Blog

I’ve worked in PR for over 25 years, some of that physically behind the doors of one of the world’s most successful news media publishers. I’ve lost count of how many times accomplished colleagues have talked in hushed tones about the murky, chainsmoking, legends of headline writing at the red tops.

Images of a dark, nicotine stained corner of a (formerly) Fleet Street office come to mind. A small gang of hunched, jaded hacks triumphantly appearing from the funk periodically, to produce a headline splash of such razor wit and accessible simplicity you just want to stand up and applaud.

This imagery may be more myth than reality (the lighting in newspaper offices is pretty standard and the nicotine is now firmly confined beyond the reception doors) but that’s not the only part of this picture which no longer fits.

Open a LinkedIn feed or skim your daily industry newsletter, and you’ll instantly spot them. “Why Attention Metrics are Rewriting the Measurement Playbook.” “How the Privacy Sandbox is Reshaping Post-Cookie Identity.” Betteridge’s law has become the law of the land – leading rhetorical questions, answering just the precise perceived information gap in marketing which a company’s proposition also neatly solves. How lucky.

They aren’t inherently bad headlines. They promise utility, education, and answers in a digital marketing landscape that is moving at a terrifying pace. But when seemingly every agency, vendor, and consultant adopts the exact same “how-to” or “why-this-is-occurring” formula, something vital gets lost.

In the rush to satisfy search engine objectives and now also feeding the bots, the adtech industry is falling down an endless, templated rabbit hole. Trading bold, provocative arguments for dry, cookiecutter, repetitive explainers.

We all know why this is. Adtech is complex, rapid, and deeply confusing. Brands need guidance on clean rooms, retail media networks, curation. Tech stacks upon stacks. Any business playing in this space wants to rank for high-intent terms to capture an audience. But this writing won’t necessarily hold them. When the push for SEO-infused copy becomes the only driver of content strategy, it encroaches on actual opinion.

There’s a reason why so many people wanted to sound like Dave Trott, Rory Sutherland or Sir John Hegarty. They know the power of wordcraft to get a point across. True thought leadership should do just that. Ruffle a few feathers, challenge the status quo, be contrarian. Get a reaction, not a shrug.

Here is the good news: SEO and high-quality, human-centric copy do not have to be mutually exclusive. They can easily coexist and perform the functions required.

Search engines, algorithms, and LLMs are getting ever smarter and rewarding content that displays genuine experience and perspectives. Keywords might lead people to a page, but a compelling voice keeps them there. The art lies in the right balance of copy which feeds the algorithms, and a distinctive company voice which can persuade, educate and influence.

As an industry, we all need to stop treating content as ‘just’ a volume game. It’s pretty dull for all involved. Clients and partners need education and advice to navigate digital marketing and stand out with distinction. Not every writer is Dickens. But they don’t have to settle for bland, ‘that’ll do’, ‘good enough’ content either.

Words have the power to (metaphorically) move mountains. If your content sounds exactly like the next piece, and the next… well, you aren’t setting your brand apart but sinking it right in the middle of a very large pack.