The samification of creative agencies

For a few years now, “simplify” has been cyperfection’s self-defined brand essence. In other words, the ability to “simplify”: delivering the right message to the right people at the right timeessentially sifting through the jungle of buzzwords to find what’s relevant. And to what end? To bring about behavioural change, to engage the audience rather than inundate them with information.

We are convinced about “simplify” as our core value. It fits and it works. When we try to develop this core further, when we discuss it, hold workshops and reflect on it, naturally, we also use AI.

Our AI then reliably advises us to talk more about “clarity”. Which makes perfect sense. It is a natural outcome of our process. We simplify communication to create clarity. We’ve been doing this for over 25 years. So that HCPs waste less time searching for the added value for themselves. So that patients can quickly and easily understand what they can do themselves to stay healthy and fit, or to get back to being so. So that our customers understand that omnichannel does not mean every channel.

Clear, clarity. So what now?

Being able to see things clearly is great. But ‘clarity’ on its own, it feels a bit hollow, doesn’t it? Emotionless. It’s such a typical AI view of what people want.

‘Clarity’ is important, but it’s not something you long for. It’s not what your brain globs onto and what you can FEEL. It’s not what I really want. I want easy. I want it fast. I want good, better, best.

‘Clarity’ might be a prerequisite for what I actually want, but what I really really want is the feeling that sets in once I’ve long since achieved clarity and have done something with that clear perspective or gained something from it. It may well be clear on a rational level what it would take for me to be free, happy, enlightened (no, that’s not the same as the factual clarity of AI) or simply healthy. But that alone is of no use, because now I have to take action.

Behavioural change doesn’t happen simply because someone has received clear information. It happens when something clicks and they are moved into action.

It’s only clear to the AI

But interestingly, within our bubble, within our industry, everyone talks more and more about clarity. About how clarity is what people need in this chaotic, fast-paced world.

If everyone feeds their LLMs the same problem, there’s a high probability that everyone will get the same answers. The result: adverts for products and services that help achieve clarity. Agencies rewriting their manifestos and offerings around… yep… clarity.

AI is incredibly good at (re)producing the statistical centre of an idea. Essentially, that’s what it was trained to do. It analyses millions of examples from healthcare marketing and predicts the safest and most likely next move.

So if someone asks their friendly LLM what’s most important in healthcare communication, what’s missing, what customers really need – the answer will always boil down to the same key points: empathy, clarity, patient-centredness, trust, evidence, etc. Sound familiar?

All of that is true, of course. But it’s just the median of industry thinking. No one’s going to jump for joy because it’s so incredibly interesting. No one’s going to get annoyed because they didn’t think of it themselves. Greatness is often found at the fringes, rather than in the middle.

Same? Same but different?

At the moment, a fairly clear divide is emerging between how agencies operate. Many ask a question, get an answer, and send it out. The AI says ‘clarity’. OK, clarity, great, let’s go: lunch; a game of table tennis and the fruit basket are waiting. What we do: use AI output as a starting point, mapping an unclear cluster of pain points, thought patterns and attitudes towards a topic. The trickier question is: what lies behind it? How do we translate clear facts into something that people can actually feel, and then act upon?

The first approach isn’t new. Creative work has always gone hand in hand with a certain degree of laziness: find a simple answer and that’s that. AI simply highlights more clearly when and where this happens.

Our approach: to use AI as the powerful tool that it is, and then push its results further, to where it … resonates with people. We know (and this should really apply to everyone in the industry): timing and emotional context are often more important than the pure, bare message. And accordingly, there is a difference between:

• Knowing that people want clarity.
• Understanding that what they actually want is the feeling of having a clear direction, ease and support.

One is just a buzzword. The other is something you can build on.

The problem of ‘samification’ is real, and it’s only going to get worse. Mediocre creative work has always existed. Mental laziness wasn’t invented by AI, but it’s now riding a much faster horse. Whatever that entails, even if unintentionally: the results of this mental laziness look the same everywhere. They use the same words and the same frameworks. Based on the same clarity.