Source: linkedin
Somewhere between instinct and algorithm lies the strange, gremlin-filled, beautiful future of advertising. A future where your gut tells you the idea works, but your AI says, “Actually, here’s 14 variations and a lookalike audience in another world.” And strangely, both are right.
Let’s be honest — we’ve all felt it. That quiet tension in meeting rooms (or VC rooms) where the creatives bring “a gut-feel idea” and the planning team responds with data that say otherwise. In most traditional setups, it’s been a tug-of-war. But increasingly, the most exciting work in advertising doesn’t pick sides. It plays in the middle — where insight meets impulse, and chaos meets code.
Gremlin is the New Groove
Remember when things had to be pixel-perfect? Now we’re living in an age where gremlin, grain, and lo-fi edits are a style statement. Gen Z and Gen Alpha have grown up on content that’s chaotic, fast, meme-layered, and proudly imperfect. It’s not that they reject polish — they just don’t trust it. Realness eats Refinement for breakfast.
We’ve seen the shift everywhere: brands embracing platform specific native formats, low-budget reels outperforming high-gloss TVCs, even audio ads that stutter and pause on purpose. This is the gremlin aesthetic — not because it lacks skill, but because it signals authenticity in a world of filters and fake.
The future of advertising, in many ways, is embracing this intentional imperfection. Because it’s not about being sloppy — it’s about feeling real. Even AI, with all its ever-improving genius, becomes more human when we let it stumble a bit.
Data is Smart. Gut is Wise.
Here’s the truth no AI prompt will admit: some of the best ideas just feel right before they prove right.
A famous example? The “Share a Coke” campaign. Data may have hinted at personalisation, but no dataset screamed “Put 250 names on a bottle.” That came from a creative gut instinct — and then it became one of the most successful global campaigns of its decade.
Today, tools like Midjourney, ChatGPT, RunwayML, and DALL•E are giving creatives superpowers — but they’re also making us second-guess our own imagination. The real magic happens when the gut sets the direction and the gremlin (AI) helps build the road.
Attention is the Currency, Not the Canvas
We’re not fighting for formats anymore. We’re fighting for “focus”. One thumb-scroll away from oblivion, your ad has exactly 1.6 seconds or even lesser to make someone stop. Not love. Not convert. Just pause.
This means ads can’t afford to be clever in the third act anymore. They have to punch in the first frame. The good news? Gut and gremlin work beautifully here. Your instinct knows what emotion to tap. AI can test 27 hooks to find the one that grabs.
We’ve entered the era of the adaptive idea — where creative concepts morph, reframe, and repackage themselves based on where, when, and to whom they appear. It’s less Mad Men, more Mood Sync.
Creative by Chaos. Strategy by Stack.
In the past, strategy was upstream. Now, it’s under the idea — a stack of tools, APIs, automations, and behavioural triggers that carry your campaign across platforms and preferences. The creatives don’t just think in scripts and storyboards — they think in modular content blocks, remixable formats, and emotional data.
It’s chaos, yes. But it’s glorious chaos — and the brands that learn to surf it instead of controlling it are the ones that will thrive.
Nike’s “You Can’t Stop Us” wasn’t just a film — it was a masterclass in montage, moment, and cultural sync. Some OTT’s social content? Built for rapid mutation. Push notifications of Zomato and Swiggy? Tiny gut-and-gremlin miracles.
AI Is Your Intern. Your Mirror. Your Mayhem.
Let’s stop pretending AI is the enemy. It’s not coming for anyones job — unless the job is to write bland body copy for banner ads or even come up with research findings that arent insights anymore. Then yes, whoever it is, please run.
But for the rest of us, AI is an incredible intern — fast, tireless, oddly poetic — and occasionally deranged. It’s also a mirror. Feed it a lazy prompt, and it’ll reflect back something even lazier. But nudge it with depth, and it’ll surprise you with angles you hadn’t imagined.
And sometimes, when you let it roam wild, it becomes beautiful mayhem. A wrong word becomes a right insight. A weird visual becomes a scroll-stopper. That’s the gremlin. That’s the joy.
So What Now?
As someone who’s spent nearly three decades in advertising, and recently found creative liberation in making music (with a little help from AI), here’s what I know:
- Gut is your compass.
- Gremlin is your co-pilot.
- And the real campaign is the one that moves people — not the one that just moves metrics.
So go ahead. Write the line that makes no sense on paper but hits you in the gut. Then test it with a bot. Tweak it. Break it. Remix it. Release it.
Because the future of advertising isn’t clean or perfect.
It’s part instinct. Part accident. Part alchemy.
It’s half gut, half gremlin.
And honestly? That’s what makes it magic.
