I know what it’s like to be the arbiter of doom. I’ve worked in content for over a decade, and for a lot of that time, I was the person turning up to creative reviews with a new set of ‘best practices’. Brand in the first 1.7 seconds; 4:5 ratio; keep it under 15. Add subtitles. Don’t add subtitles. I’d get brought in to explain how things had to be done – not because I genuinely believed every rule, but because we were all trying to make sense of something that felt messy and unpredictable.

Social didn’t behave like other channels. It moved too fast. It didn’t sit neatly in a plan. So we did what strategists always do when things feel out of control – we tried to create a framework. Something to help people understand it, and to give creatives a box to build inside. It made sense at the time. But slowly, the box started shrinking. The rules stopped being helpful, and started being limiting.

But while agencies were trying to make social more structured, creators were doing the opposite. They were throwing out the format completely – shooting docu-style shorts on their phones, building cult YouTube series from their bedrooms, blending lo-fi and high gloss in ways that didn’t fit anyone’s ‘grid’. Not working to a template, but really understanding their audience and what they want to watch.

2025 feels like the year brands are finally catching up with that shift. Recognising that effective content isn’t about rules, it’s about insight. It knows who it’s for. It knows how it wants to make you feel. And it can take literally any shape.

Take creative director Jonathan Anderson’s Dior SS26 debut. The brand didn’t just post runway shots – they built an entire narrative ecosystem around the show. There were cinematic pre-show vignettes of guests, red carpet moments treated like campaign stills, and a beautifully shot broadcast that felt more like a fashion film than a feed. But the bit I loved most wasn’t the glossy stuff – it was the way the brand embraced the sidequests.

Creative agencies have a huge role to play. Not because we need to replace all TV ads with TikToks – but because when the format is completely open, what actually matters is the thinking

When French content creator Lyas didn’t get an invite and hosted his own unofficial watch party in Paris, Dior brand jumped in – gifting him a tote from the collection and folding that moment into the broader story. It felt layered, expansive, chaotic. Just like the internet.

You can see the same mindset across other standout content this year. Wimbledon’s Overheard at Wimbledon series turned candid crowd reactions into mini cultural moments. Drake rolled out Iceman with a strange, icy livestream that made little sense if you weren’t a fan – and perfect sense if you were. None of these were built around rules. They were built around ideas.

And that’s the point. There’s no one ‘right’ format anymore. The content that sticks doesn’t look the same, but it does come from the same place – a proper strategy, a clear sense of brand, a real understanding of audience, and an idea big enough to stretch.

That’s why I think creative agencies have a huge role to play in this space. Not because we need to replace all TV ads with TikToks – but because when the format is completely open, what actually matters is the thinking. Knowing who you’re speaking to, what the brand stands for, and how to create something that fits online culture without getting lost in it.

Content doesn’t need more rules. The work that cuts through now is the stuff that understands the audience and then just plays. That treats the internet as a creative playground, not a media channel. That doesn’t ask ‘what should this be?’, but why would anyone watch it?’

Vairi MacLennan is head of content at Lucky Generals; luckygenerals.com; Top image: Shutterstock