“You can’t bore them into buying.” A quote by David Ogilvy
Dull
48% of B2C advertisements were dull—consumers registered no emotional response. The marketing world is noisy, competitive, and chaotic. Dull doesn’t cut. If there’s a demonstrably better ROI for weird and wonderful marketing, why is it so rare? In a niche of sameness, audacity is the ultimate currency.
Dare
If you create something disruptive, exciting, and extraordinary to your customer’s experience, you’ll rise above the bot-driven marketing blah. But I hope it’s more than a promise—it’s a dare. Dare to disrupt. Dare to excite. Dare to be awesome.
The craving for meaning
In the next few years, brands will produce a swarm of popular movies, streaming series, and podcasts by leveraging (and simultaneously promoting) IP from their primary business. The trend will be further fueled by the widespread adoption of personalisation in all digital experiences. And as virtual reality becomes more common, personalised entertainment will not be limited only to movies but will also extend to our homes, social media, and online shopping. As brands flood our networks with boundless AI slop, we’ll crave story, craft, and meaning more than ever.
The craving for shared moments
Our digital worlds will be tweaked to our desires in unfathomable ways. Every ad is tailored just for you. Every story has your name in the starring role. However, reality is not something to trifle with. It always gets the last laugh.” Watch for the growing tension between personalised experiences and shared moments.
Authenticity as a factor
Nothing strengthens meaning more than proof of authenticity. “Proof of Human” will be a major component of marketing. The Most Human Company Wins— it is the authors´ business mantra.
Audacious: How Humans Win in an AI Marketing World
A disruptive and authentic narrative unlocks consumer attention and creates meaning. Hence, “Audacious: How Humans Win in an AI Marketing World”. It is a book against sameness, conformism, performance marketing, optimisation, blandness, boredom, mediocrity, dullness, blandness, commoditisation, cliche, and indifference. It is also an anti-AI book. Also, read my book “You Are the Upgrade, Augmented Natural Intelligence as the Only Way Forward“. Same message. Very different book. Same message.
Similar books
A book such as
Audaciousness
How can your marketing messaging become the signal above the noise in a world of oversaturated content? The answer is audaciousness. Go contra superior AI intelligence or rapid-fire data analysis. Audaciousness comes from tapping into our humanity—collaborative relationships, connecting dots in unexpected—even seemingly illogical—ways, following a gut instinct, detecting the subtleties of emotional cues, celebrating our flaws, and overcoming obstacles and constraints. Tapping into our authenticity. Creating intimacy, wonder and awe.
It is complex
Marketing is a complex process of creating customers. It begins with awareness—providing provocations and incentives that lead to a purchase, customer satisfaction, and, ultimately, loyalty. Today, every consumer manages their own personal, customised media franchise. One of the most important things is to offer something more than a product related to an experience. Coming out with innovative offerings is important, but you have to do that in a way that is newsworthy, on-brand, and compelling.
It is happening without us
Marketing is happening without us. Two-thirds of our marketing occurs without us. People buy based on what they hear from friends, what they see on social media posts, and what their favourite influencers are talking about today. Sales are occurring from activities outside our traditional marketing programs—peer recommendations, reviews, and word-of-mouth referrals from trusted colleagues. It’s about creating something so unmissable, conversational, and worthy that you earn your way into customer conversations. A brand used to be what we said it was. Now, it’s what others say about us. Customers are in control. Customers are co-creating, remixing, and reinventing our brand messaging. Customers are the marketers.
Create awe
Think about a time when you’ve felt awe. The feeling of being in the presence of something vast that transcends your current understanding of the world. A newborn baby, watching a lightning storm, or the moment you discovered a new musician or artist who became a favourite. Isn’t that one of the most beautiful feelings? Seeing the strength, courage, and kindness of others. Collective movement in actions like dance and sports. A good book. Nature. Music. Art. Mystical encounters. Encountering life and death. Big ideas or epiphanies. The moments of random joy, accidental moments of delight, the glitch in the matrix.
It is not about money
Money doesn’t figure into awe. No one mentioned their laptop, Facebook, or a smartphone. Awe occurs in a realm apart from the mundane world of materialism. Awe transforms us by quieting the nagging, self-critical, overbearing, status-conscious voice of our self or ego and empowering us to collaborate, open our minds, and see the patterns of life. Consider that in the marketing context—wouldn’t that be a brilliant achievement? Think of the possibilities.
Marketing in the third dimension
Stories infused with awe spread. They are emotionally contagious. Quantify moments of delight and incorporate awe-per-performance as a leading indicator of marketing success. What would it mean to have a goal to infuse more awe into your customer connections? How do we unleash awe in our employees and others who tell our story? What would happen if you replaced a metric tracking Instagram likes with deep conversations started? Infuse art into your work. Take a fresh look at your content. What if you ditched the stock photos and infused real art, music, and photography into your work? How can you make the ordinary extraordinary?
- Can we evoke nostalgia in our marketing to connect with our audience on an emotional level through familiar, cherished memories?
- How can we create marketing moments that allow our audience to pause, reflect, and feel a sense of wonder about their own lives?
- Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.
- We’re rarely united by the shared experiences that brought our parents and grandparents together with friends. To connect with these isolated consumers, consider the collective effervescence that makes three-dimensional, experiential content feel special.
Igniting customer conversations
The story is everything. Your story is your fingerprint. Competitors can copy almost anything except your story. Disruptive storytelling occurs when a narrative taps into the courage of a company culture, an idea that causes tension in the audience, and a culturally unique subject. We share stories about the unexpected, the weird, the wonderful. Anything but predictable. We experience our day-to-day lives in story mode. Our brain is a story processor, not a logic processor. The most powerful way to communicate a brand is through a lived experience. Also, read “The experience economy”.
Some tips
- Hire people who aren’t afraid of being fired.
- Live at the edge of discomfort. Don’t be afraid to look silly.
- Reject routine. Even if this means walking a new way to work, going out of your way to meet a new person, or shopping at a new store.
- Play like a kid. When you engage in play as a child, there are no rules. There is no judgment.
- Defy your algorithm.
- Gave a healthy relationship with failure
- Tell your story in entirely new places.
- Lean into signals, in real time.
- Create a marketing system that responds to the cultural moment.
- Don’t sell. Entertain.
- Controversy isn’t a bug. It’s a feature.
- Every disruptive brand embraces its haters. Haters aren’t a problem. They’re unpaid promoters.
- Prioritise participation over broadcasting.
- The crazier, the better.
- Even when you are marketing to your entire audience or customer base, you are still simply speaking to a single human at any given time.
- Competency doesn’t create conversations. Competent is elevator music.
Boring is a choice
Go for fearless or freak-out marketing, become a DGAF brand(for Don’t Give a F*ck). Become contagious. Evoke strong emotions, whether positive or negative. It is more likely to be recalled and talked about than content that is purely informational or emotionally neutral.
The ROI
- 65% of Gen Z respondents believe that “being true to yourself” is more important than being popular
- 70% of Gen Z respondents believe being different is good, and they prefer standing out from the crowd.
- A Live Nation study showed that 82% feel “weird is in”
Achieving word of mouth on steroids
Word-of-mouth success relies on simple narratives. You want the audience to take your brand message and run with it. Help your customers be the marketers. Become a “Experience Maker”. Your customer is the marketer. Your customers aren’t just buyers. They’re potentially your most precious advocates, your most convincing salespeople. Who are the new storytellers? An influencer is any person who spreads information through a relevant audience. It’s truly that simple. Your ideal storyteller doesn’t have to be a Kardashian or social media star. Any authentic advocate is a word-of-mouth influencer.
WOMM
WOMM is the organic alternative. In WOMM, super-sharers naturally pick up an interesting story and joyfully spread it. WOMM is overlooked and under-valued.
- 92% of Nielsen-surveyed consumers believe suggestions from friends and family over advertising.
- 83% of consumers say they either completely or somewhat trust word-of-mouth recommendations, the highest-ranked source for trustworthiness.
- 63% said that more than half of their revenue came from referrals. Yet 80% of those respondents had no defined system for generating those referrals—most happen by accident.
- 1% or fewer of all businesses have a written plan for creating customer chatter.
- One out of every 10 people has the influential personality traits that fuel WOMM (Word of Mouth Marketing) success.
- Nearly 20% of all consumer purchases in the United States are directly created by offline or online word-of-mouth activity. That’s approximately $10 trillion of economic impact.
- One influential person carrying a story forward could lead to 63 conversations or a 630% amplification rate.
Employees
WOMM is undervalued. So are employees. Don’t overlook the HR benefits of nurturing internal creators/thought leaders. Train your staff to become creators—trusted storytellers who share their experiences about their work and beyond. The most authentic storytellers are your employees. Marketing is culture.
The Audacity Index
So, how do we measure the impact of an intangible like audacity? The author invented The Audacity Index:
Disruption Factor (DF): How much does your marketing break from industry norms through where the story is told, how the story is told, and/or who tells the story?
Awe Quotient (AQ): To what degree does your campaign create genuine wonder, surprise, and collective effervescence?
Conversation Catalyst (CC): Will your marketing spark organic word-of-mouth marketing discussion … offline and online?
Risk Ceiling (RC): How far outside your comfort zone does this push your brand culture? Are you breaking internal and external taboos?
Innovative Execution (IE): How novel is your approach to delivering the message?
The audacity spectrum
1–4: The Safe Zone
5–6: The Bold Zone
7–8: The Breakthrough Zone
9–10: The Legendary Zone
Embracing audacity
Is our marketing solving problems in ways our industry hasn’t considered before? Can we create memorable experiences that people will talk about for years? How is our marketing creating our legacy? Are we making our customers feel something deeply? What if we considered the word “intimate” as an aspect of our marketing approach? Are we willing to stand up for something, even if it’s polarising? Is it time to demolish that anachronistic industry tradition? Are we leveraging technology or platforms in ways that surprise and delight? Do we have an internal capability to facilitate that? How do we use The Audacity Index for legitimate competitive advantage? When we look back on this season in our business and career, will we be proud of our work?
Create an audacious culture
Adding audacity to your brand marketing isn’t about being loud. It’s about being unforgettable—creating an emotional connection with your customers that means something. There is only one more question to answer. If you’re leading an organisation, how do you create a culture that embraces the audacious?”
