Back in 2020, in the space between when the Covid-19 pandemic first hit us and the time when we could finally stop reeling, an expansive trend report was produced that revealed the future of marketing and the resulting rise of the creator economy in a post-pandemic world.
Emergence of the Creator Economy Thinking
Amongst the specific trends uncovered was a new awareness, a shift to hyper-individualism, an emerging world where people no longer regard society’s norms as binding and begin to act in a highly individual way. However, this does not disregard mass trends, influences, or forces that guide decision-making.
Monomass is the intersection where hyper-individualism and mass trends meet and can comfortably co-exist. The generation driving this monomass? Gen Z, the next major economic power-holders emerging in this new post-pandemic economy.
By the way, if you missed my TikTok on this, you can catch it below, or scroll to keep reading here on the blog.
The Future of the Creator Economy
When we look at the forces guiding the youth (Gen Z) culture and decision-making today, we come to realize that the world has changed. How we approach those changes, the content and marketing language we use to connect with these emerging creators of tomorrow will need to change, too.
These graphs will tell you everything you need to know about the past and the future of the creator and content economy.
Let’s break it down…
The History of Marketing Campaigns
For the last few decades, if you made marketing campaigns or content, it followed a strict path. You led a consumer down a very specific route to get them to an end result. Then, you’d start over on that same path once again with a new customer or on a new product.
By the 2010’s, most good brands followed this format. They had creators, hired folks like photographers and videographers, to execute professional campaigns at the behest of ad agencies, or actual influencers who were hired to do specific created-for campaigns.
All of these folks created content and it was pushed out through all the different mediums. Tastemakers (influencers who determine what’s stylish enough to become a trend) would then pick up on that content and amplify it to their communities.
The Flow of Marketing Campaigns
Now, content and creation isn’t a straight line when you’re following that kind of a path. Instead, it’s now become a circle.
I’ll explain…
Now the creators that are empowering a brand (or the brand’s story) is you. And it’s me, and it’s them, and it’s us. And it’s all happening right here.
We’re all creating content, and more and more people are doing that every day. This may be specifically for a brand or as part of a story with which that brand interacts. And all of this created content is being pushed out into a larger community.
Now, all the people who engage with the brand and its evolving stories are able to provide feedback in real time and to interact with that brand and that story in a way that isn’t predictable. It can’t follow any existing path.
You can script it as much as you want to, but its going to be something that’s a living, breathing, piece of content ‘thing’. It then all feeds back into each other and those opinions form the basis for new content, new initiatives, new ideas.
There’s only one way to be ahead of the game as the creator economy continues to rise all around us…
You as a brand must understand that you need to be creating content with your user base and your influencers and yourself, as a company. That is allowed to be one story, one that you can’t always control but you need to be in the middle of. You need to be acting on that when you’re thinking about your community, about the conversations you’re building all around your brand as a living, breathing, evolving thing.
CREDITS
These graphs are actually about two years old and from a publication called The Era of Monomass by Dazed Studio. Their information was super-predicted as to what was about to happen, and I’ll really pay attention to anything they put out in the future in terms of reports because they’ve always been super on the ball.
Get your copy of this report here.
BONUS MATERIAL!
Catch the Builders.Build podcast with my best friends, Colin and James, to discover more about our individual TikTok perspectives and entrepreneurial journeys across brands, products, websites, and more.
Thank you for reading this guide to the rise of the creator economy!
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– Oren
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