Find your angle. Become recognizable. Then expand your brand.
Format is the advantage now.Everyone looks at the content wars and goes:
At every turn, for five years now, people have felt the same way and been wrong. Every time.
TikTok is going to be banned. The algorithm sucks right now. But somehow, other people 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 paywall that is not powered by a creator front end is in a panic. Literal billions of dollars and millions of human consumption hours are still transitioning away from them.
Traditional TV is now consumed mostly with a phone on at the same time. Slow game? Ad comes on? Plotline drags? Every consumer is on Instagram, TikTok, X or somewhere else in the feed.
This is a zero-sum game, and content from individuals and brands is winning it. Are you? We are, and we would prefer all of you were along for the ride instead of the corporations of the world.
Netflix bringing podcasts onto TV shows how scared it is of YouTube. Disney licensing its IP to OpenAI is a watershed moment: these companies realize they are not as entertaining as the masses and need to work with them instead of against them.
They are scared of you, me and every person who can leverage attention against the monopolies that have told us what to watch and think for so long.
Frankly, fuck them. It is our time, and this is your blueprint.
Could you educate people in a somewhat entertaining way? People learned marketing tactics, meals, workout plans and obscure hobbies. Value, value, value.
It was also a first-mover advantage. A video about cool color combinations could reach hundreds of thousands because nobody else was making it and demand was there. Now, value alone is commodified.
The storyteller thrived: an expert explaining the history of a fragrance note, the process behind a paint color or the change in Tom Ford’s vision across collections.
Value alone slowed. Value wrapped in story, opinion and accompanying visuals thrived. First movers and old-school influencers were replaced by thoughtful creators, professors who started teaching and truly interesting humans.
Find your angle, then become recognizable, then expand your brand.
Hundreds of Cut30 creators and graduates dominated social feeds in the story era:
Browse more yap examples on VideoDatabase ↗Our focus: helping people share their expertise in ways people want to hear: comparisons, stories, rankings and recognizable styles of content.
You, wherever you are in your career or journey, share stories and opinions with the context of what you know.
For a brand, get people at your company or credible people from the internet on screen to do the same. Stop doing cute photo shoots and trends. Post a video about your product and get an expert on your feed.
If you want to succeed, you need ways to spike the top and generate views. When those views are tangentially connected to your middle-of-funnel value and entertainment about a core topic your audience actually enjoys, you have built a growth machine.
Our top-of-funnel rule is simple: the content 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 technology hardware as consumers, or even design more broadly. That is the top of the funnel. The next layer is where you zoom in on your actual expertise.
This strategy is a proven winner. We have seen it work again and again with creators who break out in Cut30.
Direct viral tactics for brands
Watch the original breakdown on YouTube ↗Once you have angles that work, dial in recognition.
The hook still reigns supreme. But in an overwhelming feed, people increasingly stop because they recognize you, not only because you grabbed their attention. Once you achieve recognition, the next job is comfort.
You build that through a styled environment or “set” (far less intimidating than it sounds), or through a recognizable visual system.
How do you carry the same themes and brand language into carousels and static content?
How does the same approach travel with you, literally, into new locations, contexts and moments?
Once you are an established character, you can reap the benefits inside one format or go deeper and expand your world.
The entire ecosystem of media multiplication is capable of giving you infamy, if you want it.
I see people complain about social media, then open their feed and it is a single static product image. Stop living under a rock: the codes are right in front of you.
There are endless trends, and most of them do not matter. You already have a world of people who want to know you. Do not waste time borrowing someone else’s tactic.
The vlog has been replaced by the story. Consumers do not want a play-by-play; they want something genuine. Make less content, better written and better positioned. If you do it, make it exceptional and make sure it is you.
That era is over. If it is not wrapped in a story, do not post it.
You have to care about the small things: dropping in images, framing and lighting. None of this is hard, but it does require intention. Nobody just turns on a camera and wins. It takes planning.
A waste of money. Sets, styles and production do not mean spending thousands of dollars. They mean intention with the tools and spaces you already have, not hiring old-school videographers. This is not a dark art. It is a handful of tutorials away.
In the age of AI, its value has collapsed. Without human connection, it is harder to generate real leads. In the last three to four months, we have not seen a single person in our network get meaningful results without being on camera for some of their content. It used to be optional. Now, you are just noise.
Great as part of your funnel, perhaps one quarter of your brand content. As the core of what you are building, humor breeds negativity and produces views without resonance. Use it sparingly inside a more rounded approach.
If you are a brand trying to win on short-form in 2026 and have not cracked it yet, or feel lost, this is the playbook.
Choose one core archetype: a style your brand will consistently execute. Without one, you end up with a hodgepodge of unsuccessful bullshit.
Mature brands eventually become a blend of archetypes, often around three. At the beginning, do one.
Position a team member or credible creator to tell intricate stories that educate people on your brand’s world, from cybersecurity to dermatology. Authority first.
Make social-optimized, creatively directed content that is conceptual and visually exciting. Lo-fi or immaculate production does not matter. The idea comes first. This works best when you have a one-of-a-kind social or creative talent on the team.
Humor, memes, skits and unexpected choices. Attention-first content designed to catch what falls through the funnel.
Your core feed matters less than enabling creators, affiliates and influencers to tell your story at scale. Earned media value over owned content. Distribution beats organic.
Pick one. Execute it until it works. Add more later.
Define recurring content pillars. If you cannot name them clearly, your audience definitely cannot recognize them.
This breakdown covers how to plan and execute a pillar system.
No matter your archetype, put a real expert on camera two to six times per month. Start building recurring personalities now. One starts working? Add another. Have them collaborate. If it is too much for one feed, spin up a second account.
Episodic social show or recurring format: either way, people should know what to expect from you. This is not just for creators. Brands need it too.
Collaborate more. Get new people on screen. Enable photographers, stylists and creators to post behind the scenes. Your experts and UGC creators should like the brand enough to naturally build it into their lifestyles. This is how worlds scale.
Think BAPE inviting guests in-store. Alexis Bittar running a serialized drama. Bilt building a sitcom. Opal launching a whiteboard self-help channel.
Zone in on campaigns and use them to maximum efficacy with teasing, debuts, sustainment, collaboration and full social planning.
Brands are finally doing this. You should too. Comments to DMs for guides, drops and downloads compound fast. Just do not rush it before you have content-market fit.
Comments are not for emojis. They are for selling. Ask questions. Make recommendations. Start conversations that turn into DMs.
Customer acquisition is war. DMs are your best weapon. Answer questions. Proactively message ideal customers. Send drop alerts, discounts and invites. This is CRM with personality.
For any service or higher-ticket product, where else do you get true one-to-one access to your audience?
It is fitting to close with the close. That wraps up what we are looking at ahead. We will see you on the inside.
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