When it’s totally fine to skip strategy (and when it’s really, really not)
As a brand and marketing strategists, we love thinking before doing. It means we’re not guessing our way through the doing bit. But even we’ll admit: not every project needs a deep dive into the existential questions of your brand.
So when can you skip the strategy part and go straight to creative execution?
Here are five times it might be okay to bypass the post-its and the vision boards and just get it done.
1. It’s a quick-turnaround job and no one’s losing sleep over it.
Updating last year’s EOFY campaign? Creating internal hype for a brand relaunch? You probably don’t need a discovery session for that. Sometimes you just need something done by COB and that’s okay. When the stakes are low, go go go.
2. You’ve already done the strategic thinking, recently.
If you’ve recently completed a solid brand strategy, marketing strategy, or campaign blueprint, and everyone’s still aligned and clear on the ‘who’ and the ‘why,’ you might not need to do it all over again. Strategy fatigue is real. Use what you’ve got and channel your energy into execution.
3. You’re testing and learning.
Launching a few versions of a paid ad to see what sticks? Piloting a campaign with a test audience? In these cases, speed and data can be more valuable than a big strategic lead-up. Just make sure you’ve got a baseline understanding of your audience first, or you’re just yelling into the void.
4. It’s mandated content with zero flexibility.
Sometimes you’ve just got to make a thing because compliance said so. Or the board wants that specific message. Or it’s a Product Disclosure Statement and creativity is... not the point. Strategy won’t change the outcome here, and that’s okay. Make it look nice. Move on.
5. You’re building momentum and morale.
Occasionally, diving straight into making something can get the energy up and the team moving, especially when you’ve been stuck in big-picture limbo. A small, fast creative win can break the inertia and set you up to tackle bigger strategic work later with clearer heads and renewed zest.
When it’s not OK to skip strategy
Here’s the flip side.
Strategy is essential:
When the stakes are high
When your brand is going through a rough patch
When you need to get it right the first time
When you’re introducing change
When you’re doing something new
When you’re targeting a different audience
When you have low certainty in your existing insights
When your existing insights are more than 12 months old
When you need to demonstrate ROI and rigour in your spending.
When you always skip strategy, you end up with mismatched, inconsistent, and underwhelming work. It might look shiny in the short term, but it rarely performs.
Worse, you burn time and money-making things that don’t move the needle, or confuse your audience.
Investing in strategy, whether that’s a discovery workshop, stakeholder alignment, audience research, or just taking a moment to get clear on your objectives, gives your creative purpose. It’s the difference between throwing spaghetti at the wall and serving up a perfectly balanced lasagne.
Clear strategy also gives your team confidence. When everyone knows the why, the what becomes easier (and often faster) to execute. Fewer rewrites. Fewer “Can we just go back to version two?” moments. Less design-by-committee. Better ROI.
Studio Hoopla gets this balance. We know when to roll up our sleeves and just do the thing, and when to hit pause and ask a few important questions first.
If you’re ever unsure whether your next project needs strategy or just a solid creative brief, ask us. We’re not precious. We’re here to make your brand look good and work hard.