In a post that’s written so well, I wish that I’d written it, Scott Brinker makes a point that I’ve become somewhat famous for… for saying too often. That there’s more to marketing than bean counting; you can’t procure a great idea. The scientific method, Brinker argues, is how great ideas are proven. The lab doesn’t exist to support ideation, it’s there to tell you if your ideas are any good. If you turn this logic on marketing automation, you see the reason it’s always create, test, report, iterate. You take your good ideas and test them in the laboratory of the real world. When you have a good idea you try to make it great. If you drop a stink bomb, you retire it and quickly move on.
So to those of you who despair that measurement is the death of creativity, I say be of good cheer. If your ideas are half as good as you think they are, the bean counters will order up lots more just like it.
Here’s the original post. Tell me what you think.