For the love of the bottom line, stop being boring.
Close your eyes.
Think about the people in your life.
Then, in your mind's eye, focus on the people you want to hang out with. Who sets you at ease? Who makes you feel excited? Who makes you feel loved, makes you laugh, makes you listen?
Chances are, they are not boring.
If you want people to hang out with your brand, stop being boring.
Check your Voice.
Search what your competitors are saying. Word choice. Messaging. How do they describe themselves, their value, their products, their services? Does it sound familiar? Does it sound exactly like … gasp!...YOU?
That’s boring.
Check your Visuals.
Now take a look at their campaigns. Does the strategy look familiar? Or worse, do they actually look familiar (graphics style, imagery..uh hem…stock footage)? Boring.
Check your Strategy.
How about where they are showing up? Does that agenda seem familiar (keynote to breakouts to happy hour…maybe a dash of a cool band?) Sigh. boring.
So why is this happening? Hint. It's not the budget.
It might be
Fear
Lack of imagination
Rigidity
If you are an Executive and you are beginning to see the white washing of your brand, try this.
Before firing your creative agency; ask your internal team to send you the rejected agency work. It could be that the agency’s best work has been filtered out before reaching your desk.
Why does this happen? Well, it's your fault of course. Leadership sucks sometimes doesn’t it? Let’s break this down and offer up some actionable solutions:
Someone was afraid to be wrong.
They did not want to promote Creative that is too far out of the box and risk your good opinion. If you think, for example, the campaign is…stupid, ridiculous, decidedly unstrategic. It then follows that you think they are stupid ridiculous, decidedly unstrategic and you won’t trust them the same way ever again. These are high stake risks for your employee. Way too high. Better to be safe than sorry. [It's actually why you hire an agency in the first place, but that’s a thread we can’t follow today].
Solutions.
Check yourself. Does your team have a good reason to bring you the bland? Are you risk adverse?
Or did you put the wrong person in the role?
Or do you need a better agency?
And here’s the big one.
Someone is unimaginative.
Uh oh. This one is tough to identify and solve. This person can’t see a good idea until it’s been fully baked and data-defended. To be fully baked and defended it needs a budget, it requires resources. You can’t slap budget against every idea that crosses your desk.
Solutions.
Put curious people in charge. These are people who Listen, who Listen above the roar of their own bias. There is a big difference between being Curious and being a Visionary. Curious leaders want to hear more. Visionaries want to speak more. It takes curiosity to ever become a visionary. You want to hire the unicorn that embodies both characteristics.
Someone is rigid.
This one is simple, common, and the most difficult to solve. People who are rigid are often wired that way. Right down to their DNA. Rigidity serves them well in probably most of their work - but not when it comes to flexibility or bravery. Rigidity is based on fear and control. Anything foreign, anything that challenges the status quo is terrifying to them. In this age, marketers and creatives are actively playing in unknown spaces every single day. If you avoid these spaces, your brand is going to lose.
Type A marketers exercise their process and perfection muscles every day. We do not color outside the lines. And unfortunately that would-be strength has extended into the restraint of brand visuals and voice. You want to humanize your brand? Color outside the lines.
We can’t solve all these challenges at once. Enterprise businesses culture is an ocean liner, not a speed boat. Brands that cannot be flexible certainly cannot scale. If you want your team to be Fearless, Creative and Flexible…
Start celebrating and socializing the learnings that come from failing.
Its the first domino. Stick with it. Change will follow.
