The case for marketing boredom

Marketers (and consumers tbh) are like fiends these days: absolutely addicted to chaos.

If it isn’t AI-generated Drake jingles, deep fried schizo memes, or some fast food mascot twerking on TikTok, we’re told it’s not “innovative". The mantra is always: disrupt, reinvent, grab attention at any cost. But here’s a hot take (and by now you know I’m full of those): maybe the most radical move a brand can make in 2025 is… being boring.

Not boring in the sense of lifeless - Because why tf would I tell you to do that? I mean boring as in consistent. Predictable. Steady. The kind of marketing that won’t land you on the front page of AdAge, but will quietly keep the money flowing, year over year type beat.

As humans, we secretly love boring brands.

We are wired for predictability. We like routines, we like rituals, we like doing the same ab workout for the last five years (with no abs to show for it), we like knowing what we’re going to get. That’s why people order the same Starbucks drink every morning as a religious practice, or why Colgate has been in your bathroom cabinet since you were in diapers. Reliability feels safe.

Marketing chaos gives us novelty, but as we all know, novelty fades (where’s your Labubu currently, huh?) What people actually stick to are the brands that become habits, woven into the day-to-day without us even noticing. Spotify Wrapped, and yes I know I’ve used this example to death. Even though it might be the flashy campaign that trends every December, the real reason Spotify dominates is because it quietly owns your commute, your workout, your sad-girl-washing-dishes-staring-out-the-window playlist.

Cringe campaigns and viral stunts might grab your attention for a week, but they rarely build trust. Trust is slow, repetitive, and yes, boring. And trust is what actually makes people stick around. This is proven. This is the marketers north star.

And there are frameworks that prove that boring works, too.

Despite my usual approach to things, this isn’t just a vibes-based argument, there’s hard data backing it up.

• The Ehrenberg-Bass Institute has shown that the brands that grow aren’t the ones who shock and awe, but the ones that are mentally and physically available. In short: be easy to buy, be easy to remember, and be consistent.

• Retention beats acquisition. Bain & Company found that increasing customer retention by just 5% can boost profits by 25%-95%. Retention isn’t flashy, but it’s basically compound interest for your brand.

• The supposedly “dead” channels still quietly outperform the shiny ones. Email is boring, yet it delivers an average $36 ROI per dollar spent. Paid search? Still the top driver of conversions for most businesses.

It’s not sexy. But it works.

Think of it like dating. Chaos marketing is the one-night stand: maybe thrilling and spontaneous, but sometimes (more often than not) regrettable. Boring marketing is the long-term partner who always shows up, remembers your coffee order, and does the grocery shopping with you. One gives you a short story; the other gives you a fulfilling and stable life.

We’ve seen what happens when brands go all-in on chaos. May I remind you of Pepsi’s Kendall Jenner protest ad? Viral for all the wrong reasons. Or the endless wave of fast food Twitter accounts trying to out-weird each other until the bit got so overdone and cringe that now it’s completely dead in the water. These moments generated headlines, but they didn’t build lasting loyalty.

Compare that to the brands who have mastered boring. Coca Cola has barely done anything innovative or memorable over the years, but it’s still breaking everywhere you look, eat, shop. Dove’s “Real Beauty” campaign started in 2004 and still shapes their comms. It's boring, but steady and still here.

So then, how do you build a boring-but-powerful marketing engine?

And how do you embrace the power of boring without becoming forgettable? Think of it as building your marketing foundation:

1. Set a cadence and stick to it. Don’t ghost your audience for weeks and then drop a chaotic rebrand. Show up on schedule, emails, posts, updates.

2. Optimize the unglamorous channels. Search, email, loyalty programs, CRM systems. They don’t trend on LinkedIn, but they keep customers coming back.

3. Measure retention, not just reach. Viral spikes look good in a deck, but recurring revenue looks good in a bank account. And only one is going to get you that new Prada bag.

4. Layer chaos on top, not instead. Once the boring engine is humming, then you can add the experimental stunt, the risky TikTok, the weird mascot moment. Dessert, not the meal.

Is it time for a boring rebellion?

The point I’m trying to get to is that boring makes the fun possible. Without a reliable baseline, every creative risk becomes existential. With a boring backbone, you can experiment without fear.

In an industry that rewards chaos, maybe the bravest, most rebellious thing you can do is stick to a routine.

-Sophie Randell, Writer