Brands can have a hard time getting noticed in today’s noisy world but those who are prepared to take some creative risk can cut through the chatter, says Ashgrove’s Terry van Rhyn

If there’s one thing we probably can all agree on, it’s that modern life is loud.

Not just the neighbour’s lawnmower on a Sunday morning or the dog barking at invisible enemies. I’m talking about the relentless hum of advertising messages vying for your attention from dawn till doomscroll.

From the moment you unlock your phone, check your emails, scroll LinkedIn, browse the news, flick through Instagram, glance at a bus stop, pass a billboard, get hit with a YouTube pre-roll, or open your letterbox – it’s there.

The daily barrage of messaging is relentless. – “Buy this.” “Book that.” “Like us.” “Follow us.” “Click here.” “Download now.” It’s constant and it’s a blur.

No wonder consumers start tuning out. The human brain has become a highly trained filtering machine. If your message isn’t relevant, engaging, and – crucially – different, it’s getting filed in that special mental folder marked ignore.

As an ad man I think the biggest crime in marketing we can commit is to blend in.

Too many brands, across every sector – from financial services to retail to green widget manufacturing – fall into the trap of playing it safe. “Let’s just do something that feels… professional.” Translation: “Let’s sound exactly like our competitors and hope for the best and let’s not rock the boat – our shareholders may have a fit.”

The brutal truth is that the marketplace doesn’t owe you its attention. You have to earn it – and that requires a bit of what I politely refer to as “marketing bravery”. In every major successful campaign I have ever worked on in my over 40-years in the game a client’s bravery has played a vital role.

That doesn’t mean being wacky for the sake of it. You don’t need to put your CEO in a gorilla suit or start rapping about mortgage rates (although, let’s be honest… I’d watch that). But you do need to be willing to provoke a reaction. Make people pause. Make them care. Being relevant to your audience is the bare minimum. Being interesting – now that’s the goal.

I believe one should adopt the philosophy of “provocation with purpose” and always be willing to push the boundaries and break through the clutter. A great ad isn’t just loud. It has to be clever. It knows exactly who it’s talking to, what keeps them awake at night, and what will make them lean in.

The best creative work doesn’t just look pretty or sound clever. It solves a business problem. It moves the needle and that’s where agencies come in.

Our job isn’t to play it safe or give you something that will sail through every internal meeting unchallenged. Our job is to push those boundaries. To ask difficult questions. To take your brief, shake it like a snow globe, and find the story that will actually make your audience stop scrolling, stop yawning, and start engaging.

We’re not here to just make ads. We’re here to make a point. Even with the best creative thinking in the world, a great idea still needs one final ingredient to see the light of day: Client bravery. I get that it’s scary. There’s comfort in following the pack. Comfort in another round of ‘corporate blue’, stock photography smiles, and five bullet points of jargon. Boxes ticked.

But comfort rarely sells. The brands that break through are the ones that dare to be single-minded, bold, and sometimes a little uncomfortable. Again, you don’t have to be outrageous. You just have to be memorable. Often this takes more guts than budget!

Whatever the market or business sector, the rules remain the same – If you want your brand to cut through the noise, you need to embrace the uncomfortable truth that creativity involves risk.

But it is managed risk, strategic risk, and – with the right agency partner – worthwhile risk, because in today’s sea of sameness, the biggest danger isn’t that you’ll say the wrong thing: it’s that no one will notice you said anything at all.