AdWeek Isn’t What it Used to Be… But There Are a Few Gems

#1 AdWeek Insight: Your Brand Needs to Be Robust in Order to Grow 💪🏼

Read Time: 4 minutes

I’m in NYC for AdWeek, which is not what it used to be, and I’m not sure we will be going back…😒

The best session I attended was by WARC on how the majority of brands overspend on performance marketing because it’s easier to measure and explain.

But the more robust your brand is, the more it lifts all segments of your funnel…👇🏼

A strong brand will be harder to do in our AI data-driven world. Where, if the AI can’t measure it, we can’t run it.

Nike is a recent example of where the headlong drive to the more measurable digital DTC channel erased $27.5 Billion in a single day at the expense of fuzzier brand metrics.

Don’t Despair…

The reality is we can measure many of these “fuzzier” things (creative pre-testing, Brand lift, and much more), but because it’s harder, we don’t.

It’s easy to fall into this false narrative of Performance vs Brand.

Performance v Brand Marketing

Performance Marketing = Fixed mindset ie. taking more share of our fixed market from our 5 competitors.

Brand Marketing = Growth mindset ie. we can g r o w our market.

The reality is we need both, and in a world where TikTok this week joined Google and Meta in launching AI Driven Ads, it’s easy to fall for letting AI run all your Ads. 🤖

Resist this. Channel your Seth Godin and Be the Purple Cow. I have confidence you can do both.

Are you struggling with stagnant ads and stalling brand growth?🚀

👉🏼 Book your Free consult👈🏼

97% Of Us are going to need to upskill with ai

I took the 🚂 to NYC. It gives me time to think.

And I think this article is wrong, “Gartner Says Generative AI will Require 80% of Engineering Workforce to Upskill Through 2027.”

It is more like 97% of us are going to need to Upskill. Let’s assume that 1% of the population retires a year, so 3% will be retired by the end of 2027; everyone else will have to deal with AI.

That is crazy. After years of trying, I can’t get team members to use Asana or Gmail effectively.

So, how can we train 97% of the team on AI?

We need to make it fun. Less scary and personally relevant.

Great…how?

I’m running an experiment. Today, I bought one of my biggest AI skeptics, a pair of Meta Glasses. 😬

Why?

😅 I like to do hard things – I’ll update you on how it goes, the good, bad, and ugly.