Brands want brave creative work, so why are they still playing safe?

In the race to capture attention, brands are often encouraged to push creative boundaries. But when a campaign strikes the wrong note, the backlash can quickly overshadow the idea behind it.

Earlier in September, Grab Singapore experienced this with its microdrama “I Fell In Love With My Grab Driver”, which used a romantic storyline between a passenger and her Grab driver to draw viewers into the brand's content. The campaign drew criticism over its portrayal of the relationship, prompting Grab to acknowledge that it should have been "much more thoughtful" about how the series came across.

The stakes are not insignificant. Research by Omnicom Media earlier in the year found that 78% of consumers across Asia Pacific believe a bad advertising experience is worse than seeing no ad at all. But when the fear of getting it wrong grows, does creative bravery become the casualty? 

For VJ Anand, co-founder and chief creative officer of creative agency Ballsy, the industry is already losing some of its appetite for bold ideas. “I do miss daring clients. Everyone's so scared of rocking the boat and losing their jobs these days,” he said.

Yet, playing it safe does not always mean making better marketing decisions. Nikki Taylor, APAC marketing director at Analytic Partners, highlighted how marketers can pull campaigns before they have run their course, often tiring of creative work long before consumers do. Of 51,218 campaigns examined in Analytic Partners' data, only 14 had genuinely worn out, Taylor said. The other 51,204 were pulled while they were still working

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The figures complicate the idea that brands need to keep changing their creative to stay relevant. Sometimes, what looks like fatigue may instead be a mismatch between the creative and the channel, or a decision made before the work has had enough time to deliver, she explained. 

The question, then, is not simply whether brands are brave enough to provoke a reaction. It is whether they can distinguish between creative that is genuinely ineffective and creative that makes them uncomfortable.

When playing safe becomes the bigger risk

Avoiding controversy does not always mean producing better work. For Anand, provocation can help a brand stand out, provided it fits its identity and has the backing of its leadership.

Great creative can be in many forms, and provocation is one of it. It's an art. It's not everyone's cup of tea, but it can be in the DNA of some brands.

Anand added that CEOs and CMOs need to be aligned on the risks before a campaign goes live, including the possibility that it may not land as intended.

Meanwhile, Daniel Kee, chief creative officer at McCann Singapore, argued that the problem often lies not with the brand itself, but with the people responsible for it. As he puts it: 

There’s no such thing as a conservative brand, just conservative brand owners, guardians, marketers.

Kee said agencies need to understand clients' motivations and make a case for unconventional ideas from both an emotional and rational perspective, using research and data to support their recommendations.

“Approach it like you would a relationship, not a sales pitch,” he said.

He also argued that creative bravery, cultural relevance and commercial objectives should not be treated as competing priorities.

The commercial case for stronger creative is reflected in Analytic Partners' data. According to Taylor, strong creative can outperform weak creative by 2.5 times, while brand messaging outperforms performance messaging 80% of the time.

Two-thirds of advertising's impact also lands after the first week. Campaigns running for 11 to 20 weeks delivered 34% higher median ROI than those running for 10 weeks or fewer, rising to 60% for campaigns running 21 to 30 weeks and 65% for those running longer than 31 weeks.

However, the same creative campaign's ROI can vary by as much as 70% across social platforms, Taylor said, underscoring the importance of where and how creative is deployed.

Knowing what is worth fighting for

Measurement can help establish whether an idea is delivering, but it cannot make the creative decision on a brand's behalf. Nor can it remove the uncertainty that comes with doing something unfamiliar.

For Anand, the willingness to pursue an idea comes down to whether it has the potential to make people feel something, even if that reaction is not universally positive. He sees discomfort in the room as potentially productive when some people respond strongly to an idea while others are less convinced.

“You know it's a good one when you brainstorm those ideas in a room and some feel uncomfortable and some love it. Those ideas are worth fighting for,” he said.

That does not mean every divisive idea deserves to make it to market. Anand said brands still need to consider whether the work suits their identity, whether they have the appetite to pursue it and whether the idea can achieve what it sets out to do. Sales, brand health, audience traction and the ability to stand apart are all measures he considers when assessing the outcome.

He also believes there will always be people who dislike a campaign. Rather than attempting to please everyone, brands should recognise that strong reactions can be part of the process, while ensuring there is an audience that connects with the work and is willing to support it.

The distinction is between a reaction that reflects the risks of making something distinctive and one that signals a genuine failure to understand the audience or the brand. The former may be worth accepting; the latter calls for a different response.

For brands, the harder decision may not be whether to take a risk, but whether they are prepared to see it through. Creative ambition needs clients who will stand behind an idea, and measurement that gives the work a fair chance to demonstrate its value.

Without either, the industry risks falling into a cycle of choosing familiar ideas, abandoning them before they have run their course and wondering why its advertising fails to stand out.

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