Don’t Settle for This in Your 2025 Marketing

This week, thousands of content marketers from all over the world invaded San Diego to celebrate the beloved practice, do lots of learning, and have a little fun, too.

Yes, it was Content Marketing World 2024, and we’re thrilled to have connected with so many new and returning community members.

After CMI’s chief strategy advisor, Robert Rose, left the stage, we asked for his rundown of THE event run by the Content Marketing Institute.

Read on for his take, or watch this video from the event itself:

What’s everybody talking about?

My Content Marketing World experience kicked off with the Executive Forum. Senior-level executives got together to discuss what content and marketing issues keep them up at night.

Of course, we talked about AI. Most companies are still experimenting, but few have adopted a structured way to apply this disruptive new technology.

We also discussed the evolution of marketing’s role within the organization and other fascinating trends, including the expanding roles of content and data science. We ended with a discussion on talent retention in a challenging hiring environment.

All that and the main conference hadn’t even started.

From the keynote stage on Tuesday morning, Ethan Braden, vice president and chief marketing and communications officer at Texas A&M University, talked about bringing emotion and time back to the practice of developing great brands. Great brands don’t just happen, he says. They need insights, story, and positioning — and all of those things take time.

The wonderful Ann Handley talked about “slowments,” the idea of slowing down to work high-impact creativity back into marketing. She also made the case for having humans do the thinking.

And, of course, I can’t leave out the closing keynote presentation with Issa Rae. The amazing content creator, actor, writer, and entrepreneur spoke with interviewer Aisha Harris, co-host of NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Hour, and took questions from the audience. The conversation explored her creative process and projects (including the role of marketing) and her media companies, HOORAE, which develops content that breaks boundaries in storytelling and representation across mediums, and Ensemble, which connects diverse creators and influencers with brands that want to reach their audiences.

Let’s go beyond average

In my keynote talk and workshop, I discussed the state of content and marketing in 2024. CMI’s recent research found that 58% of marketers feel that our work is only moderately successful — it’s just kind of average.

Why is this happening?

I see too many marketers stuck in a perpetual loop of tinkering with tools to make things more efficient, losing their creative spark in the process.

We’re making marketing more efficient. But we’re also making it less joyous.

I ended Content Marketing World 2024 with a wish for the upcoming year: I hope you stop the endless tinkering and start doing something. Start making big, creative moments. Stress over the strategy. Allow time for the creative process. Tackle the slow work.

That’s how to bring humanity back in — and differentiate your marketing strategy.

MORE ADVICE FROM CMWORLD SPEAKERS:

Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute