Creativity has been under attack for years. How do we bring it back?

In The Truman Show, there is a moment where Jim Carrey realises his entire life has been staged. He stands before a staircase leading to the exit. Behind him, the fake yet comfortable and predictable world he knows. In front of him, the unknown reality.

 

The marketing industry is at a similar crossroads

 

At some point, we had convinced ourselves—and our clients—that creative success could be engineered through data, attribution models, and dashboards. We bought into the idea that creativity could be templatised, and that every idea needed an immediate ROAS justification. We built a model based on what we could measure and predict, letting go of the uncomfortable truth that the things that matter most are often impossible to measure.

 

In the media industry, data became not just the metric of success but the goal itself. An entire system was created around it, empowered by bots and more accessible automation, built precisely to deliver those metrics to those willing to pay for them.

 

Big brands had an edge. They could outspend smaller players on assets, media, and distribution. Even if 95% of their work was mediocre, they had the budget to flood the market. Smaller players couldn’t compete.

 

We have to earn attention in a world of AI and algorithms

 

But now? AI levels the playing field. It can build websites, campaign assets, and audience targeting faster and cheaper than before. The result is more predictable, average work—because AI, by design, recycles what’s already been done. 

 

At the same time, algorithms are changing the traditional ecosystem of owned, paid, and earned media. Today, owned media sees follower counts and great websites lose relevance in a world driven by recommendation algorithms. Most content on major platforms is now shown based on relevance, not follows.

 

As for paid media, it's never been easier to avoid ads, so advertisers pay a premium for bad content or bot responses to make metrics better. This means owned media must earn its own reach, and paid media must earn attention. Our goal as advertisers must be earning a space in people’s memory, being associated with the right things at the right time. A world of earned media requires high quality creativity.

 

Yet today, one of the biggest industry obsessions is how AI can generate ideas at scale and whether it can replace human creativity. But that’s climbing the wrong mountain. The industry was never short on ideas. Check any paper bin in agencies and marketing departments. Besides, by writing for us, AI provides us with the tools to delegate thinking, and we forget that writing is the output for the act of thinking. Many tech leaders ignore that the hardest things in life need to stay hard for a reason. 

 

Creativity was never about efficiency. It’s not about making slick videos or producing 300 assets faster. So the decision is first a philosophical choice. We can either treat creativity as something to optimise and automate—or as the last true differentiator worth protecting and investing in.

 

Creativity is an input—a way of seeing the world

 

Creativity has plenty of cheerleaders and very few outspoken critics. It’s bad optics to dismiss it outright. Yet, it has been under attack for years. We celebrate creativity’s breakthroughs and build festivals around them, yet systematically deprioritise it in the business agenda. Why?

 

Because by nature, it’s unpredictable and difficult to measure. And business today runs on predictability and measurement. And also because traditional business structures separate the ecosystems that generate ideas from those responsible for commercialising them and investing in them. But that’s precisely the true role of marketing. 

 

And it’s a role the marketing industry needs to fight for

 

Creativity isn’t an output—it’s an input. It’s the ability to see the world differently, ask better questions, challenge assumptions, and drive decisions that wouldn’t happen otherwise. Its value goes beyond single innovations; it shapes environments of which people want to be a part. So the effect of creativity isn’t just the direct success of one creative idea but the many indirect effects. A McKinsey study found that companies that prioritise creativity have 67 per cent above-average organic revenue growth.

 

Hence business leaders need to start looking at how they can input creativity as a culture or a way of working. First, use it as a framework to identify and frame problems differently—because nothing wastes more time and resources than solving the wrong problem.

 

Second, launch a crusade against excessive bureaucracy and conformity. Bureaucracy accumulates over time; it’s a self-multiplying force. And it’s creativity’s biggest enemy. A good initiative would be running workshops to systematically identify what drains effort and motivation and find ways to eliminate it. Nothing brings people together more than fighting against a common enemy.

 

But ultimately, marketing needs more influence in corporate decision-making. Multinationals would benefit from putting people with deep marketing science and academic preparation in positions of real responsibility—with budget approval power. At the same time, boardroom subjectivity needs to be contained. Just as finance and operations aren’t run on personal opinions, creative and marketing decisions shouldn’t be derailed by gut feelings and internal politics. It might sound like a contradiction, but it’s not: The more marketing is treated as a science, the more creativity will be valued and respected.

 

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