Is

Marketing

Science

Dead?

A reflection on MSIX 2024

Is marketing science dead? This was the question that Adam Ferrier wearily asked at the end of the day at MSIX. It sat in the air unanswered, with a few awkward coughs from the audience, he moved on as if he had not, in fact, actually said it out loud.

It's been some years since the last MSIX conference. The last time I went I remember being inspired by incredible case studies and new marketing science tools. This year, it felt like a comfortable reminder that we know little more than we did four years ago. The core rulebooks are still ‘Thinking Fast and Slow’, ‘How Brands Grow’ and ‘The Long and the Short of it’ - a book that came out over ten years ago.

Don’t get me wrong, there were some great sessions and some thought-provoking discussions. Professor Ujwal Kayande held an engaging session about how often our messages are dissociated from what our customers think about our brands. The hilarious ‘Accenture Big but Agile’ campaign, the butt of many jokes. This was reinforced by Rob Brittain discussing his work on Tourism Australia: ‘It’s not what you have, it’s what you are famous for’. And Brent Vrdoljak gave a great masterclass on packaging design.

Brent Smart cut through the noise with the simple advice: ‘Does the work make you feel anything?'. If so, buy the work and buy it completely. If not, move on to the next thing. This was also reiterated by Kayande where he summed up his findings by pleading with people to just... 'think', which kinda summed it all up in my mind. Marketing Science has and probably should become common sense for marketers, a baseline requirement for being in the game, not a complex and fast-evolving field.

Above that base foundational knowledge is creativity, and we need to remember that first and foremost, we are storytellers and tastemakers. It is our job to continue to push the ideas, tell brilliant stories and make people feel something.

As Brent reiterated, “It’s not brave to choose bold work, it’s brave to choose wallpaper - because that is far riskier for your brand”. Advertising is a creative act and creativity is, at its core, a messy thing. It’s still the big, bold, funny, pull-on-the-heart-strings creative ideas and exceptional craft that deliver long-term ROI.

So, to answer Adam's question, no Marketing Science is not dead, it is the best set of data and science we have for what works. We are simply past the hype cycle and (fingers crossed) some of us are moving into the plateau of productivity and now with it becoming a hygiene factor we can get back to focusing on the creative or alternatively, distract ourselves once more with how AI will replace us.

Some suggested reading:

• How Brands Grow - Byron Sharp
• Thinking Fast and Slow - Daniel Kahneman
• The long and the short of it - Les Binet
• Building Distinctive Brand Assets - Jenni Romaniuk