THE 3 MAIN CRITERIA FOR CONTENT IN 2026

Quotable, Distinct & Screenshot-worthy

The 3 Non-Negotiables for Content Marketing in 2026

Seven days ago we entered a new year. I’m proud to share that I’ve already hit my first goal for this year: beat the hangover! Yay! Now that I’m sure that I’m in the right state of mind to share insights without talking out my upside down (how did you like the ending of Stranger Things 5 btw? I loved it!), I’m confident enough to dive back into the content trends for 2026.

Something I came across recently was a new trend in making films and TV shows, which I thought would be relevant. Can you look at these images and see if anything stands out?

Some people on TikTok are discussing how Netflix injects these “meme-able” moments or shots within their shows, hoping for them to become popular online memes. Whether this is intentional or a happy accident for Reddit, we can’t know for sure. Although Netflix does use them as memes on their socials. Either way, they work. Many shows are discovered when people come across these memes and wonder “where is this from?”

What am I suggesting? Be it memes or something else, you have to create screenshot-worthy content that generates hype naturally for your brand. This could be many other things like graphs, figures, stats, memorable quotes—anything of value makes the user take a screenshot and share it.

In 2026, the marketing league is a bit different. We really enter the survival of the fittest era of content creation. Half-arsed content that doesn’t entertain, educate or add value in any way isn’t gonna cut it anymore. With people prompting AI to create pretty much anything of no value, value becomes the main differentiator. AI slop will only hurt your brand and make your content sound like bla bla bla. Even “bold” or “engaging” content isn’t enough anymore.

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With people prompting AI to create pretty much anything of no value, value becomes the main differentiator.

If your content isn’t one of these, it shouldn’t exist:

1. SCREENSHOT-WORTHY

The reason those moments in film become memes is because they’re funny and relatable. People can place them in a different context and they’d still fit—only now they create more shock value and are funny. If memes aren’t your brand, that’s okay. Not every brand is meant to be funny, although it doesn’t hurt to introduce a bit of humour every now and then. I’ll elaborate on humour in a later post.

Let’s say you’re a bank or an insurance brand. What insights could you share that people would wanna remember? So important that they take a screenshot of it so they won’t lose it? Who can you interview at your organisation who is qualified enough to share such insights? These insights should become the backbone of your content strategy. In a time when hundreds of teenagers are pretending to be investment experts on TikTok, sharing (sometimes harmful) “expert advice” to gain followers, your brand could climb the ladder of that space with actual insights that helps you gain more visibility and trust.

Here’s how we break this down into a very simple framework:

The Value Framework

01. Get valuable insights

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02. Translate them into simple language that is distinctly you

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03. Share them using different formats in your look & feel

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04. Be remembered for what you shared

(Always check things with legal though ;))

2. UNMISTAKABLY YOUR BRAND

Let’s do a little fun quiz. How many of these brands can you recognise without the logo?

QUESTION 1 OF 8

SCORE

0 / 8

Play Again

How did you do? What you saw in these images are distinctive elements that people can associate a brand with even when there is no logo. Does your brand have something like that? If for some reason, the audience couldn’t see your logo, would they still know this is you?

With the overwhelming majority of brands (and regular people) generating copy and visuals using AI in 2026, everything is gonna look very uniform. Everyone is gonna sound like everyone else. AI can help make things efficient, but you shouldn’t use it in cases where it removes your personality. Even when you do use it, you should prompt it using Content Bibles that encapsulate your brand personality accurately enough for AI to be able to translate it into distinct content.

Shameless plug: I can help you create the right Content Bibles for prompting AI. Email me.

3. BOT-FRIENDLY

Before you raise your eyebrows, let me explain. I really want your brand to smash it in 2026, so while this point may seem to clash with the previous two, I’m gonna show you that it won’t. A massive shift in online behaviour this year will be the way people find information. Many people have abandoned the good, old-fashioned Google research. That’s right. Google is about to be the new library.

How are most people finding information in 2026? They’re asking AI. What AI then does is scour the internet for the most relevant information that answers the user’s query. If you’ve done your homework, that answer could mention your brand. There’s no guarantee that it will, but there’s no harm in setting the ground work for:

• AI to be able to discover your content easily
• AI to trust your content as the most valuable answer

In my last post, I did a deep dive into how you could do this properly. What you basically need to do is make sure your content is available in text format and that it answers a possible user’s query in the best way possible. Your brand being a possible expert in that space gives you an advantage too. The goal isn’t always to get them to click on your site, but to be mentioned often enough to increase visibility and brand recognition.

This year is bringing a unique opportunity for brands to pivot and be unique. My honest prediction? Only about 5% will actually do any of these things. The remaining 95% relying on AI slop and generic “nothing” content is only gonna make it easier for them to stand out. On what side will your brand end up? You decide.

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You really gonna gatekeep this?