Ambition is easy to talk about. Acting on it is harder. In a recent conversation, members of The Marketing Society’s Global Marketing Insight Panel explored what it takes to challenge established thinking, make space for experimentation and take calculated risks when certainty is in short supply.
1. Proven doesn't always mean future-proof
There is comfort in what we know works. Established approaches come with data, benchmarks and evidence that make investment easier to defend.
But audiences, technology and the marketing landscape are changing. The challenge for marketers is knowing when past evidence should give us confidence – and when relying too heavily on it could prevent us from moving forward.
2. Courage starts with questioning what we know
There is comfort in what we know works. Established approaches come with data, benchmarks and evidence that make investment easier to defend.
But audiences, technology and the marketing landscape are changing. The challenge for marketers is knowing when past evidence should give us confidence – and when relying too heavily on it could prevent us from moving forward.
3. Ambition requires calculated risk
Our panel made an important distinction between taking risks and being reckless.
Marketers remain accountable for the investment they make and the growth they're expected to support. Ambition doesn't remove that responsibility.
Instead, it means creating room to explore something new while remaining clear about why you're doing it, what you expect to learn and how you'll judge whether it has worked.
4. New ideas need different measures
When an approach is established, there is often plenty of evidence to tell us what success should look like. Genuine experimentation is different.
You might begin with a hypothesis rather than a guaranteed outcome. Some things can be measured immediately; others require learning over time.
The important thing is not to abandon measurement, but to make sure our expectations of measurement don't prevent experimentation from happening in the first place.
5. Leaders need to create permission to experiment
Going first can feel uncomfortable. There are fewer precedents to point to and fewer guarantees to hide behind.
That's why ambitious marketing isn't only about having ambitious people. Leaders need to create the conditions that allow people to challenge assumptions, test ideas and learn from what happens.
If every new idea is expected to arrive with certainty attached, teams will inevitably return to what they already know.
“Ambition isn't risk for risk's sake. It's having the judgement to know which risks are worth taking.”
3 Takeaways
- Past success shouldn't automatically dictate future decisions. Evidence matters, but so does recognising when the world around that evidence has changed.
- Experimentation and accountability can coexist. Ambitious marketing still needs rigour, clear hypotheses and meaningful measures.
- Ambition needs action. Challenging convention only matters when we're prepared to do something differently as a result.
2 Actions to Take
Challenge one assumption. Identify something your team does because “that's what works” and ask what evidence would make you reconsider it.
Create space for one experiment. Define the hypothesis, what you can measure and what you want to learn – without requiring every answer before you begin.
Because perhaps the biggest question isn't whether marketers are ambitious enough.
It's whether we're prepared to act before certainty gives us permission.