Risk-Averse Marketing Has Cost Brands $189 Billion
Conservative creative strategies are eroding conversion and ROI, leaving market share open to bolder competitors.
Updated on Oct. 6, 2026 in Marketing
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Is taking bold risks currently a better strategy for growth than playing it safe?
A new research report from FleishmanHillard and Contagious reveals that uninspired marketing content results in a 37% drop in brand conversion. The analysis suggests that organizational caution, intended as a risk management strategy, frequently creates more competitive exposure than it prevents.
Why it matters
The study suggests that traditional risk-management processes in marketing departments now act as barriers to action, leading to inefficiency and lost market share. Organizations that default to conservative creative approaches may face higher long-term costs as they struggle to maintain effectiveness.
Dull creative work necessitates $189 billion in additional media spend to match the effectiveness of bold campaigns, while brand conversion drops by 37% for uninspired content. Organizations using conservative strategies experience a 14% decrease in long-term ROI.
The players
FleishmanHillard
A global public relations and marketing agency providing strategic communications and creative consultancy.
Contagious
A marketing intelligence firm that provides research and analysis on creative strategy and industry trends.
The details
Researchers utilized the GEISTE framework to analyze creative output from Cannes Lions and Effie Awards winners. The findings show that two-thirds of marketing leaders believe their current risk management processes actively block rather than enable campaign performance. Consequently, 42% of survey respondents observed direct competitors capturing market share while their own teams hesitated to approve creative work.
Timeline
Over the past 12 months, 65.3% of marketing leaders reported feeling overwhelmed.
The Chaos Advantage report was published on October 6, 2026.
Market Landscape
The report benchmarks current creative performance against the historical effectiveness standards set by the Cannes Lions and Effie Awards. This analysis updates the industry understanding of how deviation toward conservative creative work degrades standard performance metrics.
Marketing leaders should audit their internal approval processes to determine if risk management is creating hidden costs in media spend. Evaluate whether your creative review timeline is causing campaign launch delays that hand an advantage to your competitors.
The takeaway
The data suggests that the fear of public backlash is often overstated, as both cautious and bold organizations report similar incident rates around 20%. To improve efficiency, track the delay time in your creative approval process and compare it against the documented 38% industry slowdown.
Further reading
For more on the latest industry analysis, visit our Marketing section.
Live Poll
Is taking bold risks currently a better strategy for growth than playing it safe?
