Agencies, you missed the memo...

Your safe brand is dangerous.

In B2B, your brand is your sharpest weapon. So why are most of you are showing up with butter knives?
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Playing it safe isn’t strategic. It’s not grown-up. It’s not professional. It’s cowardice, wrapped in Helvetica and buried under 600 words of waffle.
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Branding started with fire.

Hot irons. Burn marks. Ownership. Identity. Branding was (and is) a bold statement that said: This is ours. Don’t touch it.
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Now? Most agency brands sound like they were written by a caffeinated intern who discovered ChatGPT and brand archetypes in the same week. Somewhere along the way, B2B confused:

• Professionalism with passivity
• Strategy with sameness
• Maturity with mediocrity

Want proof? Open ten agency websites and read the headlines:

• "We blend creativity and performance"
• "We put the client first"
• "We’re not like other agencies"
• “We work with ambitious brands”
• “Award-Winning”
• “We’re an extension of your team”

The safe trap

Safe is the comfort blanket you cling to when you have no opinion. It’s why brands default to meaningless, bloated words like:

• “Creative. Strategic. Data-led. Insight-driven.”
• “Award-winning but humble.”
• “Flexible. Collaborative. Outcome-focused.”

Cool. You just said nothing in 17 words.

It’s technically fine, and fills the space but it’s emotionally irrelevant. It doesn’t move anyone because it sounds like it’s trying to appeal to everyone. That’s not strategy.
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Agency is a high-stakes game. Brand is your insurance.

Nobody’s buying your services. They’re buying a feeling (or as Marcus Cauchi would say ‘they’re renting an outcome’).
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The one that says: Yes, I trust these people with my reputation and budget. Design, strategy, whatever, it’s the delivery vehicle. Brand is the reason they hire you over someone else.

Clients want:

• Confidence that they won’t look stupid.
• Clarity on what the hell you actually do.
• Chemistry that makes them think, “Finally. These are my people. I agree with their POV”

A brand with opinions gives them all three. No guessing. No explanation. Just ‘Yes’!
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Safe is expensive

Let’s break down the real cost of your safe little brand:

• Explaining your value over and over again.
• Wasting time on leads who were never a fit.
• Boring decks that don’t land.
• Pitching on repeat because no one remembers you.

Muted colours. Groupthink tag-lines. Websites built for committees, not conversions.

You played it safe to minimise risk, yet you’re on a slow, expensive slide into irrelevance. A bold brand streamlines the sales cycle. It’s a lighthouse. A filter. A flag. If your brand is clear, you don’t need a 3-slide values deck.
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You are the values deck.

The Safety Sense Check™

Just kidding, it's not trademarked (but it probably should be). Want to know if you’ve got a problem? Paste this into a company wide email and ask the ‘award-winning, creative, data-led specialists’ this:

• Could any other agency copy our site and no one would notice?
• Do we sound like humans with a pulse or a pitch deck with legs?
• Is our message built to convert or just to not offend?
• Are we saying something real, or just what we think we’re supposed to?
• Are we too scared to turn anyone off?
• Do we say too much, but explain too little?
• Would anyone care if we disappeared?

If your stomach turned at any of these, you’ve got a brand problem.
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File your edges sharper, not smoother

Amongst all the “strategic but creative” mush, the brand that says something real, is the one that wins. The one that says: this is what we believe, this is who we’re for, this is why we’re better.
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Because the truth is: ‘safe’ doesn’t make you look smart. It makes you look scared.

Stop sanding down your edges. Sharpen them.