Interview with Kristaps Deics, BalticBest 2026 jury member and the Creative Director at McCann Riga, is conducted by Hando Sinisalu.
Has anything this year struck you as genuinely innovative in marketing – something mass audiences might not know about yet?
Honestly, you probably won’t want to hear this, but I think AI is making everything boring. Sure, anyone can now create AI videos that look impressive, and plenty of it sounds cool – but everything ends up looking the same. We need to become more human again to stand out and actually help brands reach their goals.
So in a way, technology has leveled the playing field. Ten years ago, only a Nike or a Coca-Cola could produce Hollywood-level work. Now anyone can. So how do you stand out when everyone has the same tools?
A good idea, first and foremost – AI can’t create that. You need a human touch, a human viewpoint, a real pain point to solve, whether for a brand or a business. I think the best work of the past six months has been deeply human. Look at some of the biggest brands in the world, Apple for example: they now show the making-of, proving something was actually filmed or crafted by hand. Even for something as simple as their logo animation, they show it being made physically – printing glasses, lighting them – rather than generated in five seconds. Because AI can produce something in five seconds, and that’s nothing interesting, nothing worth watching.
Do you see analog making a comeback? In B2B, for instance, companies are going back to direct mail and printed brochures, because anyone can automate an infinite email blast – but a package you can touch and smell feels different.
It creates emotion. I think it’s a similar principle with chatbots – if you have a real problem, say with your home internet, and you need to reach an actual person who can help, the first thing you hit is a chatbot. Newsletters have become something like that too: you already sense that it’s nothing important unless you’re specifically waiting for it, or you know the people behind it personally. So yes, I agree completely – anything you can touch, smell, feel, or see in a different way grabs attention. It stands out, and in that moment it becomes something special.
Tell me about a recent project you’re proud of – something original.
We recently ran the largest donation campaign in Latvian history, raising money to help save injured Ukrainian soldiers on the front line this spring. I think what made it special is that we contacted a real Ukrainian soldier who had been injured and asked him to relive that moment – recreating the exact same obstacles as the place where he was actually wounded – and to sing one of the most iconic songs in Latvian history, in Latvian, even though he’s Ukrainian, in order to reach Latvian audiences and businesses. It was a powerful moment on two levels: he was reliving the worst experience of his life, something almost no one can imagine, while also connecting, through the song, with something deeply familiar to Latvians.
Learn more about the case study here.
What role did AI play in that?
None. That’s the important part. AI is fine for quick sketches or fast ideas, but everything needs to be redone by hand afterward, or it has no value.
What is your opinion about synthetic personas and AI-run focus groups – testing concepts on AI agents instead of real people? It’s popular because real research is expensive.
I think the best way to test an ad or a concept is to actually make it and see how people react in real life – I don’t think focus groups are that good at it. But to answer your question directly: AI is a good information source. You get information fast, without having to dig through a lot of websites yourself. The problem is you still don’t know if it’s true – you have to go back and verify it, and the information can be outdated or simply wrong. In the end, the idea wins. If the idea has a genuine human touch, if it solves a real human pain point, you know it will resonate with an audience, and it will work.
Where do you see the growth or the most interesting opportunity right now?
I think “anti-marketing” marketing will take over. When something is obviously a campaign, people know you’re trying to sell them something. But content that feels real and honest makes people want to engage. The music industry is a good example – instead of glossy posters, artists now run “real life” social accounts showing how an album was made, and that becomes more interesting than a polished campaign.
On TikTok, songs often get released as 10-15 second clips seeded to influencers, creating waves of user-generated content before the full track drops.
It’s just a new form of media. In the past, a media package meant banners, newsletters, TV and radio spots. Now it’s expanded into social media and short clips. It’s easier to reach an audience, but attention spans are shrinking and everyone can create content now, so professionals need new ways to stand out.
TikTok trends can die within a day or two, yet building a brand – think Coca-Cola – takes decades. How do you build something long-term in a short-attention-span world?
Three things matter: a strong idea that grabs attention; authenticity – creating your own trends rather than chasing others’, and speaking to your audience in your own voice; and quality – the best TikTok content is deliberately unpolished and meant to live briefly, which is different from work meant to be remembered fifty years from now. All three matter.
Algorithms seem to reward sameness – successful creators repeat the same format endlessly, the algorithm punishes you for not being one-dimensional. That feels like the opposite of a creative mindset.
It’s pushing attention spans to become even shorter – people scroll past things in two seconds, and once you lose them, you can’t get them back, so you have to post constantly. It’s sad, honestly, and I think eventually people will get tired of it and things will change again.
So in a way, algorithms are enemies of creativity?
Yes – but if that’s the reality, you just have to acknowledge it and figure out how to use it to your advantage.
On influencers – brands get reach, but each influencer executes their own way rather than the brand’s way, so the brand identity can get diluted. What’s your take?
Brands need to stay true to themselves and their values first – influencers can help, but they shouldn’t be the main thing, maybe five percent or less of the strategy. The brand has to remain the central voice; it can’t depend on people who film a toothbrush ad one day and something unrelated the next.
Yet Unilever has said it’s putting large part of its marketing budget into influencers, because it works.
It works short-term – for a product launch, for instance. But if you hand your brand over to multiple influencers, that’s a weak brand. You need to stay yourself; influencers are a delivery channel, a media tool, not a way to define who you are.
Big sporting events like the World Cup, the Super Bowl, and the Olympics often produce standout creative work. Did anything from this year’s football World Cup stand out to you?
Justin Bieber’s halftime performance was a great example of standing out. Everyone else spent huge budgets on elaborate shows, lighting, and fireworks – he just came out with his guitar, spent the least, and got the most attention.
An anti-show, in a way.
Exactly – that’s the “anti-marketing marketing” I mentioned. We’ll see more of it, and it takes humans, not AI, to pull it off.
But that’s tricky for premium brands – banks, telcos – who don’t want to look cheap or amateurish. They can’t just film a guy with a guitar on a phone camera in bad lighting.
I think it can still work if you understand your audience and build a real community around the brand. Picture a premium clothing brand filming in the streets of Sicily at sunset, with an old Italian man playing guitar as the camera slowly moves toward him – that can look amazing while still feeling real.
There was a campaign for a New York clothing brand recently where they sailed around Greece and photographed their new collection along the way. It’s real, not AI-generated, and that authenticity is what makes it interesting.
What’s the biggest professional challenge for you right now – something that keeps you up at night?
Honestly, I don’t see problems, only possibilities. Every problem can become a possibility if you know how to approach it and enjoy what you’re doing.
BalticBest 2026
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- Entry deadline: 31 August
- Shortlist announcement: 9 September
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- Awards ceremony: 25 September (Baltic Brand Forum in Riga)
