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We've started calling it the fluency economy.
Content costs almost nothing to make now. AI can write it, cut it and post it before lunch. So the value has moved somewhere else: to people who actually understand a thing and can show you they do.
This is the first of three short posts on what that means for brands. This one is about technical fluency. The people who build, run and fix things, and why they've become the most useful creators a brand can work with.
What changed
For a long time the creator brief was simple. Find someone with a big following, pay for a post, count the views.
That still works for awareness. It works a lot less well when you need someone to buy.
Audiences have seen the rented sports car and the "link in bio" a thousand times. What they seek now is proof. The founder who shares the dashboard. The trainer who shows the whole program. The mechanic who walks through the repair step by step.
These people are operators. Their content comes out of their actual job, and that's why it lands.
What we see in the work
In our experience the creator ads that sell are rarely from the biggest accounts. They come from people who use the product every day and can explain why it works in plain words. A lifter who knows what's in the tub. A home cook who can tell you why the pan matters.
They don't need a script. They already know the questions your customer is asking, because they asked them first.
Before your next creator brief, ask
- Does this person actually use the product, or are they renting us their audience for a week?
- Could they explain it with the brief closed?
- Are we choosing by follower count, or by how much their audience trusts them on this topic?
- Have we left room for them to show how it works, or only to hold it up to the camera?
- Are we measuring sales and repeat purchase, or views?
Smaller and smarter usually beats bigger and louder. Find the fluent people and give them room.
Next in the series: cultural fluency and informational fluency.