Opinion
The Originality Dividend
Nita Mustonen
In a world this loud, every brand wants the big idea. The bold claim, the clever angle, something to make them stand out. So they invent something smart and bolt it on. It works for a while, then fizzles out. Finally something new has to be invented, and the story repeats.
In the pursuit to connect with the outside world, they forget something important. That the most original idea a company can have already lives inside it. In what they make, in why they started, in the people who show up every day.
“Originality is not invented, it’s found.” - Anthony Miles
Working with many different projects throughout the years, one thing has proven true time and time again: no matter the product, the person, or the brand, everything has a seed of originality within it. It’s built into them somewhere, hidden sometimes, and our job as brand consultants, designers and strategists is to find it and help bring it to life with commercial benefit.
Where does that originality come from? From multiple different places; it can be a product, a recipe, or just one ingredient of something bigger, a taste of something greater. It can be found in a founder story, a certain location, or anything in between. A seed of originality can be a hidden detail, yet still a clear reflection of a brand’s DNA.
Being original is not the same as being completely different or entirely new. The most successful things we do are often built around a core truth. Instead of trying to invent something from scratch, the creative work is figuring out what already exists and understanding its value, its uniqueness.
We stand with “Originality Pays”, and it’s built on two ideas. The first is finding that originality, bringing it to the surface and building on it. The second is the commercial value it creates. Whether that value is measured through sales, awareness, engagement or something else entirely depends on the organization.
Being different vs. being original?
The industry often talks about differentiation and distinctiveness. These are useful concepts, but they are not quite the same as originality.
The difficult part is not only finding that seed of originality, but understanding what it means in the real world. You need to test it, you need to understand whether it resonates with people and whether it has the ability to create an impact.
Take Coca-Cola. The brand did not start with all the distinctive assets it has today, but over time those assets became part of its originality. They became things that people instantly recognize and associate with the brand.
Our job is to find originality, test it, talk to customers about it and make sure it has the ability to create value. Originality must be different by definition, but difference alone is not enough.
Most brand owners understand why standing out matters. Especially in crowded digital markets, distinctiveness has become increasingly important. Yet the work that actually makes you distinctive often requires going somewhere unfamiliar, forgetting what the rest of the world does.
It’s a cliché, but originality can sometimes mean moving into a bit unknown, and as humans, we naturally dislike things we cannot fully control. We start pulling back.
The interesting thing is that when originality is rooted in something true, it rarely feels as risky as people expect. When it feels right, you almost don’t feel the need to be brave. Unknown isn’t equal to risk.
When we work closely with clients, we often find that the strongest ideas do not require huge leaps of faith. We’ve created brands that are highly distinctive within their categories, yet afterwards the people behind them often tell us the same thing: the brand feels more like itself than ever before.
Different industries find originality in different places but, if possible, it should feel like something that’s been unearthed and discovered. Not something that’s been imposed.
Then you commit. Then you repeat.
The hardest part?
A brand is not really finished if it cannot be used in the real world.
One of the most important conversations with clients is what happens after the work is delivered. A brand needs to be practical, understood and usable. Without alignment inside the organization, even the strongest ideas struggle to be implemented.
At the heart of all of this is change. Whether an organization has ten people or eight hundred, people need to understand why change is happening and feel they have been part of the process. It is not about designing by committee, but about creating ownership and identity.
Originality pays: Examples of commercial success?
The commercial benefit of originality can take many forms. At the beginning of every project, it is important to understand what success actually looks like. Otherwise, why are we doing the work in the first place?
Success can mean increased revenue, stronger sales, greater awareness, improved engagement or something entirely different. The metric depends on the organization.
One example is Antti Tapani, a fashion brand created together with Prisma, and a legendary Finnish artist Antti Tuisku. Instead of simply building merchandise around a famous face into a T-shirt, the work began with a deeper question: why should this brand even exist?
The answer was found in Tuisku’s own story. At a crucial point in his career, he chose to move away from expectations and create work that felt true to himself, despite people warning him against it. And it worked. From this came the central idea of the brand: Great was never normal.
The result was a significant, 1700% increase in online sales and multiple effectiveness awards.
Merge Gardens -game was a different kind of challenge. This mobile game operated in an extremely crowded market. The gameplay worked well, but it lacked a compelling story. The challenge was not to redesign the game, but to discover what made it distinctive.
After exploring different possibilities, a simple, but true to the game's self -idea emerged. In gardening culture, talented gardeners are often said to have a green thumb. What if, in this world, a green thumb was not a figure of speech but a magical ability?
That simple thought unlocked a distinctive world for the game and created a much stronger platform for marketing and future development. Here too, the result was a dramatic increase in revenue. Ten times more installs and doubled player retention.
A third example is Siili, a Finnish technology consultancy whose name means hedgehog in Finnish. Here, originality was hiding in plain sight. The identity was built around a simplified interpretation of the hedgehog itself, while employees were invited to create their own versions of the logo. The result strengthened engagement,
recruitment and ownership across the organization.
The examples are different, but the principle remains the same. Originality creates value when organizations identify what makes them genuinely distinctive and commit to it consistently.
What's one thing leaders can do better to embrace their originality today?
For leaders, there can be a temptation to arrive with new ideas and immediately start changing things. Yet some of the strongest projects begin by looking backwards instead of forwards.
Revisiting the origins of a company, understanding what motivated its founders and examining the earliest expressions of the brand can reveal valuable ideas that have been forgotten over time.
Not everything needs to be replaced. Sometimes the most effective form of innovation is recognizing what already works and giving it a new life, a new possibility.
Different industries find originality in different places, but the principle remains the same. The challenge is not simply finding it. The challenge is believing in it and committing to it over time.
Originality is not something that can be imposed from the outside. It is something that is discovered.
Then you commit.
Then you repeat.
Originality pays.