The new shape of popular culture

An audience at the Cannes Lions Festival’s Creative Impact Track heard speakers debate whether popular culture is dead – an answer more complicated than a simple yes or no. 

The University of Michigan’s Marcus Collins and Wunderman Thompson’s Ellie Bamford looked to the future as they discussed how culture will impact brands. 

Why it matters 

Popular culture, such as high-reach TV channels, national or international publications and magazines, is in a tricky place in the third decade of the mainstream internet. For strategists, this presents a dilemma of whether to seek a broad audience with a broad message or to seek smaller audiences with specific messages. 

The nature of culture

“Culture is the measurement of normality,” said Dr Collins at what has become the annual ‘Future of Strategy’ debate. It comes ahead of WARC’s forthcoming eponymous report. 

A former head of strategy at Wieden + Kennedy New York and now a professor of marketing, Collins added that it’s through this broad church of normality that marketers seek to speak to the greatest number of people in the hope that some will convert. 

But where does culture begin? Usually, that’s at the fringes before eventually reaching the mainstream. The brands of the future, he continued, will be tribal marks that enable people to lean into their passion points. “Consumption is a cultural act,” Collins concluded. 

The monoculture shrinks

“In this flourishing post-mainstream reality, small is big and significance doesn’t need to be universal to matter,” argued Bamford, chief strategy officer of Wunderman Thompson. 

The evidence? Think of how widespread the conversation and the coverage of the final season of Succession felt in 2023, yet only 2.9 million Americans tuned in to watch the finale live. In 1998, meanwhile, the Seinfeld finale drew 76.3 million viewers.

Bamford shared five rules for cultural engagement: 

• It doesn’t need to be purpose-driven, but it does need to be additive
• Scrutinise how you activate 
• Align your values 
• Commit – don’t back down when things get tricky
• Embrace the subcultures

The big idea

“The brands of the future will be community marks. They will be tribal marks, marks that we use to demarcate that we are a part of the thing. That I am one of you and that you are one of us,” said Collins. The brands that will win will propagate through the population from the fringes into the mainstream.

“Don’t enter culture with shallow marketing moments that your organisations cannot or will not back up. Make sure your internal values, practices [and] offerings match your [marketing] actions,” said Bamford.

WARC Members can catch up with this and all of the sessions at the Cannes Creative Impact track, curated by WARC, in the coming weeks. 

SPT/LR