Platforms have changed dramatically over the past years. What has not changed, and what cannot, is the strength of the idea underneath them.
A powerful, single-minded idea should be robust enough to be translated, not simply repeated, across different channels. Miss that distinction and you risk creating the same piece of content in multiple formats rather than a coherent communications strategy.
More than a decade ago, when I started my career in digital content, my job was to translate talk radio into written and video content for digital platforms. Structuring stories for radio was the easy part. The real skill was identifying the core thought and finding a way to bring it to life in a completely different form.
I learned that skill from journalists, not marketers.
I had the privilege of working alongside journalists like Xolani Gwala, John Robbie and Nikiwe Bikitsha. They taught me that storytelling does not change when the platform changes. Only the form does.
Xolani would arrive hours before going on air. He would read newspapers, absorb the context of the day, and develop a deep understanding of what was happening in the country. Then he would do something remarkable. He would take all that information, all those competing narratives and identify the one thread that mattered most.
Not a summary. An idea. A single thought that could anchor the conversation and give meaning to everything around it.
That newsroom is where the concept of a "core holding thought" stopped being industry jargon for me and became a discipline. One fixed point in a system where everything else, channel, format, and platform behaviour, is constantly changing.
Looking back, that is where I first learned strategy.
Not the version that lives inside a 40-page deck. The version practiced under pressure, on deadline, where the challenge is to cut through the noise quickly enough to find the one thing worth saying.
That discipline still shapes the way I work today.
Whether I am sitting in a boardroom, developing a communications strategy, or helping a brand navigate a fragmented media landscape, my starting point is always the same: find the insight, uncover the idea, and protect it as it moves across channels.
Because platforms will continue to evolve. Audiences will continue to shift.
Technology will continue to disrupt, but the brands that succeed will be the ones with ideas strong enough to survive the journey.
