Creative Discontent

Image Peter Beard

I’ve never liked applying the word ‘content’ to the things we make.

Apart from sounding straight out of Orwell’s Ministry of Truth, its emotionless utilitarianism devalues the work of everyone who makes something out of…well…nothing more than an idea.

But I’m also aware that this linguistic horse has well and truly bolted.

‘Content’ is now the name imposed on what we do, whether we like the description or not.

Still, that doesn’t mean we creators can’t own the definition of what our content is.

At the risk of sounding fashionably AI, we’ve expressed it as a formula:

Content = Information + Style.

Or to put it another way, content is what you call information once it’s crafted into communication.

And that’s true whether your content is consumed passively through traditional advertising or actively sought out on YouTube.

Of course, formulas are all very well in theory.

So, here’s a favourite example of the process at work.

On the 20th of August 1940, Sir Winston Churchill rose in the House of Commons to deliver a speech acknowledging the young pilots who’d spent the summer and autumn holding back what many feared was the unstoppable tide of fascism.

That was the information he needed to deliver to the British people; thanks to the efforts and sacrifices of the RAF’s Fighter, Bomber and Coastal Commands, the nation was safe from imminent invasion.

He did it with 17 words.

“Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.”

That is communication.

An appeal to the heart of a nation emerging from its darkest hour, and an enduring tribute to the young men who gave their lives in defence of something greater than themselves.

It’s also one of the most powerful examples of the difference an experienced communicator can make to what we now call content.

Because regardless of the medium, moving people with your message is the fastest way you can move them to act.