Does measurement kill brave creative ideas? Our answer is no. Measurement doesn’t kill brave work. The way people use it does.
Today we’re launching CLEO (Closed Loop Experience Outcomes) and publishing our new white paper, Beyond Go/No Go: Arming Brave Marketers for the Creative Leap, written by Fiona Blades of MESH Experience with Illitch Real of Rubiklab.
Real world, real results
For 20 years, MESH has measured how brands land in real life, in real time. CLEO closes the loop, from the first line of an idea to results in market. The first new piece is The Creative Lab, which brings that real-world evidence into creative development long before a campaign goes live.
- Create: The Creative Lab. Six AI agents review your idea at every stage (from a single line to a finished film) and tell you what to develop.
- Predict: designed to estimate how a finished campaign may perform, using the creative alongside media, pricing and distribution.
- Evaluate: what MESH has always done: real-time tracking of Share of Experience and brand equity once the campaign is live.
- Calibrate: compare predictions with what really happened, so every campaign makes the next one smarter.
We’re now running demos and early pilots with a selected number of brands.
Why a single score isn’t enough
At the Smithfield Big Breakfast in October, one question kept coming back: does measurement stifle creativity? When research is reduced to a single number and a Go/No Go verdict, it tells marketers whether the work passed. It doesn’t help them develop the idea or defend the creative leap.
- A single score flattens the idea. An idea can be fresh, slightly off-brand and weak on the call to action all at once. One number averages that into “middling”.
- Context matters. Across 903 payment-brand experiences connected to the 2026 World Cup, 66% made people likely to choose the brand next time when the experience felt like a natural part of the moment. When it felt forced, only 12% did.
- The lab is not life. One retailer’s pre-test said people didn’t understand the offer. In real life, they loved how the ad made them feel and Christmas sales were strong.
What’s in the white paper
- Why a pass/fail score can hold back creative development
- How millions of real-world brand encounters can help size a creative leap, including Molson Coors’ finding that Share of Experience explained far more of the difference in market share between UK beer brands than Share of Voice
- How CLEO and The Creative Lab work, with a worked payments example
- How Boots and Fidelity International used real-world evidence to back bold decisions
- Five rules for brave marketers
“Brave marketing isn’t about ignoring data. It’s about having the right data at the right time to back your judgement, and the confidence to fight for the work.”
Pete Markey, former CMO, Boots
Download the white paper (PDF)
See CLEO in action
Try it for yourself on our payments demo: bring your own idea and watch The Creative Lab review it live.
Book a demo
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/mesh-experience
Author: Fiona Blades: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fionablades/