The road to success in communications has never been smooth. It’s paved with debates, critiques, and moments of discomfort that push us to think differently. Yet, in an age where artificial intelligence offers speed and convenience at every turn, we risk losing one of the most powerful drivers of innovation: friction. Not the kind that grinds processes to a halt, but the kind that sparks brilliance—or what Robert Rose aptly calls valuable friction.
During his keynote speech at Content Marketing World this year, he introduced the idea of valuable friction, or “the deliberate resistance that slows you down enough to think critically, evaluate, and challenge.”
He says it’s the tension that “forces you to pause and infuse your work with creativity. It’s the mental nourishment you get from reading a book, understanding the details, and working through the process.”
Though his message was for marketers, this concept resonates deeply in communications, where creativity thrives on tension, and challenges force us to refine our strategies.
But what does valuable friction look like in practice? How can we harness it to create stronger campaigns, more compelling stories, and deeper connections with our audiences?
I know you’ll be completely surprised by this, but the PESO Model© is the answer. It offers a framework that not only integrates different media types but also naturally generates the kind of tension that drives excellence.
Combined with thoughtful resistance to AI over-automation, this approach becomes a powerful counterbalance to complacency.
The Catalyst of Valuable Friction
Often viewed negatively in business processes, friction is a powerful catalyst for creativity and improvement. In Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, Dr. Robert Cialdini writes, “Resistance to an idea often means we’re pushing boundaries and challenging conventional thinking—essential elements for innovation.”
In our line of work, friction manifests in various forms: the tension between stakeholder interests, the challenge of crafting messages that resonate across diverse audiences, and the push and pull between speed and accuracy. These points of resistance lead to more refined and effective strategies.
The rapid adoption of generative AI introduces a new dynamic. While AI streamlines workflows, it risks eliminating valuable checkpoints that historically contributed to strategic refinement. As Robert pointed out during his keynote, “The danger isn’t in using AI—it’s in removing human judgment and creativity from the equation entirely.”
Now you know I love, love, love AI. It has been instrumental in my being able to produce even more content than in the past—and to do it in a way that is true to our brand and my voice. But it takes some serious oversight to avoid hallucinations and to ensure sources are cited correctly. It’s great at crafting an outline and providing some ideas for context, forcing me to think about things differently. It definitely creates some friction.
I love that.
Valuable Friction In the PESO Model
As I work with it more, and continue to think about how the PESO Model is evolving, I’ve come to realize it inherently incorporates valuable friction. Each component presents unique tensions that, when properly managed, contribute to stronger outcomes.
Here’s how…
Paid Media: The Tension Between Authenticity and ROI
Investing in paid media creates natural tension between budget allocation and authentic reach. Communications teams often grapple with questions like: How much should we invest in paid promotion versus organic growth? When does paid amplification enhance credibility, and when might it detract from it?
This friction forces organizations to thoughtfully evaluate paid strategies and integrate them seamlessly with other media types.
For example, teams must balance immediate visibility through paid channels with the long-term credibility built through earned and owned media when launching a new product. This tension often leads to more nuanced, effective campaign strategies that combine paid promotion with authentic storytelling.
Earned Media: The Tension Between Journalism and Organizational Storytelling
Media relations exemplifies valuable friction in action. Comms pros must balance maintaining positive journalist relationships while pursuing coverage that serves their organization’s goals. This often involves navigating competing priorities: the journalist’s need for newsworthy, unbiased stories versus the organization’s desire for positive coverage.
The tension extends to pitch development, where communicators must craft stories that serve both journalistic integrity and brand objectives. This productive friction often results in stronger narratives that resonate with both media outlets and target audiences.
Shared Media: The Tension Between Brand Standards and Genuine Engagement
Social media platforms create unique friction points between brand control and community engagement. Organizations must navigate between maintaining their brand voice and participating in authentic conversations. This tension plays out daily in decisions about:
- Content tone and style
- Response strategies to community feedback
- The balance between promotional and engaging content
- Timing and frequency of posts
- Management of user-generated content
These friction points force brands to develop more sophisticated, nuanced approaches to social media engagement rather than relying on one-size-fits-all solutions.
Owned Media: The Tension Between Corporate Objectives and Audience-First Content
Creating owned content presents the most interesting internal friction: the balance between brand messaging and audience value. Content teams regularly face tensions between:
- Marketing goals versus educational value
- Short-term metrics versus long-term brand building
- Technical accuracy versus accessibility
- Brand guidelines versus creative expression
- Production speed versus quality
This productive tension often results in more thoughtful content that better serves the organization and its audience.
For instance, a technical blog post might undergo several iterations as stakeholders push for their priorities—technical accuracy, readability, SEO optimization, and brand messaging. The result, shaped by this friction, typically offers more value than a piece rushed through production.
Valuable Friction In Paid Media
The thing about friction is that it needs to be intentional. As we look ahead to 2025, we can’t just hope these tension points will naturally occur in our PESO Model programs—we need to deliberately design them into our processes. And yes, I know that sounds counterintuitive in an age where everything is about speed and efficiency, but stay with me here.
In our work with clients, we’ve started implementing what I call “productive pause points” throughout our PESO Model programs. These aren’t just random slowdowns—they’re strategic moments where we force ourselves to stop and think critically about what we’re doing.
For instance, we’ve instituted what I lovingly call “devil’s advocate day” for our paid media programs. Before we launch any significant paid campaign, someone on the team is assigned to actively challenge every assumption we’ve made. Why this audience? Why this platform? Why this message? The job is to pretend you’re a toddler and ask “why,” even when everyone else is annoyed.
It can be uncomfortable—nobody likes having their work questioned—but we all very much enjoy it when it’s our turn to be the toddler. The process has led to stronger, more effective campaigns, all because we create opportunities for valuable friction.
And with the proliferation of AI, you have all sorts of valuable friction in paid media. AI is fantastic at generating options and analyzing data, but the friction between AI suggestions and human insight creates magic.
You can use AI to draft initial content or analyze trend data and then build in deliberate checkpoints to evaluate and challenge the outputs. The key is to use AI as a thought partner, not a replacement for human judgment.
Valuable Friction In Earned Media
Earned media is where lots of comms pros struggle the most with valuable friction, especially as newsrooms shrink and AI tools promise “automated” media relations. (I just rolled my eyes typing that.)
You and I both know that the real value in earned media doesn’t come from blasting out more pitches faster. The value comes from the tension between what journalists need and what organizations want to say. And that tension? That’s exactly where valuable friction does its best work.
We’ve built several specific friction points into our earned media process. Before any pitch goes out, someone on the team has to play the role of the journalist who’ll receive it (we love our role-playing!). They’re tasked with being brutally honest. They ask the tough questions, poke holes in the story angle, and challenge whether it is actually newsworthy.
We also create friction by forcing ourselves to develop multiple angles for every story. Even when we think we have the perfect pitch, we make ourselves come up with three completely different approaches. This often leads to discussions about what makes something newsworthy and frequently results in discovering angles we wouldn’t have considered otherwise.
And now, you can use AI to help create this valuable friction. Instead of blasting out pitches (please don’t do that), you can use it to play devil’s advocate. Feed it your pitch and ask it to respond as different types of journalists might. Or ask it to identify potential weaknesses in your approach. The key is using AI to enhance your thinking process, not replace it.
This might sound like a lot of extra work because it is. But here’s the thing: when you track your results, you’ll find that the pitches that go through those friction points will have a much higher success rate.
Valuable Friction In Shared Media
Now let’s talk about shared media. Everyone’s racing to be first, to jump on every trend, to get to the next new thing first, and to respond to every comment instantly. And sure, social media moves fast, but that doesn’t mean we should abandon thoughtful strategy in the name of speed.
The most valuable friction in shared media comes from the tension between being timely and being strategic. It’s that push-pull between wanting to be part of the conversation right now and making sure what we’re saying actually adds value.
You can create valuable friction in your shared media efforts by having strategic pause points. For instance, everyone is all gung ho on Bluesky, and it’s smart to at least reserve your brand names there, but it’s far too early to know if it’s where you should hang out to reach your audiences.
A strategic pause point for Bluesky is to take some evaluation time. Watch how the conversation evolves, who’s participating, and most importantly, whether it aligns with your brand values and voice. You’ll be happy with how much time you save by doing this. You don’t need to be first. Heck, you don’t even need to be there in the first year. But you do need to spend some time evaluating whether or not it’s right for your brand.
And, you can use AI as a friction creator in shared media, too. You can have it generate multiple content approaches and then use human judgment to evaluate which ones serve your audience and align with your voice. The friction between AI-generated ideas and human strategic thinking often produces the best content.
The key is finding the right balance between timely response and thoughtful strategy. It’s about building friction points that make your shared media more strategic without grinding everything to a halt.
Valuable Friction In Owned Media
And now my favorite of the media types: owned media. This is what we have the most control over, yet it’s often where teams fall into bad habits. And now, with AI in the mix?
The best owned media comes from embracing tension, not trying to smooth it all away. The tension here is what marketing wants to say and what our audience actually needs to hear. It’s also the tension between quick production and thoughtful development, between SEO requirements and genuine reader value, and between AI-produced and human produced.
There are lots of ways you can work through this valuable friction: conduct an audience truth session, even if it’s just with yourself or your dog. Before you agree to develop the content, answer the following questions (or make marketing or sales or advertising or product development or, or, or): What does our audience already know about this? What are they struggling with? What assumptions are we making? What would make them roll their eyes and click away?
When you’re working with other team members, this can be uncomfortable because there will be conflict, debates, and maybe even some heated arguments (I don’t know how many times throughout my career I’ve had to tell an ad team that their pretty new campaign isn’t newsworthy). But that’s exactly what you want! Out of that friction comes content that actually serves a purpose beyond just filling a content calendar slot.
And now, of course, we have AI. Yes, I use AI in my content creation process. It makes me so much more efficient. But I don’t have it produce the content for me. I have it generate a draft or outline and then use that as a starting point. The friction between AI efficiency and human insight often leads to some ideas my team or I hadn’t come up with on our own.
How to Incorporate Friction
Valuable friction is not about adding unnecessary steps or slowing things down just for the sake of it. It’s about creating intentional moments of resistance that make your work stronger.
As we move into 2025, the pressure to move faster and automate more will only increase. But the organizations that thrive will be the ones that know how to balance speed with strategic friction.
Don’t try to eliminate all friction from your processes. If you do, your results will feel generic or like they miss the mark. The reality is that some friction is not just good—it’s essential for creativity and excellence.
The trick is to figure out whether your friction points are valuable or not.
