Marketing strategist Mark Ritson pushes for broad reach over personalization in ad strategy

Marketing strategist Mark Ritson challenges the industry’s obsession with personalization and AI-generated ads, advocating instead for fundamental marketing principles that emphasize broad targeting and creative effectiveness. His contrarian views come from decades of academic experience at prestigious institutions like London Business School and MIT Sloan, where he observed a widening gap between marketing education and practical application—a disconnect he now addresses through his Mini MBA in Marketing program. Ritson’s perspective offers a refreshing counterpoint to digital marketing’s current fixations on technology over fundamentals.

The big picture: Ritson believes marketers have become fixated on digital tactics at the expense of proven marketing fundamentals that drive actual business results.

• His contrarian approach emphasizes reaching broad audiences rather than pursuing hyper-personalization, challenging a cornerstone of modern digital marketing strategy.
• This thinking aligns with research showing mass marketing often delivers better ROI than highly targeted approaches, especially for brand building.

Why personalization fails: According to Ritson, the industry’s obsession with personalization ignores marketing’s fundamental purpose of reaching all potential buyers in a category.

• “To build a brand, you need to go after all buyers, not just a predetermined segment of interest to your client,” he argues, pointing to the inefficiency of targeting only specific customer profiles.
• He contends that personalization often leads to artificial segmentation, unnecessarily limiting brand reach and growth potential.

On marketing effectiveness: Ritson emphasizes that marketers must balance short-term performance metrics with longer-term brand building investments.

• He advocates for a 60/40 allocation model—60% on long-term brand building and 40% on short-term performance marketing—though he notes this ratio should vary by industry and company lifecycle.
• This approach counters the current industry trend toward immediate ROI metrics that can undervalue brand investments that pay dividends over time.

On AI in advertising: Ritson dismisses current AI-generated advertising as a “massive sideshow” that fails to address marketing’s core challenges.

• “There’s too much mediocre advertising out there,” he notes, suggesting that AI might simply produce more unremarkable content rather than solving fundamental creative problems.
• He believes the focus should remain on marketing fundamentals rather than technological novelty for its own sake.

Behind the crisis in marketing education: Through his Mini MBA in Marketing, Ritson aims to address what he sees as a critical gap between academic marketing theory and practical application.

• The program has reached approximately 20,000 marketers across 110 countries, indicating widespread recognition of this educational disconnect.
• Ritson’s approach emphasizes measurable marketing outcomes over fleeting industry trends, creating a bridge between theory and practical implementation.