The Ad World’s Addiction to Trends Is Costing You Customers
Most brands don’t have a marketing problem. They have a clarity problem.
They don’t know what they believe, who they’re for, or what they’re building. So they look around. They borrow what’s popular. And they call it strategy.
But it’s not. It’s mimicry. And it’s everywhere.
AI copy. Meme templates. Influencer campaigns built around nothing. Brands performing relevance with zero foundation. It’s fast. It’s loud. And it leaves no mark.
If your brand could swap names with a competitor and nothing would change, you’ve already lost.
Trends Aren’t Strategy. They’re Noise.
Following trends feels like momentum, but really, it’s movement without intent. It’s reacting instead of building. And it creates brands that are busy but forgettable.
There are two types of trends pulling brands off course:
1. Real-time trends -
These are fast, fleeting, and everywhere.
Trending audio clips
Meme formats with your logo slapped on
Reactive takes on the news cycle
Opportunistic “moments” that vanish in a day
They reward speed, not substance. If you jump first, you might get likes. But these vanity metrics fizzle fast.
2. Industry-wide trends -
These move slower, but do more damage. These are the habits we’ve stopped questioning.
Every brand acting like a person, but sounding like the same person
“Purpose” replacing actual positioning
Work optimized to avoid risk, not to stand out
Humanizing brands until nothing feels credible
Over-indexing on "authenticity" without clarity
Treating reach and frequency like strategy
These are the trends that get framed as best practices. But they’re just groupthink. They flatten brands into categories. They push teams to perform marketing, not lead with it.
This is what trend-driven marketing produces:
Content that fills feeds but never sticks
Campaigns that look modern but say nothing
Teams that confuse activity with impact
Customers don’t stay loyal to what’s trending. They stay loyal to what’s true.
Here’s What to Fix:
1. Positioning First
You don’t need another campaign. You need a reason to make anything at all.
Positioning isn’t a branding exercise. It’s the foundation of every business and creative decision. Done right, it tells you what to say, how to say it, and when to be quiet.
It answers questions like:
What business are we really in?
Who are we trying to matter to?
Why would they care?
At Frank & Harvey, we start here. Always.
Because if you’re not grounded in something real, everything you make will look like it came from someone else’s deck.
2. Don’t Mistake Speed for Direction
Marketing has become a sprint toward whatever worked last week. But the question isn’t “Can we move fast?” It’s “Are we going anywhere worth going?”
Trends can’t answer that. Your strategy can.
A clear strategy gives you a filter. It tells you which trends reinforce your brand and which ones dilute it. It helps you stop reacting and start deciding.
You don’t need to win every news cycle. You need to make fewer, better choices.
3. Stop Performing. Start Communicating.
Brands aren’t people. They don’t need to “act human.” They need to be clear.
The performative stuff is easy: tone guides, emoji strategies, snappy scripts. It all has a place, but it’s not substance.
Real communication happens when a brand knows what it stands for and behaves accordingly. Every message, every choice, every piece of creative should reflect that.
Otherwise, it’s theater. And your customers can tell.
How to Start Thinking Clearly Again
Before you brief another campaign, answer these:
1. What are you saying over and over because you think you’re supposed to?
Strip out the clichés. If your brand language could belong to any company in your category, it’s not yours.
2. What have you been too afraid to say?
The truth usually lives there. Behind the legal filter. Behind the boardroom nerves. That’s where the edge is.
3. If you stopped posting tomorrow, what would your audience actually miss?
This one’s brutal. But necessary. It exposes whether you’re communicating or just filling space.
4. What part of your business is changing, but your brand hasn’t caught up?
Most brands evolve behind closed doors, but keep speaking to the world like it’s five years ago. That disconnect shows.
5. What would your brand say if it had no competitors to worry about?
Forget differentiation for a second. What would you say if no one was watching? That’s usually the thing worth saying.
These questions aren’t branding exercises. They’re reality checks.
The point isn’t to answer them perfectly. It’s to notice what they expose and uncover the gap between what you believe and how you behave. That’s where real strategy starts.
Ready to Look at Marketing Through a Different lens?
We work with teams who are done chasing. Teams willing to slow down, ask better questions, and make braver decisions.
Frank & Harvey helps brands get clear—so every message, campaign, and creative choice serves a strategy that’s actually yours.
Want to see what that looks like?