Innovation Is Now Mandatory, Not Optional" – Brave Group CEO’s Mark Awards Challenge

Innovation Is Not a Department, It’s a Demand

Brave Group CEO issues a challenge to the communications industry ahead of The Mark Awards 2025

Innovation is not an award category, it is not a brainstorm, and it is not a campaign add-on. According to Brave Group CEO Musa Kalenga, innovation is now a fundamental business demand, and right now, too few brands are taking it seriously.

Kalenga, just announced as a juror in the Innovation category of the 2025 Mark Awards, is calling for a reset in how the industry thinks about relevance and creative progress. “We don’t innovate to be different, we innovate to remain necessary,” he says. “Too much of what we call innovation today is just iteration. True innovation challenges assumptions, reshapes how we think, and forces us to rebuild what no longer works.”

At the Brave Group, Kalenga has championed a philosophy that puts transformation at the heart of strategy. The agency’s work reflects a belief in the power of big thinking, cultural intelligence, and technological fluency to solve real problems. “Clients don’t need more noise. They need creative interventions that shift outcomes and reframe possibilities,” he adds.

The Innovation category at this year’s Mark Awards, sponsored by OLIVER, recognises work that creates meaningful change. It celebrates the campaigns, platforms, and provocations that don’t just improve the status quo but render it obsolete. Kalenga joins a jury of global experts including Genevieve van Vuuren, Valarie Vacante, Erna George, Yuvisti Ramgulam, Tanja De Korte, and Dan Marcus, who are collectively looking for work that drives industries forward.

Kalenga believes the industry has become addicted to quick wins and safe plays. “This is the era of generative content and synthetic voices. If we want our work to matter, it must go deeper. It must be more honest. It has to be braver.” Innovation, he says, must be measured not by its novelty but by the tension it creates and the systems it disrupts. “Are you designing for people or for platforms? Are you solving old problems in new ways, or new problems we haven’t yet named? Are you building something future-proof, or just shiny?”

The Mark Awards, now open for submissions, is not just a showpiece for creative craft. It is a platform for bold, decisive thinking that reshapes what communications can be.

Kalenga’s message to the industry is clear: Stop polishing the past. Create what your competitors will copy tomorrow. Design solutions that are uncomfortable, necessary, and unforgettable. That is what innovation looks like.