What Ever Happened to Creative Courage

At our latest Blutui Founders’ Circle, the conversation revisited a concern many of us have been circling for some time: AI is pushing the agency sector toward a dangerous path of mediocrity.

Previous debates focused on the creeping loss of the ‘Big Idea’ the bold, culturally resonant concept that elevates a campaign beyond execution into something memorable. AI tools, while fast and efficient, can encourage agencies to prioritise safe outputs, low-risk variants, and optimisation over audacity.

This session deepened the lens. Participants observed that the problem isn’t only within agencies. Brand clients themselves are increasingly cautious, setting expectations that reward incremental improvement rather than imaginative leaps. The bravery to create a splash in the market, to take a structured risk with a campaign, seems to be waning.

The performance marketing loop

One thread that emerged was the influence of performance marketers. AB testing, ad variants, and short-term optimisations have become the default method for proving ROI. While data-driven insights are valuable, when they dominate the creative process, they discourage bold, structured campaigns. The result: brands become conditioned to incrementalism, and agencies respond by producing safer, less culturally daring work.

Why this matters

The stakes are higher than ever. Without creative courage, campaigns fail to resonate, and brands risk becoming forgettable commodities. Agencies that become overly reliant on AI for output but do not insist on preserving the human spark, judgment, craft, and strategic thinking, are at risk of eroding the very value they promise.

Founders in the Circle argued that agencies must reclaim the Big Idea. This doesn’t mean ignoring data. It means using AI and performance insights as tools to amplify human creativity, not replace it. It means guiding clients toward bold campaigns that balance cultural impact with commercial logic.

The takeaway

The session closed with a pointed question for agency leaders:

Are you letting AI and short-term optimisation dictate your creative ambition, or are you using them to fuel braver, smarter, and more memorable work?

The Big Idea isn’t dead, but it’s at risk. Agencies that lead with courage, insist on structured campaigns, and preserve human judgment will define the next era of creative excellence. Those that don’t may find themselves producing forgettable, ineffective work super efficiently, hoping it moves the needle on vanity metrics while losing the long term battle of cultural impact.