The future of branded content is five humans, not one faceless account

Brands like Taco Bell feel personality-driven even though they're a corporation — and that's the signal. The future isn't a single anonymous brand voice. It's five real people behind the content, each signing off on their own posts: 'Tiffany wrote this, Jeremy wrote this.' Instead of just announcing a new crunchy burrito, you tell the story of Tiffany, who works at the Tulsa, Oklahoma store, has been going to Taco Bell since she was 13, whose parents actually met at a Taco Bell. That's personality content. High-personality content routinely outperforms more credible commodity content — so Tiffany the Taco Czar would outperform the competitor brand that only runs commodity posts. A little creativity opens the door to that second tranche of content, and that's where real brand differentiation lives.