Or maybe it’s just an excuse to talk about content, perspective, and what makes something unique.
No, We’re Not Selling Mouthwash
But, as you’ve probably guessed, today we’re not here to talk about mouthwash and dental hygiene (well, not entirely).
When I found out I’d be writing this piece about content, the same question popped into my head—the one I ask myself every day during creative brainstorming sessions, staring at a blank document, or trying to find just the right words for a presentation: what makes people pay attention to a piece of content in 2024 (soon to be 2025)?
What can I do to make a post interesting, something more than the same old stuff? Why should you, reading this newsletter, choose to spend time on this one rather than one of the six million other pieces of content published every day?
Spoiler alert: in the end, bad breath really does have something to do with it.
The Era of Information Overload
They used to call it information overload.
They say starting with a story works, so let’s begin here: on November 12, the other Content Leads and Directors from I MILLE and I attended the Brand Journalism Festival 2024 in Rome. This annual event brings together experts in branded content, journalism, and communication to reflect on the state of our craft and its future, focusing particularly on the gravitational pull between the worlds of publishing and organizations.
During one of the opening panels, which focused on how Gen Z consumes information, Bianca Arrighini, co-founder and CEO of Factanza, tackled the topic of information overload. She reminded us that every day, 96 million pieces of content are published across all digital platforms—that’s 66,000 every minute.
It’s an insight most of us are vaguely aware of, but when you stop to truly consider the scale, it takes on new weight and meaning.
Now, let’s narrow the focus to blogs and online editorial publications. The numbers are just as staggering. How many articles are posted every day on company blogs and news websites worldwide? 500,000?
A little over a million?
Two million? Not even close.
Six million.
Yes, six million. Every. Single. Day.
Over a year ago, Valerio Bassan, author of Ellissi, was one of the voices warning us about the dangers of content overcrowding, the growing disinterest in digital platforms, and what he called banner blindness. He shifted the conversation from content quantity to content quality (yes, I’m using that word, and I’ll try not to overdo it—out of respect for René Ferretti).
If we think of content (read: everything we create for digital platforms, from TikTok to my old WordPress blog from when I was 15) as part of contemporary cultural production, we inevitably have to ask ourselves: is there simply too much “culture” out there?
But: why should it be us—those of us creating content today—who feel the burden of this question? Why should we be the ones who don’t deserve our shot at contributing our own verse?
It’s a question (or maybe two, three, twenty-six questions) that leads to another: what role has the widespread adoption of AI-based content creation tools played in these staggering numbers? And what role will it continue to play?
AI Doesn’t Mean “More Content”
Could we really write a piece about content in 2024 without bringing up AI? Of course not. So here we are—but I promise, once again, to keep it brief.
Let’s start with a promise. Or rather, the promise AI tools (like Copy.ai, Synthesia, Jasper, Rytr, and others) made when they burst into the content creation world. It’s a pretty straightforward one: you can now create more content, in less time.
Now, I’m not going to get into the politics of AI enthusiasts versus skeptics—the ones who’d happily let AI boil their eggs, and the others who insist, “No, we’re humanists.” Nor do we need yet another article about the “necessity of integrating human and artificial intelligence.” Today, I’d rather steer the conversation in a different direction. Because, as obvious as it may sound, the ability to create more content doesn’t automatically mean we need to create more content.
In social media, we’re already seeing a paradigm shift: moving away from quantity (“the more you post, the better”) to care (“the more thought and effort you put into your content, the more engagement you’ll see”). In the editorial world, Google’s latest Core Algorithm Updates (March 2024) reflect this same shift. For instance, low-quality content and manipulative tactics (like using expired domains to host spam) will now be penalized.
Even SEO—something we’ve been saying for ages—is increasingly about creating quality content. (I know, I know—enough with the word “quality,” but I’m almost done, I promise.)
So, let me throw this out there, LinkedIn guru-style: let’s stop talking about “quality” as a vague buzzword. Let’s talk about care, meaning, and uniqueness.
Now, back to bad breath.
Bad Breath as a Marketing Breakthrough
And yes, in the end, we’re back to bad breath. But why? Is this all just nonsense? Well, I’ll leave that for you to decide. In the meantime, here’s another story.
It’s 1934, and a young aspiring lawyer from Arizona is forced to abandon his studies and move to New York in search of a job. Life takes him first into the grind of journalism, then into the glitz of the advertising industry. One day, perhaps while waiting for a Long Island at a bar on Madison Avenue, this former reporter with dreams of becoming a lawyer meets Ted Bates. Together, they created Ted Bates & Co., one of the biggest advertising agencies of its time.
That young reporter, named Rosser Reeves, spent years honing his craft. Then, in 1961, he published a book called Reality in Advertising, which condensed into just a few pages a concept that would forever change the world of marketing:
“Each advertisement must make a proposition to the consumer... It must say to each reader: ‘Buy this product, and you will get this specific benefit.’ … The proposition must be one that the competition either cannot, or does not, offer.”
This is the USP: the Unique Selling Proposition. It’s the promise at the core of all product communication campaigns, the cornerstone of any marketing strategy, the guiding principle for product teams, and even a company’s culture itself.
To illustrate his point, Reeves analyzed campaigns from various organizations but focused on one company in particular: Listerine.
Why does their message work while the competitors’ don’t? Because Listerine’s advertising campaigns were built on the concept of the Unique Selling Proposition. Listerine used a simple yet powerful claim that made a clear and distinctive promise: “Stops Halitosis.”
You know that lingering feeling at the back of your throat, the one that doesn’t seem to go away even after brushing your teeth? Well, Listerine promised to take care of that.
Even though other products offered similar solutions, Listerine was the first brand to claim this benefit in a direct and memorable way, creating an indelible association between their product and the solution to a specific problem.
At its core, the USP is a promise. It’s the foundation of a pact between an organization and its consumers: trust us, because we know how to solve this specific problem in this specific way—and in a way only we can.
Now, let’s set aside AI, bad breath, SEO, and everything else for a moment and ask this: what if we took the “S” in Unique Selling Proposition and replaced it with a “C” for content?
From USP to UCP: A New Perspective
As always, the more excited you are about an idea, the more likely it is that someone else has already thought of it.
In this case, someone has indeed tried to change that letter. In the agency world, Kemmler Kemmler has tied the “C” in UCP to the concept of culture: “The UCP shifts focus from what the product is to what the brand stands for culturally.” While that’s an interesting perspective, it’s not the point of our “C”—phew!
For me, this concept emerged while working in a content marketing team made up primarily of junior team members. I needed to find a way to help them write relevant content—and I had to do it quickly. Most of them had marketing backgrounds rather than content experience, so I tried to adapt the USP concept into the realm of content. That’s how the idea of the Unique Content Proposition was born. (Yes, it does sound like an acronym for a generic California university, but here’s roughly what it means.)
Unique: We could spend days debating originality. But shifting the conversation from originality to uniqueness makes the task a bit less daunting. Today, uniqueness isn’t found in the topics we cover in our content—that would just turn it into a race for speed, with all the risks that entails. Instead, uniqueness lies in the angle we choose to explore those topics. It’s in our perspective: the way our identity shapes how we see and interpret the world.
Content: This idea was born in the context of editorial content production, but it’s just as applicable to social media, digital platforms, and even print. In a world where content is increasingly consumed to fulfill a specific job to be done, we should treat content like a product—something designed to be used, to serve a purpose.
Proposition: Right from the first paragraph (or, generally, within the first few seconds of exposure), we need to make a promise to the reader—a promise strong enough to overcome the inertia of scrolling thumbs. If they read (or watch) to the end, what new insight will they gain? Or better yet: what fresh perspective will they take away on that topic, that carefully curated niche of the world?
Wrapping It Up
Now that we’ve wrapped up the explanation, let’s move on to the summary. This is the part where we tie everything together, so I’ve distilled everything you’ve read so far into four concise points:
- We’re drowning in information overload. Yes, it’s old news. But revisiting what we already know and placing it in a new context can sometimes help, especially when that context ties into AI-based content production.
- The ability to create more content (thanks to AI) doesn’t mean we should. The content industry is undergoing a paradigm shift—from focusing on the volume of content to the care put into it.
- Does the Unique Content Proposition make sense? Let’s shift the game from originality (and novelty) to uniqueness. Maybe there’s a way to contribute to the broader culture of our time: by creating content that carries a promise of identity.
- Look for people with a perspective. It’s perhaps the only thing that truly matters: the ability to infuse their identity into how they see and tell stories about services, products, and news.
So, to stick to the promise of this newsletter, here’s a box of mints to help freshen up your content. 😊
