Is Playing It Safe The Biggest Risk Your Brand Can Take?

Gravity Research’s Joanna Piacenza has a knack for driving enterprise growth through research-backed thought leadership and integrated marketing strategy. As VP of thought leadership and marketing, she excels at translating proprietary research into executive-ready narratives and strategic communications.

On this episode of On Scope, Joanna joins host Mike Berberich to share recent research from her organization indicating that 2026 looks to be a year of playing it safe for marketers and explain why that just may be the riskiest move a brand can make.

Together, Joanna and Mike cover the role AI has played in marketers opting to play it safer this year, what Joanna is hearing from Fortune 500 executives about their concerns for 2026 that hasn’t shown up in public discourse yet, and her advice for how marketers can take risks without upsetting brand stakeholders.

On “This Week in ANA Magazine,” Matthew Schwartz, editor of the publication, joins Mike to spotlight an article on the proliferation of creator partnerships in marketing. Together, the pair underscore some of the best practices needed to make these activations succeed and highlight some of the KPIs marketers should consider.

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The On Scope team would love to hear from you! If you have a topic or guest idea, you can email them at [e-mail].