Is your marketing safe?

Marketing that commands authority isn’t safe. It doesn’t sit politely in the middle lane or hedge bets with broad messaging. It chooses a point of view, a tone, a direction, and commits. Brands that lead don’t wait to be invited into the conversation. They start it.

But a lot of marketing still plays not to lose.

We see this in copy riddled with caveats, brand decks that meander through “thoughtful” strategy without ever making a stand, and campaigns built to pass internal review—not stir the market.

Is this you? Your work is smart, safe, gets every stakeholder to nod approvingly... and promptly be forgotten by every consumer.

Authoritative marketing I've worked on has been polarising by design. I knew it would be hard to get everyone on board, and I was shot down several times. But I was willing to alienate the wrong audience so the right one would lean in. Because it's better to take a risk than endlessly test positioning hypotheses.

Here's how to spot authority:

• In tone — confident, declarative, unafraid to say something is true.

  
  

• In structure — short sentences, sharp angles, narrative built like an argument.

  
  

• In focus — not trying to say everything, just the one thing that matters most.

This kind of marketing doesn’t wait for consensus. And yes, it’s risky. But it’s also the difference between a message that hits and one that hangs in the air.