For decades, our industry has focused on the so-called science of advertising. Feeling inadequate in the corporate world, we’ve worshipped at the altar of MBA frameworks and copied the consultancies. While I’m a huge fan of trying to understand and measure the results of what we do, and learn from those results, I’m increasingly worried that we’ve ironed and optimised out the most interesting stuff from marketing.

You have only to look at your feed to see we’re drowning in a sea of safe, boring, identikit brands. The kind of brands that are born from spreadsheets, logic, gap analysis and reams of research. The kind of brands that have had all their interesting rough edges smoothed off. The kind of disposable brands that will come and go, just as so many of the copycat millennial “blands” did.

It’s always been true that being safe is a strategic suicide, when it comes to brands and advertising. But, in a world of enshittification, AI and mounting digital slop, a singular vision and conviction is more precious than ever. We’ve never craved it more.

As the Baftas and Oscars proved recently, nobody falls in love with a data point. They fall in love with a singular point of view. Whether it’s Ryan Coogler’s unique world creation in Sinners or the burning singularity of I Swear or Sean Penn’s grotesque caricature in One Battle after Another or the wonderful loose ends left in The Secret Agent, each had a specific, jagged, “human-premium” texture that felt like a rebuke to the relentless hot-takes or the generic lo-fi brainrot that fills our feeds, masquerading as authenticity.

While AI can synthesise every successful brand strategy of the past 20 years into a best practice deck or give you a rundown on the trends of 2015, it doesn’t have taste or judgment. AI can find the centre of the bell curve, but it’s expensive and difficult for AI to find the edges. Pattern recognition doesn’t work at the edges, where the numbers and data are wonky and volatile. But that’s where excitement happens.

Cubitts. Bold Bean. The Ordinary. Gentle Monsters. Lucky Saint. Monzo. All brands that double down on a singular vision. Brands that feel as if they’ve been created by someone who cares disproportionately and is prepared to go out on a limb to see their vision come to life.  All brands where someone has exercised their own particular taste. And created disproportionate value.

Taste used to be the preserve of the creative. But, in today’s world, taste increasingly feels like a strategic moat, too. It’s our job to persuade clients to add good friction back into ruthlessly optimised but soulless digital experiences, to focus on the unloved corners of a brand, and to double down on language and values that are truly distinctive rather than settling for forgettable clichés such as “honest, human, trustworthy”.

Give me a brand that’s a little bit wrong every day of the week. We need to remind marketing people of the value of friction and flaws. Then more brands might be worth a second look. The evidence? Just look at Peter Field and Adam Morgan’s work on The Extraordinary Cost of Dull.

At BMP, where I started my career, the best planners –  or strategists, as we now call them – usually had something “broken”: a perspective that looked at the world sideways, upside down or back to front, revelling in flawed humanity. Decades on, I believe that “good broken”  has even more hidden power. Cherish it – and your unique taste – because it can’t be automated.

Whether in film or marketing, the trick is to find something universal and express it in a fresh way, or take something deeply weird and draw out its relatable side. If it’s just universal, it’s familiar and forgettable; if it’s merely weird, it stays niche. It’s the combination that creates alchemy. Mastering the balance between the fresh and the familiar takes years but that’s what good strategists and creatives have an eye for.

If the Oscar contenders teach us anything, it’s a reminder of the power of individual taste in the face of the algorithm. The power of “good broken” to set us apart, spark debate, keep audiences talking, and provide fodder for Campaign articles too…

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