Every brand is watching the same dashboards, listening to the same trend reports, and chasing the same algorithm updates. The internet zigs, and everyone follows. The result is a landscape of look-alike ads, recycled content formats, and brands moving in perfect unison toward the same, bland middle.
But challenger brands don’t play that game. They don’t zig because the algorithm tells them to. They zag because culture rewards the unexpected.
The truth no one wants to say out loud: algorithms don’t create originality, they create averages. They reward what’s familiar, what’s safe, what’s already been done enough times to register as “successful.” Optimizing for the algorithm is just another way of saying you’re optimizing for sameness. And sameness is the fastest way to disappear.
Challenger brands understand something deeper. They know algorithms follow behavior, not the other way around. Culture shifts because people do, and people move when they’re surprised, delighted, intrigued, or moved. That kind of reaction doesn’t come from predictability. It comes from divergence.
The irony is that the moment everyone optimizes for the same metric, the value of that metric collapses. The algorithm becomes a hall of mirrors. Everyone reflects on everyone else. Everyone is blending in. Everyone is technically “doing it right” while creatively doing nothing at all.
Zagging isn’t rebellion for rebellion’s sake. It’s a strategic misalignment, choosing a path that algorithms can’t predict but audiences can intuitively feel. It’s leaning into perspective instead of patterns. Voice instead of volume. Distinctiveness instead of duplication.
We’ve seen this firsthand at AVANTI. When we partnered with challenger brands stepping into crowded markets, the breakthrough never came from playing by the platform’s rules. It came from storytelling, craft, and creative choices bold enough to feel human again, the kind that travels not because it’s optimized, but because it resonates. When everyone else edits for the algorithm, challenger brands edit for the audience. That’s the difference.
And here’s the shift happening right now: platforms are catching up. More and more, algorithms are rewarding engagement with substance, not sameness. They’re elevating the unexpected because people elevate the unexpected. Culture is thirsty for originality, and the brands willing to zag are the ones culture gives its attention to.
In a world where every brand is trying to “out-algorithm” the next, the smartest move is often to do what the machine doesn’t expect. To be the variable. To break the pattern. To create not for the feed, but for the humans behind it.
Because challenger brands don’t wait for the algorithm to tell them how to show up, they show up in a way that forces the algorithm to follow.
Ready to stop chasing the pattern and start defining it?