AI has made “good enough” marketing fast and cheap. To stand out, marketers need to create content that is distinctive, emotionally engaging, and strategically sharp. This article explains how to do that with practical ways to improve your content, your briefs, and your creative output. But brace yourself, doing that means you'll need to get out your big girl pants and take some creative risks.
A few weeks ago, I was sitting in a Melbourne boardroom, listening to the sweetest sound of all: clients asking us to push them. After a messy few years, they were feeling stable. Content and campaigns are now simpler to execute, easily repeatable and on brand. It could be so easy for them to just lean back into the routine of it.
I know a bunch of teams are doing just that. Let’s just use AI to knock out this brief, cut down this guide, and spit out a few more ad options. You’ll hit your OKRs and get early drinks on Friday.
But this client (and at least one of your competitors) isn’t going for ‘good enough’. They’re out there taking risks on new ideas, and that puts a time limit on your current comfortable existence.
That leaves you with two choices: get knocked out by competitors taking big creative swings, or start taking them yourself.
Both options will give you the willies – you might as well go for the one where you make cool stuff. Here’s what that could look like.
Claude can write 1000 words in 3 seconds – we are not short on content. We are still very much in need of good written content – the kind that asks new questions, takes a position, gives something of value, and is distinct from everyone else. That’s the hard bit of marketing, and AI hasn’t even come close to solving it yet.
So, we need to get a bit brutal.
• Would anyone notice if we just didn’t send this live?
• Are we saying something – or giving something – that others aren’t?
• Would this make sense if our competitor slapped their logo on it?
• Does this work give me the shits, just a little bit?
Consistency is important. You need each activity to build on the last, creating a picture of your brand and services. But that’s not an excuse to just roll out the same thing over and over again. Really look at your brand – voice, attitudes, look, feel, styling – and you’ll find heaps of flexibility. Your brand is there to be stretched. If you’re not having fights with your branding team about where the boundaries are, you’re not pushing hard enough.
Also worth a read: A practical, slightly snarky guide to using GenAI in your writing process
Imagine if every blog, every ad and every landing page evoked a feeling. You’d be unstoppable. Feelings are what make people do things. Analysis of over 1,400 campaigns in the IPA Effectiveness Databank found that purely emotional campaigns were roughly twice as effective as rational ones (31% vs 16%).
Your creative suppliers are probably feeling a bit beaten down. Lots of us get our biggest, boldest ideas knocked back over and over, so we start taking the path of least resistance. Sitting in front of a brief, many creatives start with, “What will the client buy?” not “What will smash these KPIs?”
That’s on us, but it’s also on you. If your brand has a history of squashing big ideas, you need to start asking your agency to be brave again. Then, when those scary ideas are presented to you, control your knee-jerk reactions – the game-changing work will never feel comfortable.
Here are some to-dos:
• Ask for two creative routes – one that’s safe and one that pushes you. That way, you can have a proper conversation about the pros and cons of each.
• Push back on yourself, not just your agency. Why don’t you like the work? Is it off brief, or does it just feel hard to sell internally? Those are different problems.
• Get clear on the risks. If a campaign doesn’t land, will it damage the brand or just make you look silly in front of your colleagues?
The brief isn’t just a convenient way of ordering up some creative. It should establish strategic boundaries for creatives to push against. Obviously, your brief needs to have all the important parts (what we’re creating, who it’s for, what it needs to say, what it needs to do), but it should also include a creative provocation. Something to make the supplier immediately start gazing off into space or chewing the end of their pencil. That might be:
• A problem worth solving
• A surprising insight
• A new way of tackling a well-worn challenge
• An unexpected medium, audience or attitude
Work that was once ‘good enough’ is now the baseline. With GenAI, everyone is working with a sound strategy and passable copy. My clients are upping their game, and so should you.
The good news: you just need to go back to basics. The stuff the Mad Men knew in the 50s: when everything is the same, distinctiveness wins. For that, you need to do something different, strike out on your own. It’s scary, but worth it:
“There isn’t any significant difference between the various brands of whiskey, cigarettes or beer. The manufacturer who dedicates his advertising to building the most sharply defined personality for his brand will get the largest share of the market at the highest profit.” – David Ogilvy
Need a fresh pair of undies? Let's talk about your brief.
AI is making content faster and cheaper to produce, which lowers the baseline quality across the market. As a result, originality, strong ideas, and brand distinctiveness matter more than ever.
Not necessarily, but it does make average content more common. That means generic, “good enough” content is less likely to stand out or drive results.
Good content is content that offers something unique — a clear point of view, original insight, or a distinct brand voice — rather than repeating what already exists.
If no one would notice it was missing, it’s probably not worth publishing. Strong content should offer something unique, useful, or memorable that competitors aren’t already saying.
Because safe work is easier to approve, easier to produce, and less risky internally. Over time, this creates a cycle where teams prioritise what will get signed off over what will actually perform.
By treating brand guidelines as a foundation, not a constraint. Consistency should build recognition over time, but each piece of work should still add something new.
By asking for multiple creative routes, including at least one that pushes boundaries, and by being open to ideas that feel unfamiliar or difficult to sell internally. Breifs should also include a problem, insight, or angle that gives creatives something meaningful to respond to.
If it could easily be mistaken for a competitor’s work, or if it doesn’t express a clear point of view, it’s likely too generic.
The thinking — strategy, ideas, positioning, and emotional impact. These are the areas where human input still makes the biggest difference.
The lead copywriter and creative director at Words for Breakfast. She spends much of her time working with the copy writing team across a variety of projects.
