Creative and successful marketers are bold. Period.
For me, it’s a must-have component when I’m hiring for marketing.
By boldness, I’m talking about the willingness to “go for it” and drive your thing, your ideas across.
A good marketer should be able to sell their concept to people and get others on board.
I argue that a marketer who doesn’t have this boldness, this drive, is not a creative marketer.
Creative ideas without the boldness to follow through is just “intellectual creativity”. This type of creativity just sits on the shelf but doesn’t serve the world because it’s not represented, and so it rarely manifests in anything.
Now, before we get over-excited and boldly start executing all sorts of crazy shit, know this: unintelligent boldness has killed businesses (and people). It will break your boat if paired with stupidity, so caution is required.
Boldness is a necessary component of a well-rounded, creative and skilled marketer, but so are analysis and strategic thinking.
Boldness in itself isn’t a virtue. It has to be present in addition to other skills and other components of creativity.
Also, when you’re hiring for a company where steep growth isn’t expected, and all you need from marketing is to help smooth sailing: boldness is less important… until disruption happens in the marketplace and old things stop working.
That’s when brave, bold leaders and marketers shine.
