Art versus science: the future of advertising

As the ad industry sees further encroachments from tech firms into the sector, the chairman of Karmarama has said that advertisers should prepare for “things to get worse before they get better” as a battle between art and science gets under way.

Speaking at a MediaTel and Experian breakfast event on Monday, Jon Wilkins said that advertisers and agencies are going to be “playing catch-up” for a long time as the industry moves towards “robot-like” automation – led heavily by tech giants such as Google.

The fear, Wilkins said, is that the “art” of advertising will be lost amidst a new landscape dominated by technology, algorithms and big data.

“[WPP boss Martin] Sorrell calls Google a frenemy; but I think they’re 100% an enemy,” said Wilkins.

“To people who are building brands, they’re just getting you in this model of automated robotic science, and the only way to feed it is to come up with better ideas – because if you come up with better ideas, you create more natural behaviour; if you create more natural behaviour, you beat the robot.”

Wilkins said that Google’s market dominance and its ability to measure almost anything – including behaviour – was essentially dehumanising parts of the purchase journey.

At the opposite end of the funnel, he said, were strategic and creative marketeers and original content makers who are trying “break down robotic behaviour” to reach consumers on a more human and engaging level.