At adfest 2026, Jessica Davey, Managing Director for Asia at GUT Singapore, and Meyvi Wedelia, Creative Director at GUT Singapore, presented "GUT Instinct: Intuition vs Algorithm." The session pushed against the framing of intuition against data as opposing forces. Rather than choosing between them, Davey and Wedelia showed how the two work together, with bravery as the element that turns them into real work.
Data is now central to how agencies think. It gives creatives trends, patterns and proof. But intuition carries what data cannot measure. The industry often treats the two as competing tools, when in practice the strongest work depends on both. Davey opened the session with a simple provocation: "Data on its own is nothing without gut."
Wedelia illustrated the distinction with a straightforward split:
What can be measured: trends, metrics, patterns, predictions, optimization, reach, efficiency, scale.
What needs to be felt: context, meaning, nuance, emotion, humor, rituals, surprise, connection.
She noted that in Asia, intuition is not optional; it is the vital bridge between algorithms and real human connection. The region carries thousands of languages, cultural nuances, rituals and forms of humor that no algorithm can fully map. Data can measure Asia, but only gut can feel it.
Rather than treating data and gut as opposing forces, Davey and Wedelia demonstrate what happens when they work together. They showcased six campaigns to show the power of data and intuition at play.
Impossible Plants for Corona: Data revealed the truth, gut found the poetry. 98% of people in Japan are vitamin D deficient because of limited sun exposure. Rather than build a wellness message, the team found a symbol of nature defying that reality — plants growing in the busiest, sun-starved corners of Tokyo. The campaign reframed the data as anything is possible under the sun.
Thirst Trap Coverage for Progressive Insurance: Data flagged the danger, gut hijacked it. Over 1.6 million accidents in the US each year are caused by distracted drivers. The obvious response would be another safe-driving message. Instead, GUT hijacked the biggest distraction of the moment — Calvin Klein's Bad Bunny billboards — and parked LED trucks nearby with a single message: Eyes on the road. The work was pitched to live in two weeks.
Bouquets for Living Men for DoorDash: Data gave the question, gut found the second answer. 61% of men wish they got flowers. But most only receive them for the first time at their funeral. Launched around Valentine's Day, the campaign encouraged giving flowers to living men through a humorous music video showcasing dead men wishing they had received flowers while they were still alive. They turned a Valentine's convention into a cultural conversation.
The Artois Probability for Stella Artois: Data pointed at history, gut celebrated the possibility. Stella Artois' brewery opened in 1366. Instead of anchoring the campaign in the usual way of celebrating centuries of tradition and history, the team cross-referenced brand history with art history to calculate the probability that the beer shown in classical European paintings was, in fact, an Artois. Every painting with a beer became part of the brilliant campaign.
Mayo Haters for KraftHeinz and NotCo: Data flagged a negative, gut turned it into proof. Nearly 20% of Americans have mayophobia, a hatred of mayo. Most brands would move away from that. GUT built a taste test around the haters themselves to launch NotMayo, the plant-based alternative. An ingenious way to prove that despite not being mayo, the product tastes exactly like mayo. The gagging, the disbelief, the refusal to believe became the campaign's most compelling proof.
Speed Coupons for Mercado Libre: Data described the noise, gut turned the city into a racetrack. The average F1 event has 275 sponsors competing for attention. As one of the smallest, Mercado Libre could not get louder. So the team moved the race off the track — matching São Paulo's out-of-home network to the Interlagos circuit, so Black Friday coupons raced through the city as the cars raced through the course with Black Friday discount codes.
In every case, data started the conversation. Intuition filled in what data could not. And bravery was what allowed the work to happen.
This is where the session made its most distinctive point. Data and gut is a familiar pairing. What Davey and Wedelia named that others often leave out is bravery. Bravery is what activates the combination and turns an insight into an idea the room actually approves.
Davey admitted at the close of the session that the original title, Intuition vs Algorithm, was clickbait. The real story is and, not versus. Data starts the conversation. Gut fills the gap. Bravery brings it to life. The future won’t belong to the smartest machines. It will belong to the bravest humans.
Davey summed it up beautifully, "I guarantee that there is not a prompt, a platform, or a piece of tech that will replace your brain, your heart, and your gut,"
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