Thursday March 20 at 9.30AM EST/ 1.30PM GMT. RSVP by clicking here.
The Future Of Cultural Strategy – a webinar on how to help brands make real opportunities out of our messy experiences…
To celebrate the launch of our second book, How We Work As Cultural Strategists, join us for a webinar on the best way to get cultural insights today.
What we do at Crowd is guided by the single, simple belief that all brands and people live – and are influenced by – culture.Culture is everywhere around us – it’s the unwritten rules and rituals that make our world(s) tick. It’s the starting point for how people behave and trickles all the way down to how people see, feel, engage with and advocate for brands.
But culture is getting messier.
Society is getting messier by the day. People are getting messier by the minute. And the consumer experience is messier by the second.
At Crowd DNA we have adapted our tools to unpick these messy experiences.
_Culture isn’t static, so neither are we. Learn how blending specialisms is the best way to get cultural insights.
_Discover how brands can act on culture, not simply report (or worse, take from culture).
_ Learn how to make real commercial opportunities out of our messy experience.
From our second book, How We Work As Cultural Strategists (left)
Join our Global Managing Director, El Pigram and Joey Zeelen, Managing Director EMEA to find out how to act on cultural change.
Welcome to the second drop of our Trends Report 2025. This time our global team of futurists and strategists share five shifts shaping culture this year (and beyond)…
Last month we looked at five trends developed and refined by a global team of futurists and strategists across our five offices. As with all our client projects, nothing at Crowd is off the shelf – we believe the future is best co-created. These are starting blocks to inspire you and get you thinking.
Now here’s the next five, to leave you – like us – with even more enthusiasm for 2025 (and beyond), to act on culture and help shape the future you want to see.
Our global team of futurists and strategists know what trends to pay attention to.Here they look at what trends will take their placein 2025 and beyond…
The future can feel conceptual and abstract, but we’re experts in delivering tangible strategy and helping clients feel confident in using it for decision making.
Pause, Fast Forward, Rebound? has been developed and refined by a global team of futurists and strategists across our five offices. Our smart and adaptive cultural strategists are dedicated to future forecasting, and to providing solid strategic recommendation based on that forecasting.
We blend methods (such as semiotics and working with social/unstructured data), to identify, articulate and draw meaning from trends, working with the world’s biggest brands to unpack the potential impact of emergent culture on products, comms, services, consumers and much, much more…
Come to Crowd in 2025 for strategy rooted in cultural foresight, contact us at hello@crowdDNA.com
Drop One.
Our report delivers two punchy drops of five trends each. Here’s the first.
Look out for five more for 2025 from Drop Two. Coming next month.
Our editorial insight series, Club Free, meets people who don’t fit neatly into segmentation tick-boxes. Here Global Managing Director El Pigram gives some tactics for brands to meet them outside of these…
At Crowd, we believe that change presents opportunity.
Our latest editorial insights series, Club Free, is about groups seeking a new way of thinking about their individual liberty. It’s not freedom that’s unchecked or selfish: we talked to people who are providing each other with the support, empathy and community to exercise their freedom effectively.
In chapter two: The Financial Outsiders, we heard from a community-minded group living and giving outside of elitist money systems.
Here we dig a little deeper into this changing relationship with money and how it can inspire more emergent strategies for mass audiences.
The Financial Outsiders are a manifestation of a deeper cultural shift towards being free from wealth or economic systems that costs others. Looking at what this group gains from living and giving outside of elitist money systems can make us think differently about the way that we craft financial products and position them.
Subverting Status. As chasing down those traditional milestones of (ultra) wealth become less ‘shiny’, how do we think about new articulations of (and ways to cater to) age old social identity needs like ’status’, ‘reward’ and ‘discernment’? It’s not that this audience aren’t seeking all the good stuff that once came with splashing cash – self-gratification, community validation, recognition – but instead they’re more choiceful in how they fulfil these desires, with the act of giving (rather than receiving) hitting that sweet spot.
Values over value. You can’t put a price on happiness. Cliche, and a bit (to use a Gen Z word) ‘cringe’ – but for many this rings true more today than ever before. Rather than play by the rules of a game that’s rigged against them, young people are forging their own way of earning (figurative) wealth – by doubling down and focusing on their values, rather than their earning potential. It’s not that they don’t value work, they just don’t see work as a fair value exchange. Which poses an interesting question to us as marketers, strategists, employers – how do you define, create and communicate real ‘value’ to an audience who interprets it in a fundamentally different way?
(More) Radical Honesty. Radical honesty has been a thing for a while. Honest brands that ‘say it how it is’ connect with an iconically millennial sensibility (I’m looking at you, Ryanair, KFC & Pot Noodle ). Emerging audiences are however encouraging us to move a step further, from saying the unsaid – to doing the unexpected; supporting people and communities in ways that genuinely benefit them. What our Financial Outsiders are calling for isn’t about CSR, it’s about putting an end to gatekeeping that upholds the imbalance between the haves & have nots through creating spaces and cultivating (branded) communities that facilitate the greatest kind of wealth distribution – knowledge.
Learning about The Financial Outsiders is part of our commitment to look at (and be inspired by) groups of people who don’t fit neatly into tick-boxes, well trodden segmentations or traditional pathways.
We hope you find these stories interesting. And please do feel (yes) free to reach out to the Crowd DNA team to explore how this type of thinking could apply to your brand challenges.
Can sport provoke positive change? In our recent Future Of Sport survey we looked at how it is playing out with the major forces – from sustainability to fandom – and where sport is changing the rules, for good…
Sport is at its best when it is inspiring us, and we found plenty to be inspired by in our Future Of Sport Survey. We wanted to find out how sports has the power to challenge attitudes around the major forces of Inclusion, Equity & Diversity, Sustainability, Performance & Success, Game Play and Fandom. We used these cultural shifts as a roadmap to what sports might look like for tomorrow’s players and fans.
For the full survey on The Future Of Sport, contact hello@crowdDNA.com
In this survey, we got to interesting provocations around:
Inclusion, Equity & Diversity
Traditional barriers are being challenged (such as improved equity in sports, whether financial, gender or physical access), and questions about inclusion (especially for non-binary or trans people in sport) and the relationship between sports and politics are under scrutiny.
We found that…
96% of Americans agree it’s important to make everyone feel welcome within the sports community
50% of Americans agree that sportswashing is a problem
96% of Americans agree it’s important to make sports accessible to everyone
Sustainability
New solutions are being found to create more climate positive events, for example FIFA has committed to net-zero emission by 2040; and Formula 1 has a strategy to become a net zero carbon sport by 2030.
We found that…
87% of Americans feel it is important to reduce the carbon footprint of sporting events and experiences
37% of Americans feel the transparency from sporting organisations and events around global issues such as their sustainable impact will improve in the next five years
Performance & Success
As athletes like Simone Biles and Naomi Osaka withdraw from events to prioritise their mental health, it’s no longer success at any cost.
We found that…
68% of Americans agree that the mental wellbeing of athletes is more important than their performance
72% of Americans agree that athletes achievements are rooted in their story off the field, not just what they do on the field
96% of Americans agree it’s important that new technology is developed to protect the physical wellbeing of athletes
Game Play
With eSports eventing firmly established, other challengers to traditional sports play includes the rise of player-driven organisations, and a bigger spotlight on player welfare.
We found that…
20% of sports fans would consider watching eSports in the future
51% of Americans agree that biohacking will become more prevalent in sports
64% of Americans feel the use of technology while watching live sporting events will improve over the next five years
Fandom
People are changing how they watch sports, turning to creators and technology that builds the personality and profile of players online, while teams are meeting fans where they are most vocal: in Twitch streams, Roblox arenas, TikTok, and Twitter threads.
We found that…
69% of American females identify as sports fan, compared to 81% of American males
56% of Americans (61% of sports fans) have engaged with athletes or teams outside of the sport, eg on social media, live streams, or listening to a podcast
For the full survey on The Future Of Sport, contact hello@crowdDNA.com
Our editorial insight series, Club Free, meets people who don’t fit neatly into segmentation tick-boxes. Here Global Managing Director El Pigram gives some tactics for brands to meet them outside of these…
At Crowd, we believe that change presents opportunity.
Our latest editorial insights series, Club Free, is about groups seeking a new way of thinking about their individual liberty. It’s not freedom that’s unchecked or selfish: we talked to people who are providing each other with the support, empathy and community to exercise their freedom effectively.
In chapter one: The Poly-Normals, we heard from married couples, young daters, content creators and community spokespeople in the US and UK who by choosing to engage in multiple romantic relationships make room for more creativity, more sharing and more openness.
Here we dig a little deeper into this relationship energy and identify how fringe movements like polyamory can inspire more emergent strategies for mass audiences.
The Poly-Normals are a manifestation of deeper cultural shift toward more uninhibited forms of connection. These moments can help us think differently about the way we craft product, position brands and hold a mirror to modern relationships in our communications.
Purposeful Pleasure.
At the core of polyamory is a celebration of meaningful release; the idea that ‘letting go’ (of stereotype or expectation) doesn’t need to be a reckless act that compromises our values or the things we hold important.
How can we create moments or new messages that lean into conscious, deliberate joy without the underbelly of guilt, shame or judgement that often comes hand in hand with prioritising our own enjoyment.
Breaking the stalemate.
Increased understanding of intersectionality, greater social recognition of non-binary identities and a growing community of people reimagining sex and relationships. These movements don’t exist in isolation – and all point to a need for less dualistic thinking. Culture is messy, people are messy and adopting a ‘this or that’ view on how people go about life is increasingly inaccurate (and unproductive).
How can we reframe how we understand our audience, and how we craft our strategies to connect with people in ways that are less monolithic?
Unzipping our assumptions
Of course, not all relationships down the track will look like this. But it does suggest that there’s a growing schism between old and new ways of thinking. How can we help to challenge how we think about (and cater to) family and community?
Learning about The Poly-Normals is part of our commitment to look at (and be inspired by) groups of people who don’t fit neatly into tick-boxes, well trodden segmentations or traditional pathways.
We hope you find these stories interesting. And please do feel (yes) free to reach out to the Crowd DNA team to explore how this type of thinking could apply to your brand challenges.
A bold claim, but we’re going with it. We’re taking Freedom back – celebrating manifestations of it that are about community and shared responsibility rather than purely self-interest.
This editorial insights series will share the many positive and motivating stories emerging from people getting to live their lives just how they want to live them (and therefore more brands needing to move on from squeezing people into old fashioned little boxes).
Chapter One, The Poly-Normals & Chapter Two, The Financial Outsiders
First up in Club Free, issue one, The Poly-Normals and The Financial Outsiders. The former: a set of people changing sexual relationships for the better, for all; the latter: an equally community-minded group living and giving outside of elitist money systems. Brought together: clear signals of just how far and wide our Club Free adventures can take us.
The two chapter report includes:
_Introduction to the shared culture of this new freedom: embracing community, contribution and shared responsibility
_Spotlight on what brands can learn from this
_Sharing the stories of people who are getting freedom back on track.
We hope you find these stories interesting and inspiring. And please do feel (yes) free to reach out to the Crowd DNA team to explore how this type of thinking could apply to your brand challenges.
Though this is issue one, we in fact trialled some freedom material in a rather good webinar last summer – you can download our Reframing Ageing APAC and Un-Dependents reports here and here.
Stephanie Winkler, Head Of Agency (APAC), spoke on how brands can hold deeper meaning in people’s lives at the Spikes Asia creativity event
This week, we were lucky enough to open Spikes Asia in Singapore. But why is a cultural research consultancy opening Asia’s biggest festival of creativity? Because brands live in culture. They have no say in it, they just do. And all brands can be culturally aware, culturally competent, and above all culturally relevant.
By focusing on the forces shaping the way that people think, feel and act, we can future proof brands in a way that is really powerful, and holds deeper meaning in people’s lives.
That word – people – is really important here
Brands come to us constantly, asking about how to connect with ‘consumers’ through culture. They look at it from the outside-in. They look at ‘culture’ as a product, to be ‘consumed’ passively by their audiences. But culture is created by people – and people are so much more than the sum of what they consume. People are messy. Culture is messy. And it’s getting messier by the day with Polarisation – from being pitted against each other, Atomisation – we’re living in echo chambers of one and Fragmentation, when no ‘single truth’ exists for anything any more, even in the causes we agree on.
It’s messier than ever, but we have tools to unpick it…
So how do you work with culture in a world where culture is messier than ever? We opened the festival in Singapore by sharing four principles of working with culture. We use these in our work at Crowd DNA daily, to help create cultural advantage for the brands we work with – across Asia, and across the world.
Decoding culture
We start with stories. We immerse deeply with people from all walks of life, and follow them about their everyday lives, pin-pointing the human tensions so we can ask how to help them with that.
Read morehere in our thought piece about the tension with globalism in Asia and the role of bringing local voices to the world stage through Local Love.
Challenging culture
A common issue brands experience when working with culture is taking trends at face-value. By challenging them instead, we can unlock new ways for brands to play in cultural trends in a way that is more meaningful. We learned more about this when we explored the global megatrend of nostalgia with Snap APAC at the outset of 2024. It spotlighted a flip side to watch out for when it comes to nostalgia – ie, it threatens originality, pushes new ideas to the fringes and expands the creation of the ‘now’ in favour of focusing on the ‘then’.
Reframing culture
We zero in and question common assumptions, myths and insights. Last year we explored one that is permeating Asia: The myth (and the focus) on audiences getting younger and younger. We explored how that’s far from the whole story. There are audiences across APAC who are getting older, and we’re facing a poverty of insight about what is going on in the cultural lives of people outside of the ‘Gen Z’ bubble.
Read morehere in our work with 72&Sunny we found three codes of ageing to tap into and ‘reframe’ the conversation.
Creating culture
This is where we ultimately want to get to – as brands, creators, marketers, strategists. And ‘connection’ with consumers is key to building culture from the ground up. We can learn about this by seeing it in action with the ironed-down mechanics of ‘fandoms’ across Asia – where creating a reciprocal connection with fans is at the centre of the cultural strategy rather than leveraging it.
This is just the tip of the iceberg. To find out more about how brands can work with culture (and to unlock new avenues of commercial advantage for your brand) – just ask us. If you’d like a run through of the Spikes Deck, we can organise that with you too.
Cultural insight and creativity may at first seem unrelated. But they’re more alike than you think. Thank you Spikes for seeing this, and having us on board to open the festival in Singapore in 2024.
