Matter - Navigeren naar Groei

Matter has strong editorial expertise, long-term client relationships and a clear reputation in food, magazines and human-interest content. At the same time, the market is changing fast. Content production is becoming cheaper and more accessible, AI accelerates output, and the label “content marketing agency” is losing its distinctiveness. The visible question concerns growth, but beneath it lies a more fundamental issue: without clear choices, Matter becomes invisible in an increasingly crowded market.

Our analysis shows that the issue is not capacity or quality, but focus. Matter can do many things but does not clearly show where it structurally makes the difference. The strategic task is therefore not to broaden, but to choose. We sharpen that choice: moving away from a generic full-service profile towards specialization in editorial brand formats, with magazines and long-running formats as the distinctive core.
This choice becomes the starting point for a strategic framework that guides all subsequent decisions. Editorial formats are no longer seen as isolated tools or campaigns, but as structural carriers of brand meaning over time. The framework clarifies what Matter says yes to: continuity, coherence and depth. And what it deliberately says no to: short-cycle campaign logic and opportunistic production without an editorial backbone. 

Our role is multifaceted. Strategic, by analyzing market, competition and internal strengths and making choice tensions explicit. Developmental, by formulating a coherent framework for positioning, portfolio and business development. And facilitative, by leading strategic sessions in which scenarios, implications and consequences are sharpened together with leadership.

The chosen direction requires structural embedding. Not through a story or campaign, but visibly in how Matter operates. This leads to simplification of the brand architecture, sharper profiling of propositions and a different way of working with clients. Matter no longer positions itself as a generalist, but as a specialist that develops and manages long-term formats within broader content and technology ecosystems.

This creates an ecosystem in which Matter remains editorially leading while collaborating digitally. Technology and AI accelerate and support, but do not become a differentiator in themselves. Space emerges for embedded partnerships, international scalability and new business models, without diluting the editorial core.

In collaboration with:
• David Barens