“Google needs you to believe marketing equals capture. Their entire business model depends on you forgetting that great marketing doesn't just harvest demand, it must also create it. Every feature, every algorithm, every dashboard reinforces this worldview.” 👏👏👏👏
Just a few days ago I’ve stumbled upon Rory Sutherland with his brilliant points about marketing. And one recurrent thought he doubles down on is – "great marketing needs irrational exploration of ideas", which are unmeasurable in advance. Yet they can be evaluated objectively afterwards and that irrationality might also be part of competitive advantage in AI-dominated world, because AI can’t come up with anything conceptually new, that it wasn’t exposed to previously. Not the current LLM-based at least.
Completely agree Paul, I believe companies should be building their own 'brand intelligence' which codifies their brand as well as what you call 'epistemology'. They would then enable access to their 'brand intelligence' to the agencies they work with.
Yet again, stunning thinking Paul. Such clarity and uncommon sense. Thank you. Everybody at our company now reads your thought-challenging newsletters. We are a small consultancy and only started developing an AI programme to help our consultant a few months ago. A big learning for us was discovering the importance of ‘how’ and ‘why’ rather ‘what’ … matching our culture and values and not just our knowledge base. Thank you again.
This is an absolutely brilliant assessment of the current situation, Paul. You've boiled it down with ruthless clarity... and yet, how many marketeers will have the courage to push back against the hidden forces that are reducing them to puppets in this epistemic war? Reputational insurance and defensive decision-making force people to abide by the status quo and avoid conflict and hard questions.
First, thank you for such kind words. I really appreciate it. If the current paradigm extends then I suspect you’re absolutely right. However, if I put my glass half full hat on, we see that technology shifts often drive epistemological shifts too. Since AI is the first epistemologically programmable technology, it’s certainly possible this happens again. Oversimplifying, I suspect we’ll see a bifurcation. Most will act as you mention, while a few will lead the way. Should these corporations establish meaningful competitive advantage, others will then attempt to follow.
“Google needs you to believe marketing equals capture. Their entire business model depends on you forgetting that great marketing doesn't just harvest demand, it must also create it. Every feature, every algorithm, every dashboard reinforces this worldview.” 👏👏👏👏
Just a few days ago I’ve stumbled upon Rory Sutherland with his brilliant points about marketing. And one recurrent thought he doubles down on is – "great marketing needs irrational exploration of ideas", which are unmeasurable in advance. Yet they can be evaluated objectively afterwards and that irrationality might also be part of competitive advantage in AI-dominated world, because AI can’t come up with anything conceptually new, that it wasn’t exposed to previously. Not the current LLM-based at least.
Completely agree Paul, I believe companies should be building their own 'brand intelligence' which codifies their brand as well as what you call 'epistemology'. They would then enable access to their 'brand intelligence' to the agencies they work with.
Yet again, stunning thinking Paul. Such clarity and uncommon sense. Thank you. Everybody at our company now reads your thought-challenging newsletters. We are a small consultancy and only started developing an AI programme to help our consultant a few months ago. A big learning for us was discovering the importance of ‘how’ and ‘why’ rather ‘what’ … matching our culture and values and not just our knowledge base. Thank you again.
Again, stellar thinking, Paul. Chase the shiny box just make sure you look up through windshield while doing so.
This is an absolutely brilliant assessment of the current situation, Paul. You've boiled it down with ruthless clarity... and yet, how many marketeers will have the courage to push back against the hidden forces that are reducing them to puppets in this epistemic war? Reputational insurance and defensive decision-making force people to abide by the status quo and avoid conflict and hard questions.
First, thank you for such kind words. I really appreciate it. If the current paradigm extends then I suspect you’re absolutely right. However, if I put my glass half full hat on, we see that technology shifts often drive epistemological shifts too. Since AI is the first epistemologically programmable technology, it’s certainly possible this happens again. Oversimplifying, I suspect we’ll see a bifurcation. Most will act as you mention, while a few will lead the way. Should these corporations establish meaningful competitive advantage, others will then attempt to follow.
Tragedy of the commons is going to happen faster than ever. Uniqueness is value, squeezed out by templated unthinking. Good stuff.