Lab-Grown Marketing by Evidenza

Marketers love data. More dashboards. More cuts. More “just one more slide.” But what if more data doesn’t make you smarter — it just makes you slower?This week on Lab Grown Marketing, Jon and Peter go deep on the signal-to-noise ratio and the uncomfortable truth hiding inside modern marketing teams: sometimes the thing you’re asking for is the thing delaying your best decision.They kick things off From the Feed with a tweet that hits a little too close to home — why adding more information can actually make automated systems (and humans) worse at choosing. Then in Million Dollar Data, they reveal results from a synthetic survey of 1,000 global CMOs… and yes, the numbers will surprise you. Most leaders swear more data helps them make better decisions — but the same people admit something else that completely flips the story.If you’ve ever felt “data-driven” right up until you were data-driven off a cliff… press play.02:18 — From the Feed: more data = slower decisions4:12 — Million Dollar Data: 1,000 CMO survey results (the paradox)9:58 — Marketing Mental Models: The horse racing study

Everyone loves the idea that the best product wins. It’s clean, comforting, and almost always wrong. This week on Lab Grown Marketing, Peter and Jon take on the product delusion — the belief that product superiority alone guarantees success.In From the Feed, the guys use a timely media moment to revisit an old debate: why better products so often lose to better distribution. It’s a familiar pattern, and one that keeps repeating itself across entertainment, tech, and now AI.Then, in Million Dollar Data, Jon shares new synthetic research exploring where the product delusion actually lives inside modern organizations — and who’s finally starting to let it go. The results might surprise you, or they might confirm everything marketing has been quietly complaining about for years.Finally, in Synthetic Salon, Peter and Jon sit down with a very on-brand guest to talk defaults, familiarity, and why being easy to choose beats being objectively better. In a world where products are increasingly copyable, the real advantage shows up somewhere else entirely.Product matters first. Everything else matters most.02:40 — From the Feed: Netflix, HBO, and the Myth of Product Superiority23:42 — Million Dollar Data: Who Still Believes the Product Delusion?31:05 — Synthetic Salon: Defaults, AI, and Why Distribution Always Wins

Marketers keep talking about brand building — meanwhile, half of today’s brands are quietly dying. Jon and Peter are here to stop the funeral.This week on Lab Grown Marketing, the guys break down how to avoid brand death in the synthetic era — why it happens, what causes it, and what the top 1% are doing differently.We open with Move 37, where Jon shares the story of how AI beat the world champion of Alpha Go and explains the shift from making “one ad” to making “infinite ads.” Peter argues the old model wasn’t just slow — it was creativity-blocking. Yes, there are framework jokes.In From the Feed, Jon and Peter dissect the internet’s latest identity crisis: brands acting like people, people acting like brands, and why the line keeps getting blurrier.Then, in Million Dollar Data, Jon shares new findings showing that most “breakthrough” assets aren’t novel — they’re consistent. Peter walks through why repetition remains the most underrated growth lever in the synthetic century.We wrap with this week’s Synthetic Salon, where the guys tackle the real question: How do you keep a brand alive when everything is changing? The rules are simple, the execution isn’t — but the payoff is massive.Four segments. One mission. No brand funerals.3:30 - Move 378:26 - From the Feed18:13 - Million Dollar Data30:55 - Synthetic Salon

This week, Jon and Peter resurrect one of marketing’s most misunderstood — and most financially powerful — ideas: the 60/40 rule. If half of B2B marketers still claim brand “isn’t a priority”… well, the guys have thoughts.First up in From the Feed, they break down the newest Marketing Week report, where human respondents (adorable!) reveal why they still don’t believe brand delivers ROI. Then Jon and Peter unpack why ROI might be the worst way to measure anything — especially brand — and why B2B’s obsession with short-termism is slowly starving growth.Next, they revisit Les Binet & Peter Field’s 20+ years of econometric evidence, tracing how the 60/40 rule actually works — and why marketers keep misinterpreting it.Finally, in the Synthetic Salon, they welcome the Pocket Professor to explore how AI is shifting the balance between demand creation and demand capture — and why brand becomes more important, not less, in the synthetic century.Timestamps:01:11 — From the Feed: Why marketers still think brand doesn’t drive ROI09:54 — Marketing Mental Models: The truth behind the 60/40 rule22:57 — Million Dollar Data: Binet & Field, econometrics, and the Aston Martin effect29:37 — Synthetic Salon: How AI changes demand creation vs. demand capture Feat. Pocket Professor

What if everything marketers believe about precision is, well… probably wrong?In this ep, Jon and Peter crack open the illusion of certainty that defines modern marketing — and expose why “the right person, the right message, the right time” might be the industry’s biggest fantasy. From LLMs to audience targeting, they’re breaking down how marketing magic is more about managing uncertainty than mastering control.First up in From the Feed, the guys explain why it’s time to give LLMs a break. After all, they can’t be right about everything — so why are people riding so hard on a probability machine’s accuracy?Then, Jon and Peter survey synthetic marketers to see if they think probabilistically or deterministically. Do most marketers really think success is as simple as finding the right person, with the right message, at the right time? Yes. Errr — probably.Finally, in Mental Model and Synthetic Salon, the conversation takes a quantum leap as the guys channel Niels Bohr to explain why probabilistic thinking isn’t just for physicists — it’s the future of marketing. They explain why chasing perfect targeting and timing narrows your reach, and how embracing uncertainty can open the door to true scale.01:40 - From the Feed05:44 - Million Dollar Data23:42 - The Synthetic Salon Feat. Niels Bohr