The 3 Biggest Marketing Mistakes I'm seeing Right Now

The pressure facing marketers isn’t coming from a single source anymore. It’s coming from everywhere.

AI is speeding up production. Budgets are tighter. Attention is scattered. And expectations for performance keep climbing.

Most teams respond the same way. Move faster. Do more. Show impact.

That instinct is understandable. But it’s also the problem.

AI isn’t destroying marketing. It’s exposing how it already works.

If your team lacks clarity, AI produces more average work. If your team avoids decisions, AI scales indecision. If your strategy is short-term, AI locks that in.

This is showing up in three consistent ways worth paying close attention to.

#1. Polished work is being mistaken for strong ideas

A lot of work looks good right now. Clean. Structured. On-brand.

But much of it is forgettable.

AI makes it easy to produce something that looks finished. The issue is it’s built on the same patterns everyone else is using. Same tone. Same formats. Same thinking.

And that’s not just anecdotal. Industry leaders are already calling out that AI tends to “gravitate toward the average,” leading to more sameness and less creative diversity.

Polished is not the same as differentiated

We’re seeing more work that feels right but says nothing. It passes review. It launches. It disappears.

In a world where creative continues to be single biggest driver of marketing performance, this is a major missed opportunity. When everything looks good, but nothing is truly unique, performance doesn’t improve.

What to change

Raise the bar before anything goes out:

• • Would a competitor say this?
  • Would this still feel like us without the logo?
  • Would anyone remember it next week?

If not, try again.

This is a leadership call, not a creative tweak.

#2. Speed is replacing real decision-making 

A leadership team recently described their go-to-market approach:

“We’re putting more into the market and seeing what performs.”

More testing. More variations. Faster cycles.

On the surface, it looks like progress. More activity. More data. More responsiveness.

But in many cases, it’s not. Because the underlying strategic direction is under-defined.

AI has removed friction from making things. So instead of choosing a direction, teams push multiple options into the market and let performance decide.

That’s not a strategy. That’s avoidance. 

Data becomes the mechanism for choosing, but data reflects what’s introduced into the system. Data doesn’t fix unclear thinking. If the inputs lack clarity, the outputs won’t resolve it. You’ll just get faster feedback on weak direction.

Even at the enterprise level, AI is pushing a “culture of experimentation”, but without clear direction, this just scales activity, not effectiveness. Speed is not a strategy. Michael Porter is still right: “The essence of strategy is choosing what not to do.”

Marketing leaders need to learn how to pair speed with strategic decision-making.

What to change

Force decisions earlier.

Run a weekly Decision Review:

• • What did we choose this week?
  • What did we explicitly not pursue?
  • Where are we committing resources?

Don’t allow meetings to end with “we’ll test a few directions.”

Advance variations of one direction with intent. Stand down the others.

#3. Short-term efficiency is being mistaken for a growth strategy. 

The third shift is more gradual, but more consequential.

As financial pressure increases, investment shifts toward what can be measured and justified quickly.

Performance channels. Conversion metrics. Near-term returns.

This is often framed as discipline, but over time, the trade-off becomes visible.

Organizations become more efficient at capturing demand, but less effective at creating it. 

AI accelerates this dynamic. It reduces the cost of content and increases output, which can drive short-term gains. But without sustained investment in distinctiveness, differentiation erodes. You risk ending up efficient and invisible.

What to change

Protect demand creation as a fixed decision, not a flexible one.

• • Set a non-negotiable investment level in brand and distinctiveness
  • Measure it differently (attention, memory, search lift)
  • Hold it through pressure cycles

If brand is always the first thing cut, it was never a strategy.

The AI Marketing Trap

More output leads to less distinctiveness.

More directions lead to weaker decisions.

More attention on conversion metrics drives short-termism.

AI didn’t create this trap, but certainly accelerates it. 

How to Break It

This isn’t complicated. It’s just uncomfortable.

#1. Raise the bar on ideas: Distinctiveness is required, not optional

#2. Make decisions earlier: Clarity comes from choosing

#3. Protect long-term growth: Demand creation is a commitment

What this adds up to

Most marketing teams use AI to produce more. A smaller group are using it to think better and make better decisions. And only one of those groups will win.

The problem isn’t AI. It’s discipline. It’s about being willing to think clearly, choose early, and hold a higher bar when everything around us is getting easier. 

That’s where I see the separation starting to happen.