Some might view collabs as a modern invention. Think brand x creator, product drop x hype cycle, two logos, one shared Instagram post, but they’ve always been there. In fact, advertising as we know it today was built on collabs.
Before social media we had newspaper editors. Before GEO targeting we had billboard locations. Before analytics we had foot traffic, word of mouth, and the playground test. Even the earliest print advertising wasn’t about “expressing a brand”. It was about working with:
- The physical constraints of the page
- The reading habits of the audience
- The social class of the publication
- The cultural codes of the time
A Victorian soap ad didn’t succeed because the copy was good (though it would obviously help). It succeeded because newspapers were trusted, hygiene was becoming a social worry, and the ad lived amongst content people already believed. The medium wasn’t neutral. It was the collaborator.
And then there are those collaborations we grudgingly accommodate: budgets, timelines, formats, platforms, legal. We treat them like enemies. But constraints aren’t the opposite of creativity. They set the parameters, the rules, the canvas. The six-second format forces clarity, the character limit forces prioritisation, the small budget forces actual thinking. Creativity thrives on constraints. After all, we all know that diamonds are formed under pressure.
But we can also get those collaborations wrong. We can find ourselves partnering with those who don’t share our values. We can get our timing and channels all mixed up, missing our audience, diluting the message. Luck plays a part too. The creative hook for a recent DM piece we did for The Royal Scots Club featured redacted text – about 24 hours before the Epstein files (well, some of them) were released. Even at this early stage we can't say if that was a lucky or unlucky break. But people are talking about it, and people are joining the Club. And yes, the right kind of people.
Creativity is never just about the idea. It’s about the relationship between the idea and the world it lives in. But these days, collaborations involve many more influential parties.
Is the algorithm becoming your most important creative partner?
Time to talk about the collaborator everyone forgets to invite to the brainstorm, but who now runs the meeting. Enter…the algorithm. A social campaign doesn’t succeed purely because the idea is good, it succeeds because the idea is clear to the algorithm. The algorithm decides:
- What gets seen
- Who gets to see it
- In what order it is shown
- In what context
- Next to which random video of a guy popping pimples (or whatever your particular vice might be).
Which means every piece of creative today has an invisible co-author: A recommendation engine trained on human behaviour and mild chaos. Creators and advertisers alike think they’re making content for people. Which is true, but that content is filtered first through machines.
And this is where it gets interesting. It’s no longer a straight pairing. It’s no longer brand & audience. It’s now the perfect alignment of brand & algorithm & culture. Three unstoppable, everchanging forces, to deliver one outcome.
The algorithm actively shapes tone, length, pacing, format and even humour. It rewards behaviours, kills others, and slowly trains everyone to make the same kind of thing while insisting they’re being original. Best practice be damned! We are not publishing into culture anymore. We’re publishing into machines that actively rewrite culture in real time. And it’s happening quicker than most can keep up with.
So, whether you choose to invite the machines into your next brainstorm. Know that they are already in the room, they have opinions, and they will take a seat at the table.
Advertising as we know it today, was built on collabs that still prove a winning formula. None of us can work without collaboration in some shape or form. You can’t be your own audience, your own platform, your own culture, your own system. So, let’s say we don’t create ideas. Let’s say we eloquently design collabs. Not the obvious ones. The OG ones. The ones between brands and people, ideas and systems, messages and moments, creativity and constraints. The ones that really matter.
