The age old conundrum: "Measurement stifles creativity!"

I read an article in Ad Age recently ("Why metrics are killing creativity in advertising") which made the audacious claim that "when marketing decisions are based on numbers, we lose the desire to be creative".  Well, the classic battle between the left and right brain marketers continues!

Firstly, from the article it is evident that the author (advertising agency creative exec) is someone who disregards the notion of measurement (rational judgement), for the sake of emotion (which is not always rational). This poses the question: Why is measurement seen as alien to the creative process? 

Being a quantitative person myself (someone who likes objectivity), I must admit that I disagree with the assertions in the article. I do not think that numbers hamper creativity. I view numbers as doing one thing and one thing only: turning our subjective judgements into objective, & giving us answers that take us closer to the truth. Agreed that reality is distorted at times and numbers are at times incapable of delivering the truth, but we cannot know this unless we have tried.

I also think that metrics (or numbers or measurements) enhance creativity in marketing, rather than stifle it. I believe that the ability to quantify not only gives answers, but also improves the robustness of our endeavors. Thinking specifically about what the author is referring to (i.e. advertising campaigns), tracking or measuring outcomes takes us closer to understanding what the trigger points are in order to drive objectives, and creativity can thus be a more 'targeted' exercise. Not sure if there is such a concept, but what I mean by this is 'productive' creativity.

Also, with regards to testing new advertising concepts, I believe that metrics aid creativity. An idea is only as creative as the tangible impact it has on the market, and metrics help in gauging this 'tangible' impact. Without measurements or metrics, who would decide what is considered as creative? Metrics give creativity the credibility it deserves.

Well there is always an alternative view to every argument and in this case, it is this: do not "over rely" on metrics to give you answers. I think this is where the problem lies - many a times, we tend to substitute judgement or intuition for hard numeric indicators. Hard numeric indicators are just one part of the entire decision making puzzle. Sometimes, in order to be successful, we need to do the contrary to what the numbers say. Sometimes we need to do the subjective rather than the objective, do the irrational rather than the rational. 

Numbers stifle creativity ONLY if we let them.