Branding at the speed of culture: break the norm and embrace the niche

Branding at the speed of culture: break the norm and embrace the niche

Trainspotting and luxury fashion. “My Money Don’t Jiggle Jiggle, It Folds.” Eight-dollar verification chaos. Coastal Grandmas, Dark Academia, Weird Girl Aesthetic. The shape-shifting, inertia-inducing speed of culture in 2022 doesn’t look like it’s slowing down anytime soon, and your branding needs to keep up.

Culture in an era defined by ephemeral, bubble-up trends, peak media fragmentation across platforms, the erosion of the mainstream and the proliferation of micro-communities is distorting attention and wreaking havoc on advertising effectiveness.

When 77% of Americans say their most important community operates online, and when 91% of 18-25s agree there’s no such thing as pop culture or the mainstream anymore, shouting louder, making your logo bigger, cutting your TVC into 6s social snippets or pushing product-centric messaging informed by last month's performance metrics isn’t going to help you to win in the real world.

Why? Because advertising has always been contextual, and thriving in the contexts that define our time means breaking the norm and embracing the niche. It means participating. Or, intelligently and strategically embedding brand into consumers’ many spheres of influence to nurture a feedback loop of authenticity and belonging.

Participation isn’t groundbreaking. What is, though, is doing so without evolving beyond the polarization of mass reach marketing and hyper-fragmented audience targeting. We need to shift from this linear mindset into one of entanglement, where brand emerges from participation and brand narrative has a shared relevance with culture, community and platforms.

But how? By uniting strategy, creativity, data and the right tech. When we identify, track and monitor relevant niche communities as they materialize in culture and on platforms, we can provide actionable insights that move branding at multiple speeds. Whether you’re communicating B2B or B2C, placing community at the core permeates your entire funnel and consolidates marketing effectiveness and efficiency instead of fragmenting it.?

We know that brands who excel in a community-centric approach are rewarded with up to 75% of their branded content being user-generated. We know that consumers are more than twice as likely to say that UGC is the most authentic type of content. And, we know that 91% of consumers are more likely to purchase from a brand that feels more authentic. Participation is the new brand imperative, we know where to start – let us know when you’re ready.?

Follow the link below to dive deeper into our community and multi-speed brand-building approach, as presented at our most recent event.

https://www.valtech.com/whitepapers/branding-at-the-speed-of-culture/