Dino Demopoulos, Chief Strategy Officer at The Hive, outlines why interesting work isn’t a creative luxury—it’s a commercial imperative.
Picture this: a film of a cow, just a cow, in a field. It’s doing absolutely nothing but munching on grass. Sounds pretty dull, right? Well, according to studies by research firm System 1 Group and consultancy eatbigfish, that video is actually more engaging than about half of the professionally produced TV ads. Let that sink in. An industry celebrated for creativity and persuasion is regularly getting beaten by livestock.
All this average, dull work isn’t just boring. It’s bleeding money. The Cost of Dull, a landmark study from System 1, reveals that $100 billion in U.S. ad spend is wasted annually on uninteresting, ineffective creative. Yes, billion with a B. The problem with dullness isn’t damage, it’s waste. Neutral, boring creative requires far greater media spend to achieve the same results as genuinely interesting work.
How did we arrive at this point? How did the industry that gave us ‘Think Different’ and ‘1984’ become less interesting than a cow eating grass? Honestly, not a great look.
We’ve let the pursuit of efficiency (algorithmic optimization, performance marketing pressure) become more important than what we’re supposed to be good at: using our intuition, imagination and craft to create interesting work. The rise of generative AI hasn’t helped, but used properly it could be part of the solution rather than part of the problem.
If we’re going to get better at creating compelling work, we need to return to fundamental, timeless principles of what captures human attention and sparks real interest. The principles that govern what we find interesting don’t change, even as everything else does. And crucially, we need to recognize the unique human ability to create work that surprises, challenges, and rewards careful thought. That’s something AI will never crack.
Let’s not forget that interestingness isn’t just an advertising principle, it’s a human one. Great art, compelling films, memorable music: they succeed because humans are wired to seek out what’s interesting. In her book, The Art of Interesting, philosopher Lorraine Besser explores how interestingness is fundamental to living a good life, how it expands our thinking and deepens our engagement with the world. So, why can’t we aim that high? Why settle for executing ideas that barely register when we could create work that resonates the way great art does?
The Case for Interestingness
Brands need to fight the biggest threat in marketing – being boring. Interestingness is the quality that makes people lean in rather than tune out, and turns advertising from background noise into something worth spending their time on. Ad legend Howard Gossage captured this truth decades ago: “People don’t watch ads. They watch what interests them. Sometimes it’s an ad.”
This truth is more relevant today than ever before. The real goal isn’t just to be seen, but to be remembered. Cognitive scientist Daniel Willingham puts it simply: “Memory is the residue of thought.” We remember what we actively engage with, not what passively washes over us. Repetition without engagement is expensive and ineffective.
This is where the recent work of strategists David Nottoli and Jeffre Jackson becomes crucial. Their research shows that interesting content compels elaboration, a deep cognitive process where audiences actively analyze, question, and interpret the message. This mental effort strengthens neural pathways, creating more durable brand memories with fewer exposures.
In plain English? Interesting work delivers more bang for your buck. You need fewer impressions. Media costs drop, recall strengthens and ROI improves. This isn’t creativity for creativity’s sake – it’s about making every dollar work harder. Interesting means business.
So how do we create more interesting work? Three principles can guide us:
1. Be Obsessively Curious
The best way to be interesting is to be interested. Be obsessively curious about audiences, categories and the dynamics that influence a brand. What makes people tick? What conventions can we break? What truths are hiding in plain sight?
AI can help here. It processes data faster, spots patterns we’d miss and gives us a running start. But curiosity itself? Knowing which questions matter and what’s worth digging into? That’s all us. The best work happens when we use AI to accelerate our curiosity, not replace it.
Real curiosity is how you get to interesting work. It moves you beyond surface observations into the territory where real insight and ideas live. Fighting boring starts here, with being interested enough to dig deeper.
2. Have a Point of View
The second principle is that trying to appeal to everyone is the fastest path to being remembered by no one. Authenticity attracts attention and strengthens loyalty far more than playing it safe ever could.
The best brands have always understood this balance. They know their values, their voice, and their point of view and they’re willing to express them even when it means alienating some audiences. They know that the alternative is being ignored by everyone.
This doesn’t mean being provocative for its own sake. It means having the courage to be specific about who you are and what you stand for. It means using your actual voice, not a smoothed out generic one that is meant to appeal to everyone without alienating anyone. When brands demonstrate real authenticity, audiences reward them with attention, engagement and loyalty that no amount of optimization can manufacture.
AI can crank out endless messaging variations, which is great for testing and scale. But figuring out what’s worth saying and having the guts to say it? That’s where humans come in. Let AI explore the possibilities, then trust your instincts to pick what matters.
3. The Human Advantage
Interestingness is becoming a brand’s ultimate advantage in an AI-saturated landscape. Yes, generative AI will flood the market with cheaper, more generic content. But that makes interesting, human-driven work more valuable, not less. The challenging, nuanced, thought-provoking work we create will be the scarce resource that cuts through the AI slop.
We’re not anti-technology. We’re pro-using it right. AI handles efficiency, scale and personalization brilliantly. But it can’t surprise people. Challenge them. Make them think. Algorithms optimize for patterns. Interesting work breaks them.
The winning brands will use AI for efficiency, scale, and personalization, then invest in human creativity for what AI can’t touch: surprise, challenge and memorability. It’s not either/or. AI gets you there faster. Human creativity makes sure what you’re creating is worth the trip.
Interestingness isn’t a creative indulgence, it’s a business strategy. The data is clear: interesting work delivers greater impact per media dollar. It drives stronger recall, deeper engagement and more durable brand equity. In a world where $100 billion gets wasted annually on forgettable advertising, interesting work is a strong competitive advantage.
The choice isn’t efficiency versus creativity. It’s false efficiency – burning budget on forgettable work – versus real efficiency: spending less because what you make is interesting enough and sticks.
Choose the latter. Fight boring – because boring doesn’t just fail creatively, it fails commercially. Interesting means business. In a world drowning in content, that’s the path to growth.
The Hive is a member of the Institute of Canadian Agencies (ICA). Report on Marketing is where leading Canadian agencies showcase their insights, cutting-edge research and client successes. The Report on Marketing provides a valuable source of thought leadership for Canadian marketers to draw inspiration from. Find more articles like this in the Report on Marketing.
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