The biggest challenge facing marketers today isn’t creating more content. It’s creating content that doesn’t sound like everyone else’s. New research from Cashew found that 65% of marketers experience differentiation anxiety, the pressure to create content that feels fresh, original, and distinct in an increasingly crowded content landscape.
The study surveyed 206 senior mid-market and enterprise marketers across North America to understand how AI, content production, and originality are reshaping modern marketing.
While AI has made content creation faster than ever, marketers say standing out has become significantly harder, it said.
“We’ve reached a point where everyone has access to the same AI tools, the same prompts, and the same information,” said Addy Graves, CEO of Cashew Research. “The competitive advantage isn’t producing more content anymore. It’s having something original to say.”
The findings reveal a widening gap between content volume and content differentiation. Nearly three-quarters of marketers (71%) publish content at least weekly, while 66% have used original research in their marketing within the past 90 days, suggesting brands are increasingly searching for proprietary insights that competitors can’t easily replicate, said Cashew.
The Cashew research also explored which marketing messages resonate most with today’s marketers.
Benefits centered on helping brands better understand customers and stand out from AI-generated content ranked highest. By contrast, messaging focused on proving marketing ROI, and building credibility, ranked among the least compelling.
The results suggest marketers are shifting their priorities away from justifying marketing efforts and toward creating genuinely differentiated perspectives. As AI continues to lower the barrier to producing content, originality may be becoming one of the few remaining competitive advantages, added Cashew.
Cashew’s full report, Everyone Said That, is available now.
In an interview with Retail Insider, Graves spoke about the report.
Question: Your research found that 65 per cent of marketers experience “differentiation anxiety.” What’s driving that anxiety, and why is it becoming such a significant issue now that AI tools are widely available?
Answer: The biggest driver is the pressure to keep the content engine moving while still coming up with fresh ideas, angles, and campaigns.
Marketers have never been under more pressure to produce a high volume of content, across more channels, and more consistently. But at the same time, every piece of content still has to earn attention. That’s the hard part.
AI has made content production faster and easier but it has also raised the bar for originality. If everyone is drawing from the same sources, using the same data and insights, it becomes much easier for brands to start sounding the same. So the anxiety isn’t about creating more content, it’s about creating content that actually feels new, different, relevant, and worth sharing.
Q: The survey suggests original research is becoming a competitive advantage. For retailers and consumer brands, what kinds of original data or insights are proving most valuable in helping them stand out?
A: The most valuable insights tend to come from topics that are personally meaningful, culturally relevant, or a little provocative for the audience a brand is trying to reach. The strongest research-led content usually does more than talk about a brand or product. It reveals something interesting about culture and consumers’ lives, daily tensions, values and overall behaviours.
For example, Turo has used original research to explore how different generations think about car ownership, road trips, and even autonomous vehicles, including how open Gen Z is compared to older generations. Joni has used research to highlight the real-life affordability and access challenges many people face around period care.
Those kinds of insights work because they show the brand understands the world its consumers are living in. It gives brands something much more meaningful to say than “here’s our product.” Instead, the brands are saying “we understand you”.
Q: Many retailers are using AI to produce marketing content more efficiently. Where do you see AI adding value, and where does it risk making brands sound increasingly similar to one another?
A: AI is incredibly useful for operationalizing the content engine. It can help teams plan, edit, repurpose, summarize, and scale content more efficiently.
Where it becomes more risky is when brands rely on AI to generate the core idea or point of view in the first place.
AI is largely working from existing information, patterns, and language that many other teams can access too. So if every brand is using similar tools to come up with ideas, there is a real risk that the output starts to feel repetitive no matter how many ways we try to repackage it. Consumers will eventually just stop listening.
The best use of AI is not to replace original thinking. It is to make the process around original thinking faster. Brands still need a distinct point of view, fresh data, and a real understanding of their audience to create content that stands out.
Q: Your survey found that 71 per cent of marketers publish content at least weekly. Are companies starting to prioritize quality and unique insights over publishing volume, and what does that shift look like in practice?
A: The pressure to publish frequently is definitely still there. Our research shows that output is up, and many marketers are expected to create content on a weekly basis or more. But the smartest brands are realizing that quality and volume do not have to be in conflict. Original research can actually support both.
One strong study can uncover a compelling story that shapes your entire content strategy. It can reveal fresh insights that spark a new campaign or provide an early glimpse of an unexpected shift that catches your entire category off guard.
That gives marketers more substance to work with. Instead of using the same data points and insights that everyone else has access to, proprietary data gives you a story only you can own. That gives you the opportunity to run content ideas that no one else can copy, and allows you to bring a unique narrative to the market.
Q: Looking ahead, what do you think will separate the brands that successfully use AI from those that simply add to the growing volume of generic content online?
A: The brands that win will be the ones that use AI in a balanced way.
AI can make teams faster and more efficient, but it should not be the source of a brand’s entire point of view. The strongest brands will use AI to support the work, while staying close to real human experience, customer perception, and cultural tension.
I think that will become one of the biggest differentiators over the next five years. When content becomes easier for everyone to produce, the advantage shifts to brands that have something true to say.
The brands that succeed will not just be using AI to create more content but using it to amplify unique ideas.
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