In the world of B2B and high-stakes consumer marketing, there is a silent killer lurking in your budget: The ‘Safe’ Ad. We’ve all seen them – the boilerplate headlines, the stock imagery of people shaking hands, and the generic value propositions that blend into the digital background. We call it ‘professional,’ but the market calls it ‘invisible.’
At a recent marketingSHOWCASE event, Tom Maskill from Webmart took the stage for a ‘5 in Twenty’ session that challenged every marketer in the room to stop leaving money on the table. His message was clear: If your marketing is boring, it isn’t just a creative failure – it’s a financial one.
The 4x profit multiplier
Tom dropped a statistic that should make every CFO sit up and take notice: Ads that score high on measures of creative quality and effectiveness generate more than 4 times the profit compared to less creative ones.
Read that again. You could unlock 400% more profit without increasing your media spend by a single penny.
When you settle for ‘standard’ or ‘boilerplate’ adverts, you aren’t being safe; you are being wasteful. Creative quality is the ultimate leverage. By capturing genuine attention and staying in the mind of the consumer, your creative does the heavy lifting that raw reach and frequency used to handle.
“But my product is boring…”
This is the most common excuse in the marketing department. We tell ourselves that because we sell ERP software, industrial components, or insurance, we don’t have the ‘permission’ to be fun.
Tom’s advice? Get over it. The idea that your marketing must be as ‘serious’ as your product is a myth that only benefits your competitors. In fact, if you sell a ‘boring’ product, you have an even greater opportunity to stand out. Because everyone else in your sector is likely playing it safe, a single spark of humour, a daring visual, or a unique viewpoint becomes a lighthouse in a sea of grey.
The art of being unforgettable
Being ‘unforgettable’ doesn’t mean being outrageous for the sake of it. It means:
- Breaking the Context: Taking your product out of its usual environment (remember the Greggs iPhone-style launch?).
- Using Personality: Speaking like a human, not a corporate brochure.
- Respecting the Attention Threshold: Realising you have 2.5 seconds to prove you aren’t boring before the user scrolls past.
As Tom argued, creativity isn’t a luxury – it’s a business strategy. When you move away from the ‘boilerplate’ and embrace the ‘novel,’ you stop competing on price and start competing on brand equity.
Stop leaving money on the table
If your current marketing feels like it’s just ‘filling a slot’ on a media plan, it’s time to rethink your approach. Are you settling for 1x profit because you’re afraid to be ‘unprofessional’? Or are you ready to unlock 4x profit by being unforgettable?
Watch the Full Webmart Session
Tom Maskill’s ‘5 in Twenty’ session was a masterclass in creative bravery. If you want to see the specific examples and the strategic framework Webmart uses to keep their clients from being boring, the full video is now available on theHUB.
Watch “How Not to Be Boring” on theHUB here.
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