There is a meme that resurfaces every couple of years, claiming that a scene in The Matrix, where Neo takes a cookie from the Oracle, is a “brilliant piece of program-related writing”.
The meme asserts the scene shows the personification of a programme passing data to the main character, who goes on to understand who he is and save humanity (eventually).
Whether it is indeed a nod to the technological process that has since become a part of our everyday, online lives or not, whenever the meme reappears, comment sections of social media sites light up as believers and doubters take the matter to task again.
Really, it doesn’t matter whether the cookie was an in-joke for the technologically advanced or just a scripting device to build the scene and develop some of the characters. What matters is the scene is so memorable that more than a quarter of a century after its release we’re still arguing about it and trying to dig deeper into it.
Content, when done well, is memorable. It speaks to its intended audience, delivering both a message and a meaning that resonates, makes them think and want to engage on a deeper level.
Whether through articles, images, film, audio, anything – content is merely the delivery mechanism of the message and meaning you want to relay.
Yet, content, as a general theme has almost become a meme of itself. Anyone and everyone can be a
content creator.
I’m creating content right now. When I log on to LinkedIn to post about how buzzed I am to be attending a range of autumn conferences around the world, I’ll be creating content too. My friends’ post their kids’ content on fridge doors. Other people post content of their kids posting their own content onto fridge doors… which really is a bit meta, even for The Matrix.
Yet, for marketing and comms purposes, content needs to be more than the white noise we are becoming increasingly used to accepting or risk it failing to achieve its one true purpose. It needs to be well-thought out, targeted, tied into an overarching theme or campaign and, above all, relevant to the intended audience.
I’ve lost count of how many inappropriate or badly focused selfies, arduous social media posts and poorly articulated self-aggrandising blogs that have flashed across my screen, claiming to be “a” content or the promotion of its creator.
I’m not sure what these posts or posits are meant to demonstrate; would you go to a restaurant that used its marketing budget to show how the chef’s lunch consisted of undercooked chicken and watery rice?
When operating in an environment as technical and unforgiving as financial services – especially in as new and rapidly developing area as fintech and digitisation – content needs a great deal of thought, exploration and assessing before deployment.
While the digital world might seem to run on memes about Neo, it is grounded in exceptionally complex and ordered thought, design and expectation of a more efficient and streamlined future.
To tell the story of this nascent future, which was born from the disassociation and dissatisfaction with the current system, is worthy work and for the narrative to properly land, embed and be accepted in the mainstream reality, it needs to be told from a position of authority and authenticity.
There is a place for novelty, of course, but to be taken seriously, which is what I suspect the issuer of a marketing budget is expecting, it needs to avoid being flippant or dismissive, or risk losing the argument – and the audience.
Everyone can create content, just like anyone can bake cookies. It is the understanding, nuance, context and authority of what is produced and how it is offered that makes all the difference to whether people will be still talking about it in 25 years or not.
Elizabeth Pfeuti is the publishing director of Financial Promoter and director of Rhotic Media