The best marketers are both creative and strategic. Yet, it turns out, most of us are up against a range of obstacles that prevent us from making the most of our marketing efforts. Instead of getting the chance to focus on our creativity and bigger-picture strategies, we’re stuck dealing with competing priorities.

Research from Braze, published in the 2024 Global Customer Engagement Review, reveals that 98% of marketers face at least one roadblock standing in the way of creative and strategic thinking and action.

Our analysis also pinpoints a new solution that nearly all marketing teams—99% of participants we surveyed—are turning to address some of the greatest challenges they’re struggling with. That solution? Leveraging AI for marketing. Yes, more than 99% say their organization is planning to use or already use AI, and nearly 50% report adopting artificial intelligence for use cases like generating creative ideas and enhancing data analysis.

Let’s dive into some of the highlights of our study findings and explore what marketers’ biggest creativity and strategy blockers are and why creativity and strategy work better together with AI.

Marketers’ Top Challenges with Creativity and Strategy

According to our 2024 Global Customer Engagement Review survey of 1,900 marketing executives across three global regions (The Americas, APAC, and EMEA), the top obstacles for marketing teams looking to be more creative and strategic include:

• Having to focus on KPIs, which inherently inhibits a focus on creativity

• Spending too much time on business-as-usual execution and tasks

• A lack of technology to execute creative ideas

• Demonstrating the ROI impact of creativity

Why AI Supports More Strategic, Creative Customer Engagement

For marketers looking to be more creative and strategic, AI is arguably the most important technology to have on hand. That’s because AI can free up marketers’ time for more strategic and creative output, allowing them to automate some of the work involved in creativity, strategy building, and implementation.

In terms of driving innovation, AI is shaping up to be a godsend—and our survey respondents know it. The vast majority (79%) expressed positive sentiment toward AI due to its ability to “help automate routine tasks and free up more time for creative thinking,” exactly the dynamic that can liberate marketers from a focus on pure execution, open up new strategic possibilities, and provide breathing room for creative ideation. In countries like the United States, positive feelings about AI are even stronger, with 87% of marketers favoring it for eliminating busywork and freeing up time for creative thinking.

For those struggling strategically, one big challenge is making the most of customer data. The vast majority of our survey participants face data management challenges and 55% say a lack of access to appropriate technologies that enable actions based on data is an issue.

For marketing teams that are leaning into AI, many are using or planning to use the technology to tackle this issue head on—using AI for data analysis, predictive analytics, and personalization.

Key AI Use Cases for Marketing Creativity & Strategy

Marketers see many possibilities for artificial intelligence and are leveraging (or looking to leverage) these kinds of technologies to improve both their creative and strategic outputs. Our study finds that the top use cases include tapping AI for:

• Generate creative ideas (48%)

• Automating repetitive tasks (47%)

• Optimizing strategies in real time (47%)

• Enhancing data analysis (47%)

• Powering predictive analytics (45%)

• Personalizing campaign messaging (44%)

Discover the Complete State of Customer Engagement in 2024

The takeaways we’ve shared here are just the beginning. Check out the complete 2024 Global Customer Engagement Review to find out what top brands like Wealthsimple, Sonder, Second Dinner, Joe and the Juice, and e.l.f. Cosmetics are doing to enhance their creativity and strategic results.

About the Study

These findings are part of our broader fourth-annual Global Customer Engagement Review, which draws on the following sources:

• Market research featuring 1,900 VP+ marketing decision-makers across 14 global countries in three global regions.

• An analysis of Braze proprietary data, including 9 billion global users and nearly 1,000 Braze customers in 50+ countries, via our leading customer engagement platform.

• In-depth interviews with marketing leaders from best-in-class brands in five industries across three regions.