Bold Brands Win: How Risk Management Fuels Creative Freedom

Risk – and specifically brand risk – is one of my favourite topics. There’s a common misconception that risk management is both dull and restrictive, but I disagree – managing brand risk effectively gives you much greater brand freedom.

Too often, organisations shy away from bold campaigns because they’re concerned about the potential risk involved – but if you know you can handle it if something does go wrong, you can be much braver in your decision-making.

Ultimately all brands should be working towards a culture of risk management, not risk avoidance – but there are a few things you should consider when starting this journey.

Any brand risk decisions should start with your risk appetite.

Every organisation’s risk appetite is different and depends on various factors, from company size to strategy. However, you need to ensure that your risk appetite supports your organisational objectives – if you’re a new start-up focused on fast growth, you may need to take more risks than more established companies with different KPIs.

If people trust you, they’ll let you off the hook faster.

In 2019 Cancer Research UK launched a new campaign focused on reducing obesity, which received a lot of community backlash for the ‘harmful and misleading’ content. CRUK defended the campaign, stating that raising mass awareness of the link between obesity and cancer was an important public health message.

Three years on, there hasn’t been significant long-term damage to the CRUK brand – in part because of the levels of trust they enjoy with the British public.

The greater your level of brand trust, the greater the risks you can take – because your stakeholders will cut you more slack.

Take a structured approach to assessing brand risk.

Every new activity should start with a brand risk assessment, which will ensure you make an informed decision over whether to proceed. Make sure you consider all potential risks, no matter how unlikely they may seem – you’ll need to consider reputational risks, but use the opportunity to consider financial, internal, governance, stakeholder, and project risks as well.

Managing risk is a lot easier than eliminating it.

One of the greatest mitigation tools at your disposal is how quickly you can stop an activity should you need to. When Lea Michele was accused of bullying her Glee castmates in 2020, HelloFresh dropped her as an ambassador within 24 hours of the news breaking. Swift action backed up by a genuine apology is often enough to protect your brand.

Other common mitigation measures include commissioning market research to sense check how the community may respond to your activity and developing reactive messaging to allow a fast response if needed.

Invest in your risk infrastructure.

You’ve completed your brand risk assessment, put in place thorough mitigation measures, and made the decision to go ahead – but it still blows up into a media storm. How confident are you that your organisation has the tools and resources to handle it?

Whether that’s training all your media spokespeople, developing a clear issues management process, or testing your processes with a mock crisis exercise, investing in your brand risk infrastructure will always pay off.

Calculate whether the risk is worth the reward.

Although you can put in place risk mitigation strategies, no activity is completely risk-free – but you need to decide whether the potential reward is worth it. We know that younger donors want to support causes that take a strong stance on social issues, so a controversial take which generates short-term attention – as long as it’s aligned with your organisational mission – may be part of a longer-term strategy to engage a younger audience.

Brand risk management: your passport to brand freedom.

While some charity marketers may shy away from brand risk management – believing it falls outside their remit or lacking the confidence to tackle it head-on – it’s worth reconsidering. Effective brand risk management isn’t just a safeguard, it’s a strategic enabler that unlocks greater creative freedom.

Take Specsavers, for example – a brand widely praised for its witty, timely responses to current events. Their ability to move quickly and land bold creative ideas is no accident; it’s backed by robust risk management practices. This solid foundation gives them the confidence to take calculated risks, often streamlining approvals and enabling greater creative freedom that catches the public eye.

Ultimately, brand risk management should be seen not as a constraint, but as a catalyst for creativity. With the right systems in place, charity marketers can respond more confidently, act more decisively, and push creative boundaries without fear. When done well, managing risk paves the way for bold, impactful ideas that resonate with audiences, cut through the noise, and unlock the full potential of your brand.