There is a familiar cadence to the way many marketing departments operate. Resources are put into a single flagship idea, plus a handful of variations, before everyone’s attention moves to the next initiative. Campaign work is intense, but it is also brief. There are launches and clear endpoints. Always-on content moves to a different rhythm entirely. It is designed to make a brand useful and discoverable long after any individual campaign has concluded. This differentiation is critical because brands are now under pressure to be always-on as a basic expectation from consumers.
Always-on content shouldn’t be confused with ‘more content’. It’s not about producing endless stuff – although quantity is certainly a factor. But at its core, it’s a shift in how brands show up in the world. It’s no longer periodic bursts of activity – it’s an attempt to create a continuous presence across multiple channels.
This approach allows a brand to respond to a particular cultural moment, a change in customer behaviour, or even a tweak to the algorithm. It can do all these things in something close to real time. And it works. One study conducted by LinkedIn showed that an always-on media spend resulted in a 12% increase in aided brand awareness. The study also noted that awareness decreased by 9% once the media spend stopped.
This article examines the serious implications of always-on content for agencies, covering production workflows and team structures, pricing models, talent management, and measurement in a live environment.
How always-on content changes the agency production cycle
Always-on content is less about high-budget output delivered on a fixed timeline and more about speed and adaptability. This means agencies have to balance two quite different demands simultaneously. Yes, they want to maintain brand quality, but they also need to produce at a frequency that previously would have seemed impossible. Audiences expect brands to participate in conversations as they unfold, so content needs to be ready before the moment passes.
The implication here is that what once took weeks must now take days – or in some cases, a few hours. Immediacy and freshness become priorities, and this means traditional workflows no longer work. Whereas before a brief might move from strategy to creative to production to delivery, now production never stops and simply becomes iterative. Everything becomes overlapping and continuously evolves.
What would this look like in practice? It might mean production and creative collaborate daily, and rather than long cycles, content is planned and reviewed quickly – and refined continuously.
Alongside the need to acquire new tools, agencies will have to adjust how they make decisions so teams can act quickly without constantly having to escalate every single decision. This is where trust plays an outsized role, with teams able to make decisions with minimal oversight to keep production moving at pace.
Always-on enables reaction – but it’s not purely reactive
It’s common for always-on content to be seen as somehow inherently reactive – that it’s simply there to respond to trends. But the most effective always-on strategies are still highly structured, rooted in audience insight and brand narrative. They just need to be flexible enough to react when needed.
In terms of production, this means doing more of the thinking upfront with teams creating content that can be reused and adapted over time. Front of mind needs to be templates and repeatable formats that, in the long run, will make it much easier to create consistently good work.
Always-on diminishes the value of any single asset. What becomes more important is the effect of multiple pieces of content over time. For agencies, creativity remains important, but a single amazing execution is no longer the main goal. Instead, it’s about creating systems and frameworks that enable this kind of continuous output, while remaining adaptable.
The challenge of talent and resources
Always-on content demands sustained output over long periods, which means team burnout is a possible challenge. When not planned carefully, teams can find themselves permanently ‘on’ and simply responding to an endless stream of requests with no natural pause. In this model, the work never ends, and you can never get ahead. Clearly, this is not a workable model, and agencies must address this to avoid losing team morale and seeing a dip in quality.
One practical way to reduce burnout is to introduce clear production cut-off points. Even when producing always-on content, there needs to be clearly defined times for review and response. This helps to give teams a moment to pause, and permission to do so, rather than feeling permanently on call.
Leading agencies are responding to this challenge by rethinking how their teams are structured. This might take the form of small, dedicated teams that rotate in and out. It could be specific teams embedded with clients. Whatever approach is chosen, taking care of the teams is paramount in the always-on world, and agencies must find ways to avoid burnout.
Because always-on models require sustained attention and continuous optimisation, the usual fixed-fee model no longer works. Pricing structures will need to reflect the new, higher volume of output, as well as continuous monitoring and optimisation – plus the strategic oversight needed to keep content relevant over time.
Measurement in an always-on world
In an always-on environment, measurement is not about delivering the work and then measuring its performance afterwards. Data on performance is constantly used to make production decisions in a ‘live’ environment.
When these feedback loops are so tight, the role of analytics teams becomes more important than ever, with content producers needing to speak their language and understand performance signals, then take that away and optimise as needed. Agencies that still treat data as a bit of external reporting, rather than an embedded capability, will struggle to keep pace.
How agencies can stay ahead of always-on demands
One 2022 study found that 62% of global marketers emphasised the importance of being ‘always on’ for their customers. This kind of content has forced agencies to realise that the way they work is as important as what they create. Without the right processes in place, burnout is just around the corner.
It also means that clients are not just paying for ideas, but for an agency’s ability to produce and deliver content quickly and consistently. When production is prioritised and teams are empowered to move fast, ongoing delivery becomes possible. The agencies that will stay ahead are those that invest in clear workflows and realistic pacing. In an always-on environment, advantage comes from repeatability and resilience, not constant reinvention.
In the end, the goal is not to work harder, but to build systems that allow good work to be sustained over time.
