After reading In today’s Advertising Age post, Why Metrics Are Killing Creativity in Advertising, Patrick Sarkissian’s subhead reads: “When marketing decisions are based on numbers, we lose the desire to be creative.”

Damn that’s bleak. And I certainly don’t see it that way.

What clients are asking for is accountability. They want results for their investment in our big freaking brains. And we have to deliver. Why? Because there is no going back to hoping something works, especially when the price tag for such work is six and seven figures deep. In the article, Patrick Sarkissian explains:

Recently, I had a wicked battle with a client determined to let the numbers fully dictate a new creative strategy.

Thing is, you cannot truly quantify creativity. And in ever-increasing fashion, our clients’ (and our own) rote dependence on the dusty world of metrics is exactly why creativity is going to hell.

Here’s the thing: when you leave it to marketers to explain their business and numbers to you, you’re done.

Think about sitting in a board meeting with them. Shadow them for a week and see what pressures they face. Make them go over the metrics before you sit down and develop a strategy. Once you see their business through their eyes, you’ll probably get a deeper understanding of why your pretty comps spray mounted on black foam core don’t mean a fucking thing to them.

It’s up to agencies and creatives to take the lead and explain to marketers how the world has changed and how bigger ideas — and yes, more creative ones that tug at the emotions or take a sledgehammer to the funny bone — are their best chance to emerge victorious in the constant fight for attention.

I think clients and marketers want to trust us again. They want to be able to have a partner they can look to and solve the problems they face. But if we just stand around bitching about metrics and accountability, that day will never come.

If you’ve lost your desire to be creative in the face of metrics, please feel free to refer those clients to me. I’d be more happy to find freedom within the numbers.

Thanks in advance.