Datalink Partner Spotlight: DAIVID

“We’ve always felt that creative deserved better technology, and now it has the technology it deserves. For us, this partnership is about adding brilliant data to the industry to do the things we’ve always felt needed to be done.” – Barney Worfolk-Smith

CreativeX, the system of control for creative, content, and media, has launched Datalink, a connective infrastructure housing creative data alongside attention, emotion, and other key metrics in a single dashboard. This allows brands to integrate multiple sources of creative intelligence seamlessly into their existing workflows.

Among the early Datalink partners is DAIVID, a platform that is redefining how brands understand the impact of their advertising, through a deep understanding of the impact of creative on how we feel and act.

DAIVID’s Ian Forrester, CEO and Founder, and Barney Worfolk-Smith, Chief Growth Officer, share more on their technology, the power of "emotional intelligence for AI," and how brands can leverage the integration between DAIVID and CreativeX.

“We are not just a data provider; it’s data plus the human touch. Data is predictive of outcomes, but it can be complex. By working with CreativeX, we are helping brands navigate that complexity to understand exactly why creative at scale is working—or not,” explains Forrester.

What is DAIVID?

DAIVID are creative effectiveness experts who have been working together since 2012, united by a mission to understand what makes creative effective. Harnessing the power of AI, they assess creative assets at massive scale, instantly and affordably.

“We focus specifically on four things: Attention, Emotion (which specific positive or negative emotions it evokes), Memory (will people remember the brand?), and Action (what are they going to do next?),” says Forrester. “We’ve decoded these drivers into ones and zeros to allow the advertising ecosystem to add value to their clients and beat the competition. It’s a Rosetta Stone to translate creative data into media performance."

Unlike traditional methods that may lack nuance, DAIVID tests for 39 specific emotions, providing a depth of data that allows brands to drill down into second-by-second performance. This granular view reveals exactly which moments in a video evoke inspiration, nostalgia, or pride, and how those moments correlate to business outcomes.

A Full Picture of Ad Effectiveness

The DAIVID and CreativeX partnership brings two datasets together to solve different parts of the content equation, resulting in a broader understanding of effectiveness for your brand’s advertising and creative.

“We see the partnership as a '1 + 1 = 3' scenario,” says Worfolk-Smith. Forrester agrees, adding, “When you have 10,000 assets, and 5,000 shouldn’t see the light of day because of execution issues, you still have 5,000 left to support. That’s where we come in. By putting them through DAIVID, we can tell you which top 1,000 will be truly effective.”

Navigating the age of Generative AI

As brands face an influx of content generated by AI, the need for rapid, scalable measurement has never been higher.

“We are moving into an age of generative AI where the industry is awash with ad creative,” notes Worfolk-Smith. “The challenge is no longer just making content, but understanding it. DAIVID’s data is fundamentally human—it provides emotional intelligence for AI.”

The integration allows brands to move beyond simple "go/no-go" decisions and into a nuanced understanding of effectiveness. By identifying whether an asset drives "boredom" versus "pride," marketers can implement rules that ensure they only support content that meets specific emotional benchmarks and link those to perfromance. 

Seamless Integration for Global Brands

For complex global organizations, the friction of logging into multiple platforms can be a barrier to agility. The Datalink integration solves this by bringing DAIVID’s insights directly alongside CreativeX’s performance metrics.

“Your average marketer has too many integrations,” admits Worfolk-Smith. “The ability to press a button and ingest DAIVID data along with CreativeX is awesome. It eliminates friction and allows brands to see our predictive data alongside CreativeX’s foundational data.”

This combination provides a "measurement and performance vocabulary" that helps teams have better data-driven conversations.

“It’s about illuminating that gray area,” says Forrester. “The old adage is ‘I know half my advertising is working, I just don’t know which half.’ Our partnership exists to fix that. We provide an understanding of what creative works and what doesn’t, enabling brands to raise the quality of their content and drive continuous growth.”

Keen to learn more about Datalink? Click here.

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