Don’t build a better printing press – build a publishing house’: the future of content

“If you’re chasing scale and cost reduction, you’re almost solving yesterday’s problem.”

That’s the warning from David Billings, our chief strategy officer. He was speaking with The Drum alongside Roland Butler, head of product at Zalando about content’s next chapter.

“The difference between creating a content factory and creating a really effective content system,” he says: “is almost the difference between building a faster, cheaper printing press and building a publishing house.”

Beyond the content factory

As generative AI becomes commonplace, simply producing more assets faster is no longer enough.

Instead, Billings argues brands should focus on building connected systems that bring together briefs, governance, measurement, audience insight and creative judgment. AI can accelerate production, but lasting competitive advantage comes from knowing what content to create, how to optimize it and how to continuously improve it.

At Zalando, this means connecting fashion insights, product data, creative briefs, localization, production and measurement. “Today, around 90% of our onsite marketing content is created with AI, helping our teams respond to emerging trends and cultural moments while they are still relevant,” says Butler. Its Met Gala activation, for example, went live one day after the event and drove a 74% uplift in add-to-wishlist and a 120% uplift in brand followership.