Bury Boring: Mystique director warns safe marketing costs Jamaican brands
At an IMPACT x Mystique conference, creative director Matthew Mitchell argued that “playing it safe” can make brands disappear in consumers’ minds.
A full-sized casket set the tone for a marketing message that left little room for comfort: the real death in advertising is being forgotten.
Speaking at the IMPACT x Mystique marketing conference at Kingston’s AC Hotel on Thursday, Matthew Mitchell, creative director at Mystique Integrated Services, framed “safe marketing” as a costly habit for Jamaican brands.. He told the room that bold work may look expensive, but a brand that loses memory and attention can end up paying even more.
In this context, the point was not just about creativity for its own sake, but about staying noticeable when audiences are quick to move on.
Mitchell said the local marketing environment repeatedly cycles through the same visual approaches, turning campaigns into something that looks familiar rather than compelling.. He argued that brands are producing more content and launching more campaigns than ever, yet the effect can shrink when distinctiveness is missing.
He described what he called a “distinctiveness crisis” and a “memory crisis,” warning that short attention spans make it harder for messages to stick.. He cited the idea that screen attention has fallen over time, alongside shorter windows for digital content to capture active attention and translate into memory.
That matters because attention is the currency of modern marketing, and when it is spent on the ordinary, even frequent posting may fail to build lasting recall.
Mitchell also warned that many Jamaican brands lean too heavily toward activation at the expense of brand building. In his view, the goal should not be limited to quick interactions and immediate sales, because long-term growth depends on emotional connection and brand recognition.
To illustrate the difference, he pointed to Campari as a case where brand building remains central, even locally. He described how the brand’s global premium positioning is balanced with Jamaican relevance, using familiar cultural imagery and story angles to make the message land.
He said Campari identified desire as a key driving emotion for its core consumers in Jamaica, then built campaigns around that emotion, including a “Red Passion” initiative tied to purchase promotions.. Mitchell presented this as an example of how a clear emotional theme can support both memory and commercial results.
He added that other brands, including Liquid Death with its “Murder Your Thirst” tagline, have also used unmistakable messaging to stand out and drive sales.. In wrapping up, Mitchell argued that safe marketing can bring costs beyond wasted budgets, including being ignored, paying for internal mediocrity, and losing cultural fit.
The bigger takeaway is straightforward: brands that consistently play it safe may reduce visible risk while quietly increasing the risk of disappearing from customers’ minds.