AI Creative Strategy: How to Analyze Ads, Find What’s Working, and Build Smarter Creative Systems

June 17, 2026

Everybody can generate AI creative now. The real advantage is knowing what to make next.

In this episode, Molly Pittman sits down with Smart Marketer’s Director of Creative, Ben Bennett, to unpack the AI-powered creative strategy workflow he’s building inside the Smart Marketer creative department. Instead of using AI only to pump out more ads, Ben explains how to use it to analyze creative, identify hidden performance patterns, build a “creative DNA” system, and turn ad data into smarter decisions.

From creative metadata and hook analysis to Claude skills, Gemini video analysis, and the future of AI-powered ad briefs, this episode is a deep dive into how modern marketers can use AI for strategy, not just production.

“Everybody gets it now, basically, how we can produce something from AI. The differentiator is going to be the strategy.” – Ben Bennett

You Will Learn

Why AI-generated creative is becoming table stakes, and why strategy is becoming the real competitive edge.
How Ben is training AI to evaluate ads through the lens of a human creative strategist.
What “creative metadata” means and how it can help you understand why certain ads win.
How a Creative DNA sheet can organize hooks, imagery, content type, awareness level, style, emotional drivers, and story frameworks.
Why your AI workflow should separate what is happening in the creative from what the creative actually means.
How AI can surface counterintuitive insights that would be easy to miss in a manual review.
Why subject matter expertise still matters when building AI-powered creative systems.
How tools like Gemini, Claude, and Claude Code can help marketers analyze video, build workflows, and create stronger feedback loops.
How to think beyond creative volume and move toward smarter, more intentional ad production.

Links & Resources