Leading content in 2025: How to align teams, scale with AI, and cut through the noise [VIDEO]

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When content was king

When I started in digital marketing two decades ago, the phrase “content is king” was everywhere — recycled in stuffy meeting rooms, rolled out in low-budget webinars, and plastered across PowerPoint decks with cult-like reverence. Back then, content was the differentiator. If you had the best content, you’d win.

This was back when everything was still mostly text. Google’s SERP was barebones - just the classic ten blue links. YouTube hadn’t been acquired yet, and Google Video was… let’s say, forgettable. “Optimising content” meant writing keyword-stuffed paragraphs and hoping for the best - all in the pre-caffeine, pre-panda, pre-penguin era, before the algorithmic gauntlet we know today took shape.

But as the tech matured, so did the expectations. Content had to do more than rank - it had to resonate. Brands began building customer-first experiences that weren’t just bolted onto a strategy, but woven through it. In SEO, that meant moving beyond search volumes and starting with real customer insight. The game shifted: to compete, you needed a best-in-class content strategy - one that could evolve with new platforms, formats, and behaviours.

AI and AIOs as a threat (and opportunity)

In 2025, content strategists face growing pressure. AI-generated content is being used to cut headcount and speed up production, while Google’s AI Overviews are eating into publisher traffic. The role of the content strategist isn’t just changing - it has to evolve to survive.

The mass production of content, fed by brand tone of voice, style guides, and expert training data, can dramatically speed things up — but at what cost? And where does it stop? I remember starting at Starcom in 2013 and thinking, “There are already so many marketing messages out there.” Think that - but on steroids - in 2025.

Content to help drive organic growth

My biggest success story came at Cazoo, where I led the Organic Performance function and helped grow the business from zero to a £6 billion valuation in just two years - a journey that culminated in an IPO.

SEO played a huge role in driving customer acquisition while keeping costs low. But none of it would have worked without a strong content strategy, a brilliant team, and deep collaboration across the business. If there’s one thing I learned from that experience, it’s this: you have to truly understand your customer. Everything starts there.

Before a single word gets written, you need to ask the right questions. Who are you trying to reach? What problems are you solving? Which competitors do your customers already use — and why? Where are the pain points in the journey right now? Content without that context is just decoration.

Which brings me to Deola Laniyan - one of the clearest thinkers I know when it comes to turning those questions into strategy.

“Don’t Just Publish—Think”: Deola Laniyan on Voice, Volume, and the Value of Saying No

I sat down with Deola Laniyan - someone I’d had the pleasure of working with during what was, hands down, the most rewarding role of my career. Deola is sharp, creative, and quietly magnetic - the kind of leader who can hear three versions of a marketing brief, cut through the noise, and ask the one question everyone else missed.

Deola’s thinking on content - how it’s made, what it’s for, and where it goes wrong - is sharp, timely, and deeply practical. She brings a strategist’s precision and a communicator’s instinct, making her one of the clearest voices in a field that too often chases noise over nuance.

Content as clarity

Early in our conversation, Deola spoke about how content’s real power lies in its usefulness. “When people come to your website or your app or your social,” she said, “they’re coming with a need.”

That felt like the thesis of the entire conversation. Content isn’t just about messaging or reach - it’s about helping someone do something. Every piece should have a purpose. Whether it’s to educate, inform, or entertain, the goal needs to be clear - otherwise, it’s just noise.

We talked about the importance of understanding that need. Not just guessing at it, or filling content calendars with what the business wants to say. But learning what people are already trying to find, in their own words.

The strategy split

One theme that came through clearly in our chat was how easily brands become fragmented. Deola spoke about what happens when different teams operate in silos—SEO focusing on one thing, social media heading in another direction, and product marketing pushing a different message. Without a shared strategy, the overall brand experience loses coherence.

She believes content strategy should sit across the entire customer experience. Not just what’s published on the blog or promoted in campaigns—but the words, structure, and tone that define how people interact with your product, support centre, onboarding, or explainer pages.

Social strategy isn’t a sideshow

When Deola talks about social, she isn’t talking about repurposed campaign messaging or “let’s just post this on LinkedIn too.” She’s talking about platform-native content that actually earns attention - because it respects the audience, the context, and the medium.

“I always think about it as a Venn diagram,” she said. “On one hand, you’ve got your brand - the things you want to talk about. On the other, you’ve got what your audience actually cares about. The intersection of that is your social media proposition.”

That overlap is where she believes brands win. It’s not just about promoting features or pushing product. It’s about relevance. Content that lands because it meets people where they are - not where the brand wants them to be.

She gave a nod to brands like Duolingo and Greggs as examples - not because they chase gimmicks, but because they’ve figured out what entertains. “They’re really focusing on what’s going to genuinely entertain,” she said, highlighting how audience expectations have changed. It’s no longer about presence - it’s about resonance.

Deola also warned against spreading social strategy too thin - or treating it like an afterthought. “You can’t have ten different voices across your channels,” she implied. Social should be an extension of your core content strategy, not an orphaned execution.

For her, it all comes back to intent. Right platform, right tone, right moment. It’s not about being everywhere. It’s about being where it matters - and showing up with something worth saying.

Content that does the heavy lifting

It wasn’t the splashy campaigns that lit Deola up. It was the content that gets overlooked - help pages, onboarding flows, FAQs. “Product pages, onboarding flows, FAQs - if you do them right, they build trust and reduce friction,” she said.

What matters, she explained, isn’t just producing content — it’s looking after it. Deola talked about ownership, governance, and the day-to-day discipline of making sure content stays accurate as things evolve. “You need a process,” she said. “Otherwise things slip.”

She was clear: this work doesn’t shout. But it’s essential. Not because it’s flashy — but because it helps. It answers questions. It makes things easier. And in a world of noise, that’s what people actually need.

AI, balance, and keeping it human

Our conversation turned to AI, as they all seem to in 2025. But Deola didn’t flinch. In fact, she lit up a little. “I think AI is great. I love it. I use it all the time as well,” she said.

She’s hands-on with the tools, using them to help define personas, speed up briefing processes, optimise existing content, and assist with sub-editing and proofreading. “You can feed in audience research and produce some really quite good personas,” she explained. “With the right prompts, it develops some great briefs... and then from a writing perspective, like the sub-editing and the proofing, AI can be absolutely great as well.”

But she’s clear: AI shouldn’t replace human thinking. She described the approach used in her last role as “human-driven, AI-assisted” - with people involved “at the right level, at the right stages” of the process.

That balance matters, because if teams lean too heavily on automation, quality and resonance start to drop. “The danger is the whole ‘give it to AI, have a quick check, publish,’” she said. “You’ll see diminishing returns and people just start turning off from content because it doesn’t resonate anymore.”

AI, she believes, should improve workflows - not flatten voices. Used wisely, it frees up space to focus on what humans do best: adding context, judgment, and intent.

Say ‘no’ more

Deola’s advice to content leaders was practical: be intentional with your time. She spoke about the pressure content teams can face to cover every channel, respond to every request, and move at speed. But without a clear strategy, that energy gets diluted.

Her take? Do the groundwork first. Know your objectives. Align with the business. And then be confident in your choices. “If you’ve done the work upfront,” she said, “saying no becomes easier.”

For Deola, focus isn’t about doing less - it’s about doing what matters.

Where content strategy is heading

Toward the end of our conversation, we stepped back to look at the bigger picture. Content today is moving fast - accelerated by AI, shifting platforms, and rising expectations. But what stood out in Deola’s perspective was her steadiness.

She didn’t chase buzzwords or quick fixes. Instead, she returned to the essentials: understand the business, understand the audience, and build with intent. Her approach to content strategy isn’t just about output - it’s about making content work harder, last longer, and serve a purpose.

If there’s a thread that runs through everything she shared, it’s clarity. Strategic clarity. Operational clarity. A sense that good content isn’t just built — it’s aligned.

And that’s what lingers after speaking with her. A reminder that in a landscape full of speed and scale, the real edge might still come from slowing down, thinking carefully, and making every piece count.

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