The Content Universe

Stop Inventing a Why Introduction Does every company really need a big emotional story? In this conversation, host Mikkel Svold sits down with Fredrik Hillerbrand, creative producer at Open Door and head of growth at Connie, a company handling contracts mainly for the creative industry. With 18 years as CEO of Danish production companies and deep experience in television storytelling, he brings a...

Marketing departments in large industrial companies are sitting on enormous untapped potential. They have the engineering depth, the application knowledge, and the long-standing customer relationships that every B2B marketer dreams of. And yet many of them are still caught in a pattern that undermines all of it. The big-bang campaign. A flashy product launch. A beautiful video production. Then sil...

What if the reason your content isn’t working has nothing to do with ideas, and everything to do with ambition? In this episode of The Content Universe, host Mikkel Svold goes solo and argues that the superpower of content marketing in 2026 is a slightly uncomfortable combo, being overly ambitious, and then being brutally pragmatic about how you’ll pull it off. He uses a prospect conversation as t...

How do you communicate when the rules are fixed and not up for discussion? In this episode, Mikkel Svold is joined by Maiken Riise Andersen, Head of Corporate Communication and Branding at ALK, to talk about what content creation actually looks like inside a highly regulated industry. Where compliance is not a guideline, but legislation. They discuss how ALK works with clear frameworks, structured...

About This Episode Most companies on LinkedIn are doing the same thing: posting whatever comes to mind. A workshop photo here, a quick thought there, a team dinner shot on a Friday afternoon. It feels like staying active. It looks like content. But if you step back and look at the whole feed, there's usually no thread. No pattern. Nothing that tells a potential client what you actually stand for o...

In this episode, Mikkel Svold engages with Senior Communication & Marketing Manager at Ramboll Energy, Susanne Wellington Hansen, to explore the evolving landscape of thought leadership in knowledge-driven companies. They discuss the shift from traditional technical focus to a broader societal relevance, the importance of activating thought leadership through various channels, and the challeng...

I’m sorry. But thought leadership is not about you . It never was. It’s a mistake that many companies do when they try to promote a thought leadership strategy in their marketing . And even that sentence doesn’t really make sense. Because thought leadership is not marketing thought leadership is branding. So stop trying to sell your products . Stop trying to push your services. And start deliverin...

how long should my podcast episodes be? How often should I release a new episode? Should I have guests or not? And really, why do I need a podcast at all? These questions are the foundation of every podcast and they are questions that you should be able to answer before starting the first recording. In this episode, I give my view on these four questions so jump in and get your answers so you can...

all across different kinds of media, different kinds of channels, different business areas and industries we see the same trend. A trend pointing out that we are already as a consumer, as a client, and as a human being, tied out from reading and watching AI generated content. Maybe it’s just me? Maybe you feel it too? But yet another shift in how we produce content is around the corner - let’s hop...

we’re at the doorstep of 2025 and that means budgets. It also Means that many marketing departments have to cut down. But how do you handle budget cuts in your marketing? And how do you prioritise the remaining resources you have? They have four bullets I wanna go through with you to maximise your value for money on a tight marketing budget. This is what we talk about today in this episode of a Th...

LinkedIn's a peculiar place.  So many untold rules and conventions.  So much focus on standing out by breaking the rules. It's contradictory.  And this is why I've assembled three things, I used to do – because it was best practice –  but have now stopped. Tell me, which rule is your favorite LinkedIn-rule to hate?

sometimes it feels like you spend all day copying and pasting from one program to another. Pushing out content on your social media platforms involves tedious and dull tasks that you need to do. But no more. Automation has become easier than ever. And with only a few clicks. A few one of set ups. You’ll be good to go with a fully automated distribution system that removes the trivial copying and p...

The convenience of recording from home is significant. But how do you decorate your room to avoid clutter yet still keep a professional look? Today I’ve been working in my own home studio trying to make it look nice on camera from three different angles. And that’s what we talk about in this episode. See you inside.

Where's your primary focus: Sales? Marketing? Or branding? Rarely do I see all three get equal attention. And that’s a mistake. Sales is needed for obvious reasons. Marketing is what drives leads to sales. But branding -the often forgotten child- is what positions you in the market. Could you have a business without branding? Yes. But not as prosperous as you could have had.

Thought leadership is a real buzzword these days. Yet most companies do it wrong. Here’s why. Thought Leadership is not about your product. Thought leadership is not about your service. Hell, it's not even about your company. It’s about industry knowledge. About what pushes the boundaries of what’s possible. Own an agenda. Own the category. Forget your product. That’s what true thought leadership...

AI already mass produces content. But is it valuable? Is it valuable in a year? And is it valuable in five years? Honestly, no one really knows. But there’s no question that the amount of AI produced content is on a rapid rise right now and will be even faster in the future. Near future that is. So what actually will have value in five years? In this episode, That’s what we discuss. See you inside...

Ever experienced that white frightening paper that just keeps blinking into your eyes without helping you put any words on it whatsoever? Ever tried writing writing writing and then suddenly out of nowhere your brain stop. No more words? Then you experienced writers block. And today I’m telling you that writers block does not exist. Who am I? What an idiot. Well, to me writers block is a sign of n...

ever looked at your to do list and just lost your mind? Or looked at your calendar and felt the need to breathe? We’ve changed from working with single tasks in our content production process to working with production windows. In this episode, I’ll take you through why this is a good idea. See you inside.

AI generated Podcasts is now a reality. I’m completely excited. Confused. Baffled. Worried. And I must say a tiny bit afraid. What’s going to happen to the human to human interactive podcast? Do people care whether it is real humans talking to each other? Does it add value that the podcast episode is based on real human experience, human emotion? Or will AI take over yet another creative disciplin...

we all do them. Non-value adding tasks in our content production. What might’ve looked good in the idea phase suddenly became yet another insignificant time-consuming boring task that you now have to do to push out content. And no one cares. In this episode, I’ll give you a couple of examples of non-value adding tasks that I’ve encountered in my content production and a quick idea on how you can e...

I don’t like the word prompt engineering, but I must say that writing a powerful prompt does take a little work. In this episode, I will go through how we structure our prompts when we use the API solutions that the large language models provide. And I’m telling you, these prompts are quite a bit longer and more thorough than most people would expect. Let me know what you think. Do you write long...

when you say corporate podcast people tend to think big setups, cameras rolling, studios, and high-end microphones. However, sometimes the big setup is in the way of getting stuff out the door. In this episode will look at three different podcast setups that you should consider before starting your podcast journey. 🎥The full Monty set up 🎤The simple set up 📱And the quick and dirty See you insid...

It’s not easy to keep focus for long interview. Lots of things require your attention. 🐿️ checking sound levels 🐿️ checking your notes 🐿️ making sure cameras are on 🐿️ what’s that noise? 🐿️ what’s the time? 🐿️ did she just move outside the camera frame? Frankly, sometimes you lose focus. But luckily, there are a couple of things that you can do to get back on track without anyone noticing but your...

There’s one thing that makes constant production really hard. It’s not writing. It’s not Design. It’s not getting the ideas. It’s planning interviews. In this episode, I’ll give you three tips on what you can do to ease the planning of interviews that can then become master content. See you inside.

Seeing yourself on camera is terrible. Listening to yourself on a recording is terrible. Standing in front of a crowd speaking is terrible. Few people that you interview are used to standing in front of a microphone or camera. So getting people to talk can sometimes be a real challenge. In this episode, you’ll get three simple tricks to get the most out of your interviews even when you’re intervie...