Efficiency or impact optimiser? Why good agencies make all the difference.

Who is more successful in marketing: ‘‘efficiency optimisers’’ or ‘‘impact optimisers’’?

Efficiency optimisers count every penny twice. They chase after the latest AI trends and tools on a daily basis.

Impact optimisers consider who they are, what the needs of existing and future customers are – and what goals they want to achieve. For them, the ‘‘why’’ comes before the ‘‘what’’ and the ‘‘how’’. In Simon Sinek’s ‘‘Golden Circle’’, they operate from the centre.

Many marketers who focus on optimising efficiency are currently showing off their skills with prompts. They concentrate their resources on the ‘‘how’’ and neglect the ‘‘why’’. 

Lessons from Daniela Amodei

This is precisely what Daniela Amodei, of all people, warns against. She is the president and co-founder of Anthropic – and thus jointly responsible for the AI assistant Claude. 

Amodei is not a programmer. She studied literature. And for her company, Anthropic, she is looking for people with keen intuition, an understanding of context and creativity. “We hire good communicators,” is one of her guiding principles. 

She emphasises that the human element will not become any less important in the future, but rather more so. We do not need less literature, but more of it. A remarkable statement coming from a woman whose technology is said to render writing and creativity obsolete.

3 Implications for Marketing

1. The more technology permeates everyday life, the more products become interchangeable. If a company wants to stand out, it must understand and communicate its ‘‘why’’. That means investing consistently in its brand. The only way to differentiate yourself is through a presence that is genuinely authentic and unmistakably unique. The answer is not less branding—it is more important than ever.

2. Companies that rely exclusively on AI for their marketing will gradually lose their distinctive voice. They also risk eroding trust. Communication that feels polished yet generic is quickly forgotten and rarely inspires action. It simply becomes well-crafted irrelevance.

3. Ironically, the agencies that were the earliest and loudest advocates for an ‘‘AI-only’’ approach are making themselves obsolete. If all you do is reproduce what any machine can generate, you ultimately eliminate your own value as a service provider.

A Great Brush Doesn't Replace a Maestro

The real question is not which tools a company uses. What truly matters is whether it understands its identity and its objectives.

AI is an outstanding tool—a brush, not the painter. Like a highly talented assistant, it can be taught many things: tone of voice, structure, and even aspects of style. But inspiration, artistic judgment, and the decision about what deserves to remain must come from the maestro. Anyone who fails to review and refine the output with a critical eye is effectively handing control of their brand over to the machine. 

A Costly Miscalculation

This is precisely where many do-it-yourself calculations fall apart. You may save CHF 10,000 by handling everything in-house instead of hiring a marketing agency. But more often than not, you'll also be waiting in vain for the additional CHF 100,000 in revenue.

Put simply: the greater your ambitions, the more worthwhile the investment in branding and communication becomes.

A brand that strives to be both authentic and distinctive must remain recognisably human. That is exactly where the core value of an agency lies: creating, orchestrating, curating, refining, and ultimately taking responsibility for everything that appears under a brand's name.

The choice is yours: Are you an efficiency optimiser—or an impact optimiser?