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In late March, we headed to Meta’s International HQ in Dublin for the 2026 Meta Creative Summit. Over 170 clients from across EMEA came together to tackle one of the biggest questions for eCommerce brands right now. How do you cut through and drive real growth when attention is so limited?
Honest, data-led and packed with useful insight, the summit gave us a lot to bring back for our clients. Here’s what stood out.
Sarah-Jane Lowes, Head of Digital and Social at Droga5, opened with a direct challenge. Stop playing it safe. Brands sitting in the “invisible middle”, producing competent but forgettable advertising, are leaving growth on the table. The creative edge is where the results are.
AI came up throughout the day, and the conversation felt grounded. Meta’s generative AI tools are already driving measurable uplifts in click-through and conversion rates. But every speaker landed on the same point. AI is a multiplier, not a strategist. It takes care of repetitive execution so teams can focus on stronger ideas and more distinctive work.
Up to +10% CTR uplift
Up to +7.7% CVR uplift
Social users prefer creator content over traditional ads
For eCommerce brands, the takeaway is simple. Use the time AI gives back to improve the thinking, not just increase output. More ads is rarely the answer. Better ads usually are.
Sam Doyle, Head of Creative Shop at Meta, pushed for a rethink in how brands approach attention. The idea of one long, sustained message doing all the work no longer holds up. People move quickly across formats, feeds and platforms.
The opportunity is not to hold attention for as long as possible. It is to show up consistently in small moments.
Five separate exposures of 2 seconds deliver a 23% lower cost per ad recall lift compared to a single 10-second exposure
Five seconds of attention spread across multiple moments drives a 21% increase in sales outcomes compared to one longer exposure
The practical takeaway is clear. Creative needs to earn attention instantly, across every format and placement. Build for how people actually scroll.
One of the clearest signals from the summit was how quickly brands are moving away from traditional campaigns and towards Partnership Ads. Investment in creator content and video continues to grow, and the audience behaviour backs it up.
Online shoppers are influenced by creator recommendations
Users are open to hearing from creators they don’t follow
Gen Z and millennials spend half their media time on short-form video
New features are making this easier to scale. Pre-permissioned creator content through the Instagram Creator Marketplace removes a lot of friction from briefing and approvals. For brands looking to test quickly, this is a big step forward.
It is also worth rethinking assumptions around scale. Micro-influencers are proving highly effective. People are open to discovering new creators through brand partnerships. Relevance and authenticity matter more than follower count when it comes to driving results.
This was one of the most talked about topics on the day. Meta is pushing it hard, and for good reason. Catalogue Product Video tackles two long-standing challenges in one go. It brings together personalisation and the engagement of video.
Blending catalogue personalisation with video consistently outperforms static formats
Demand for relevant, tailored experiences continues to grow
It also works across the full funnel. Different creative can be served depending on where someone is in their journey. Assets can come from existing site content, uploads, in-platform builds or be automatically generated by Meta.
If you are running a product catalogue, this is not something to park for later. It is already here, and early adopters will benefit most.
The Meta Creative Summit was a strong reminder of how quickly things are changing, and how much opportunity there is for brands willing to move with it. The brands seeing results are treating creative as a growth lever, not just an output.
If you want to talk through what this means for your brand or campaigns, get in touch with the bark.london team.
