Smartly adds AI creative predictive tools across advertising channels

Smartly announced two AI-powered creative intelligence products on November 18, 2025, expanding pre-campaign prediction and post-campaign analysis capabilities across its advertising platform. Creative Predictive Potential and Creative Insights extend the company's intelligence layer to connect creative performance with media activation across social, Google, programmatic, and Connected TV channels.

The New York-based advertising technology company manages over $6 billion in ad spend globally for more than 800 brands. According to Maxwell Tang, Chief Product Officer at Smartly, the platform combines predictive analysis with real-time insights to help brands reduce wasted spend while maximizing return on advertising investment.

Creative Predictive Potential operates before campaign launch. The pre-flight tool leverages computer vision and eye-tracking models to analyze attention, sentiment, and engagement signals. The system identifies which creative elements capture or lose audience attention, then delivers recommendations to refine messaging, visuals, and pacing before advertisers commit budget to media placement.

Creative Insights functions as a post-flight analysis tool included in Smartly's Creative Suite. The product transforms creative data into actionable intelligence through AI Theme Analysis and AI Summaries. Rather than simply reporting performance metrics, the system uncovers why specific advertisements perform and identifies visual themes and tones driving results across channels.

The announcement arrives as advertising platforms accelerate AI integration. Google made its Ads Advisor available to all English-language accounts on November 12, while Amazon launched AI agents for campaign management on November 11. Industry research shows 72% of marketers plan to increase AI use, yet only 45% feel confident applying it successfully.

The creative intelligence capabilities integrate with social platforms, Google, and programmatic channels. Smartly specifically emphasized bringing the same intelligence and creative personalization it pioneered in social media to Connected TV environments. CTV advertising continues expanding, with budget share projected to double from 14% in 2023 to 28% in 2025.

Creative adaptation remains a significant challenge across the advertising industry. Research Smartly published with EMARKETER in July 2025 revealed that 72% of marketers reuse or slightly modify assets across platforms, while just 25% tailor creative for both social and Connected TV campaigns. The disconnect between video advertising strategy and creative execution presents obstacles as consumption patterns reshape the landscape.

Computer vision and eye-tracking models power the pre-campaign analysis system. These technologies evaluate visual attention patterns to predict which creative elements will engage viewers before media spend begins. The approach contrasts with traditional testing methods that require live campaigns to gather performance data.

Post-campaign analysis through AI Theme Analysis identifies patterns across creative elements. The system examines visual themes, tones, and messaging approaches that correlate with performance metrics. Rather than requiring manual review of thousands of creative variants, the automated analysis surfaces insights about what drives results and why specific approaches succeed.

Smartly positions the combined capabilities as bridging the journey from idea to ad to campaign to outcome. The platform unifies creative production, media activation, and performance optimization in a single workflow executed entirely within the system. According to PwC-validated results cited in the announcement, the platform achieves 5.5x return on ad spend and saves 42 minutes every hour through operational efficiency.

The company maintains strategic partnerships with Amazon, Google, Meta, Pinterest, Reddit, Snap, and TikTok. These relationships enable Fortune 500 companies to deliver advertising campaigns at scale across multiple channels while managing creative production and media optimization from one interface.

Smartly ranked as the leader in The Forrester Wave: Creative Advertising Technologies evaluation. The platform combines AI-powered campaign optimization, creative personalization, and creative intelligence to help marketers drive performance outcomes. The company describes its offering as dynamic, data-driven image and video assets optimized for seamless activation across channels.

The November 18 announcement strengthens Smartly's position as one of few platforms uniting creative production, media activation, and performance optimization across every channel. The integration of predictive pre-testing with comprehensive analytics and AI-driven performance analysis addresses marketer demands for confidence through clear, real-time intelligence.

Creative quality has emerged as a fundamental performance driver in digital advertising. Research from Kargo demonstrated that enhanced creative formats achieve 78% higher attention rates than industry standards in Connected TV environments. Industry experts warn against reusing creative assets from online video campaigns for CTV, emphasizing the medium's sensitivity to creative quality.

The announcement follows Smartly's integration with Spotify Ads Manager in September 2025 and the appointment of three senior executives to leadership positions in October. Maxwell Tang joined as Chief Product Officer after spending more than ten years at Etsy leading product strategy for discovery and monetization functions.

Automated production capabilities enable Smartly clients to produce over 150 million creative variants monthly through AI-powered templates and modular editing systems. Cross-platform reporting dashboards consolidate performance data from multiple advertising channels managed through the platform.

The company operates from New York headquarters with a global footprint supporting brands across 800+ organizations. Strategic emphasis on AI-driven innovation reflects broader industry transformation, with 92% of marketers reporting that AI fundamentally redefines how they connect with consumers according to Smartly's November 2025 research.

Connected TV represents a particular expansion opportunity for creative intelligence applications. Multiple platforms introduced CTV measurement solutions throughout 2025, addressing historical limitations in streaming advertising accountability. Teads launched deterministic CTV measurement on October 23, tracking site visits, leads, and sales directly tied to Connected TV exposure.

The predictive and analytical capabilities operate entirely within Smartly's platform infrastructure. Users plan, build, and launch campaigns without platform-switching requirements while accessing creative automation tools that generate and localize asset variants using templated systems and automated editing.

Timeline

• March-April 2025: Smartly and EMARKETER conduct survey revealing 72% of marketers reuse creative assets across platforms
• July 9, 2025: Smartly and EMARKETER publish research showing significant challenges in cross-channel creative execution
• September 3, 2025: Smartly integrates Spotify Ads Manager for cross-channel audio, display, and video campaigns
• October 1, 2025: Smartly appoints Maxwell Tang as Chief Product Officer alongside two other senior executives
• November 5, 2025: Smartly releases Digital Trends Report showing 92% of marketers say AI reshapes customer engagement
• November 11, 2025: Amazon launches AI agents for campaign management and extends Creative Agent to television formats
• November 12, 2025: Google makes Ads Advisor available to all English-language accounts
• November 18, 2025: Smartly announces Creative Predictive Potential and Creative Insights products

Summary

Who: Smartly, the AI-powered advertising technology platform that manages over $6 billion in ad spend globally for more than 800 brands, announced the new products through Chief Product Officer Maxwell Tang.

What: Two new creative intelligence solutions—Creative Predictive Potential and Creative Insights—that provide pre-campaign performance prediction and post-campaign analysis across the advertising lifecycle, integrating with social, Google, programmatic, and Connected TV channels.

When: The announcement occurred on November 18, 2025, following Smartly's September Spotify integration and October leadership appointments.

Where: The capabilities operate within Smartly's platform infrastructure, extending across all channels where the company maintains partnerships including Amazon, Google, Meta, Pinterest, Reddit, Snap, and TikTok.

Why: The products address persistent challenges in creative performance optimization, with industry research showing 72% of marketers reuse assets across platforms and only 45% feel confident applying AI despite 72% planning increased adoption, while creative quality has emerged as the most powerful performance lever in advertising.