The Machine
Strategic OS v2.0
Advisory

For the decisions the models can’t make for you.

The Machine tells you what the evidence supports. It does not sit in the room when your CFO asks why brand spend went up, and it will not tell you whether your agency’s market mix model is any good. That part is me.

What this is

A consultancy sells you people, and the thinking leaves when they do. This is the opposite arrangement. Your team keeps doing the work. I supply the judgement, the evidence base and the argument, and the modelling stays in your account when the engagement ends.

I do not sell media, do not want your account and take no commission on anything you spend. That is unusual among the people currently giving you this advice, and it is most of the reason the recommendation is worth having. Three ways to work together are set out below. Each is fixed-scope and priced on a call once I know what the problem actually is.

Scope

What actually gets looked at

A Diagnostic covers all of it. Retainers and projects take the parts that matter to you.

Marketing effectiveness audit
Where the money goes, what it returns, and which of those two numbers anyone can actually evidence.
Share of voice against share of market
Whether you are buying growth, holding position, or quietly funding a competitor's.
Media strategy
Budget level, brand and activation split, channel mix, flighting. The four decisions that account for most of the variance.
Measurement frameworks
What you should be reading, at what cadence, and which of your current metrics are telling you nothing.
Market mix models, interrogated
Whether the model your agency or vendor built is answering the question you asked, and where its assumptions are quietly doing the work. I read models rather than sell you one.
AI and search impact
What generative answers are doing to your demand capture, measured rather than speculated about.
Marketing profitability
Payback windows, discounted long-term value, and the case your finance director will accept.
CMO and team advisory
An independent read on what your agency, your data team, and your own instincts are telling you.
Pitch and strategy review
Where the argument breaks, before the client finds it.
Where most start
Effectiveness Diagnostic
Two to three weeks
Fixed price, agreed before anything starts
For a brand that suspects it is spending badly and cannot prove it.

A verdict, not a report cycle. The full suite run on your data, plus the parts a subscription cannot do: interviews with your team, a read of what your agency is telling you, and a position on where the money is actually going wrong.

  • ·All twenty models run on your own data
  • ·Interviews with your team and your agency
  • ·Share of voice against share of market
  • ·Budget level and brand-activation split assessed
  • ·Existing measurement interrogated
  • ·One written recommendation you can act on
  • ·Every model left populated in your account
  • ·Twelve months of platform access included
A one-off investigation with an answer at the end. If what you want is the same analysis on a standing quarterly cadence, that is the Managed plan.
Strategic Advisory
Monthly retainer
Six-month minimum · two clients at a time
For a marketing leader who needs someone to argue with.

Standing access for the decisions that carry consequences. You keep your team and your agency. What you get is an independent read on whether what they are telling you holds up.

  • ·Two days a month, used how you want
  • ·Plan and budget review before it reaches the board
  • ·Agency and MMM interrogation
  • ·Measurement roadmap and testing priorities
  • ·Platform access for your team included
  • ·A direct line, not a ticket queue
Two clients at a time. This is judgement rather than throughput and it does not scale.
Pitch & Strategy Review
One week
Fixed price · single written deliverable
For an agency about to defend a number in a pitch room.

Send the strategy. I stress-test it against the published evidence and tell you where it falls over, before a client does it for you.

  • ·Written critique inside five working days
  • ·Every claim checked against the evidence base
  • ·The three questions you will be asked, and the answers
  • ·Alternative framings where the argument is weak
  • ·One hour on a call to work through it
A real review. If the strategy is sound I will say so, which is also worth knowing before you walk in.

Why this is not a consultancy

The modelling already exists

You are not funding six weeks of someone building a spreadsheet. Twenty peer-reviewed models are already standing. The engagement buys interpretation, which is the part that is actually scarce.

Nobody is selling you media

No commission, no trading desk, no account to protect. The recommendation has no reason to point at more of anything, which is not true of most people giving you this advice.

The instruments stay with you

When a consultancy leaves, the thinking leaves. Here every model stays populated in your own account. Next quarter you re-run it yourself and see what moved.

When not to buy this

I do not build market mix models. I read them, and I will tell you when yours is being asked to carry more than it can. If you want one built, hire an econometrician and bring me in to check what they deliver. Beyond that: if you spend under a million a year on media, the free modules will get you most of the way and the fee is hard to justify. If you need someone to run campaigns, hire an agency. And if the decision is already made and you want a document that supports it, I am the wrong person, and it will show up in the report.

Grounded in the work ofBinet & FieldEhrenbergByron SharpJenni RomaniukKaren Nelson-FieldOrlando WoodAndrew Tindall
Common questions
How is this different from hiring a consultancy?+
Do I need a platform subscription as well?+
What data do you need?+
Will you tell me my current strategy is fine?+
Can you work alongside our existing agency?+
How many clients do you take?+

The other two ways in

Platform
Run the models yourself

Run the models yourself. Five are free forever, with no card and no expiry.

Training
Teach the team to do it

Seven modules built from the primary literature, taught against your own numbers.

paul@machineslikeus.art© 2026 MachinesLikeUs