The State of Content 2026

A guide on creator culture + our next community call, and yep, we're going on Tour

Welcome to the new year! As always, we are committed to keeping a relentless amount of free value on the world of brand strategy, content and creative culture coming into your inbox… and we’re also continuing to bet on our predictions in our own lives-as you’ll see in our updates below.

Below is pt1 of our State of Social 2026 - this is focused on creators, we’ll be following up with the brand edition next week.

Quick housekeeping

A. I’m hosting a (free) community call on Jan 12th for anyone doing brand planning for the new year, where we’ll workshop live for an hr! Register here.

B. 🎬 The next session of Cut30 starts Tuesday, January 6th. Lock in here.

C. Reminder… Clayton and I are going on tour! Starting with Miami, Toronto and New York in January, we’re hosting (free) brand and creative workshops you can apply for here.

---

The State of Content in 2026

This is the part of the adoption cycle where fear sets in.

Everyone looks at the content wars and goes:

• There are so many creators, how can I possibly compete

• Everyone is getting so good at content, we don’t have a chance if we start to take it seriously now

• I see these threads that say insert social network here is dead, this must be true

• I’m too late

At every turn, for 5 years now, people have felt the same way, and been wrong, EVERY TIME.

TikTok is going to be banned (lol).

The algorithm sucks right now (but somehow others are growing...)

The truth still remains. Every minute spent consuming traditional news is being subverted by video and carousels on social networks. Every website with an interstitial or a paywall that isn’t powered by a creator frontend is in panic. There are literal billions of dollars and millions of human consumption hours that are still transitioning from this.

And every piece of traditional TV, is now consumed mostly with a phone on at the same time. Slow game? Ad comes on? Plotline slow? Every consumer is on Instagram, TikTok, X etc.

This IS a zero sum game, and content from individuals and brands is winning it. Are you? I certainly am, and would prefer if all of you were along for the ride instead of the corporations of the world.

Netflix bringing podcasts onto TV shows how scared they are of Youtube. Disney licensing its IP to OpenAI is watershed moment of realizing they simply aren’t as entertaining as the masses, and need to work with them instead of against them.

They are fucking SCARED. Of you, me, and every person who gets to leverage attention agains the big monopolies that have told us what to watch and think for so long.

Frankly... fuck them. It’s our time, and this is your blueprint to do it.

o here’s where we’re at.

2024 content was about VALUE.

Could you educate people with your content in a somewhat entertaining way. People learned about marketing tactics, about how to cook meals, workout plans, obscure hobbies. Value, value, value. This was also first mover advantage. In 2024 I could make videos about cool color combos for design and get hundreds of thousands of views, because no one else was doing it and demand was there. Now, its commodified.

2025 was about story. The storyteller thrived, an expert explaining the history of a fragrance note, the process with which a paint color comes to life, an analysis of Tom Ford’s vision change between collections in the 2000s. Value alone slowed, value wrapped in a good story, with accompanying visuals thrived. How to’s, wrapped in actual work and opinion. What you would do in a scenario... the art of the story. This was the time where first movers and old school influencers go subbed out for the actual most interesting people that chose to make content. It was the rise of the thoughtful creator, the professor who started teaching, truly interesting humans. 2025 was an incredible content year.

We (the Cut30 squad) thrived in this era, hundreds of our creators and grads dominated social feeds.

Sam explaining the rise of farm hotels

Ryan explaining the state of hospitality

Hashi Home cleverly showing the hosting lifestyle

Yaw showcasing the brands of China

Shelley showing the BTS of running a bakery

Jason breaking down the art direction of Rosalia

Garrett teaching how to take better photos

Katherine breaking down brand social success stories

Greg showing how to find your way in life as a creative

Tanglewood dentistry debunking teeth myths

Our focus... helping people share their expertise in ways people want to hear. Comparisons, stories, rankings, styles of content.

2026 is about format.

Find your angle, then become recognizable, then expand your brand.

---

The leading angle is still expertise.

You, where you’re at in your career or your journey, sharing stories and opinions with the context of what you know. For a brand, its getting people at your company or from the internet on screen to do the same. Stop doing cute photo shoots, trends, just post a video about your product and GET AN EXPERT ON YOUR FEED.

Now, let’s talk about the funnel.

We’ve said it again and again, because it’s true: content is a funnel. If you want to succeed, you need ways to spike the top and generate views. As long as those views are tangentially connected to your middle of funnel value and entertainment-driven content about your core topic that your audience actually enjoys… you’ve built a growth machine.

Our top-of-funnel rule is simple: the content just needs to reach the right persona, not perfectly communicate your product or positioning.

If you teach hardware design, start by speaking to people interested in tech hardware as consumers, or even design more broadly. That’s your top of funnel. The next layer down is where you zoom in on your actual expertise.

This strategy is a proven winner. We’ve seen it work again and again with creators who break out in Cut30.

If you want the direct viral tactics for brands to hit top of funnel, I break them down here:

Once you have angles that work, it’s about dialing in recognition.

The hook still reigns supreme—but in an overwhelming feed, people increasingly stop because they recognize you, not just because you grabbed attention. Once you achieve recognition, the next job is comfort.

You build that through a styled environment or “set” (which is far less intimidating than it sounds), or through a recognizable visual system. You can see this in how I’ve reframed my green screen usage, it’s not just any floating head anymore. The two on left and right are the Oren experience.

and even a thoughtful background setup (via https://www.instagram.com/internet.anthropology)

And if you’re got visual savvy and the ability to work in some production, brand it so it's yours (via https://www.instagram.com/openresidency/?hl=en)

Then it’s about expanding mediums.

How do you carry the same themes and brand language into carousels and static content?

How does that same approach travel with you—literally, into new locations, contexts, and moments?

And once you’re an established character, you can either reap the benefits within a single format, knowing you understand this new landscape, or go a level deeper and expand your world.

That’s where collaboration with other creators comes in.

Another signature series.

The bridge to long-form.

The podcast.

Clipping.

The entire ecosystem of media multiplication, capable of giving you infamy, if you want it.

---

So what doesn’t work:

• Doing the same shit as two years ago and complaining about it.

  I see people complain about social media, then open their feed and it’s a single static product image. Stop living under a rock, the codes are right in front of you.

• Trends.

  There are endless trends, and most of them don’t matter. You already have a world of people who want to know you. Don’t waste time borrowing someone else’s tactic.

• “Day in the life.”

  The vlog has been replaced by the story. Consumers don’t want a play-by-play—they want something genuine. Less content, better written and better positioned. If you do it, make it exceptional, make sure its you.

• Tips and tricks.

  That era is over. If it isn’t wrapped in a story, don’t post it.

• Low production.

  You have to care about the small things: dropping in images, framing, lighting. None of this is hard—but it does require intention. Nobody just turns on a camera and wins. It takes planning (and yes, we’ll give you the blueprint).

• Overproduced content.

  A waste of money. When we talk about sets, styles, or production, we never mean spending thousands of dollars. It’s about intention with the tools and spaces you already have—not hiring old-school videographers. So many people are doing this themselves because… it’s actually easy. This isn’t a dark art. It’s a handful of tutorials away. Don’t burn cash pretending otherwise.

• Faceless content.

  In the age of AI, its value has collapsed. Without human connection, it’s harder and harder to generate real leads. In the last 3–4 months, we haven’t seen a single person in our network get meaningful results without being on camera for some of their content. This matters, because it used to be optional.

  Now? You’re just noise.

• Jokes and memes

  This is great as a part of your funnel, as 1/4 of your brand content, but at then end of the day now humorous content as a core of what you’re building breeds negativity (since deprecation is what gets the views) and puts up views that don’t actually have a measure on your resonance. Use it sparingly in addition to a more rounded approach.

Does this matter?

The creator generation ripple effects are happening as we speak, and there is still so much ground to claim.

Sauz raised a round with 21 content creators on the cap table, each recognizing the others power in propelling a brand to greatness.

Tribeca Film Festival has added social media content to their selections, as social media becomes a better, more powerful place for creatives and filmmakers to bring their vision to life than a traditional film arc.

NBCU is sending 20 creators to the olympics. Paying 20 influencers their full rate to cover cultural moments is somehow cheaper and more effective than traditional methods, and we’ll see more and more cultural coverage model this.

These are three of the hundreds of examples of where our world is headed, and why the content state matters so much.

Want to act on this?

The 20th edition of Cut30, our first of 2026, starts on Tuesday for anyone that wants to learn or get better at short form content.

It’s the best in the business, full curriculum, 30 days of slack, 10+ group calls, winner after winner from personal brands to small businesses. Alex, Colin and I would love to have you

Lock in here.

We’ll follow up with the brand plan next week.

---

Planning your 2026 as a creative

A parting shot - I break down five strategies for how to approach your year as a creative based on where you’re at in your path. Recommended if you’ve hit Jan 3rd and aren’t quite sure what your goals are yet (or how you’ll reach them).

Appreciate you reading,

Oren