Stop Being Forgettable: 10 Ways to Become an Unboring Brand in 2026

Most brands don’t fail because their strategy is wrong. They fail because they are boring. Boring brands get ignored, and in a world where attention is the most expensive currency, “ignored” is the most dangerous position you can occupy.

According to System1’s Cost of Dull report, nearly half of US TV ads trigger a neutral emotional response. This dullness costs US brands an estimated 189 billion dollars in wasted effectiveness every year. When you fail to make people feel, you fail to make them remember. Forgettable brands never become loved, recommended, or woven into people’s identities. They never become Cult Brands.

So let’s change that.

Here are ten powerful ways to make sure your brand is anything but boring in 2026. 

These principles draw from the psychology of belonging, memory, community, and meaning. They are the shortcuts to becoming the brand people talk about, return to, and stand behind.

1. Expand your audience.
Cult Brands grow by welcoming new people into the tribe. When you hypertarget, you pay more to ignore your future fans. Broad reach widens your community and strengthens your cultural presence.

2. Build AI teams, not AI tools.
AI becomes magical when it works inside a creative feedback loop. Use agents that challenge your assumptions and produce unexpected ideas that feel alive rather than automated.

3. Audit your distinctiveness.
Every category is full of sameness. Map where you overlap with competitors and commit to the edges where only you can live. Distinctiveness is the antidote to forgettable marketing.

4. Develop a sonic identity.
Ninety percent of brands lack one. Sound imprints faster than visuals and creates emotional memory instantly. Think Harley engines or the Netflix ta-dum. Your brand needs its own audio signature.

5. Rebalance your 60–40.
Most brands overinvest in performance and underinvest in long-term brand building. That imbalance leads to short-term wins but long-term stagnation. The 40 is where emotional connection and margin growth live.

6. Go offline.
TV, radio, print, and OOH build memory structures that digital alone cannot. Offline presence provides weight, permanence, and cultural gravity that algorithms can’t replicate.

7. Hunt for underpriced attention.
Attention shifts constantly. CTV, niche podcasts, emerging creators, and local sponsorships often outperform the crowded places everyone else is chasing. Look where others are not.

8. Lead with emotion.
Emotion outperforms rational messaging across nearly every category. People buy when they feel understood, valued, and inspired. Emotion is what sparks memory and loyalty.

9. Be consistent.
Not boring, consistent. Cult Brands repeat ideas, symbols, and rituals until they become part of your identity. Consistency turns creative assets into cultural assets.

10. Aim for fame.
Choose one big idea. Make it unmistakable. Make it culturally contagious. Fame is efficiency. Fame turns a brand from a product into a statement.

The real secret to avoiding the boring brand trap is simple. 

Stop trying to be safe. 

Safe brands do not create community, ritual, or belonging. 

Safe brands do not inspire devotion. 

Safe brands do not become part of someone’s identity. 

To become unforgettable, you need to become more distinctive, more emotional, more human, and more willing to stand for something.

What bold move will make you unforgettable in 2026?

November 30, 2025 by

Reach Isn’t a Dirty Word

Somewhere along the way, “reach” became a bad word.

Marketers started saying it with hesitation, as if being broad or inclusive meant being wasteful or unfocused.

I don’t see it that way.

After years of helping brands grow, I’ve learned that reach is the foundation of relevance.

Too often, I watch teams chase precision like it’s the holy grail, narrowing their focus until they’ve filtered out the very people who could become their next customers. They pay more to reach fewer people, mistaking exclusion for efficiency.

But the data tells a different story.

Light buyers, the ones who purchase once or twice a year, drive nearly half of all brand sales. Yet most targeting strategies exclude them.

That means we’re literally paying extra to avoid our future customers.

The Ehrenberg-Bass Institute demonstrated this decades ago: brands don’t grow by getting loyalists to buy more. They grow by reaching more people overall.

It’s simple math, but it’s also human psychology. 

Familiarity breeds trust. 

Repeated exposure builds memory. 

Shared stories create belonging.

When I talk about reach, I’m not talking about spraying ads across screens. I’m talking about expanding the circle, inviting more people into the story of your brand.

Because when you reach more people with authenticity and heart, you’re not wasting impressions.

You’re planting the seeds of connection. Reach isn’t a dirty word.

It’s how communities grow.

It’s how cult brands are born.

November 28, 2025 by

Why Your Loyalty Program Isn’t Working (and Never Will)

The travel and hospitality industry lives inside a trillion-dollar illusion: the belief that loyalty is something you can buy with points, perks, and programs.

It isn’t.

After decades and millions of miles, I’ve learned something that every brand, hospitality or otherwise, needs to hear:

Loyalty doesn’t come from your points. 

It comes from your people.

And not the ones you expect.

Most hotels operate under what I call the front-desk fallacy, the idea that loyalty is built at check-in. That’s where guests hear about their “status,” their “benefits,” and maybe get a slightly better room. It’s a ritual of politeness, not belonging. A transaction wrapped in a smile.

The truth is, loyalty happens far from the front desk. It’s built in the hallways, behind the bar, in the restaurant, and in all the quiet places where your people turn routine moments into human ones.

It’s the bartender who remembers your drink.

The housekeeper who notices how you like your room.

The server who knows your comfort meal and asks about your family.

Those small gestures of care do what no app, no algorithm, no loyalty portal ever could:

They make people feel seen.

Loyalty isn’t built through benefits. It’s built through belonging.

Because while technology can remember your preferences, only people can remember you.

So if you’re leading a brand, repeat this mantra daily:

 “It’s the people.”

Then go prove it. 

Empower your teams to notice, to connect, to care.

In a world racing toward automation, the most radical act left is still the simplest one.

Be human.

November 25, 2025 by

What If You Could See Every Market Before You Enter It?

Business decisions have always balanced three ingredients: gut, guesswork, and a little hope that the data you pulled from five different places is still relevant.

That’s starting to change.

With Google’s new location intelligence tools, we can finally bridge the gap between intuition and insight, turning what used to feel like educated guessing into informed strategy.

Imagine having:

• Real data from 250+ million global locations, updated every month
• Access to 300+ business types across 70 characteristics
• The ability to blend this with your own data securely, in your own space
• And tools you already know how to use, like BigQuery

Now think about what that means for your next move:

• Counting nearby restaurants, bars, and attractions to understand community vitality
• Seeing what’s working in similar markets and discovering why
• Understanding your competitive landscape, not just who’s there, but how they perform and what customers actually value

We’ve always said that a great strategy starts with great empathy, understanding how people live, move, and connect. Tools like this help turn that empathy into precision.

Because when you understand where your customers are, you’re one step closer to understanding who they are.

We got an early look at the demo here: https://mapsplatform.google.com/demos/places-insights/

Have a great day ahead!

November 23, 2025 by

What Makes Creative “Effective”?

For us, effectiveness goes far beyond clicks, views, or lift reports.

We define effective creative as work that moves people and moves the brand forward.

In simple terms: Remarkable work that works remarkably.

Remarkable means it has a soul.

  • Strategically grounded in the brand’s truth
  • Emotionally resonant enough to be felt, not just seen
  • Distinctive to the culture and community the brand serves
  • Crafted with care and intention in every detail

Remarkably means it performs  not just once, but over time.

  • It builds memory, connection, and advocacy
  • It delivers measurable business growth through emotional loyalty

That’s a high bar. Especially when so much advertising today on every screen fails to connect. Many studies suggest creativity is declining, not improving.

We take the opposite view: creativity is becoming more vital than ever. Because in an age of automation, what’s human becomes what’s scarce.

Our process for ensuring creative effectiveness begins long before launch. We pretest work not only for message clarity and recall, but for emotional impact, how it makes people feel, what stories it triggers, and whether it aligns with the brand’s deeper purpose.

We call it Emotional ROI. It’s how we measure meaning as carefully as we measure metrics.

Because remarkable results never come from guesswork. They come from deep understanding, empathy, and preparation. And when a brand creates something truly remarkable, something that resonates, performance follows.

November 21, 2025 by

The Future of Agencies Isn’t About Time. It’s About Trust.

According to the World Advertising Research Center, 41% of agencies still bill by the hour. 

Only 24% of marketers want that model.

That gap says a lot.

As AI speeds up production and automation reshapes workflows, billing for time makes less and less sense. Should a client pay more because an agency works slowly or less because they’ve invested in being efficient?

Hourly billing rewards activity, not outcomes. It measures inputs, not impact. And it risks breaking the very alignment that partnership requires.

At The Cult Branding Company, we’ve never believed trust should be measured in minutes. For over two decades, our relationships have been built on shared goals, transparency, and results that endure what we call Emotional ROI.

Our model isn’t about hours. It’s about outcomes that matter: loyalty, advocacy, belonging, and sustained brand growth. That’s the difference between a transactional partnership and a transformational one.

We believe the next generation of agencies will evolve toward this kind of alignment—models rooted in performance, trust, and purpose. Those that cling to the old system will struggle to prove their value in a world that increasingly prizes authenticity and measurable impact.

The shift away from hourly billing isn’t just operational, it’s cultural. It’s about moving from selling time to creating meaning.

And that’s great news for every brand ready to grow not just bigger, but deeper.

November 18, 2025 by

Don’t Just Look for Great Teachers. Become a Great Learner.

There’s real wisdom in finding a great coach or teacher. 

But there’s even greater wisdom in becoming a great learner.

When we’re truly open to learning, teachers start showing up everywhere. 

Not just in books, podcasts, and in posts like this one.

The person checking out your groceries can be a teacher.

The person delivering your mail can be a teacher.

Every human interaction can be a lesson, if we’re willing to see it that way.

Instead of rushing to judge, pause and ask, “What can I learn from this person?”

The moment we do that, something shifts. 

The world stops being divided between “experts” and “everyone else.” 

It becomes a living classroom where curiosity turns ordinary encounters into extraordinary insights.

As the old saying goes, “When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.”

So get ready. 

Be curious. 

Be humble.

And become the kind of student who never stops learning.

November 17, 2025 by

Luxury Isn’t Losing Value, It’s Losing Connection

Every time a new report drops on the state of retail or luxury, I pause before opening it. Not because I expect surprises, but because the numbers always reveal a deeper story about how people are changing.

The recent Forbes piece on declining luxury brand valuations is one of those moments. It doesn’t just signal a market shift; it mirrors the mindset of today’s customer.

For years, luxury thrived on aspiration. People reached for brands that stood for something: success, craftsmanship, belonging. But when prices climb and relationships don’t deepen, that balance breaks. What once felt aspirational starts to feel out of reach.

And this isn’t just about luxury. It’s a preview of what’s happening across every category.

Today’s customers, no matter their income, want three things:

    Transparency. Why does this brand exist? What does it stand for beyond its products?

    Utility. Does this make my life better, easier, healthier, or more joyful?

    Connection. Do I feel seen, understood, and part of something larger?

When any of those three break, so does loyalty.

So where do brands go from here?

    Rebalance value and values. The best brands will stop thinking in terms of “premium pricing” and start earning their pricing through trust, relevance, and meaning.

    Redefine exclusivity. In this new era, access is the new aspiration. Personalized experiences, limited collaborations, and digital memberships create belonging without closing doors.

    Invest in emotional equity. Luxury used to mean owning something beautiful. Now it means being part of something meaningful. Experiences, storytelling, and shared purpose build connection far better than any logo ever could.

    Build agility into the model. Markets shift. Economies tighten. Platforms evolve. The brands that last will think like startups, responsive, data informed, and never entitled to attention.

The leaders I admire most aren’t lamenting this moment. They’re using it as fuel to reinvent, to reconnect, and to create brands that feel more human, more inclusive, and more intentional.

Because resilience doesn’t come from being untouchable. It comes from being adaptable and staying close to the people who make your brand matter.

November 14, 2025 by

Media Changed. People Didn’t.

For as long as I’ve been in marketing, I’ve heard the same warning: media is fragmenting. Every new platform, app, and device supposedly splits audience attention into smaller and smaller pieces.

But when I look at the data and at real human behavior, I see something else entirely. 

Despite all the noise about fragmentation, people haven’t changed all that much.

According to WARC’s latest numbers, the way we spend our daily minutes with the media has been remarkably consistent over the past seven years. Watching still dominates, followed by listening, social media, reading, and gaming. 

The mix barely shifts.

That tells me something powerful: 

Fragmentation is a business problem, not a human one. 

As Charlie Ebdy said perfectly, “fragmentation is an agency, not an advertiser problem.” From where people sit, life doesn’t feel fragmented. They’re just flowing naturally between screens, sounds, and stories.

What has changed is context. 

The same emotional needs that have always driven attention, connection, entertainment, and belonging are still in charge. They just express themselves through new channels.

So instead of obsessing over where people are, I think it’s time we focus on how we show up for them. 

The next big shift in media won’t be about reach; it will be about resonance:

Creating more meaningful context, not just precision targeting.

Investing in quality environments that shape trust and perception.

Building influence through authenticity, not just impressions.

The landscape will keep multiplying and algorithms will keep evolving. But human nature stays steady. The brands that remember this, the ones that speak to the human behind the data, will always rise above the noise.

November 11, 2025 by

Will It Make the Work Better?

It’s a question I’ve been asking myself for decades.

Not just about projects or clients, but about learning itself.

For most of my working life, I’ve been on a quest to understand what truly makes the work better. That journey led me deep into the worlds of Carl Jung, Abraham Maslow, and Joseph Campbell. Three thinkers who helped me see that great work isn’t born from marketing formulas, but from understanding human nature.

I’ve spent years studying their ideas: Jung’s insights into archetypes and the collective unconscious, Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs, Campbell’s hero’s journey and the call to transformation. Every book, every note, every late-night reflection was part of one pursuit: to make the work more meaningful, more human, more alive.

Over time, I realized that improving the work isn’t just about creativity or strategy. It’s about empathy. It’s about seeing the hidden patterns that connect people to stories, and stories to brands.

That’s been my lifelong obsession, to bridge psychology, mythology, and marketing into something that resonates at the deepest human level.

Because in the end, all progress, personal or professional, comes back to one question.

Will it make the work better?

For me, that’s still the north star.

All roads lead to the work.

Do you agree?

November 9, 2025 by