Martí Ibarz - Fuego Camina Conmigo

In an increasingly fragmented media landscape, brands face a familiar challenge: how to stand out, connect with consumers and achieve sustainable growth. For Martí Ibarz, Head of Effectiveness & Analytics at independent creative agency Fuego Camina Conmigo, the answer lies in combining data-driven insights with creativity, experimentation and the courage to take risks. While measurement helps brands understand what works, Martí believes that relying too heavily on formulas can undermine the very creativity that drives effectiveness. In this interview, he shares his perspective on what makes brands grow, why smaller brands need to find different ways to compete, and how AI is reshaping the relationship between creativity and effectiveness.

Effective Brand Growth starts with the Right Diagnosis

For Martí, effective marketing begins long before a campaign is developed. His role at Fuego Camina Conmigo is not only to demonstrate whether communication delivers results, but also to understand why it works and how those learnings can improve future campaigns. “The important thing is to really understand what is happening, your context, your category and your target audience,” Martí explains. “A large part of my job is helping to diagnose the client's situation and understand how communication influences it.”

This requires looking beyond individual campaign metrics. At Fuego Camina Conmigo, creative, strategy, media, social and analytics teams work together to understand how different elements contribute to brand growth. Martí believes this integrated approach is particularly important in an industry where measurement is often fragmented across different agencies and specialists. “One of my obsessions is having this holistic view of analysis and establishing cause-and-effect relationships,” he says.

Drawing on effectiveness research, Martí identifies several essential ingredients for brand growth: reach, meaningful brand associations, consistency and courage. Reaching potential future buyers is particularly important, as brands cannot rely solely on consumers already in the market. “For sales activation, segmentation is interesting, but for brand building, studies tend to show that it is better to go as broad as possible,” he explains. The objective is to reach as many relevant category buyers as possible while building distinctive associations that make the brand more likely to be considered.

“For sales activation, segmentation is interesting, but for brand building, studies tend to show that it is better to go as broad as possible.”

Why Brand Growth requires both Consistency and Courage

While reach and consistency remain fundamental, Martí believes brands need another ingredient to achieve significant growth: courage. This is particularly true for challenger brands competing against established players with larger marketing budgets. “If you want to grow as a brand, you have to say something different and take risks,” he argues. “You need courage to take risks and surprise people, and when you surprise people, everything works better.” However, taking risks also means accepting that not every idea will succeed.

Traditionally, large brands have relied heavily on repetition to build awareness and strengthen associations. Smaller brands rarely have the resources to compete on the same terms and must therefore find more distinctive ways to generate attention.

“You can repeat a message many times, but it will cost you a lot of money,” Martí says. “I find it fascinating when smaller brands, without those resources, manage to stand out and gradually grow.”

One example is Spanish fashion brand Nude Project, which combined a strong digital community with word of mouth, pop-up events and opportunities for customers to meet its founders. Rather than following a traditional advertising model, the brand created a story consumers could feel part of. “Behind many brands, there is a story, and humans have always been motivated by stories,” Martí explains. “They have managed to build that story through closeness, something that large brands cannot do in quite the same way.”

For him, the example illustrates the power of authenticity. “Passion gives you authenticity, and authenticity connects enormously.” When that connection is combined with distinctiveness and broad reach, brands can build preference and ultimately gain market share.

“Passion gives you authenticity, and authenticity connects enormously.”

Using Data to Improve Creativity without following a Formula

As Head of Effectiveness & Analytics at a creative agency, Martí operates at the intersection of data and creativity. While data provides evidence of what works, creativity depends on generating ideas that have not necessarily been tried before. “We strongly believe in trial and error and continuous evolution,” he explains. “With every campaign, you learn what worked well and what didn't, and through iteration, you start identifying elements that tend to work better.”

At Fuego Camina Conmigo, this means experimenting with different formats, messages and approaches. Digital channels make experimentation particularly accessible, allowing teams to test multiple creative executions and identify which generate stronger responses. Martí pays particular attention to whether content captures and retains attention, as well as comments and shares that indicate whether a campaign generates conversation.

However, he warns against turning previous successes into rigid creative rules. What works in one campaign may not work in another, particularly as audiences and cultural contexts change. “When you standardise things too much, you lose the ability to surprise and the freshness,” he explains. For Martí, research should guide creative decisions without limiting the freedom to experiment. Ultimately, effectiveness is about communicating something that genuinely connects with consumers, not simply repeating what has worked before.

“We strongly believe in trial and error and continuous evolution. With every campaign, you learn what worked well and what didn't, and through iteration, you start identifying elements that tend to work better.”

Measuring Effectiveness in a Fragmented Media Landscape

The growing complexity of the media landscape is also changing how brands should approach measurement. Where communication was once dominated by television and a few major campaigns each year, marketers now need to coordinate a much broader range of touchpoints. Martí compares this to operating a large sound mixing desk, continuously adjusting different controls to achieve the right balance. “You have to see how all the elements work together, not only in terms of media, but also how you adapt the messages to each channel.”

This shift creates new challenges for effectiveness measurement. While large television campaigns benefit from established research methodologies, smaller digital activations and mid-sized campaigns often receive less attention. “These activities are sometimes undermeasured, and therefore their effects are undervalued,” Martí explains. Brands increasingly combine major campaigns with smaller initiatives throughout the year, making it essential to understand how these activities contribute to overall performance.

Measurement should also help marketers respond while campaigns are running. Some ideas unexpectedly generate strong engagement, while others fail to deliver the anticipated impact. Identifying these differences early allows brands to redirect resources towards what works. “If something is performing much better than your last five campaigns, and you have some budget left, let's invest it there because now is the moment,” he explains. In this sense, effectiveness measurement becomes not only a way to demonstrate results, but also a tool for improving them.

“You have to see how all the elements work together, not only in terms of media, but also how you adapt the messages to each channel.”

AI and the Future of Creative Effectiveness

Looking ahead, Martí believes artificial intelligence will fundamentally transform how marketers develop, evaluate and optimise communication. Unlike trends such as the metaverse, he sees AI as part of a broader technological evolution. “AI is here to stay,” he says. “We have accumulated enormous amounts of information, and what AI helps us do is process it.” He expects this to make advanced analytical capabilities more accessible, accelerate measurement and improve predictive capabilities.

AI will also enable faster creative development and testing, including through synthetic audiences, an area Fuego Camina Conmigo is already exploring through pilot projects. However, Martí does not believe technology will eliminate the need for human judgement. While AI can analyse information and predict responses, understanding how people genuinely experience communication remains more complicated. “AI may have read an enormous number of books, but it hasn't actually lived those experiences,” he explains.

For Martí, the future will therefore be defined by collaboration between human expertise and technology. AI will increasingly support analysis, production and measurement, but creativity will still depend on cultural understanding, intuition and authenticity. “Almost everything will become a process heavily assisted by AI, but humans will still have a role in creativity,” he predicts.

Ultimately, Martí's perspective brings creativity and effectiveness together rather than treating them as opposing forces. Data provides the understanding needed to make better decisions, while courage, authenticity and experimentation create opportunities to stand out. As technology makes communication faster and more accessible, the ability to surprise people and build genuine human connections will remain essential to brand growth.

“Almost everything will become a process heavily assisted by AI, but humans will still have a role in creativity.”