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Ollie Aplin
3 x Founder | CMO & Creative Strategist
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It’s Not You. It’s Your Creative.
I recently read a post from a founder stating that they “test 1,000 ads every month”.
It was framed as a positive. A signal of scale, momentum and success. As if they had cracked the code. The implication was clear: more ads mean better performance, and better operators test at volume.
But my first reaction wasn’t admiration. It was concern.
When results dip, pressure replaces perspective. You feel pressure to act, to launch more ads, to change something, anything, that might stabilise performance. There is a fire, and it needs to be put out.
So teams produce. They iterate. They export. They launch. Again and again.
Don’t get me wrong. A truly great ad can be a game-changer. Done well, it can unlock demand, reset performance and change the trajectory of a business. But that only happens when that ad is supported by everything else around it.
On its own, even the best ad is fragile. It might start strong. It might buy you time. But it won’t fix a broken system.
What people usually mean when they talk about creative
When founders come to me asking for help with “creative”, they usually mean one thing. They want a new ad. A better hook. That one piece of creative that finally starts printing money.
They believe the problem is in the ad account, so that’s what they try to fix.
I don’t start by looking at the ads. I look at everything else.
The brand, the copy, the website, the emails, the tone of voice, the influencers they’re using, and a million other touchpoints most founders skip over.
Ads don’t exist in isolation. They exist in a landscape of all your other messaging. When you broadcast mixed messages, that’s when things start to unravel.
For example, an ad that feels playful clicks through to a website that feels cold. A confident promise is followed by cautious copy. Social feels warm. Email feels transactional. The results that follow cost you money.
Creative isn’t about finding the one ad that saves everything. It’s about building the system that makes every ad stronger.
When creative is aligned, performance compounds
When creative is aligned, it rarely feels dramatic. There’s no sudden jump or overnight breakthrough, just steady momentum.
Ads start converting more consistently, CPAs stabilise, conversion rates improve, email begins to carry its weight, and repeat purchases feel easier to earn. Nothing magical has happened. This is simply what it feels like when the creative system is working.
Alignment means the promise made in the ad is reinforced everywhere else. The language stays consistent. The tone doesn’t shift. The customer feels like they’re dealing with one brand, not several disconnected parts.
When creative is fragmented, every channel has to work harder to compensate. Ads need more spend. Email needs more incentives. Offers get heavier. Pressure builds. You’re not scaling a system. You’re forcing one.
Creative doesn’t just improve performance. It’s the foundation real growth is built on. You can feel this difference immediately with the strongest brands.
You know it’s a Nike ad before you ever see the logo. The pacing, the confidence, the restraint, the way the story is told. It doesn’t matter if it’s a TV spot, a social clip, an email or a landing page. The feeling is consistent.
The same is true for brands like Apple or Patagonia. Strip away the logo, and you still know who you’re dealing with. The creative quality is high, and the standards don’t change depending on the channel.
That’s not accidental. It’s the result of treating creative as a system.
Most brands don’t struggle because they lack ideas. They struggle because their creative doesn’t carry a clear point of view, and that gets magnified as it moves through ads, website, email and social.
Customers feel that instantly, even if they can’t articulate it. They sense when a brand knows who it is, and when it doesn’t.
So here’s a simple test.
If you removed your logo, would someone still know it was your brand? If the answer changes depending on where they meet you, that’s where the work is.
Creative is not your ads. Ads are just one expression of it.
Creative is the thinking behind how your brand shows up, the quality of how ideas are expressed, and the consistency with which those ideas are reinforced across every touchpoint.
Consistent creative builds belief and compounds it. It forms the foundations of a strong brand and the ability to grow without constantly forcing performance.
This is the work I spend most of my time on with brands. Not chasing the next ad, but strengthening the creative foundations underneath it. Clarifying the story, raising the quality, and making sure it holds together everywhere it shows up.
When that work is done properly, performance stops feeling so fragile. And growth becomes something you build, not something you constantly try to save.
Sound about right?
Ads not working, emails not landing and website not converting? I can help fix that.
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