Speaking from experience.
I've learned a few things in my 12-plus years of branding.
It's easy to make your company's brand all about your company. But the truth is, people don't care about you. They care about themselves. Your marketing is not a platform for bragging about your rankings, awards, or mission. It's an opportunity for you to come alongside your audience and communicate how you'll make their lives better. In short, answer the question: what's in it for me?
If you want to sell something once, tout its features. If you want a spike in sales, throw a sale. If you want customers to come back time and time again (despite your competitors touting features and throwing sales), make your audience feel something. We choose brands like we choose friends. Friends who make us laugh, cry, or feel inspired are the ones we hold onto.
After completing Step 7 of assembling my son's trampoline, the instruction manual told me to "take a snack break. You've earned it." Moral of the story: if a trampoline instruction manual can find a way to be clear AND creative, we all can.
As a creative leader, it's our job to elevate the work. It's necessary, and it's good. But put yourself in your team's shoes. Day after day their work is critiqued by you, their peers, and of course, the client. Making sure to point out the stuff you like can remind them that...well...you like it. You might think it's a given, but it isn't.
Ideas can't be faked. It's the work that counts ... so get ahold of me, and let's start making. (We'll leave the faking to the other guys.)
When you play the numbers game, a dollar here or a percentage point there and suddenly ... you're irrelevant ... left in the dust by your competition's latest price gouge or ranking. Instead of joining a game in which everybody loses, build your brand around the core values you have in common with your ideal customer.
(Bonus points if you know what movie introduced us to the idea of "7-minute abs".)