Judge of the Day: The Romans' Dan Roberts says ads need fewer decks, more doing

"On AI, he says it's not a replacement for creativity, but a tool for those who know how to use it. "AI won't replace creatives but creatives who don't know how to use it as a tool will probably get replaced by those who do. It should be another string to a creative's bow, much like Photoshop." For Roberts, originality is still the point, and no amount of automation can change that."

"When it comes to the tension between brand building and performance marketing, Roberts sees a media landscape tilted toward short-term gratification. "We've cultivated a landscape that scrolls fast and forgets faster. Media is dictating we play the short-term game for instant gratification before moving onto the next. Personally, I've never believed this is the most sustainable creative solution.""

"His channel of choice for building brands in 2025? Earned. "You create things, moments, movements that are inherently ingrained in culture, sparking genuine conversation. Infiltrating the daily scroll, new age media houses and the WhatsApp group chat will produce results a lot faster than some of the more tired formats.""

AI should be used as a creative tool rather than a replacement for human creativity; practitioners who do not learn to use it risk being overtaken by those who do. Originality remains the primary goal and cannot be delivered by automation alone. The media landscape currently favours short-term, performance-driven work that encourages instant gratification and forgettable output. Earned media offers faster brand-building by generating culturally ingrained moments, movements and genuine conversation across feeds and private group chats. The industry also faces a structural class-representation gap, and losing young talent would erode future creativity and diversity.

Read at The Drum