Industry Welcomes AI That Predicts Which Idea The Client Will Kill First
Strategic consultancy Barlow, Pike & Gentle has announced a quiet breakthrough in applied artificial intelligence. The firm claims it has built a model that predicts which campaign idea a client will reject within the first six minutes of a presentation. The tool, called Pre‑Mourner, is already being trialled across several mid sized agencies that were previously relying on gut feeling and the creative director’s facial twitch.
The system was trained on fifteen years of meeting transcripts, annotated mood boards, and the subtle linguistic shift between the phrases “interesting direction” and “maybe something a bit more us”. Researchers also fed the model thousands of photographed whiteboards featuring the words bold, playful, unexpected, and then a smaller note underneath reading safer?. The AI now flags doomed ideas before the meeting even begins, usually when the words long term platform appear anywhere near a slide.
Early results are promising. In one trial the system predicted that Concept Three, described internally as "the brave one", would be replaced by Concept Two, described internally as "fine". It was correct within thirty seconds. In another case it warned that a campaign involving a goat, a wind tunnel, and the phrase quiet confidence would be politely shelved after the client asked if the goat could instead be a metaphor.
Barlow, Pike & Gentle says the next update will generate a helpful internal prompt agencies can run before any presentation: “Act as a cautious marketing manager who slept badly and must justify this spend to procurement tomorrow. Which idea makes you slightly nervous and why?” The company believes this will save the industry thousands of hours annually, mostly by allowing creatives to emotionally process the outcome before the biscuits arrive.
The system was trained on fifteen years of meeting transcripts, annotated mood boards, and the subtle linguistic shift between the phrases “interesting direction” and “maybe something a bit more us”. Researchers also fed the model thousands of photographed whiteboards featuring the words bold, playful, unexpected, and then a smaller note underneath reading safer?. The AI now flags doomed ideas before the meeting even begins, usually when the words long term platform appear anywhere near a slide.
Early results are promising. In one trial the system predicted that Concept Three, described internally as "the brave one", would be replaced by Concept Two, described internally as "fine". It was correct within thirty seconds. In another case it warned that a campaign involving a goat, a wind tunnel, and the phrase quiet confidence would be politely shelved after the client asked if the goat could instead be a metaphor.
Barlow, Pike & Gentle says the next update will generate a helpful internal prompt agencies can run before any presentation: “Act as a cautious marketing manager who slept badly and must justify this spend to procurement tomorrow. Which idea makes you slightly nervous and why?” The company believes this will save the industry thousands of hours annually, mostly by allowing creatives to emotionally process the outcome before the biscuits arrive.