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The creative economy

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The industrial revolution increased the supply of consumer goods, which then required mass marketing to stimulate consumer demand. Today household spending makes up 70% of the US economy. Advertising has played a fundamental role in creating the consumer economy.

Many of the world’s best-known brands were built on the basis of television advertising. Attention was easy to grasp back then. Before the internet – namely social media – fragmented our attention. In a world full of choice, attention becomes the most precious commodity. This was the attention economy. And now comes the creative economy: a new model that allows creators to earn money directly with their audience.

In the 2010s, influencer marketing offered a new way for companies to increase brand awareness and restore consumer confidence. But soon originality gave way to influencer fatigue and spurious brand partnerships. Ten years later, a new generation of developers are using their dedicated communities to build their own brands. Throughout history, new tools have accelerated social progress. The Creator Economy is built on a thin layer of technology hosted by content subscription platforms like OnlyFans, Substack, and Patreon.

Creators now have the option to cut brands and advertising agencies out of the image and go straight to the community. Unlike broadcast media or social networks, individuals can build viable businesses from a small number of dedicated fans. In creator economics, passion and true connection replace vanity metrics like preferences, views, and impressions. The whole model revolves around social tribes with shared values ​​and interests that often border on obsession. A quick look at Discord reveals servers in The Land of Cheese, Naruto World, and Celtic Unity.

The creative economy is an escape from centralized corporations. We are now seeing the spread of individual creativity on an unprecedented scale. In this new model, no single entity has absolute control. Online platforms compete for creators. And creators are subject to the demands of their community. The decentralization is already there. Roblox is now the most popular game among Gen Z. However, Roblox is an open gaming platform where developers can create their own games, connect with friends, and create shared experiences. Roblox even has its own economy: players can purchase Robux to purchase exclusive in-game items.

Elsewhere, Decentraland is the first virtual world fully owned by its user base. Users can create anything they can think of. Almost everything in Decentraland is an NFT, including virtual lots. NFTs, short for non-fungible tokens, are unique digital assets with blockchain-managed ownership. In the physical world, developers can use Rally.io to launch their own digital currency, and fans can buy or sell tokens based on people’s reputation at BitClout.

More importantly, the Creator Economy combined with NFTs forms the basis for a new model of collective ownership. Creativity is an integral part of the human experience. For the first time, however, we can use the collective creativity of the masses to help the many, not the few. To paraphrase Karl Marx: Those who control the means of production determine the dominant political and economic system.

We are currently on the brink of a radical transfer of wealth from private property to community-based ownership models. NFTs open up opportunities for decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) without central management or decision-makers. DAOs work with complete transparency. There is no hierarchical structure and each member has the opportunity to propose ideas and create guidelines. Although it sounds like science fiction, the technological infrastructure already exists. There is every chance that the media and creative organizations of the future will be created jointly by the makers and their communities.

If brands want to stay relevant, they have to adapt to the creator economy. This requires a completely new mindset and approach. First, marketing departments need to connect with people, not consumers, beyond the transaction point. You need to build real communities, reflect society and always add value. Second, most brands need to rethink their value proposition and look at tiered memberships and new subscription models. Early examples are fan tokens used by soccer boys to empower members to influence decisions and unlock exclusive content.

Brands in particular need to acknowledge that they can no longer control the message. Instead, they should invest their money and trust in creators who have built deep connections with their audiences. The TikTok Creator Fund is probably the best modern example of this strategy. For most brands, just being associated with the right creator is enough to build Gen Z’s credibility. In the creation economy, the role of marketing is to maximize the likelihood that the brand will be featured by the creators and their community. The tables turned quickly. From now on, brands will play a supportive role for creators and their communities.