When every brand is a publisher, how do you stand out?
The feed may be full, but your audience is starving. Whether you want to be or not, every brand is now a publisher. And the cry for more posts, more videos, more whitepapers, more newsletters, more… everything – it’s deafening.
But, more output doesn’t equal more cut‑through. It just equals… more. Your audience doesn’t want more. They want exceptional. They want funny. They want educational.
The brands that are actually getting traction aren’t the ones with the biggest content factory. They’re the ones that edit like crazy. They kill their darlings. They ship the work that only they can publish. They understand what will fill their audiences’ cups.
Sarah Spence, founder and CEO of Content Rebels, explains which brands to emulate to get actual results.
Sarah Spence: CEO and founder of Content Rebels
Who’s doing it well
The epitome of exceptional content marketing – CommBank
Commonwealth Bank (with one of our competitors who I look to a lot for inspo – Medium Rare Agency) took the idea of an audience-first blog and then blew it out of the water. They stood up an owned media network (CommBank Connect) and extended their “Brighter” ecosystem into a national TV series, The Brighter Side, across Network 10 and 10 Play.
Their “Brighter” online blog content alone has driven a 1,078% organic traffic increase since January! That’s a bank behaving like a broadcaster… with editorial intent across physical branches, screens and digital. To me, it’s the epitome of exceptional content marketing.
Brand crossovers spilling out into every channel – Bunnings x Bluey
Who doesn’t love a brand crossover?! Especially when it’s two of Australia’s favourites. In the ultimate content marketing play, they not only crossed brand swords, they crossed offline, online and experiential swords too.
Offline, seven Bunnings stores rebranded as Hammerbarn, the Bunnings-proxy from the Bluey universe.
They rolled out DIY workshops for kids (110,000+ took part!), and they launched the Bluey Gnomes range. Online, Bluey’s cult following helped to deliver huge earned reach and tonnes of free UGC content, giving any repurposing marketer a dream slate to leverage (and let’s not forget about the massive surge in search demand – from zero to 5,200 a month in an instant).
This worked because Bunnings didn’t shout about themselves… they (with BBC Studios and Ludo Studios – the teams behind Bluey) curated a moment people already loved and made it tangible.
Looks familiar
Where consistency and quality are still winning – ANZ Bluenotes & Monash Lens & Xero Small Business Insights
All three are solid examples of what consistent, high-quality content publishing can do for a brand. ANZ’s Bluenotes and Monash University’s Lens run true editorial programs with beats, bylines and timeliness.
Not every piece is a “campaign”… it’s a cadence. Xero’s approach is regular, methodical releases of small‑business data, making Xero uber-quotable in earned media. Journalists cite it. Policymakers read it. Customers reference it. Data is the curation layer that keeps the story honest. That’s how trust (oh, and organic traffic) is built. Monash has seen a 76% organic traffic uplift in just 18 months, while ANZ is kicking goals with 190% organic traffic growth from just February to July this year!
Journalistic curation making a big impact – BESydney
Now for the #notsohumblebrag, with BESydney we built five research‑led “precinct” eBooks under the Change Starts Here banner, grounded in 40 interviews across government, academia and business. It wasn’t about pumping out posts … it was about packaging original insight in a way decision‑makers would actually save, share and cite.
The result: a 43% lift in site traffic during the campaign, 3.5 million reach and a global win for Best Use of an eBook at the 2025 Content Marketing Awards. Curate first, then create… then distribute like hell.
Sarah Spence: CEO and founder of Content Rebels
Who’s struggling (and why)
Volume without value – CNET and Sports Illustrated
When CNET quietly shipped AI‑written finance explainers, more than half needed corrections. Sports Illustrated landed in hot water over AI‑generated writer profiles. Fast content… slow trust recovery. If you don’t have reporting, standards and bylines you’d put your name to, the internet will find the seams.
Claims you can’t substantiate – Mercer & Active Super
Regulators have started treating greenwash as a content problem. Mercer copped an $11.3m penalty; Active Super was fined $10.5m; in the UK, HSBC and BrewDog campaigns were pulled. If your words over‑promise or omit context, that’s not content… it’s a court exhibit.
Silence in a storm – Optus
Optus’ nationwide outage wasn’t “content marketing” per se, but it was a communications moment. The Senate inquiry called the response “manifestly inadequate.” When you don’t run your comms like a live desk, the story writes itself… without you.
Over‑reliance on search clicks – just about every other brand out there right now
Nearly 60% of Google searches end without a click. At the same time, Google’s AI Overviews are rolling out at scale, changing how answers surface and who gets the credit.
If your distribution plan is “publish and pray for traffic,” you’re planning for a world that’s already gone.
Optus said ‘no’ to prompt customer communications.
Curate harder than you create
Here’s the playbook I use with clients and in my own work. It’s not more tasks… it’s stricter taste.
1) Pick your beats
Every publisher has beats. You should too. Choose 3–5 topics where you have the right to speak… backed by access, data or lived practice. If a proposed piece doesn’t sit on a beat, it doesn’t ship.
2) Give every asset one job
Before a draft exists, name the single job to be done: change a belief, answer a buyer question, earn a backlink from a specific outlet, arm Sales with a stat, or move a list to a nurture step. No job… no budget.
3) Pair a point of view with proof
A take is not enough. Bring evidence: interviews, data, original research, and customers willing to talk on the record. BESydney’s eBooks worked because they combined sharp POV with 40 interviews and utility‑rich packaging.
4) Edit for usefulness, not adjectives
Create a ruthless editorial checklist: “Would I bookmark this… would I send it to a colleague… would I quote it?” If you can’t say yes to at least one… it’s noise.
5) Program for AI surfaces
Don’t write for AI… structure so AI can cite you. Clear authorship, transparent methodology, schema, summaries, and source‑worthy pages help your work show up in summaries and assistive answers. In our GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation) approach, we treat AI results as another distribution surface to plan for… not a mystery to fear.
6) Build a “kill list”
Name the formats you’ll stop doing because they inflate volume and dilute trust. Death by monthly newsletter? Goodbye. Jumping on trending posts? Pass. (Yes, I’m also allergic to a certain batch of buzzwords… my team literally keeps a list so we don’t bore ourselves or you.)
7) Make distribution part of the draft
For every piece, pre‑write the pitch to a journalist, the email to Sales, the 3 social cuts, the snippet a partner could publish, and the structured summary a model can cite. If you can’t imagine where it travels… maybe it shouldn’t exist.
8) Measure by “gets used,” not just “got views”
Track saves, forwards, citations, sales usage, and inbound references. These are stronger signals of cut‑through than impressions alone.
My quick curation scorecard you can steal
Use this before you green‑light anything:
- Why now? A timely trigger or fresh data… not just the calendar.
- Why us? Access, verifiable expertise or community that others don’t have.
- What’s new? A finding, frame or format your audience hasn’t seen.
- Where will it travel? Named publications, partners, playlists… and AI surfaces.
- What’s the proof? Named sources, methods, quotes, and datasets.
If you can’t answer those… don’t do it. Yes, it takes more effort. But the rewards are more than worth it.
So, don’t just fill the feed. Curate the recipe that will excite your audience.
Stop publishing. Start editing.
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