oluted spreadsheet logic – I think this is my outlet as a frustrated programmer. As an aside, you’d be surprised how often understanding the HTTP protocol is useful in marketing strategy. I love data and I love to measure things.  But there’s a problem with spreadsheets and tracking data: they give you the illusion of control. We humans have a pesky tendency to value things we can easily measure and ignore things we can’t. This is the cause of many modern problems: we often favour efficiency over effectiveness.  Humans are frustratingly emotional beings. One of the cornerstones of marketing (and human psychology) is this: we make decisions emotionally and justify them rationally. How do marketers engage people’s emotions? Through creativity. But here’s the problem: how do you measure creativity? If there’s a way to do it, I don’t know it. Sure, there’s proxy measures in digital like click-through rate, but they are imperfect, noisy signals.  And so that leads to the problem: if you can’t measure creativity, is it valued? In my experience, often not.  So, we spend a lot of time on the science: the targeting, the reach, the CPM, but little time on engaging emotions. I’ll put my hand up. This has been me. More than once.  A study from Google says 47 per cent of the impact of ROI is the creative. I’ve seen various studies all using different methodologies and they are always a similar number. We devalue half the pie. As a marketing manager, that’s a challenge. At budget time, we clearly know the return of Google Ads. But what’s the return of our creative budget? Is spending more on creative going to deliver a better return? It’s not as simple as “spend more money, be more creative”.  The architect Walter Gropius said, “Limitations make the creative mind inventive”. I did a creative review for a company earlier this year. Their videos were gorgeous, really amazing work. But their top performer? A very amateur-looking influencer product unboxing. Oops. That was an awkward discussion with their creative team. I’ve seen this more than once. Perhaps spending less gives a better return? There are other things that are hard to measure. There’s a trend towards consumers preferring sustainable options. Which column on a spreadsheet covers consumer preference for sustainability? Or how do we calculate doing The Right Thing? I wish I had an answer to these questions. I don’t. Although, in a way, maybe that is the answer. Perhaps all you need to do is be asking these questions. To know that not everything can be measured on a spreadsheet, and that doesn’t diminish its value: that marketing is both an art and a science, and that forgetting either side of that equation diminishes both sides.