5 creative experimentation strategies for enterprise brands
Brands that lead don’t guess. They test. Discover five effective strategies for creative experimentation, learn from real-world examples (like how Superside produced over 4,000 Shopify assets in record time) and get practical tips for testing new ideas safely within live campaigns.
The most successful enterprises don’t leave campaign performance up to chance. They experiment constantly. They also don’t just swap headlines or CTA button colors. They run sophisticated creative experiments to uncover what truly drives results.
And creative experimentation is more relevant than ever: 71% of marketers expect content needs to increase fivefold by 2027, driven by a demand for more personalized experiences. At the same time, generative AI and other emerging technologies now simplify content production at scale. Brands that stay ahead are those that build AI-driven creative testing into their daily workflows.
Take Google’s famous test of 41 shades of blue, in which they famously ran experiments on different shades for hyperlinks and interface elements. The process boosted ad revenue by an estimated $200 million.
That’s the power of creative experimentation done right, and it’s precisely what Superside’s AI-powered model offers.
Keep reading for real examples, best practices and valuable insights from Superside’s Global Creative Lead, Emmanuel Canton.
What is creative experimentation, and how does it work?
Creative experimentation is a structured way to test ideas across visuals, copy, formats, channels and brand experiences to see what clicks with your target audience and delivers results.
Much more than one-off A/B tests for enterprise brands, it’s a repeatable process that helps you make smarter decisions based on data.
Creative experimentation is about finding different ways to solve a problem while keeping the constraints of the brief in mind. In design you always have options—whether it’s through the style, the type of asset, or even where that asset is placed—and playing with these variables is what leads to new ideas.
Think of experimentation as building creative muscle: The more you practice, the stronger your campaigns become. And with AI in the mix, your internal resources can now test and fine-tune your unique ideas faster than ever.
Here’s how to adopt a more experimental approach to your marketing output:
1. Start with a clear hypothesis
Every test should start with a question. Broadly speaking, something like: “What do we want to find out, and why?”
The question doesn’t have to be complicated; it just needs to be a simple inquiry rooted in a real challenge or opportunity. For example:
- Does a clean layout resonate more with Gen Z than a bold collage?
- Does benefit-first copy perform better than product-first copy in paid ads?
These questions help keep your experiments grounded in data instead of guesswork.
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2. Create and plan your creative variants
Once you’ve decided on your question, experiment with a few different creative versions. You could switch up:
- Visuals: Clean vs. busy layouts, photos vs. illustrations.
- Copy: Different headlines, hooks, CTAs.
- Format: Carousels, single images, short videos, long videos.
- Channel: Organic vs. paid, Instagram vs. LinkedIn.
To test your creative across multiple platforms and audience segments, you’ll have to create versions tailored to each one. That’s where a scalable design system and custom AI image models can make a world of difference.
Experimentation in creativity comes from resisting the urge to rely on preset methods. Instead, it’s about considering every element—style, format, strategy—and using them in new combinations to push a design further.
3. Test in a way that gives you real answers
The way you set up your experiment is crucial. A clear structure will help you trust the results and learn from them.
These methods work well:
- Use a control group (your usual creative) and a test group (your new variant).
- Segment your audience to experiment with what works (and doesn’t) for each group.
- Use the correct formats for each respective channel. Remember, what works on Instagram or Facebook may not be effective on LinkedIn or TikTok.
Run both versions for the same length of time and avoid comparing weekdays to weekends.
For me, experimentation means combining all the variables you can control to solve a design problem in fresh ways. It’s about offering multiple solutions that not only answer the brief but also explore different creative possibilities.
In the enterprise world, this could mean testing across email campaigns, landing pages, social ads, OOH billboards and more. Just make sure the setup stays consistent across channels so your results are reliable.
4. Measure results and extract insights
Likes, clicks and views are only one part of the story. To really get a sense of what’s effective, you need to dig deeper.
Here’s what to look for:
- Engagement: Do target customers pause other activities to read, scroll or watch?
- Completion rates: Do they watch your video to the end or complete your form, or do they drop off halfway?
- Sentiment: What do they say in the comments? Is their reaction positive, negative or neutral?
- Awareness and recall: Do people notice and remember your message and brand?
Even if an idea fails, you’ll still have gained valuable knowledge. Every experiment gives you feedback on what to improve in the future.
5. Apply what you’ve learned and repeat
Experiments are only useful if you do something with what you find. The real magic happens when you incorporate your test insights into your growth marketing creative process.
Consider each experiment as if it were a flywheel: → Try → Learn → Tweak → Do more of what works.
Enterprise brands are competing in a world where AI-generated content is everywhere. Most of it feels recycled, safe and neutral. Experimentation is what allows a brand to break out of that sameness and inject its own personality, opinions and stories into the work.
5 strategies for effective creative experimentation
Tired of hoping your creative will hit the mark? These five strategies go beyond the basics to help you build a creative experimentation process that gets real results.
Each strategy forms part of a larger marketing experimentation framework designed to help you successfully integrate experimentation into your workflows.
It’s all abbout challenging the way things are ‘supposed’ to be done. It’s testing different approaches, mixing variables, and finding unexpected solutions that still solve the brief effectively.
1. Test creative work across multiple channels
(Source: Netflix)
Every channel behaves differently. What works like a dream on social media could fall flat in an email campaign.
To determine which creative approach is best, it’s essential to experiment across your entire ecosystem: From your website, video channels and email campaigns to your social media accounts, events, packaging and merchandise.
A few examples to guide you:
- Website & UX: Does a testimonial-first layout beat a product-first one? If you move a brand video above the fold, does it boost the time users spend on the page?
- Video: Are motion graphics or face-to-camera videos more effective? Do you get better results with 15-second or 30-second videos? Try different intros, scripts, visuals and outros to see what delivers the best results.
- Email: Do plain-text emails work better than expertly designed newsletters? Do you get more clicks if you shift the CTA up? Does your open rate improve when you send in the morning instead of the evening?
- Social: Do you get better results with video, carousel or static posts? Does your audience respond better to photos or original illustrations? Do they like playful or more serious posts? Even an emoji can affect engagement.
- Packaging and merchandise: Does a bold typeface or a lighter one make it easier to read your message? What gets more unboxing shares or attention at events?
A brand like Netflix tests absolutely everything, from thumbnails and title art to trailers and layouts. For example, A/B testing on thumbnail artwork is used to boost click-through rates by 20%, while machine learning ranks content according to user preferences, an approach that reduces customer churn by 10%.
Haleon, the company behind Sensodyne and Centrum, offers another excellent example of a brand that values experimentation. They conducted a multichannel experiment using the same offer but customized the creative for each format and audience. Their hard work paid off and resulted in a 94% increase in video CTR.
2. Adopt agile workflows for rapid creative iteration
(Source: Celtra)
Speed can make or break your experiments. If it takes three weeks to launch a variation, you’ve probably missed your moment.
Instead of long production cycles, aim for a faster loop: Create → test → learn → repeat.
The quicker you act, the faster you gain insights and the stronger your campaigns become over time. It also prevents you from channeling time and budget into big creative ideas that flop.
A few tips:
- Run regular creative sprints: Weekly or biweekly sprints help you explore ideas fast without a firm commitment.
- Use modular templates: Pre-designed, flexible creative formats allow you to quickly tweak visuals and test them across markets and channels.
- Work with partners who move fast: An AI-powered creative service like Superside can deliver creative assets in 24–48 hours, so you don’t miss out on market opportunities.
Agility matters even more at enterprise scale, as teams face tougher competition, more stakeholders and volatile market conditions.
A brand that gets this level of agility right is Nike. For example, when the brand had to scale its global Member Days campaign, its marketing team used creative automation, templates and pre-designed toolkits to help local teams quickly customize their creative content. They were able to produce over 17,000 assets in a single round, which resulted in a remarkable 19.5 times increase in production efficiency.
Booking.com also runs 1,000+ experiments at any given time. Their teams are empowered to test independently and respond quickly. This creates a continuous feedback loop that sharpens every campaign, as well as the overall customer experience.
3. Tap into audience segmentation
(Source: Airbnb)
One person’s click is another’s “scroll-past.” That’s why audience segmentation is crucial, especially for companies with large and diverse customer bases.
Smart ways to segment your enterprise brand’s target audience include:
- By funnel stage: New prospects typically require more background information and storytelling to build interest, whereas those close to purchase respond better to urgency and special offers.
- By persona: Gen Z individuals may love playful memes and informal copy, while busy C-suite executives might respond better to bite-sized, easy-to-read information. Personalized content enables you to engage your target personas on a deeper level, which typically leads to even better results.
- By platform behavior: A TikTok scroller is in a different mindset than a LinkedIn user. Creative assets should align with what the target audience on each platform is likely to enjoy (e.g., entertainment vs. education).
Many top brands excel at these tactics. Airbnb, for example, used machine learning to categorize hosts into behavior-based segments, such as “Always On” or “Short Seasonal.” This data-driven experimentation enabled the brand to optimize its platform features (e.g., Instant Book).
Amazon excels at customer segmentation based on behavior. The brand tracks browsing behavior, purchases, time spent on-site, reviews and social posts to detect patterns and serve hyper-targeted offers.
4. Use metrics that matter
(Source: Starbucks)
You can’t just look at your CTR and call it a day. This is particularly true if you run tests across brand, product and content campaigns. To fully assess the impact of your creative, you must look beyond surface metrics.
Of course, this also means it’s crucial to align your metrics with your objective. For example, clicks might provide limited insight for brand awareness campaigns, whereas engagement and sentiment offer more meaningful feedback.
Depending on your campaign goal, here are the creative performance metrics you should monitor:
- Engagement metrics: Scroll depth, video watch time, comment quality and repeat visits measure how deeply and actively users interact with your content.
- Brand impact metrics: Brand lift, aided/unaided brand recall and share of voice help you to assess shifts in brand awareness and presence within the market.
- Emotion or sentiment: Tracked via social listening tools or post-campaign surveys, these metrics capture audience opinions about your brand or campaign.
- Business outcomes: Conversions, lead quality, retention and lifetime value (LTV) measure how the campaign contributes to revenue and growth.
Once again, there are great examples to learn from. Marriott, for example, uses AI to analyze guest reviews across more than 7,000 hotels and identify patterns in customer service and experience. Hotels can act quickly to resolve problems, and the metrics help the group to refine its operations.
Starbucks tracks everything from app orders to social chatter. Real-time dashboards and AI help to catch trends early, adjust offers and refine messages.
Insider tip: Use a custom dashboard or tools like Superads, Google Analytics, HubSpot, Tableau, Meta Experiments or a Customer Data Platform (CPD) to track results and identify what works across campaigns.
5. Feed insights back into your creative process
(Source: Confidence)
You tried a new approach. It worked. Now what?
If your results remain in a slide deck, they’re not worth much. But when you learn, apply and repeat, you build creative performance momentum.
Here’s how to turn one win into many more:
- Add proven messages, elements and formats to your next briefs.
- Update your brand guidelines with what worked.
- Build a shared intelligence hub (e.g., in Figma) that showcases your best experiments and insights.
- Scale your top ideas: Rework, remix and apply them across content types, markets and channels. The possibilities are endless.
Spotify excels at transforming data insights into informed decisions. With their experimentation platform, Confidence, they quickly test updates, measure impact and incorporate the best tweaks into future campaign strategies.
YouTube Studio’s new “test-and-compare” feature allows creators to try out different video titles and thumbnails to see which ones receive the most clicks. The best-performing options can then be used to guide the presentation and promotion of future videos.
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How Shopify turned experimentation into a growth engine with Superside
Shopify is no stranger to rapid experimentation and growth. As one of the world’s top commerce platforms, the company has experienced rapid growth. They’ve added more products, on-boarded more merchants, entered new markets and managed significantly increased complexity.
To keep pace, its Growth Workshop team, led by Amir Jaffari, adopted a culture of continuous experimentation: They constantly test ideas, explore new channels, and learn what drives creative performance.
At Superside, we push customers to see not just the conservative option but also the bold and even the box-breaking one. By showing different paths, we help them realize their brand assets can communicate so much more effectively than the way they’ve always done it.
But the team quickly learned experimentation at this scale is no easy feat. One campaign alone could require over 4,000 asset variations across various formats, platforms, sizes and languages. When the time came to build a system that would make experimentation repeatable and scalable creative production possible, Shopify turned to Superside.
The challenge
Shopify’s team ran into roadblocks familiar to most enterprise marketers:
- Scale: There simply wasn’t enough in-house capacity to produce assets for every test.
- Speed: They required assets within 24–48 hours max (a tough ask for stretched teams and freelancers).
- Consistency: Regardless of how quickly they moved, every asset still had to look and feel like Shopify.
- Freshness: Novel ideas were essential, but so was on-brand creative across every touchpoint.
The solution: Shopify Supersided it
To overcome these challenges, Superside stepped in with a creative model built for scale. In a short space of time, we helped Shopify to deliver on-brand assets faster, test more and maintain brand consistency.
Here’s how we did it:
- Always-on support: A dedicated Superside project manager became the go-between for Shopify’s teams and our global bench of top-tier creatives.
- Fast turnarounds: Assets were delivered within 12–24 hours, which ensured experimentation cycles ran smoothly.
- Fresh ideas: Different designers brought new perspectives and fresh creative energy to deliver standout campaigns. Throughout the process, they ensured Shopify’s brand identity remained firmly intact.
- Flexible scale: Shopify could scale creative up or down or shift focus without the extra headcount typically required.
What makes Superside uniquely suited for experimentation is the scale of our creative network. With hundreds of creatives across different skills and styles, we can match each customer request to the right person—something that’s impossible when you only have a small in-house team or agency roster.
The impact on Shopify’s creative practice
With Superside in place, creative experimentation at Shopify quickly evolved from ad hoc to “always-on”:
- Shopify could create 4,375 assets per concept, across sizes, platforms and languages.
- Fast access to quality assets meant they could test bolder ideas, more often.
- A steady feedback loop meant that every experiment informed the next.
- Shopify’s growth, performance and product marketing teams now rely on Superside for every type of creative asset imaginable, from landing pages to social ads.
At Superside you’re not relying on five or ten designers. You have a whole pool of talent you’ve already worked with, so you know their strengths and can quickly pull in the right expertise without having to look outside.
Why creative experimentation matters more than ever
You’ve now seen how creative experimentation works and how brands like Shopify build systems to make test-and-learn marketing models part of their creative processes.
When you combine Superside’s creative talent with AI tools like Midjourney, ChatGPT, Krea and the Adobe Suite, the range of possible outputs expands exponentially. It opens the door to faster, more varied experimentation for every brand.
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Here’s why more enterprises have doubled down on this approach:
It keeps your brand fresh
- Tastes change. Trends shift. What worked last quarter might not land with your target audience today.
- Experimentation and fresh creative help brands to evolve with the market and stay ahead of their competitors.
It improves ROI
- The better you understand what drives results, the smarter you can use your budget.
- Experiments and analysis help you focus on creative work that achieves business results.
It makes bold ideas less risky
- Want to try unconventional ideas? With a solid experimentation workflow in place, you don’t need a massive budget or a complete rebrand.
- Small-scale tests allow you to step out of your comfort zone and try new ideas without risking an entire campaign.
It helps you understand your audience
- Every experiment unlocks new insights about your customers, such as how they think, what they like and what motivates them to take action.
- The data you gather doesn’t just ensure your next campaign resonates. It helps to inform your brand strategy.
It gives you a competitive edge
- The more you test, the faster you learn, and the better your creative performance becomes.
- Brands that embed enterprise creative testing into their workflows learn faster, adapt quicker, and outpace competitors stuck in slower, rigid cycles.
Scale your creative experimentation with Superside
Experimenting helps. But experimentation in creative and marketing isn’t a one-time tactic. It’s a vital, long-term strategy for brands that want to stay competitive, grow efficiently and reduce creative risk.
As the world’s leading AI-powered creative service, Superside supports in-house teams at major companies like yours in running high-impact experiments with proven systems. Partner with us to develop an experimentation workflow that lets you iterate, learn and adapt faster without overextending your internal resources or budget.
Superside’s strength is not just in having the right people but also the right workflows. With AI integrated into our process, customers get efficiency and the freedom to explore multiple creative paths without compromising on quality.
With always-on access to world-class creative talent, you’ll be able to quickly deliver graphic designs and creative work at scale. Additionally, our annual subscription model allows you to roll over unused budgets for up to three months and add funds for one-off projects, as your dedicated team becomes more familiar with your brand.
Ready to create a system for ongoing experimentation and continuous improvement? It’s time to Superside it.
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Meet Roger, a content marketer driven by his love for online search, digital marketing, and performance marketing. When he's not immersed in the latest updates on Google, AI and social media, you'll find him passionately crafting strategies to simplify online searches for people, sparing them the frustration of navigating through endless pages. As a marketer, Roger Match has turned into the perfect match for Superside, helping us showcase our purpose, objectives and essence to the world.
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