The Science of Creative (And Other Hot Takes) with Uber and Dr. Squatch

Performance creative has never been a hotter topic: Haus’ Olivia Kory is joined by performance creative pros Matt Yager of Uber and Suraj Sundar of Dr. Squatch to explore what makes this practice so compelling, challenging, and rewarding.

On the heels of Dr. Squatch’s Sydney Sweeney campaign, the trio discusses some of their most memorable performance creative efforts, the role of celebrity and novelty in creative, and how iterative changes stack up against bold big swings. From measuring creative fatigue and building performance creative teams to testing approaches and creative’s impact on retail, Olivia, Matt, and Suraj trade war stories, lessons learned, and controversial opinions in one of the most exciting performance creative conversations of the year.

Notable moments:

• [00:00:00] - Introduction and session setup by Olivia.
• [00:01:29] - Discussion on the impact of creative on incrementality testing and its importance.
• [00:02:49] - Suraj’s introduction, including his role and recent creative success with Sidney Sweeney at Dr. Squatch.
• [00:05:18] - Matt’s introduction and his story about a successful Uber TikTok ad.
• [00:08:11] - Conversation about the role of celebrities in creative campaigns and celebrity impact.
• [00:12:05] - Structuring a performance creative team: Matt highlights hiring for curiosity, adaptability, and channel experience, prioritizing speed over perfection. Suraj emphasizes generating numerous ideas ("cocaine level energy") and using analytics to refine creative direction.
• [00:15:55] - Matt explains his team’s mix of in-house production and agency support, handling static creative internally while outsourcing video editing.
• [00:18:00] - Suraj explains his team structure at Dr. Squatch.
• [00:20:40] - Testing creative performance by focusing on incrementality and relying on platform algorithms to scale top ads.
• [00:27:07] - KPI tracking, testing strategies, and creative mix management, focusing on ASC campaigns, incrementality testing, and adjusting ad volume for optimal performance.
• [00:30:07] - Balancing ad volume and pacing to ensure new creatives get fair campaign exposure.
• [00:33:32] - Creative diversity and the need for fresh formats and concepts, balancing iterative tweaks with bold, new approaches to sustain ad performance over time.
• [00:41:20] - Managing creative fatigue, observing ad performance trends, adjusting budgets cautiously, and focusing on broad targeting to maintain ad longevity.
• [00:47:37] - Strategies for maintaining fresh creative.
• [00:51:44] - Suraj explains Dr. Squatch’s approach to attributing retail performance to paid media using lift tests, MMM models, and tracking velocity while noting challenges with retail reporting delays.
• [00:53:43] - Matt suggests shifting mindsets in big, slow-moving organizations by presenting real-time creative impact data and actionable insights from platform performance.
• [00:56:33] - Closing remarks and wrap-up.