Fuck The Rules: The Creative Content Anarchy

Rules aren’t inherently bad. In fact, they’re actually made to help us have some form of metric or guideline for whatever it is we need to do or finish. It’s a staple component of a stable society or system. We’re believers of enacting rules and regulations to make things better. But if there’s one thing that we don’t agree with, it’s keeping creatives in a box—therefore making them spiral down in the fiery pits of creative hell.

When it comes to creative content, the rules are simple. Actually, it’s so simple that there shouldn’t be rules, to begin with. Now, before you go all “weird flex, but okay” at me, hear me out.

We’ve got the backing of Keeping It Human’s Kathy Klotz-Guest here. At the Content Marketing Institute’s Mastering Content Marketing Series, Klotz-Guest challenged creatives to have none of the rules that limit creativity. After picking up from Apple’s 1997 “Think Differently” ad, she echoed Apple’s solid belief in encouraging the crazy and the wild to come up with something more than what the usual boundaries of creativity are.

Klotz-Guest recommends that you “flip, smash, and challenge.” Frankly, that’s the best way for us to actually get things done efficiently and with more creativity. Fuck the rules, because they’ll never amount to anything good in the long run—creatively speaking (and maybe a little bit about society too).

So for anyone who’s struggling to come up with a smart content marketing plan or having trouble executing a creative campaign, Klotz-Guest offers up some surefire ways to fuel the creative anarchist in you.

Annihilate Quantifiable Metrics

Data is vital for market research and analytics. You can’t separate those things from each other in the realm of digital marketing. But when it’s creativity that we’re talking about, Klotz-Guest says that it’s best to go where most companies aren’t heading towards. We’ve become so scared if something isn’t quantifiable and couldn’t be replicated. It’s important to get rid of the “template mentality” and choose a different path. After all, Klotz-Guest stresses that “you’re not that company. Your customers are different. Your path is different. Your story’s different.”

Destroy Expectations

Expectations can be daunting. If you’re always hounded by the pressure to deliver what people expect, then it’s not going to work out well for you. Again, as you go against the tide, make sure that you’re in a place where your competitors aren’t. Try spicing things up by doing something that no one has done before. “If it scares you, you’re doing it right,” Klotz-Guest says.

Fight the Power

Nope, this isn’t about dismantling a fascist regime. This is about encouraging creatives to not hold on to brand guidelines or department rules as a crutch for their creativity. Often this could lead to burnout. Content marketers aren’t the only places where good stories can come from. It’s everywhere. Don’t limit yourself to where you are, explore, collaborate, and fuck with the rules. It’s by taking risks that you’re eventually taken into a place where creativity and good stories meet.

Level The Mountains of Failure

The more risks you take, the less likely you are to wallow in self-doubt and failure. Of course, being risky often entails failure, but that’s fine. Your creative atmosphere should enable you to fail and succeed at the same time. Klotz-Guest also encourages managers and supervisors to support creatives when they take risks. Sure, you might end up taking the fall for them, but if you give creatives enough encouragement for risk and not blame them when it fails, these people would work in creativity efficiently and would more likely have no room for error. Experimentation is key to having great, compelling creative content.

Take Angkas’ Twitter strategy, for example. They don’t go with the usual serious type of marketing where it’s emotional but still sales-y. Angkas’ social media team is so great at what they do because they know their voice well enough to have the engagement that people clamor for.

Binigyan na nga ng promo code aba galit pa

— Angkas (@angkas) November 27, 2018

ayaw maabala ni mbala https://t.co/EKoWhGsJlm

— Angkas (@angkas) November 21, 2018

*angkas passenger walks away with the helmet on*

My Brain:
Don't say it
Don't say it
Don't say it
Don't say it
Don't say it
Don't say it
Don't say it
Don't say it
Don't say it
Don't say it
Don't say it

"mamser yung helmet po pakibalik"

— Angkas (@angkas) November 15, 2018

So the next time you find yourself bound by rules, let the creative anarchist rise. Fight it, dismantle it, and do your best to obliterate them. It’s by doing this that you can truly create meaningful content that works. “Become a learning organization and an organization committed to curiosity,” Klotz-Guest says.