The Decline of Creativity in Marketing

Quotes From Imaginative Minds

“Advertising is oppressing itself with the one-off project. In the name of efficiency,

we’re risking the consistent voice that determines real brand value, dividing a

brand’s resources against itself, and limiting its opportunities for innovation and

relevance.”

John TraharGreatest Common Factory

“Project Work is Killing Innovation”

May 25, 2017

““[T]he uniqueness that creativity brings to the world and its decision-making process

is being marginalised by…continual, systemic automation, where everything

now is being targeted in terms of [turning it into] a process.”

- Mike FitzsimonsBusiness Analyst

“The Future of Creativity in an Automated World”March 6, 2017

“Since data is only predictive, research should inform creative, not dictate it. We must also empower copywriters and art directors to develop and execute ideas

beyond the spreadsheet.”

Haley RobinsonSenior Copywriter

MMI Agency

“The short-term thinking that permeates the current business mindset…drives the industry to focus more on money, data,

and short-term results than on real brand ideas...”

Edward BochesProfessor of Advertising

Boston University(Former Chief Creative Officer at Mullen)

““ Marketing used to be a creative

challenge, but it’s a data challenge now.”

Philip MehlFormer Head of Marketing, HSBC EMEA “The Recipe for Marketing Effectiveness”

Marketing WeekJanuary 30, 2017

“[T]here are a lot of creative people who are not comfortable sitting at what Rich Siegel

calls ‘the long table of mediocrity.’ As a result, they are taking their talents to other

industries [outside advertising].”

Bob Hoffman@AdContrarian

“Advertising and the Old-Guy Syndrome”June 13, 2017

“The days when advertising had the power to shape popular opinion, to really

move the needle culturally, have given way to the quick fix, the quick buck, the

quick turnaround.”

Ernie Schenck“The Worry Question”Communication Arts

May/June 2017

“One of the big problems [with advertising] is it’s become very corporatized. Large

corporations are investing in everything but creativity. They’re investing in technology, data, and metrics, but not creativity. I think

creativity is the real business of advertising.”

Bob Hoffman@AdContrarian

“On the Contrary: The State of the Agency World”

March 8, 2017

“There’s an assumption that just because everybody has got a camera and access to a YouTube channel, suddenly everybody is a

creative director…That’s why most advertising is terrible and most films are not very good.

[Creativity] is a precious skill.”

Dan IzbickiGlobal Director of Creative Excellence

Unilever“Most Advertising is Terrible, Says Unilever”

Marketing Week

““Mixing data and creative can be like boys and girls at a middle school dance. If you

don’t do it well, it’s awkward.”

Ryan JoeManaging Editor

Ad Exchanger

“Paradox! Feeling Machines and the Rise of Postmodern Marketing.”

The DrumJune 9, 2017

“It never had to be digital math or emotional magic. It always should have

been ‘and.’”

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