In this month’s Fact or Fiction we’re looking at the benefits (or lack thereof) of narrow targeting, the prevalence of short-termism and the lack of trust in some media channels.

Each month we’ll be keeping you up to date with some of the hot topics and talking points within the marketing and advertising industries.

This month we’re looking at the faults with the Net Promoter Score, the importance of brands to businesses and the effects of technology removing many of the human elements required for great advertising.

Last Friday we tried to put a bit more science into ScienceFiction and attended the Mumbrella MSIX 2017, marketing science conference. 

To avoid any possible echo chamber, the conference was curated with a reasonably diverse line up of speakers ranging from neuroscientists to psychologists.

There appears to be some in our industry who think that applying marketing science learnings to advertising will kill our ability to be creative.

But we think it's not a complicated or restrictive process.

Every day, in advertising agencies across the world, a creative will sit down at their desk and look over a brief. On that brief there will be a range of areas covered off including objectives, audience, budget, considerations and (most importantly) the USP.

It’s a shame because largely the power of a USP is just a myth.

We’ve just finished reading the latest book from Undercover Economist author, Tim Harford.

Messy takes a look at how people and businesses can become more creative and resilient in a tidy-minded world.

The book is an enlightening read that provides some wonderful insights on the surprising benefits of disorganisation, collaboration and improvisation.

Here are a few key takeouts for the marketing and advertising industries.