Marketing decisions are getting faster. They’re not getting better. AI is speeding up decisions while evidence keeps narrowing what actually drives growth.
At IVALO, we cut through what sounds right to focus on what actually works.
INSIGHT 1
When creativity gets over-credited
The idea that creative quality and media explain most business results is overstated because it confuses correlation with causation. The data relies on award entries, which bias towards successful, large-scale campaigns. Byron Sharp argues this inflates advertising’s role while ignoring broader business factors that actually drive growth.
What works?
- Treat effectiveness claims with scepticism. Focus on what the data leaves out as much as what it shows.
- Separate campaign impact from business momentum. Large initiatives carry multiple growth drivers beyond advertising.
- Push for cleaner evidence. Prioritise studies grounded in real-world conditions over award-case narratives.
Read More
Marketing Week: The ‘creative dividend’? More like creative accounting
INSIGHT 2
Growth comes from more buyers
Category growth still comes from reaching more buyers. Across 474 categories, penetration and price drive growth, while frequency and volume have limited effect. The Ehrenberg-Bass study strengthens a long-established principle that many teams still ignore.
What works
- Prioritise penetration first. More buyers remain the clearest path to growth.
- Protect your buyer base. Decline starts when penetration slips, regardless of category.
- Match strategy to category maturity. Early growth depends on reach, while mature categories can grow value through pricing and premiumisation.
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Journal of Business Research 195 (2025): How categories grow: The behavioural drivers of revenue growth
INSIGHT 3
When AI avoids hard choices
LLMs do not give objective strategy advice. They consistently recommend fashionable, high-status ideas regardless of context, pushing leaders toward the same safe answers. Research by Romasanta, Thomas and Levina shows this “trendslop” bias reinforces buzzwords over real trade-offs.
What works?
- Keep judgement human. Use AI to generate options, not make decisions.
- Stress-test the opposite strategy. Force evaluation of less fashionable paths.
- Treat blended answers as a warning sign. They often signal avoidance, not strategy.
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Harvard Business Review: Researchers Asked LLMs for Strategic Advice. They Got “Trendslop” in Return