Why bravery is so important in marketing

As I write this, our latest Umault video is having a viral-ish moment. It's being re-tweeted, re-posted, and liked – all the things. It feels terrific.

Here it is:

But 24 hours ago, just before I hit upload, I had nagging feelings that this video was terrible and we had wasted valuable time and money making it.

How could this be? It's not like I haven't overseen other successful video projects. Why such strong doubt? As the Creative Director of Umault, shouldn't I know if something will work by now?

I wish the answer were, "Yes, I always know what will work!"

Alas, I don't.

But in that moment of hesitation, just before sending the video off to its ultimate judgment, I remembered what actually makes great marketing: bravery.

It's the bravery to do what you haven't seen others do before.

It's the bravery to take a chance on a story you're not sure anyone will understand. In the case of the video in question, it's about migrating to Google Analytics 4 – it doesn't get any riskier than that!

It's the bravery to take a risk on the most fragile thing in the world: a new idea.

Now I can't take credit for the bravery thing. Legendary creative director Lee Clow said, "Don't do the right thing, do the brave thing."

But I can take credit for acting with bravery. And so can you.

The next time you come across a great, unproven, new idea. Be brave and go with it. Yeah, you may fail – but you may achieve the ultimate dream: something unique no one has ever done.