The Most Dangerous Sentence in Marketing
By Filip Ivankovic
Director, New Rebellion
Filip has led enterprise marketing functions, managed a $40M budget and delivered 30% growth on a $200M base. An ex-CMO with experience across agency, client and vendor roles he understands where marketing delivers and where it gets stuck.
New Rebellion was built to create something sharper. A model that connects strategy to delivery, fast.
There’s a sentence that should set off alarms in every boardroom. You’ve heard it before. Maybe you’ve said it.
“We’ve always done it this way.”
On the surface, it sounds harmless. Safe. Even logical. But in marketing, it’s often the first sign your strategy is no longer a strategy. It’s muscle memory. And that comfort? It’s costing you.
Complacency is Expensive
When growth stalls, it’s rarely because a business isn’t doing enough. It’s because it’s doing the wrong things on repeat. Budgets keep getting signed off. Reports keep getting filed. But results don’t shift.
Why?
Because nobody’s asking whether the tactics still match the market.
Because change is hard and comfort is easy.
Because legacy vendors keep sliding under the radar.
Because decision makers are too busy to rewire the machine.
Meanwhile, customers move on. Markets evolve. Channels shift. And your competitors experiment while your team doubles down on what used to work.
The Market’s Changed. Has Your Marketing?
Your audience doesn’t behave like it did five years ago. Neither should your marketing.
Here’s what we see too often:
- Media plans built around old habits, not actual performance
- Creative stuck in brand guidelines, ignoring what converts
- Teams too stretched to step back and fix the system
- Strategy decks filed away while execution runs on autopilot
Modern marketing isn’t about doing more. It’s about doing what matters. Clearly. Quickly. Commercially.
Breaking the Cycle
The most successful brands aren’t afraid to pause and challenge. They ask:
- Is this still working or just familiar?
- What are we measuring and does it matter?
- Are we investing for outcomes or just activity?
Sometimes the fix is technical: broken funnels, misaligned budgets, bloated reporting
Sometimes it’s structural: too many layers, not enough leadership
Always, it starts with asking better questions
That’s where senior perspective cuts through. External review. Clean diagnostics. Commercial truth over internal noise.
Old Habits Don’t Build New Growth
What worked in 2019 won’t carry you in 2025.
Marketing needs to shift with the business, not operate in a silo. That means realignment. Not just of strategy, but of structure, talent, spend and expectation.
If your marketing team is busy but your results aren’t moving, you’ve got a strategy problem disguised as execution.
And if the answer to “Why are we doing this?” is still “Because we always have”, that’s your red flag.
The Bottom Line
Complacency feels like safety. But it’s the biggest risk of all.
Doing things the same way is a decision. It's just not a good one.
Read more thoughts below.
When Annual Performance Reviews Fail
10 Green Flags of a High Performing Marketing Partner
The Thinking Behind New Rebellion
The Dunning-Kruger Traps in Modern Marketing Teams
Should You Build In-House or Hire an Agency
Why More Channels Can Hurt Marketing Performance
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About New Rebellion
We help businesses break through outdated thinking, build smarter strategies and lead with confidence. No fluff, no wasted time. Just insight-driven action that delivers measurable growth.
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