If you work in media or content creation, you already know the answer to every problem:
More better content.
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Traffic is down? Make more content. Engagement is down? Make better content. The algorithm changed? Optimize your content. A new platform popped up? Repurpose your content.
And if your team is exhausted from creating all that content? Use AI to automate it so you can make even more.
This is ContentMaxxing: the practice of making more and better content to reach more people. Naturally, excellence like this deserves recognition.
So today, I'm introducing ContentMaxxer of the Month, an award honoring those who demonstrate an exceptional commitment to solving life's problems with more better content.
Here are your inaugural nominees.
1. Pocket FM: Solving the Audio Content Shortage
Pocket FM produces serialized audio dramas—fictional stories told over hundreds of short episodes. Think soap operas for your phone, with listeners paying to unlock additional episodes.
The company is now using AI throughout the production process. Its tools can help develop storylines, improve cliffhangers and adapt stories for different markets, while AI-generated voices turn scripts into finished audio. Today, AI is involved in 99% of Pocket FM's new content, and the company says it can produce 100 hours of programming in a single day—a process that previously took about a year. Its creators are now producing roughly 2.5 million hours of AI-powered content per year.
Pocket FM CEO Rohan Nayak summed up the strategy nicely: “More content is always great.” And that's fantastic news for podcasters. Now, in addition to competing with Joe Rogan, Alex Cooper, YouTube, and every other audiobook and streaming service for people's limited attention, you can compete with millions hours of AI-powered audio slop.
Welcome to the Content Arms Race. You're gonna need a bigger mic.
2. Caleb Chan: Because Outrage Should Scale
Caleb Chan has discovered another promising application for ContentMaxxing: partisan outrage.
According to an investigation by Semafor, companies connected to Chan built a network of YouTube channels producing sensationalized political content. The operation used AI-assisted scripts, paid actors reading political commentary scripts, outsourced editing, and dozens of YouTube accounts to turn political outrage into content at scale. Chan has claimed that his broader operation was publishing 2,500 organic videos every week.
And here's where the ContentMaxxing gets interesting: You don't even need to find a pundit with something to say. Hire a spokesperson, give them a script, package it like political commentary, see what generates engagement, and make more of it.
It's an elegant solution to one of the traditional limitations of political division: humans can only be outraged so many hours a day. AI doesn't need to sleep.
YouTube subsequently terminated 20 channels connected to the network for violating its spam policies. Apparently even The Algorithm has limits.
3. Dollar Shave Club: ContentMaxxing Requires Balls
Dollar Shave Club has discovered that one of the biggest obstacles to creating more ads is the amount of time and money it takes. So the company has embraced generative AI to make the process faster and cheaper.
Consider its campaign for Ball Spray, a deodorizing spray for exactly the part of the body you think. The company used AI to create “Danglers,” an ad starring a pair of truck nuts that endure friction, sweat and grime before failing an inspection and getting rejected in bed.
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For years, we've been told that artificial intelligence will transform civilization: Cure diseases, accelerate scientific discovery, unlock the mysteries of the universe...
But if you want to know why they're really building a data center in your backyard, it's so humanity can produce more ads about sweaty truck nuts.
Cast Your Vote
So who deserves to become the inaugural ContentMaxxer of the Month?
Vote for your favorite. The choice you make today could determine the content we are forced to scroll past tomorrow.
Everyone who votes gets a free ContentMaxxing sticker, suitable for displaying on the laptop you use to create more better content.
Responses