New rule for creator content: vary the creative, keep repeating the cue

Mumbai: The first post rarely moves Gen Z. The fourth often does. That was the core message from Arun Srinivas, Managing Director and Head of Meta India, at FICCI Frames 2025, where he urged creators, studios and brand teams to rethink how they build familiarity in a short-form world.

“The younger the audience, the shorter their processing time. It has gone down from 4.2 seconds to 1.4 seconds,” Srinivas said, citing an external ad-lift and eye-tracking study. “They take just a few seconds to decide if they should engage with something or not. And this applies to both ads and creator videos.”

The “fourth impression” mindset for creator content

Srinivas argued that repeated encounters now matter more than a blockbuster first impression. “When my 19-year-old daughter sees the same brand come to her on Instagram for the fourth time, that’s when she clicks,” he said, adding that younger users respond better when the same idea shows up in fresh ways across feeds.

For creators and branded content leads, the takeaway is to design content as a series, with creative variation and narrative callbacks, rather than betting on a single viral post.

Short-form is the new frequency machine

Citing an April 2025 Ipsos study, Srinivas said 97% of Indians watch short-form video daily, compared with 83% who watch television. “This is no longer just an urban phenomenon,” he noted, pointing to individual viewing patterns in multi-device households.

On Meta’s platforms, Gen Z accounts for 43% of all Reels consumption in India, and globally, over 4.5 billion Reels are reshared every day, doubling year on year. “India leads the world in the creation, consumption and sharing of Reels,” he said.

He added that movie campaigns have leaned into this high-frequency, multi-touchpoint approach, combining Reels, creator collaborations and WhatsApp reminders—to reach 300–400 million people within days.

Not shrinking attention, faster processing

“Today’s audiences don’t have less attention; they just process things faster. Brands that adapt to this mindset will win,” Srinivas said. Single exposures rarely stick; short, repeated bursts build familiarity and trigger action. That demands smarter creative rotation so repetition feels fresh, not fatiguing.

Tools creators can use now

Srinivas pointed to Meta’s creative utilities, Edits for quick video refinement and new AI apps for writing and design, as ways for creators and branded content teams to refresh formats across multiple touchpoints without burning out.

What this means for the creator economy and branded content

• Serialise your story: Plan 4–6 post arcs around one idea, with callbacks that reward repeat viewers.
  
  
• Vary the creative, keep the cue: Keep a consistent memory cue, hook, jingle, prop, or visual motif, while changing scripts, POVs or collaborators.
  
  
• Pair creators with communities: Use WhatsApp Channels and creator collabs to stack touchpoints in a short window.
  
  
• Pace to processing speed: Front-load value in 1–2 seconds; use captions and on-screen text to land the idea fast.
  
  
• Rotate to avoid fatigue: Refresh edits, lengths and thumbnails; do not repeat the exact same cut across the week.
  
  
• Measure for familiarity, not just reach: Track saves, replays, shares and follow-through across the series, not only first-post views.
  
  

“The future belongs to teams that can balance attention, repetition and relevance,” Srinivas said. “Earlier, we thought the first impression was everything. Now the fourth or fifth impression might be the one that drives engagement.”