Recap
In my previous essay, I wrote about NeoVisM – a New Vision for Marketing. I asked Claude to write a recap of the key ideas.
Just as Classical Liberalism provided the intellectual framework for creating economic prosperity, Neovism offers a path to marketing prosperity. The parallel is striking: poverty is the default state in economics, and similarly, AdWaste is the default condition in marketing. Just as we need to explain prosperity rather than poverty, we need to explain retention rather than acquisition.
Today’s marketing reality is sobering: 70% of marketing budgets are squandered on reacquiring existing customers through expensive adtech platforms. This represents a staggering $500 billion annual wealth transfer from brands to Big Adtech (Google, Meta, and others). Brands find themselves trapped in an expensive cycle of continuous reacquisition, creating what I call “profitless prosperity” – growing revenues that never translate into sustainable profits.
Neovism addresses this crisis through three foundational principles:
Retention Before Reacquisition: Like Classical Liberalism’s focus on wealth creation before redistribution, Neovism prioritises nurturing existing customer relationships over costly reacquisition. This “Only Once/Ones” philosophy advocates acquiring customers exactly once, then investing in keeping them.
Trust Before Transactions: Moving beyond the transactional mindset that prioritises immediate conversion, Neovism emphasises building trust through consistent value delivery. This creates an environment where customers willingly share their preferences (zero-party data), enabling more effective marketing.
Individuals Before Segments: Just as Classical Liberalism values individual rights, Neovism recognises each customer’s uniqueness. Modern AI enables true N=1 personalisation at scale, making crude segmentation obsolete.
These principles directly address three critical problems plaguing modern marketing:
- The “No Hotline” Problem: Despite having customer contact details, brands lack reliable ways to engage consistently.
- The “Not for Me” Problem: Generic messaging and basic segmentation fail to resonate with individual customers.
- The “No Alternative” Problem: Brands remain dependent on expensive adtech platforms even to reach their own customers.
Together, these principles and problems frame the opportunity: transforming marketing from a cost centre focused on endless acquisition to a profit engine powered by lasting customer relationships. Just as Classical Liberalism created prosperity by empowering individuals and enabling efficient markets, Neovism promises marketing prosperity through customer-centricity and relationship efficiency.
The stakes are enormous. Redirecting even a fraction of the $500 billion in annual AdWaste toward retention and relationship building could fundamentally transform business economics. The question now becomes: How do we turn this “antidote to AdWaste” vision into reality? What concrete steps can marketers take to implement these principles and solve these problems? This essay explores the practical roadmap for making Neovism’s promise of marketing prosperity a reality.
