Diego Chicharro: Effectiveness is why we exist.

There was never meant to be a difference between great advertising and effective advertising.

Yet somewhere along the way, our industry split the two.

We replaced great advertising with tiny ads in the corner of a screen. Deep business understanding with dashboards full of meaningless metrics.

Strategy became decks. Effectiveness became dashboards. Creativity got squeezed by KPIs, short-term goals and platform fads.

Paradoxically, we’ve never been better prepared to make great advertising than we are today.

Never have we had more knowledge of how advertising works, a better understanding of our audience, more ways to reach them, smarter ways to measure, and better tools to produce and deliver our work.

With all this progress, advertising should be getting more useful, more exciting, more effective.

So why are we here?

Attention is falling. Creative quality is sliding. Most ads are ignored. Budgets shrink because value isn’t being created. The work isn’t working, and everyone feels it.

Forget Brand vs Performance.

The real problem is Strategy vs Effectiveness.

Strategy that sounds smart but has lost its grip on commercial reality.

Effectiveness that measures outcomes but has too little influence on the starting point.

When the two disconnect, creative ambition is seen as risky instead of powerful. Brands settle for safe instead of distinctive. And the industry becomes less enjoyable and less profitable for everyone in it.

But if you work in strategy, this is also the opportunity of our time.

The teams who bring strategy and effectiveness back together will build the most valuable brands. They’ll make work people actually notice. They’ll grow their clients and their own careers. Not worrying about next quarter, but dreaming again about what might be possible in the next ten years.

Yes, the economy is struggling. Sales are stalling, marketing budgets are being cut. CFOs demand short-term returns, and brand building gets written off as fluff.

But when every brand is facing the same economy, the real competitive advantage isn’t just spending more. It’s spending better, with a long view of where growth truly comes from and a smarter strategy to unlock it.

A strategy that no technology or platform can deliver. Only we can.

That’s the mission I’m building around: helping ambitious brands embed proven effectiveness principles into their culture, research and strategy, so creativity has the conditions to deliver what it’s truly capable of.

If this way of thinking resonates with you, if you want to create real impact, and help raise the bar for our discipline, I’d love to connect.

Because great advertising has always worked.

It’s time we remembered what makes it great.

» Diego Chicharro is founder of Unfair Edge, and a strategist, industry leader with 17 years’ experience across top creative agencies, and previously Head of Effectiveness & Global Strategy Director at Publicis London.

Curiosity Stream

» Humanæ is a photographic work in progress by artist Angélica Dass, an unusually direct reflection on the color of the skin, attempting to document humanity’s true colors rather than the untrue labels “white”, “red”, “black” and “yellow” associated with race

» Matthew Wilcock’s Cycles | Playhead installation. Get lost in the mundane rhythms of everyday life - Thanks Mike

» on How to be interested (part 2) and on the interesting thing on interesting things - Thanks Ben

» Emma Sexton speaks with Andy Pearson at Liquid Death. There’s an interesting discussion in there about the issues/risks of strategy (I’d argue “poor strategy”), and being close to where the action is.

» Emily Penny on standing out as a design studio, on the Creative Boom podcast.

» is on Spin That Bottle this week

» 19 subtle ways to tell someone to shut up. This made my day.

» on the lifecycle of a work-related-whatsapp group. Too true.

» Conscientiousness Hasn’t Collapsed Among Young People in Recent Years - thanks Joel.

» Google’s Pomelli - a brand toolkit in seconds?

» What’s up with the LinkedIn algorithm? but I fear it’s not as simple as “niche + consistency”. As more and more and more data is showing supression of voices on the platform.

» Creative Equals has opened applications for the 2026 cohort for their Disabled Creatives programme - a free 15-day programme for up to 20 creatives from across the UK who are disabled, neurodivergent, or who live with mental health or chronic health conditions.

» Nick Liddell’s The brand architecture book dropped last month - thanks Adnan

» Ramona is hosting a Research and Insight Independents coworking day on Monday, in Old Street (London, UK).

» Free Event: Right Wing Populism: The shifting overton window 25th November, from cultural insight agency The Outsiders

» Calling all LDN Trend forecasters, Strategists, Futurists and Researchers. The last Future Friends of the year is on Nov 27. Tickets here.

Gigs

1. Freelance senior strategist with SF market (SF,USA)
   https://outsideperspective.co/gigs/20251114-wo.html

2. Social Strategist (UK)
   https://outsideperspective.co/gigs/20251114-social.html

3. freelance consumer research specialist (UK)
   https://outsideperspective.co/gigs/20251114-newtheory.html

4. Freelance Brand Strategist (Food + Beverage experience ideal) (UK/EU/REMOTE)
   https://outsideperspective.co/gigs/20251113-peroni.html

5. Global Category Strategy Director with consumer health and media experience (London,UK)
   https://outsideperspective.co/gigs/20251111-haleon.html

6. Insight Analyst 6mo FTC (UK)
   https://outsideperspective.co/gigs/20251107-trainline.html

7. Freelance Digital Strategist with retail/fashion exp (Manchester, UK)
   https://outsideperspective.co/gigs/20251107-tangent.html

8. freelance paid strategists (UK)
   https://outsideperspective.co/gigs/20251107-spin.html

9. Creative Strategist (UK)
   https://outsideperspective.co/gigs/20251107-sp.html

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That’s all for this week.
mk✌️