Nick Smith.
Nick Smith - Managing Director, Medium Rare Content Agency.
The mainstream is dead. Each of us now lives inside our own feed, our own algorithm, our own choices. That isn’t a problem for marketing; it’s the opportunity. But it demands that we stop treating content as a campaign extra and start building brand worlds people actively choose to enter.
When I returned from the UK in 2021 to lead Medium Rare, my goal was simple: prove the impact of brand content on everyday Australians. We partnered with Crowd DNA, surveyed the market and showed the old funnel was gone. Content had spread outside the consideration phase and was shaping decisions end to end. Fast forward to 2025 and we have partnered with Crowd DNA* again and that story isn’t just true — it’s central. More than half of Australians now consume brand content once or multiple times a day. And it’s working: 41% of Australians say what they’re seeing from brands is relevant to them, up from 34% in Australia just a few years ago.
If you’re feeling the paradox, you’re not alone. Consumers want more inspiration, entertainment and connection — but they’re overwhelmed and tuning out faster than ever. They demand personalisation, yet worry about privacy. They want brands to take a stand, so long as it’s authentic. Amid the noise, 97% of people now seek multiple points of clarity before deciding. They aren’t short of information; they’re drowning in it. What they need is confidence.
So what should brands do? Stop building ecosystems and start building brand worlds. An ecosystem sounds closed and uniform. A brand world has variety with consistency: the magazine that inspires, the podcast that explains, the YouTube tutorial that shows you how, the TikTok that makes you laugh and learn. Each looks a little different, and that’s fine — but together they form a world that’s unmistakably yours. In our latest study, 81% say brand worlds give them confidence when making decisions. That’s the signal to invest.
We’ve seen this work at scale. CommBank’s Brighter content program began as a print magazine to anchor long-form storytelling, then expanded into social, digital and a free-to-air TV series — meeting Australians where they are with accessible, practical content on financial wellbeing. Over 10 million people engaged, 176+ pieces of owned content were spliced and republished across channels, and the Brighter program has been found, by Kantar, to have played a role in CommBank’s brand value lift of 44% in two years. That’s not a campaign; that’s a brand world driving trust and growth.
At the other end of the spectrum, Flybuys needed to turn passive members into active users. The 1800‑GO‑FULL‑FLYBUYS social series was quick, funny and genuinely helpful — answering real questions with real hacks. Six episodes delivered 2.7 million views, app downloads rose 4%, engagement lifted nearly 4% and fully engaged members jumped 26%. When content is entertaining and useful, it changes behaviour.
Member organisations are no different. Chartered Accountants ANZ has reimagined Acuity as a connected brand world across print, digital, audio and social. The quarterly magazine remains a trusted touchpoint, while the digital content hub saw page views 80% above benchmark and EDMs now drive over half of all traffic. LinkedIn engagement sits well above the industry average, and Acuity on Air, audio articles for the time poor, holds an 85% completion rate. Treat members like an audience and design content that informs, entertains and rewards their time – engagement follows.
The blueprint is clear. First, cut-through: relevance wins when the mainstream is gone. Don’t shout louder — show up where it matters with content that feels genuinely worth someone’s time. Second, clarity: help people make decisions confidently. Strip away complexity, reduce uncertainty, and the trust will follow. Third, customer experience: design content into the journey. When you connect touchpoints across your brand world, you create loyalty and advocacy, not just clicks.
My challenge to Australian marketers is to shift the centre of gravity. Bring content agencies to the village and move from insights to strategy to production to amplification to measurement, in one loop. And insist your content is not only relevant and valuable, but also inspirational and entertaining — because people expect all four.
The brands that resolve today’s paradoxes will win tomorrow’s markets. Content isn’t waiting for permission anymore; it has earned its seat. Now it has to prove every day that it deserves to stay there. Build a brand world people choose to live in, and you won’t just earn attention — you’ll earn trust, loyalty and lasting impact.
Nick Smith will be joined by News Corp Australia Managing Director Commercial Content, Mike Connaghan to host a webinar on the Future of Brand Content on Wednesday November 12.
*Crowd DNA conducted the research in two stages between May and July 2025: cultural landscaping using social listening and insights, followed by a quantitative study of 1,001 Australians measuring brand content engagement, perceptions and impact on purchasing behaviour.