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Future Demand: James Hurman’s new playbook for marketers
Marketing has gone from a dark art to a hugely measurable enterprise. So why does it still seem so hit and miss? Advertising effectiveness expert James Hurman says we’ve been targeting the wrong customers with the wrong creative – and proposes a more reliable way.
A century ago, marketers didn’t know why some campaigns worked and others didn’t. Sales conversion rates from advertising languished at about 1% – a wildly successful campaign might achieve 5 or 10%. Those figures remain stubbornly constant, even now.
That’s despite all the measurement available. In the 2010s, the internet made it easy to track metrics like reach and click-through rates. We could see that little brands grew swiftly using performance marketing techniques and marketers became mesmerised by it. Big brands started marketing themselves like little brands, neglecting brand building and spending most of their budget on performance marketing… and became smaller. Billions are poured into digital every year, yet US brands now lose $29 on average for every customer they acquire this way.
What’s going wrong?
In his forthcoming book, Future Demand, advertising effectiveness guru James Hurman pinpoints that problem and delivers a new playbook for marketers and the advertising industry. Rather than concentrating on those in-market right now, he says brands must also speak to the customers of the future – because they will generate the most sales.
The second part of the formula is to speak to these two markets in different ways: in market customers need facts and information (performance marketing), while future customers respond to emotional, creative messaging that builds brand. This way, customers are already predisposed to choose your brand when they are shopping the category.
Hurman lays out solid behavioural and neuroscientific evidence for the above in the opening pages of Future Demand, which you can read here.
MBM hosts Future Demand preview
Ahead of Future Demand’s release this month, MBM recently welcomed clients to an exclusive Auckland session with Hurman, centred on ideas from the book.
Hurman shared a preview with attendees – making the case for brand as a critical commercial driver of long‑term growth, and not just a ‘nice to have’.
Drawing on his experience across agencies, start‑ups and as founder of Previously Unavailable, Hurman explored how marketers can better articulate the value of brand to non‑marketers – and how to defend long‑term investment when short‑term pressures dominate.
MBM CEO and Publicis Groupe NZ chief media officer Lee-Ann Morris says what resonates most is how clearly Hurman connects brand thinking to the real decisions businesses are making right now.
“It gave our clients a strong, shared language for thinking about growth and brand beyond the next quarter, which is exactly the kind of perspective New Zealand brands need.”
