We risk everything by risking nothing

If you’ve ever driven down a countryside road you may have noticed large herds of sheep peppering the landscape. While those herds are comprised of individual and unique sheep, they’re almost always seen as a bland texture blending into the scenery. A lot of marketing communications from brands often suffer this same fate. Brand after brand—many with incredible products, unique points of view, and even noble causes—blend into the white noise of the media universe. It doesn’t help that there are a myriad of brands all trying to get attention and ROI from ever-shrinking communications budgets. 

This fight against obscurity can be lost despite ongoing effort to stand out—especially when developed from within the comfort of familiar approaches, strategies, and creative territories. Brands would see better results if these approaches weren’t also being used by everyone else. But when there are big dollars and real asses on the line, why take the risk of doing something different.

But therein lies the real risk. 

The risk of simply adding to the noise and going unnoticed. This thought should keep brands up at night. It should inspire thinking in uncharted waters and drive the pursuit of surprising ideas and unconventional “everything.” Of course, there can be great risk in this, but we live in a glorious age of data that allows brands to be courageous without having to be cavalier. Risks can be mitigated in real-time and brands can test, refine, and optimize in small ways before doubling down and going all in.

In the end when a brand has created something unexpected and truly salient it will have given consumers a reason to stop and pay attention. A reason to care and a reason to talk about something that looked, sounded, and behaved differently than the rest of the herd.