In a world overwhelmed by messages, being boring isn’t simply ineffective. It can actually hurt your brand.
Branding expert and author Sally Hogshead delivered that central message during her General Session presentation today at PRSA ICON 2026 in Orlando, Fla.
Hogshead challenged communications professionals to reconsider how they capture attention, arguing that the strategies that once helped build recognizable brands no longer guarantee an audience.
“When we lived in an unsaturated world with three channels, you could have a boring message because people were so desperate for any kind of stimulation that they would listen to you,” she said.
Brands such as Kellogg’s and AT&T benefited from an era when repetition and consistency were enough to establish recognition. But today’s audiences face a constant stream of competing information.
“If you have a boring message, you’re actually damaging your brand because people are less likely to listen to you the next time,” Hogshead said.
Her advice was straightforward: “Stand out or don’t bother.”
Give audiences a reason to care
Hogshead said the need to communicate in a compelling way extends beyond advertising and public relations.
Even everyday conversations, including those around the dinner table, can benefit from moving past routine exchanges and addressing what people genuinely think and feel.
For organizations, she argued, the most valuable brands don’t simply repeat messages. They communicate what they believe.
“The most intensely valuable brands express their beliefs consistently, persistently, insistently and courageously,” she said.
To help communicators develop stronger messages, Hogshead offered a three-part framework built around relevance, urgency and a clear reason to act.
She encouraged attendees to think about a client and build a message around three elements:
- Relevance: “There’s never been a time in which it’s more important for you to…” Complete the sentence with a specific benefit that matters to the audience.
- Urgency: “Because right now…” Explain what’s happening that makes the message especially relevant at this moment.
- Positioning: Show why the organization or client is uniquely qualified to address that need.
Together, the three elements offer a way to move beyond generic claims and explain why an audience should pay attention now.
Stop trying to be everything
Another challenge, Hogshead said, is the tendency to combine conflicting messages in an effort to appeal to everyone. She illustrated the problem with an analogy involving dogs.
A watchdog has a clear purpose: protection. A lap dog has an equally recognizable role: companionship and charm. But when communicators try to combine an aggressive message with an overly friendly one, the result can become muddled.
She pointed to the familiar corporate phrase “We’re pleased to announce” as an example of language that often fails to establish a distinctive point of view.
To make the lesson more memorable, Hogshead introduced attendees to her own dog, Bob Ross.
Named for the late television painter, Bob Ross has become something of a branding experiment in her household.
Hogshead described how she and her family embraced the dog’s resemblance to his namesake, giving him a goatee-like haircut and even grooming a painter’s palette onto his backside, with his tail serving as the paintbrush.
Over time, Bob Ross has appeared in other elaborate looks, including Willy Wonka, Tigger and a Key West-inspired parrot.
The story drew on a larger point about identity: When something has a recognizable personality, people connect with it more easily.
Rather than combining unrelated qualities into a message that tries to please everyone, Hogshead encouraged communicators to identify what makes a person, organization or brand distinctive — and build from there.
From one of many to the only one
Hogshead also introduced her Fascination Advantage assessment, a tool she developed to help people understand how others perceive them when they’re at their best.
She noted that her work developing the assessment included clients such as NASA.
For PR professionals navigating an increasingly crowded communications environment, Hogshead’s message was clear: Familiarity alone is no longer enough. Organizations need to communicate what matters to their audiences, why it matters now and what makes them different.
She summed up that challenge with a call to action:
“Refuse to be one of the many. Start being the only.”
Photos by Albert Chau
