Taste in the Era of Measurement.
AI means marketing has never been more measurable. But in a world increasingly demanding measurement and demonstrable ROI, where does that leave taste?
AI has made marketing more measurable than it has ever been. Attribution, incrementality and marketing mix modelling that used to be the domain of specialists and data scientists are now available to almost any marketing team. In parallel these tools have reinforced the language of demonstrable return in boardrooms and as marketers we have to be able to speak to the incrementality of our investments.
Overall this has been good for us. A lot of spend that was assumed to be efficient is being challenged and we can now have sophisticated conversations about brand investment on a level playing field. But it also raises a question: if everything has to prove a return, where does that leave the parts of marketing that we still struggle to allocate a number against? Creativity and taste, and by that I mean the judgement to identify what is distinctive, culturally and aesthetically relevant, have always been measured by softer metrics but when hard MROI is the language of CFOs and the pressure for marketing efficiency arrives, ideas that live outside tried-and-tested media are the easiest to cut.
AI raises the stakes
AI is doing two things at once: 1) it is making things easier to measure and increasing the demand for ROI, and 2) it is also making decent creative at a very low cost. But with more people using the same tools, it will all quickly start to average out and look the same which will undermine the incrementality we need to achieve. The antidote to that is taste: distinctiveness and originality, being able to sense what the market wants or is heading, knowing what is worth making. These are all qualities that tap into the essence of being human. Good taste and discernment will drastically increase in value and whilst we can’t prove the ROI of an idea before it launches, a strong enough track record can establish a pattern of being right.
Moving on from soft metrics
It’s tempting to resent the obsession with commercial results, to think that some things simply cannot be measured in ROI terms but that’s just not the world we’re living in. Creative diagnostics via self-reported surveys, earned media via coverage and experiential via url page views unfortunately don’t hold up in conversations about ROAS and CAC.
The issue is amplified when we try to fund cultural-led ideas that are often more expensive and complex to execute than standard advertising. Can we prove that the additional creative ambition actually produces greater commercial value? Imagine the possibilities if we could. What if we could measure taste the way the boardroom expects: not by asking people what they thought of an ad but measuring behaviour. Strong creative ideas hold attention, earn search, get shared and drive more visitation and more revenue from the same media budget. These are all measurable behaviours that should be able to be connected to an incremental outcome, the way the rest of marketing already is. This is a difficult problem but one worth solving, starting with a framework. Did the idea stop someone in their tracks, did that attention change behaviour, and did that shift ultimately produce a flywheel effect on media effectiveness that led to greater incremental value than the benchmark?
The prize is trust
If we can talk about the creative and cultural side of our work in the language the boardroom already uses, we’ll secure a credible seat at the table and undeniable support to do the kind of creative work that every marketer dreams of. AI is going to make taste the thing that sets brands apart, and proving its worth is one of the most valuable measurement problems left to solve. It’s certainly a space that has my attention now.