How to activate a cultural program
3 steps
Nobody knows anything.
Who could have predicted any of the random and transient pop culture explosions from the past year (Demure? Brat Summer? Man in Finance?)
Probably no one, trend spotters claims notwithstanding.
In cultural markets, success is as unpredictable as ever — because it depends on our attention, tastes, and preferences all of which are heavily — and unpredictably — socially influenced. We rarely choose to like something independently of one another (cue in Miranda Prestley’s cerulean monologue). We like things that other people like, making popularity of something a matter of cumulative advantage.
When brands are consumed together with everything else in culture, movies, music, art, entertainment, experiences, advertising, or photography, their playing field (and rules of the game) are shaped by the entire global cultural output. Brands can choose how they want to participate — through commercials or packaging or store experiences or product design — or through all of this plus brand voice and visual landscape, partnerships and collaborations, fandom management, content … all of which create, in the ideal world, cultural currency. When/if created, this currency expands brands’ cultural and market footprint, renews brand associations, caters to its many different customer segments, and boosts brand cultural credentials.
When your business depends on cultural currency, best is to create an entire portfolio of cultural output in the hopes that some of it will accumulate enough currency to meet your annual P&L projections. Just like venture capitalists invest in a lot of startups so one of them can make them most of the money, brands create cultural programs so that one output can make up for all the rest.
These strategic, considered, well-funded cultural programs are still rare (most brands continue to bet on a single “hit” or a couple of them). But a well-conceived cultural program is a springboard not just for costly seasonal initiatives of unpredictable success (like brand campaigns) but also provide a framework for an array of cultural
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