Absolutely love this new column from Faris Yakob on 'quantum advertising' and the trouble with presenting advertising outcomes, including creative impact, as predictable. "If creative work was deterministically predictable then movie studios would only release hits. It cannot work that way. Advertising is a complex system that various vested parties have tried to position as linear causality - but it’s not." Grab your caffeinated drink of choice and take 5 minutes to read it... (link in comments)
Mark R.
1mo
There is a simple mathematical premise for this. All linear differential equations have been solved, few non-linear ones have been solved. Creativity is non-linear and advertising/marketing has inferior quant talent when compared to the best mathematicians across history. The delusion of certainty will continue.
Tom Brand
1mo
I work in ad testing and agree with this. Rather it’s about understanding what ingredients can work and putting them together in interesting and memorable ways that emotively affect us. Then on top of the ads themselves we have to think about placement and context. I don’t think many people would argue it is a linear process though…
Max Kalehoff
1mo
We have a pretty strong prediction model for what will make an effective ad, and it is getting better. However, we acknowledge it can never be 100%. There is a baseline of predictability, though the entire point of creative (the ads and the task of creatively matching ads to key audiences, at the right moment, within different environments) cannot be entirely modeled to prediction. That is the point of creativity: to create NEW solutions to problems, which can't be modeled from what has been done in the past. cc: Sorin Patilinet
Simon Kemp
1mo
Excellent stuff from Faris, as always. If we (as an industry) spent half as much time running the meaningful experiments that Faris talks about as we do looking for marketing alchemy and the business equivalent of “miracle diet pills”, I’m sure we’d be in a much better — and better-off — place.
Neil Krikul
1mo
Great and important piece, our obsession with numbers and quantitative measurements/predictions is hurting our magic. Thank you for sharing.
Kate Cox
1mo
yeah too right... I've been in creative processes and everything has ticked the pre research boxes but something falls down in casting or edits and great scripts don't zing. However, I do believe it's worth pre-testing before spending big using low cost materials like AI produced videos and that pre testing for contextually relevant placement is worth doing.
Sorin Patilinet
1mo
Very innovative point of view. Not having a checklist for great advertising is mandatory and half the fun. Expecting surprises in testing is the other half.
Steve Keller
1mo
I’m a Faris Yakob fan, and as usual he gives us much to chew on. As Ferris cautions, measurement can “both improve and distort our view of effectiveness.” Which is why the last sentence re: that “what we observe is not nature itself, but nature exposed to our method of questioning” is so important. Measurement is not the enemy of creativity. Rather, use of the wrong measures and faulty analysis is the enemy of creativity. I’m convinced we spend far too much time looking for answers and far too little time looking for questions.
Andrew Grayshon
1mo
The comparison is wrong. The ads that promote movies work. Same comp would be why can't Rugby players transition to NFL. Kinda the same but fundamentally different.
Chief Content and Customer Officer, WARC
1mohttps://www.warc.com/newsandopinion/opinion/quantum-advertising/6737