brands Must Diversify reatively - Gen Z expects creative variety across Reels, Stories, and Feed, not repetition. Ninety-four percent admire creators with advanced skills, making partnerships with craft creators highly effective. Meta data shows frequency boosts results by 15 percent when ads are seen at least once a week.

Gen Z expects relevance, speed, and originality across every touchpoint. Brands must speak their visual language, adapt quickly, and deliver value through content that feels native. Those who evolve with Gen Z’s expectations will build lasting influence across culture and commerce.

🚀 Quick Hits

⚡ What if ad optimization didn’t take hours, or a Slack thread full of approvals? Motion’s Expert Agents are built by names you know and trust in performance marketing, offering plug-and-play creative analysis that’s fast, actionable, and designed to scale. Get early access to Expert Agents today!

🕶️ Threads now prompts users to add interests to boost connections and discoverability. Profiles can display up to 10 topics, helping users get custom feeds,

🛒 OpenAI’s AI Overviews are linked to declining organic CTR, studies show. New data from Ahrefs and Amsive reveals up to 34.5% CTR drops, especially for non-branded keywords, challenging Google’s quality click claims.

🛍️ DOJ outlines proposed measures to address Google’s search and advertising dominance, including splitting Chrome, ending default search deals, expanding data access, and increasing ad transparency.

👥 Roblox rolls out Regional Pricing to adjust in-game item costs by country, aiming to improve global access and creator revenue. Early tests show spending rose by up to 52% in some regions.

🎫 Google Ads will now let top-performing ads also appear at the bottom of search results. Early tests showed a 10% increase in relevance and a 14% lift in conversions for bottom ad placements.

That’s a wrap for today! Tell us your thoughts about today's content as we line up more Shorts! And don’t hesitate to share this with someone who’d adore it. 🥰