South Africa, April 15 -- And yet outcomes remain volatile.

Campaigns that look right in planning fluctuate once they are live. Performance varies from one burst to the next. When results improve, it is difficult to explain why. When they fall, it is even harder to understand what changed.

This is not because strategy has failed us.

It is because we are executing strategy inside algorithmic ecosystems that are not designed to reward advantage.

Modern media execution happens inside complex, platform driven systems. Platforms optimise to their own objectives. Signals are partial, delayed, and opaque. The same strategies, audiences and tactics are available to everyone and quickly become commoditised.

In this environment, having the rig...