Global strategy consultant and pop culture expert, Franklin Ozehkome, has cautioned advertisers, marketers, and creators that the industry’s fixation on “content” has spiraled into dangerous territory, elevating it to strategy status and diluting one of marketing’s most effective tools into a hollow buzzword.
“Somewhere between 2010 and now, ‘content’ became the magic word people throw around to sound plugged-in,” Ozehkome said. “Creators use it to validate their hustle. Agencies use it to pad proposals. Platforms use it to justify algorithmic chaos. And clients? Clients nod along because everyone else is saying it.”
Ozehkome argues that the problem isn’t content itself, but how it is misused. In the early 2000s, marketing was dominated by campaigns, defined, strategic initiatives with a beginning, an end, and a clear role in brand growth. Content played a supporting role. But in the rush for constant output, many brands have confused the means with the mission. “Content is not the whole game,” he insists. “It’s a subset of marketing communications, which itself is only one part of marketing. Treating content as the plan is not just lazy, it’s strategically dangerous.”
He points to success stories like Red Bull, GoPro, and Old Spice, brands that leveraged content brilliantly but always within a larger system. “Red Bull didn’t just make videos; they built a media empire. GoPro didn’t just post clips; they turned customers into heroes. The content worked because it served a strategy.”
Ozehkome explains that marketing communications is the ecosystem of campaigns, channels, creative assets, and messaging delivered through advertising, PR, sponsorships, events, and more. Content, videos, articles, memes, podcasts and posts is just one of those tools. To mistake it for the entire system, he warns, is like mistaking a single football pass for the match itself.
“Ask ten marketers to define content and you’ll get twelve answers,” he said. “But the reality is simple: content is not the team. It’s just a player.”
Marketing, he adds, is much larger, spanning product design, pricing, distribution, and promotion. Content sits within promotion, and promotion sits within communications. Without that alignment, brands risk burning energy on noise that doesn’t move markets.
The rise of generative AI has only intensified the problem. With tools now able to churn out blogs, captions, and ad scripts at near-zero cost, content production has become infinite. But Ozehkome argues that this makes clarity, distinctiveness, and strategy more important than ever.
“When supply is infinite, the scarce resources are meaning, distinctiveness, and market fit,” he said. “Anyone can create more. The winners will be the ones who make it matter.”
For Ozehkome, the uncomfortable truth is that content alone doesn’t deliver business outcomes. What matters is how it maps to the customer journey, awareness, consideration, conversion, and retention. Without that discipline, he says, brands are simply “filling feeds.”
“No one ever became a market leader by filling feeds,” he stressed. “One great video doesn’t build a brand; integrated campaigns do. The most effective work connects content with PR, retail, partnerships, and experiences. In the age of AI, precision will beat production every time.”
Ozehkome dismantled the industry cliché that has dominated marketing discourse for more than a decade. “Content is not king. Strategy is,” he said. “And in a market where anyone can grab a crown from a template, the brands that stand out will be the ones that know the game they’re playing and exactly where every piece belongs.”
