The brilliance of today’s distribution channels are the open access and immediacy of them; anyone can, in theory, reach anyone in an instant.
This poses a significant problem; these platforms must rely on technology to ensure they remain relevant to the people that use them.
Over time, algorithms have been fine-tuned on large quantities of data; 0’s and 1’s that make predictions about what someone will likely want to consume next.
But great creative work is not itself made to be easily predictable. So using these prediction machines, while useful & important is also highly flawed (in more ways than one).
The problem is the promise they offer to everyone; the same promise that a poker (aka slot) machine offers. Unpredictable rewards to the few.
It’s these unpredictable rewards that keep people playing. Seeking the reward of gratification as we consume, and accomplishment as our content performs.
When it comes to content produced for today’s platforms it’s no wonder that creative people talk of burning out, of feeling stuck on a hamster wheel, of being pushed and pulled in endless directions.
Because when we bend our creativity to what we think a machine wants, we break something in the process; we break a binding promise we once made to our creativity; to serve it, to nurture it, to explore it, to listen to it and to bravely publish it.
But creating for the algorithm is not creating for our own creativity; it’s creating for someone else’s. And in this case, that someone else is merely a near infinite array of 0’s and 1’s.
No wonder it makes us feel icky. So in this Deep Dive, something a little different today. Really it’s a question for us all to reflect upon: What would it look like if everything you made was to honour the promise you made to your creativity, and nothing more?
What you’ll find as you read along:
Why algorithms are not as smart as we’re led to believe
The MrBeastification of YouTube and why it serves us an important reminder
The only way to create true outlier content and campaigns; and it’s not what people usually talk about when they talk about outliers.
The algorithm isn’t making our work better
Average stuff for average people; that is what algorithms are naturally pushing towards, surely? All those datapoints, pooled together to create an average of people like you; to make an assumption that “if you liked that”, someone else like you “will like it too”.
Well my friend, tell me this is not a game of averages. And in a game of averages what is produced? Something entirely predictable; something that looks and feels similar to what’s worked before. Something average.
Competition in a market based economy is naturally going to create the environment for this; where one thing working becomes another person’s opportunity to compete.
Where there is demand, there will be competition. This occurs in all industries, but in the creative industries it’s ever more perilous. It’s getting easier for everyone to make good work; so much so that we find ourselves consuming more stuff that’s just a bit, well, mid.
And it’s worse on social media than anywhere; with unlimited pulls on the lever, and a determination to find that magic outlier; something that can feel like striking gold.
But the promise of gold is a myth and the search for it arduous and full of risk. Because we only have finite time on this planet. And do we really want to be using that time to hopefully win that jackpot of views? Or do we want to spend out time making work that actually serves a purpose; work that serves our creativity?
And so the question becomes: Would you rather seek the approval of an algorithm, with your work that comfortably fits in what those 0’s and 1’s understand? Or, would you rather commit to your creativity and make your thing your way, anyway?
The idea for this article was first explored as a video essay over on our YouTube channel; you might like to watch this next.
The MrBeastificaton of Everything
There was a time where every thumbnail on YouTube began to slowly but surely look like a MrBeast thumbnail. Why? Because of the promise of gold.
But what happens when everybody fitted within this design trend? Everyone that isn’t MrBeast began to look like a copy cat idiot.
Same thing always happens when we have an outlier brand or campaign. Remember when Charli xcx went anti-marketing on us and produced the most influential marketing campaign of 2024? It didn’t take long for every business try to captilise. I noticed everything from real-estate commercials to billboards for bratwurst sausages in that unlikely green moss tinge and sans-serif font.
There’s an old saying that marketers ruin everything; and in today’s world we are at risk of everyone being one of ‘those’ marketers. Trying to piggy-back on everyone else’s results but not really making anything unique of their own; getting diminishing results over time, and turning to more desperate tactics to try to force the marketing to work.
Of course this is getting worse with AI, but I won’t turn this into another AI response. Because that cheapens the fact that humans are at the foot of this mountain, deciding whether to climb and how they’ll do it.
Point being, content isn’t an easy climb. Distribution of your creative projects, not an easy climb. Marketing, just like mountaineering, is hard. And you have choices to make; what tools you’ll use. Who you’ll travel with. What resources you’ll bring along for the journey.
Most importantly is the direction you’ll take. The long way, the fast way, will you try to shortcut it, or will you be present through the process for as long as it takes.
You only get so many attempts at climbing this mountain. And of course it pays to move down a path that’s well worn. But to truly breakthrough, we need discover something new, something of our own; so simply trying to replicate others, in my mind, is unlikely to achieve the real goal most creative people set out to achieve.
And if you were to listen to the algorithm, with the promise of an ever-faster climb, are you going to do it the best way, or the most predictable way? We’ve all been on those weird side-roads as Google Maps assures you there' is a faster way, only to follow a train of other cars who are also trusting the algorithm.
If everyone’s on the mountain at the same time, climbing the same way, what happens? Like any major city traffic jam, you’ll be there on the same road as everyone else.
Thinking there was only one path; but everyone’s on it.
Great creative work, and great marketing, doesn’t come from conformity, or shortcuts. It comes from creativity; which guarantees you only one thing, an adventure without an ETA.
This is not how creativity works
Great marketing is inherently creative; that’s in all industries. But especially important when your actual product or service is creative. When what you produce as an artist, a maker, a creator is inherently your creative output.
You need your marketing to be more creative, not less. And I believe this is only going to get more important as humans tune out of the noise of AI slop and become active audiences again; seeking new things out with purpose, not on autopilot.
Creativity is asking this of you; to produce for it, not for an algorithm. To allow yourself to be average for as long as it takes, not by bending yourself to the most average of common denominators, but by wrestling with the creative process and making average things on your own accord until they aren’t average anymore.
The only way to produce things that will stand out in the future, in my mind, is to commit to your creativity for the long-term, in all ways that the public sees it.
There is no good argument anymore that creative work and marketing are separate; today we are challenged to produce our creative work in different formats that allow all our work to be explored in different ways. Gone are the days where our marketing was purely in existence to promote our creative work.
And we cannot forget that algorithms function to keep consumers happy; which means they are a bi-product of a platform’s economic incentive.
We must remember this; these platforms do not win when you make better work. They only win when people are kept on platform. All they need to do this is to get better at making average recommendations and to have an endless sea of options in what to recommend.
But you my friend, you benefit only when your creativity wins.
And if your creativity wins, from the hard-won slog you went through to nurture it, you might, just might, find yourself with a real outlier on your hands.
Now that isn’t easy, nor guaranteed, but the prize is that if nothing pans out you will still feel accomplished. And if indeed it turns out the algorithm does love what you made, well you and your creativity stands to benefit significantly more.
It won’t look like everyone else’s work.
It’ll stand out. It’ll be yours. And suddenly, everyone will be racing to copy you.
But you will know that that doesn’t matter. Because the only way to be a true outlier, is not to create for the algorithm, but to create for yourself.
No matter the outcome, if you commit to your creativity first, in all its possible formats, this mountain climb will be a lot more enjoyable. For you and everyone else you bring along for the ride.
A few questions to sit with:
What would your content look like if you made it to nurture your creativity, not the algorithm?
How would marketing your creative projects change if you didn’t study what worked for others, and let your creativity lead the charge instead?
Is it possible to find a way to reconcile the allure of the algorithm with the desire to honour your creative self?
Ready for more?
Read this next: We are all overthinking our content strategies
If you enjoyed this article you might like to explore our first update on building a content strategy for Futureative; in it I give real-world insights from over a decade of building creative brands. What we’re learning in real-time as we build this brand from scratch.
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