In 2025, successful marketers are saying no, grazie to...
- Publishing content just to fill editorial calendars
- Chasing every trending topic + every platform
- Competing solely on volume of information
- Playing it safe with generic, one-size-fits-all messaging
- Ignoring brand + storytelling
So what do we do instead?
We courageously choose
differently. We put our hands over our hearts and we choose to...
- Focus on fewer, more meaningful touchpoints
- Give each content asset a job: A purpose + reason it exists
- Go slow strategically to build stronger relationships
- Serve deeper needs + aspirations
- Speak to one person at a time,
helping them do one thing better
- Build a distinct, differentiated brand
- Tell true stories, well
- Show up with heart + humanity + joy
The framework I use is this:
This specific [content asset] helps [1 person] move from [current state] to [better state] by [action]—so they can
[aspiration].
Example:
The speech in Milan helps a marketer move from overwhelmed by AI to empowered by it by hearing when/when not to use it—so they could confidently reimagine how they connect with customers.
I literally wrote that at the top of my speech outline.
If a point didn't serve the goal, off it went—discarded like fabric scraps at a fashion house.
(I broke with my suit tradition and opted for the plaid two-piece jumpsuit, BTW. I felt chic in it—the perfetto fit.)
* * *
Walking Milan's famed shopping district—past Prada,
Gucci, Versace, Dolce & Gabbana, Armani... each with snaking lines of shoppers waiting to get in—I realized something:
Both fashion and marketing challenge us to
understand a customer beyond what they say they need.
Fashion isn't about covering your body: Those people waiting in the blazing Italian sun were already wearing clothes. (LOL)
Armani, Miu Miu, and the rest don't just sell garments—they sell who you might become in them.
Marketing is no different, if you think about it.
Marketing isn't about information. Marketing is about sparking imagination: helping people envision better versions of their lives, their work, their future. That's true especially now, in our AI-riddled world.
Less information; more imagination.
Armani's designs make you feel more sophisticated before you even put them on. Great content marketing plants a seed of possibility—expanding someone's sense of what could be.
Maybe you think: I'd never wear Armani. Those Miu Miu prints aren't me.
That's the
point, too. Courage means speaking so authentically to your ideal community that everyone else just walks right on past.
"Those people are crazy to be waiting in line like that," you overhear someone
mutter in English to someone else behind you on the sidewalk. You need courage to be OK with that.
Better to be someone's perfect fit than everyone's second
choice.
Tape that above your desk. Have your boss notice it. They need it, too.
* * *
I realized a second thing in Milan, too: The Duomo cathedral will Blow. Your. Mind.
