Annex A · creative, marketing and media
The table
Ten metrics the creative industries count today, and what they would have to start counting instead. Every row has its own link, so you can take any one of them and argue with it on its own.
| Column AThe Growth LedgerWhat we count today | Column BThe Human LedgerWhat we’d have to start counting |
|---|---|
| 01Cost per asset | Copy linkSignal-to-volume ratioOutcome per asset, not assets per month |
| 02Time on site, scroll depth | Copy linkValue-per-minute“Was that a good use of your time?” asked of the audience |
| 03Content output volume | Copy link |
| 04Headcount reduction | Copy linkCognitive space ratio% of paid hours spent thinking and making, not QA-ing machine output |
| 05Speed to market | Copy linkRework rateThe assets scrapped after the sprint, the true price of the speed |
| 06AI adoption rate | Copy linkJudgement rate% of AI output a human materially changed. Near-zero means we’ve stopped judging |
| 07User growth | Copy linkVoluntary return ratePeople who come back unprompted, without a notification pulling them |
| 08Engagement, reach, impressions | Copy linkNet annoyanceMutes, hides, blocks, treated as a cost line rather than noise |
| 09Productivity per FTE | Copy linkSkill velocityIs the team getting better, or just faster at the same thing? |
| 10Brand awareness | Copy link |
These numbers are not the standard. They show what the five principles and the six core conditions look like when they have to survive contact with one sector’s P&L. Argue with the principles; treat the numbers as illustration.
Two are withdrawn. Part I admitted that originality distance and trust delta break Principle One: they are merit judgements wearing a number’s clothing. They couldn’t be rescued, so they are struck through rather than deleted. Read the verdicts: originality distance, trust delta.
The list
The ledger is a working spec, not a manifesto.
Get new principles, revisions and the arguments that killed them, roughly once a month and never more often.