Abandoned Individuality

Remember when ‘best practice’ ended up being far from best? Because everybody started to follow the same path, and of course landed at the same place?

The same is already happening with AI. Only faster. There will be all sorts of excuses and reasons offered, but it seems clear to us that brands are sacrificing their differentiation in the pursuit of…err…what, exactly?

We believe that the principles of positioning and long-term brand building are as important as ever, and probably even more so. This lemming-style rush to AI is abandoning all of them. At what price? And why? We struggle to believe that clients are seriously asking their agencies to make them look exactly like all their competitors, or accepting their recommendations to do so.

We’re not Luddites, but we believe in brands. We believe in getting their positioning right. We believe in getting them to stand out in their crowd. We believe that AI is just another aid in sharpening both, just as other innovations in the past have been. It might be technological brilliance, but it's producing strategic and creative mush.

Our view is that brand owners will soon realise that they are squandering their assets, and that the very people they rely on to protect and nurture those assets are doing most damage. As the technological capabilities increase, so does the need to get absolute clarity of brand, of strategy and of message. "Just because you can, doesn't mean you should."

Brands need real intelligence, not people's artificial kind.