Self-Driving Advertising Is A Myth: Why Automation Can't Replace Creative Judgment | AdExchanger

"But behind the hype lies the costly delusion that automation can replace judgment and more content somehow means better marketing. We've entered the age of machine-made abundance, where content can be generated faster than it can be briefed. Yet, amid this explosion, brands are losing something far rarer: coherence, consistency and connection. The future may be self-driving, but if we don't set the destination, we're just accelerating toward a dead end."

"Two weeks later, Saatchi & Saatchi acquired Ted Bates, and the dominoes fell. WPP and Publicis went on acquisition sprees to keep pace. It was the era of "bigger is better." Agencies grew through mergers that promised efficiency and reach. That Big Bang built a system optimized for volume, not visibility, and for production over proof. The result was an industry wired to create more, not better."

Machine-made abundance allows content to be produced faster than it can be properly briefed, creating volume but eroding brand coherence, consistency, and connection. Past industry consolidation in the 1980s prioritized scale and production over visibility and proof, wiring advertising toward quantity instead of quality. A new shift toward fully automated advertising promises endless creative variations via data and models, but creative judgment and clear strategic direction remain essential. Brands require consistent purpose and destination-setting to avoid accelerating toward ineffective outcomes, and defaulting to more output when facing complexity risks further dilution of brand value.

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