This Briefing looks at how brands are enabiling their community's voice to create authentic conversations and trust.

Here's a summary of what we will cover

Trend Summary:

Brands are engaging their customers and communities to create more authentic content, helping establish deeper relationships and trust.

Community-generated content helps give consumers a voice whilst producing authentic content. As while review culture continues to rule, people can see real content from their peers building trust, and those people posting as 'the voice of the consumer'.

Takeaways:

1. Personal Innovation Favorite: China’s resell app, Xianyu, becomes a space for Gen Z to interact through personal storytelling.

2. If an experience is created that allows like-minded people to engage, the brand can be a hub for connection.

3. By giving people a creative platform, authentic content can be created, building trust with those looking to buy into the brand.

A deeper dive into this trend...

Brands are engaging with their communities to produce authentic content, helping establish deeper relationships and trust. As influencer marketing continues to be viewed negatively by younger generations, brands are relying on their community to help spread the word.

The reason for this is due to people demanding authenticity and transparency from brands, combined with Gen Z and Alpha wanting more involvement and creative control within the brands they buy from. Community-generated content helps solve these consumer needs, as review culture continues to rule, people can see real content from peers building trust, and those people posting become the 'voice of the consumer'. In order to do this successfully brands must know who their consumers are, where they interact, and what they are talking about in order to drive genuine conversations.

Kiki is co-created by its community.

Beauty brand Kiki is built around its community's feedback. The founders have stated that in order to build a brand for the future they needed to know what products people really wanted. Kiki takes consumer engagement and content to the next level as their community is in the driver's seat when it comes to decision-making on what they want to see.

China’s resell app Xianyu is a space for Gen Z to interact.

The resell app Xianyu which caters to specific subcultures is turning its marketplace into a community as it allows users to interact through interest-based communities. It also goes one step further as members share backstories to their listed products, often being so personal and confessional that “Xianyu Literature” has become its own new genre.

Bang & Olufsen lets listeners express their identity through unique avatars.

Bang & Olufsen's ‘See Yourself in Sound’ campaign allows users to generate a unique avatar based on their music taste. The campaign enables people to express their personality and individuality and creates organic community-created content. This brand is changing how we all experience music and technology.

DFS on Pinterest and Shuffles helps embrace personal style.

DFS is the first brand globally to use Shuffles and Pinterest in partnership for its latest brand campaign, What’s Your Thing? The campaign is about celebrating individual style with a collection of the brand's sofas and beds that have been uploaded on the collage app. People have been encouraged to share their Shuffles creations on Pinterest, meaning DFS will be inspiring people with the very things they’re already looking for.

Hermès creates a poetic and cinematic performance.

Hermès ‘On the Wings of Hermès’ is a poetic and cinematic performance tapping into the shareable experience culture. The brand has created a unique visual experience where both a live theatre performance and a movie (being filmed live) are being shown at the same time. The experience lends itself to be shared, with this powerful creative breakdown of the brand's ethos.

Nike aims to inspire teenage girls to explore sports.

Nike's new digital platform, ‘Nike Teens’, aims to empower teen girls to become curious about the infinite possibilities of sport. The platform acts as a touchpoint for teenagers within Nike's ecosystem, with bespoke content created by the teens themselves, the brand Nike hopes to encourage and inspire the teens to be themselves and build a community with each other.

Our 4 key insights and opportunities

1. People are seeking authentic and deeper connections with brands.

2. If an experience enables like-minded people to engage, then it can be a hub for connection.

3. By giving people an open platform, authentic content can be created, building trust with those looking to buy into a brand.

4. But in order to drive genuine conversations, brands must know who their consumers are, where they interacting, and what they are talking about.