In an era obsessed with speed and automation, Svein Clouston, co-founder of Edinburgh-based brand and content agency Rationale, argues that the next competitive advantage for brands lies in doing the opposite.
Let’s start with the obvious. Writing a 2026 trends piece is impossible. Nobody knows what is going to happen this year. Anyone who claims otherwise probably hosts a Huel-sponsored leadership podcast, and that should tell you everything.
This isn’t a technology trends piece. It’s about the humans we’re still trying to sell to, build for, and ultimately understand. What I’ve tried to do here instead is notice a singular shift. Something subtle that I’m seeing in regulated, high-stakes sectors where trust still matters more than speed. And it’s something that is becoming increasingly hard to ignore.
There was a nice cultural signal of this recently in The Guardian, which explored the idea of ‘friction-maxxing’, a growing sense that we may have over-optimised for convenience, and that a little resistance, effort or pause can actually lead to better outcomes.
Trust needs a little resistance
For the last decade or so, friction has been treated as a design flaw. Every click reduced. Every step removed. Every pause eliminated in the name of a “seamless customer experience”.
But recent signals suggest that this thinking is, thankfully in my opinion, starting to wobble.
I wrote a piece late last year about cognitive offloading, the risk that when everything becomes too easy or too frictionless, our capacity for deep thinking and judgement begins to fade. While that was prompted by the growing use of tech tools that can generate strategies, thought pieces or even full marketing plans, the underlying principle applies far more broadly.
When effort is consistently removed from the process, thinking becomes less rigorous.
Research in cognitive science shows that when people outsource too much mental effort to shortcuts, they become more reliant on surface cues (things like brand signals, headlines or visual polish) rather than developing a genuine understanding for themselves.
The danger is that these surface cues are far easier to copy.
You can see this play out clearly at large industry events. In December last year, I attended the RSNA (Radiological Society of North America) conference in Chicago. Vast swathes of exhibitors looked and spoke in a near identical fashion. The result wasn’t brands exhibiting clarity or confidence. It was quite the opposite.
Slow down, you move too fast
Behavioural research into decision-making shows that moments of pause can increase confidence in high-stakes choices, particularly in areas like finance and healthcare. In other words, when people are asked to think a little harder, they often feel more reassured about the decision they’ve made.
This is echoed in recent findings from Deloitte, whose 2025 Human Values research highlighted that customers increasingly associate speed with risk in complex categories. Faster, it turns out, isn’t automatically better. Sometimes it’s even seen as a red flag.
So if friction can build trust in experience, then depth should build trust in communication. You can’t demonstrate sound judgement through shortcuts alone. At some point, you have to show the thinking, and not just signal that it exists.
The quiet return of long-form thinking
This shift is most visible in content.
For years, brands have optimised relentlessly for attention. Shorter formats. Faster takes. Simpler ideas. TikTok!? Do we have a TikTok strategy!?
The unintended consequence? Everything now looks and sounds the same.
Beige thought leadership, identical carousels and endless AI slop. And audiences are noticing.
WARC’s 2025 Creative Effectiveness Report found that long-form, narrative-led work is outperforming snackable content when it comes to trust, recall and perceived authority.
At the same time, subscriptions to publications like The Economist continue to rise with more than half (53%) of publishers reporting increases in digital subscriptions.
What these audiences – many of them senior-level decision-makers – are paying for isn’t simple information. We all know they can get that anywhere (how is your GEO strategy looking!?). They’re paying for interpretation and for context. For someone taking complexity and making sense of it, rather than flattening it into a headline or a 30-second reel.
Long-form content does something short-form can’t. It asks more of the reader. And in doing so, it gives more back.
Why this matters for B2B brands
This is especially relevant for brands operating in regulated sectors.
While I accept that long-form isn’t for everyone, it does offer brands a simple success metric – long-form content attracts people willing to engage, think and ultimately invest attention, and hopefully more!
So the opportunity in 2026 may belong to those who slow down. For marketers in complex or regulated sectors, I believe this looks like the following:
1) Design for deliberation, not just discovery
Not every piece of content needs to be instantly consumable. Allow space for depth and explore longer formats across all formats (video, case studies, editorial etc.). Don’t fear friction.
2) Show the working, not just the conclusion
Trust isn’t built by confident answers alone. It’s built by demonstrating your working. Long-form content that explains how you’ve arrived at a position can help to establish credibility and build trust.
3) Treat sameness as a warning sign
If your content could be lifted, rebranded and published by a competitor without anyone noticing, that’s a clear signal to stop.
