Most brands still mistake collaboration for adding more names to a meeting invite. Real collaboration is about letting the people who'll challenge you. The ones who'll poke holes, sharpen your thinking and push you past "safe".
The brands that stand out are the ones that invite tension and thrive on debate. They build with people and not in isolation. And in today's B2B landscape, that's the difference between a brand that's remembered and ones that fade into the noise.
Why this matters for your team
If your brand feels stuck or samey, it probably is. That's usually because it was built in a vacuum.
- Inside your business: Smash the silos. Get your specialists, strategists and doers in the room early. Debate creates better ideas than polite nods. UK bodies identify employee voices as a key lever for performance and productivity with evidence linking engagement with better performance outcomes across the UK economy.
- Outside your walls: Clients, partners and even industry outsiders will spot what you can't. Monzo built loyalty and market share by co-creating with its customer community through open forums and beta features.
- With your audience: When you involve the people who use, believe in or even criticise your brand, your positioning becomes sharper and your solutions braver.
Even public sector examples prove the point: the NHS has seen complaints drop by 80% in 14 months when using experience-based co-design with patients. If co-creation can solve that level of friction, it can solve yours too.
The risk of staying in your echo chamber
Echo chambers don't just exist online and it's easy for teams to fall into the same trap.
Ofcom research shows that people who only consume news through social feeds become more polarised and less trusting. The same thing happens in brand teams that rely on the same voices over and over - your thinking narrows and your brand slowly blends into the noise.
Tangible steps to break out this quarter
- Audit your process: Where are you working in silo? Identify one stage where you can invite external input.
- Host a co-creation sprint: Bring one client, one frontline team member, and one 'wildcard' external perspective to stress-test ideas.
- Test and act quickly: Ship a rough concept and gather feedback fast. Acting on external input shows people you're serious about co-creation.
The UK Design Council has proven that structured, cross-functional design work drives faster growth and better outcomes, contributing £97.4bn GVA to the UK economy - twice the rate of the wider economy. In other words, opening your process to more voices isn't just good for culture, it's good for business.
What you get in return
- Braver positioning: Stand out instead of blending in.
- Stronger loyalty: Clients and teams feel genuine ownership of the brand.
- Faster growth: Diverse input leads to sharper, more relevant ideas.
If you're serious about breaking out of your echo chamber and building a brand that's as bold as your ambitions, it starts with inviting the right voices in.
Bray St. helps brands co-create strategies that cut through. We're here for the brands ready to open up, shake things up - and make ideas that stick.
Sources:
- Design Council – The Design Economy
https://www.designcouncil.org.uk/fileadmin/uploads/dc/Documents/DC_DE_Eco_Value_Exec_Sum_digital_Final.pdf - Ofcom – Online news and echo chambers
https://www.ofcom.org.uk/siteassets/resources/documents/research-and-data/multi-sector/media-plurality/2024/0324-online-news-research-update.pdf - NHS / Transformation Partners – Rapid review of patient co‑production and design
https://www.transformationpartners.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Rapid-review-Patient-co-production-and-design.pdf - Monzo – How our community helps us build a better bank
https://monzo.com/blog/2018/11/05/monzo-community - Acas – Productivity and employee voice summary
https://www.acas.org.uk/research-and-commentary/productivity-and-management - Engage for Success – Employee engagement evidence reviewhttps://engageforsuccess.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/The-Evidence.pdf