Authenticity at Scale: UA & Creatives in the Era of AI
We sat down with Zeynep, Senior Marketing Creative Director at Zynga , for a conversation that cuts through the noise around AI, UA, and what it actually takes to build winning campaigns that stand out in a flood of sameness.
Zeynep has one of the sharpest creative minds in mobile gaming today. Her journey started in branding and retail, working with global giants like Apple, Coca-Cola, Tommy Hilfiger, and Harvey Nichols, where she learned the power of storytelling, emotion, and consumer insight. When she moved into gaming, she carried that foundation with her, turning it into a real competitive advantage. Today, she leads Zynga’s creative marketing, bringing together hard data, fast iteration, and authentic storytelling.
Authenticity in a world of infinite hooks
Zeynep says the hardest part for creatives today is standing out.
With AI tools, anyone can generate thousands of variations overnight. The edge, she says, comes from protecting and scaling your authentic core, those ideas, worlds, and narratives that only you can own: “Imagine a world where everyone has the same nose, the same teeth, the same facelift. Who stands out? The ones who stay real.”
She points out that authentic concepts go far beyond branding. They drive performance, especially retention. In a landscape where CPIs keep climbing and algorithms get greedier, retaining players isn’t only a product challenge. It starts at the top of the funnel, with the kind of creative that attracts the right audience from day one.
Testing big creative bets requires new rules
Zeynep is clear: not all creative tests are created equal. Most teams run their new concepts through the same standard playbook: rapid A/B tests, strict IPM targets, and short learning windows. But this “one-size-fits-all” approach can quietly kill the most promising ideas before they have a chance to breathe.
For her, there’s a sharp line between business-as-usual iterations (quick variations of an existing winning creative) and core concept testing (brand-new ideas that have the potential to redefine a campaign). These two categories demand completely different testing strategies.
Standard iterations are about efficiency: short tests, fast calls, clear thresholds. Core concepts are about exploration: shaping a narrative, understanding user behavior over time, and giving a bolder idea the room to either prove itself, or fail meaningfully.
“If you treat every concept like a regular UA creative, you’ll kill your best ideas too early.”
She stresses that a great creative isn’t always an instant spike in IPMs. Sometimes it brings a different kind of audience, one with better retention curves, longer sessions, or stronger monetization behavior. Those signals take longer to surface.
That’s why her testing approach starts with a strong hypothesis grounded in past learnings, then focuses on structured iteration instead of shallow experimentation. Rather than discarding a concept at the first sign of underperformance, she looks deeper:
- How is this audience behaving inside the game?
- Are early engagement and retention stronger, even if IPM is lower?
- Is the concept aligned with the game’s long-term positioning?
Zeynep also frames timing as part of the strategy. Breakthrough concepts need different pacing: more test volume, longer learning windows, and different success benchmarks. She encourages teams to treat them as bets ( not gambles). That means investing time and thought, but also knowing when to let go.
This kind of creative testing is about creating the conditions where originality can win, instead of being crushed by the same metrics designed for safe iterations.
The rise of the data-driven artist
Creative marketing is evolving fast, and in Zeynep’s world, the real edge comes from bridging the gap between art and data. Artists don’t live in a vacuum, and when they’re cut off from performance signals, the creative process becomes guesswork. Her team’s approach is built on transparency, shared accountability, and structured collaboration.
Instead of leaving numbers in siloed dashboards, her team works with shared KPIs, regular performance reviews, and simple, digestible insights that artists can act on. She calls it translation: taking performance data, stripping it of noise, and turning it into creative language that guides direction rather than limits it.
“A creative is a solution to a problem. If the artist doesn’t know what problem they’re solving, how can they aim?”
Zeynep believes that when artists understand the “why” behind a campaign, not just the “what” they’re supposed to produce, their work becomes sharper, faster, and more strategically aligned. That shift turns creatives from service providers into strategic partners.
By breaking down the wall between UA and creative, she built a culture where both sides speak a shared language, row in the same direction, and move with speed and intent. It’s no longer UA giving briefs and creative responding. It’s a single team, looking at the same goals, making smarter calls together.
This hybrid model, data-informed but not data-dictated, is what Zeynep sees as the next creative advantage in a world where iteration speed and originality define who stays ahead.
Trends are signals (not a strategy!)
Zeynep doesn’t treat trends like a roadmap. For her, they’re short bursts of attention — useful to ride for visibility, but never solid enough to build a long-term creative engine on. A meme, a cultural beat, a Taylor Swift moment… they’re all waves. And waves are meant to be caught, not chased forever.
She encourages her team to react fast and lightly when a trend fits the brand and the creative strategy. That might mean a quick asset, a small tweak, or a playful reference. But if you can’t move fast, it’s not worth doing. By the time a slow process kicks in, the moment’s gone.
“If you’re going to react, do it fast. If you can’t, don’t bother.”
Zeynep’s focus remains on original creative platforms, the ideas and narratives that endure beyond a trending moment. Trends are fuel, they’re there to amplify, not define.
In her playbook, the real edge comes from blending timely reactions with a steady creative core. That’s what builds momentum that actually lasts.
Leadership, Voice & Being Real
Not every powerful moment in a conversation about creativity is about ads or strategy. When the topic turned to leadership, Zeynep spoke openly about imposter syndrome, being a woman in gaming, and what it’s like to lead as an introvert in an industry built for extroverts.
For her, real leadership starts with not performing a version of yourself. It’s about showing up as you are, even in rooms that weren’t designed for you. She believes that what many see as a vulnerability ( quiet confidence, honesty, self-awareness) can actually be a real advantage.
Her message to women and creatives in the industry is clear: your voice is your leverage. Use it. Don’t shrink it.
Wrap Up
The future of mobile gaming won’t be decided by who produces the most content. It’ll be decided by who builds the sharpest creative engines, the ones that balance authenticity, speed, and intelligent use of data.
Her vision is rooted in clarity. She sees authenticity as a real performance lever and believes bold ideas earn their own testing ground. The wall between UA and creative is not a given, it’s something to challenge. When artists and marketers share the same language, everything moves faster.
Zeynep treats trends as fleeting signals and builds on what endures. She sees data and creativity as two sides of the same craft. And a voice that’s truly yours is what gives the work its edge.
