__Future of Strategy 2024: Welcome to the era of culture-led brands__

It’s time for big brands to embrace "cultural relevance", says Leila Fataar, founder of Platform13. This means culture-led strategy coming to the forefront, upstream with brand and business strategy. It’s time to evolve the traditional brand playbook to update that funnel and make it fit for purpose in the 21st century.

Culture is the stuff of life, living and breathing, always changing and evolving. Culture is a reflection of reality and a global connector of intersectional communities. It's how we communicate, what we wear, eat, see and listen to. It’s how we behave and what/who influences us, permeating every part of our lives. For brands and businesses, cultural shifts impact us all – you, your stakeholders, your employees, and especially your fans and consumers (core, target, latent and potential) – evolving their behaviours and mindsets. For me, a culturally relevant brand refers to a brand state when people engage positively with that brand, work for that brand, advocate for it and buy it, at any time (not only during the paid campaign cycle). They will do this because it deeply connects with them within the context of what is happening in their own, and the wider world, meeting them how and where they are, credibly. Done well, a brand can transcend its category and become part of or even shape culture. These are modern brands, culture-led brands.

The past few years have proven what we, who have worked in ‘culture’ for a while, have known for the longest time – that the nuance, context and interconnectedness of geopolitics, the climate emergency and social justice, the narrative around it driven and spread by both the mainstream news outlets and social media truth-tellers has and is shifting global dynamics never before seen in history. 2024 is shaping up to be a pivotal moment in history, setting the scene for supercharged unpredictability. Set against this background, the pace of technological advances in AI, Web3, mixed reality media and spatial computing is accelerating marketing, product and commerce innovation, upending traditional brand management like never before. Successful brands need to be able to credibly tap into cultural nuances to become and stay relevant and adapt for growth and/or even survival.

Having worked on the brand side at adidas and Diageo, 7 years ago, I created Platform13 to answer challenges faced by big brands in the ever-changing world of consumer behaviour, technology advancements, creative innovation and the swiftly moving cultural landscape. Since inception, our project teams have been curated, assembling world-class experts and cultural voices matched to our clients' territories, categories and target audiences to answer their specific challenges, needs and objectives. This helps us read and analyse cultural shifts specific to both our clients and their audiences through real-world insights, then create and/or flex our clients' plans accordingly. To do that all our work starts (and continues) with our pioneering methodology, a "cultural positioning" for the brand. This unique cultural positioning involves aligning the brand (and/or its products and services) with all its audiences and communities by understanding the global issues impacting them, and unlocking the brand's special role and place to those audiences in their lives and in the world – importantly, this is a role that only that brand can fulfil. We then execute this cultural positioning hand in hand with these cultural voices, grabbing the right attention with the right creative for the audiences and building relevance through resonance (and therefore shareability) with all audiences.

__Guinness x Notting Hill Carnival__

A good example is the work I and Platform13 did for Guinness. The brand has been exported to the West Indies since the 1800s, and is as much part of Caribbean culture as Irish culture. I knew this from my time as the first Head of Culture & Entertainment at Diageo…and a visit to the wonderful archive as well as through friends and cultural institutions like Notting Hill Carnival, which I have been attending since I arrived in London almost 30 years ago. For Carnival’s 50th birthday in 2016, we (myself and Boiler Room – a pioneering global online music streaming service) wanted to show the positive side to an event that has stood for diversity and love for 50 years. With Guinness and their then tagline, ‘made of more’, legend was born. A content series of Interviews and broadcasting from 8 original sound systems at Carnival that weekend, merch that went viral and our own sound system hand in hand with Deviation, we told the stories of the people who made and make 50-year-old Carnival what it is, those people who are ‘made of more’ and those standing up for one of London's most loved, culturally important and events today. The results: 36m reached globally, across 2 days, and 100m+ earned PR impressions. A personal and career highlight.

After leaving Diageo to set up Platform13, I continued working with the brand on a number of projects. With increased interest in heritage after the global BLM movement, in 2021, Platform13 created a new cultural platform for the brand with real people and real stories at the heart. Part of this was partnering with people from communities where Guinness is deeply embedded as part of their culture, to tell their story, their way. So, for the Jamaican community, around the year that Carnival did not happen (2021), we wanted to celebrate with cultural voices, Caribbean food sensations, Original Flava (the wonderful Craig & Shaun) and their amazing Nanny (RIP), who used Guinness in her cooking for years. Key for us was Nanny front and centre in the campaign as the inspiration for her grandsons, proudly standing under her statement “My husband love him Guinness Punch”. A city-wide poster campaign, (including in their home town of Croydon) on Carnival weekend and a social first three-part mini-series featuring Nanny’s annual BBQ and recipes for Guinness Jerk Chicken and Guinness Punch drove social organic impact as the community felt seen (and commented and shared accordingly). The paid social campaign also performed exceedingly well, achieving 59% over planned reach. This is because we achieved a lower CPM than planned. The Diageo media agency believed that was because the audience targeting we used for the campaign was more likely to resonate with the ads.

Obviously, this type of work can build positive impact for the brand, drive meaning and loyalty, and if leveraged respectfully, can ultimately drive sustainable, meaningful, impactful, equitable, and lasting business growth. This is how we mitigate risk internally and drive reach and relevance, hype and depth, numbers and nuance externally. But this also means that your brand playbook and how your organisation is set up needs to evolve, involving utilising ongoing cultural intelligence as a tool for innovation in marketing, moving beyond traditional insights for mere validation. It requires reevaluating procurement processes in order to work with new types of external partners, like Platform13, in order to embrace new approaches rooted in culture, credibly. Only then can a brand remain culturally relevant and avoid fading into the background.

__Practical steps to take__

- Invest in your Cultural Positioning to identify the unique role your brand and/or your product/service plays in the lives of your audiences and the world. This enables you to tap into your audience's RELEVANT passion areas, credibly and RELEVANT for the brand, and helps to mitigate risk and drive resonance with your audiences and create a culture-led strategy for your brand and your business.
- Ensure ongoing cultural intelligence using real-world insights through the lens of your cultural positioning can support decision-making on short-term trends as well as how to address cultural shifts.
- Reassess procurement processes to open the gates to new types of partners and new perspectives.

WARC cover image

WARC,  SEPTEMBER 2024

"Twenty-five years ago, Daniel "Dapper Dan" Day's coveted designs featuring the logos of major European brands landed him in hot water with the fashion houses for appropriating their work. Today, powerful luxury brands often grapple with the public and vocal criticism that comes from borrowing from other cultures. So what is the line between cultural appropriation and cultural exchange?

"In my community, we have a different lexicon that we use to describe what I do, like bricolage or collage," he said in a conversation with Leila Fataar, founder of cultural branding firm Platform 13, moderated by BoF editor-at-large Tim Blanks. "When I looked at Gucci and Louis Vuitton and the major brands, I saw what this could be, how to interpret it through my culture, to jazz it up, to improvise in another way that's never been done before. I played with the symbolism… A new animal emerged."

A new type of creation emerged, and, in the late 1980s and 1990s, Dapper Dan had the "whole hip-hop community" at his door. "This subculture was being born at the same time as hip-hop music: the two were the opposite sides of the coin and they went global." This creative output was partially the result of not having resources to do otherwise. “We have to create as best we can and this leads to what people might call appropriation,” said Dapper Dan.

Fataar explained that cultural appropriation occurs when brands have the “ability to drop in and out” of a different culture when they want to. “There’s something about appropriation that suggests a power relationship,” said Blanks. “The powerful appropriate the powerless.” Fostering a dialogue evens the playing field. “If there is an exchange or a way of having a conversation with the culture that you’re trying to be a part of… it feels like a different thing,” says Fataar.

An example of such a two-way exchange is Gucci's new partnership with Dapper Dan. It was borne out of backlash the luxury brand faced for appearing to copy of one of Dapper Dan's original designs in its cruise 2018 collection. "This is a historical thing and Gucci should be commended for it," said Dapper Dan, adding that he has turned down many opportunities to collaborate with other brands because they weren't any of the major European labels. He knew that their acceptance would send an important global message. “[The Gucci partnership] sends a message to people of colour that we can finally do this,” he said, lamenting the fact that no powerful brand created by a person of colour remains in operation. “It takes another revolution within [and] among people of colour to expand on that again.”


THE BUSINESS OF CULTURE, DEC 2017

In a world where social media has democratized access to information, everyone has a voice. But with this surge in public opinion, do we still need critics? 

Historically, critics were the gatekeepers, determining what was worthy of our attention and what wasn't. They held the power to shape—positively and negatively—cultural conversations. But today, as we navigate an overwhelming flood of information and opinions, the critic's role seems less defined. Social media allows anyone to share their thoughts instantly, creating a feedback loop where every voice—whether informed or not—competes for attention. Simultaneously, we’ve created an environment where opinion and identity are deeply connected. You’re either wrong or right, left or right, good or bad. This digital dialogue, driven by algorithms that thrive on conflict, often lacks nuance and depth and favors the loudest voices over the most reflective ones.

The shift in media dynamics has further complicated the landscape. As publications increasingly rely on advertisers, the boundary between critique and promotion has blurred. Reviews have become more about "show and tell" than offering the critical frameworks that once helped us place works within the broader context of culture. Is traditional criticism less relevant due to the sheer volume of opinions we encounter daily, or has the respect for traditional media diminished? 

Despite these changes, the fundamental role of the critic remains the same: to help us forge connections and view things through a new lens. Whether in fashion, visual arts, or music, critics provide the frameworks we need to navigate the complex world of ideas. While it's encouraging that so many people are passionate about sharing their opinions, this doesn't necessarily mean they are engaging in true criticism. The distinction between opinion and criticism is crucial, as the latter requires a depth of knowledge and an ability to contextualize that goes beyond simply stating a viewpoint.

In today's ever-changing media landscape, what is the role of the critic? And how can we redefine criticism in a way that remains relevant and impactful? 

We asked three experts for their perspectives on the fragmentation of the media landscape, the importance of criticism and whether media can be critical. 

__How has the role of criticism changed?__

![HURS ARTICLE IMAGE 1](//images.ctfassets.net/5ohv6xfzcgbs/aZqWMtPsgQC8Q6GopkKsK/f7883482240b75db82eca99e618c3403/IMG_1839-2.PNG)

__Who gets to be and critic and how?__

![Hours article image 2](//images.ctfassets.net/5ohv6xfzcgbs/5N5OMQ5GRWOXnFez9TozHk/0dfeb25d9a900a5a237db23ab79b7e7b/pic_2.PNG)

__Why is criticism important?__

![Hours article image 3](//images.ctfassets.net/5ohv6xfzcgbs/4OwRRlbbD5hUcRrnf8J1Un/2459809870665f590d579825fc1989fc/pic_3.PNG)

__How can criticism be beneficial?__

![Hours article image 4](//images.ctfassets.net/5ohv6xfzcgbs/JsC40OdH39fahkHiNgtap/ea772f08889be719055ab91bff82b2f8/pic_4.PNG)

__Can media be critical?__

![Hours article image 5](//images.ctfassets.net/5ohv6xfzcgbs/4Fpt9m0cLKHvaJSOoWZmHv/66ac2f1253c39a439064fc3cdc40e038/Pic_5.PNG)

HURS - ARTICLE - COVER

HURS, SEPTEMBER 2024

### Leila Fataar on why understanding cultural positioning is important when designing for rituals

__From a cultural perspective, how would you distinguish a ritual from a habit or routine?__

I define it in three different ways: One, personal characteristics, including gender and sexuality and inherited culture. Where you're born, your religion, the codes of your birth and heritage are part of this. For example, if you're born Muslim, you have your five-prayers-a-day ritual. If you're in New Zealand, you have the Haka as a ritual. These things can also be connected by place, like New Zealand, so these are non-selected characteristics.

The second is selected cultures or fandoms. So sneakers, music, the things that you choose that say something about who you are and adds to your inherited identity. It can go from overarching cultures like sport to specific cultures like K-Pop. These intertwined cultural lenses impact how your consumers see your brand but it's hard for brands because you can’t put these into neat little boxes. This is where culture-led brands, cultural marketing and cultural ways of doing things are nuanced.

The third is internal culture and rituals that are selected for you. For example, work processes and policies.

In all of these there are rituals and habits. Rituals can be personal and/or can be through fandom - these feel more emotional. Habits are more process-driven or part of routine. These help your life but aren’t connected emotionally. That's how I would differentiate between rituals and habits. I always question habits. I reflect and relook at them to ensure they aren’t there just for the sake of being there. You have to look at habits and routines all the time, making sure that they’re optimised, whereas rituals feel more considered and purpose-orientated.

__What impact do different macro and micro contexts have when you're thinking about rituals and how they influence behaviour?__

I don't think people realise the impact of politics and policies, nor of the adoption of technology and the media, which can add to ritualistic behaviour. These impact and influence behaviour and mindsets. People don't give this enough weight when it comes to marketing. Sports fandom is an example of this. On the other hand, today with the speed of tech adoption, new gen rituals are being formed and shared at the speed of light.

That's what a cultural brand is. They’re not only looking at the consumer insights and data on how people are shopping and buying; they’re exploring the context around them culturally and the lenses they look through to discover why they choose what they want to buy. These macro situations aren't as macro as we think. What our government decides impacts us all. Politics and laws impact policies that further affect people’s day-to-day lives. That’s not as far away as people always think it is from actions on the ground.

__Do you see any differences between some of the more modern rituals that have emerged in the last decade, versus some of the more traditional ones?__

I say many new ones are technology-based because new technologies are shifting ritualistic behaviour from real life to online. They’re also impacting how they intersect, support and enhance each other. The pandemic forced us all to evolve our rituals, because suddenly everything shifted in terms of behaviours. Whether it was people working remotely versus not, for example. Some of these shifts are still relevant today. Everything is also much faster at the moment. We're seeing rituals being developed, at scale, versus 10 years ago when they’d take longer to settle down. We didn't have the shareability and communication to do things like developing rituals in real-time.

__Thinking about how rituals catch on, how do they influence consumer purchase behaviour?__

Rituals are really important because it adds an emotional or cultural connection to the functionality of the product. It also connects fans together and attaches a storyline to it. If that’s a positive impact, it will be shared wider and as we all know, people trust people. And that means that if your brand is relevant, and people share it positively, it definitely helps with that purchase decision. This works in most categories where fandom or connection thrives. Brands can also both create new or enhance fan created rituals - both have to be done with deep insider knowledge of that culture.

__How can marketers apply some of these ideas around rituals in their planning, research or thinking?__

Sometimes, within our industry, there's a lack of real-world insights. Ethnographic, digital observations and conversations can get you into a much richer territory than reports of learnings from past behaviour (consumer focused only).

It’s not just about the behaviour, it’s about why it’s like that. Marketers need to be able to dig deep into this, beyond the consumer data or traditional consumer insights. You can only do this well by talking to and working with people who have life experience and have real-world insights and figure out the rituals that connect them together – we call this cultural intelligence.

For anything that we do for any of our clients and brands, we curate the team making sure that there's lived experience in the research and strategy. Everything is rooted in the audiences and the cultural communities that they want to talk to. No assumptions are made – sometimes a simple conversation with people within that community can really make the difference.

__Are there any differences in how you observe rituals in our modern digital media and social media landscape?__

We've recently been exploring digital semiotics for a variety of passion areas and the differences for new generations. This involves looking at how fan culture is changing through online communities, enabling scale and crossing over of cultures. Today, fans are no longer passive - they are creators developing new rituals all the time. Take football - what people paint on their faces, the flags they fly, the jerseys they wear and where they watch and engage with the game has changed significantly.

__How do rituals catch on differently today in the digital and social world versus how they used to catch on before?__

It's interesting because we see today that rituals happen with people. Sometimes, you didn't know that they used the brand a certain way. Making sure that you've tapped into what your audience is doing with your brand is interesting. Sometimes it's not the brand saying ‘This is going to be the ritual’. Sometimes it's already created and you have to identify how you can enhance that ritual. Sometimes, your brand's ritual has been created without any strategy or thought, and that's fun too.

It's a two-way street. If you've tapped into cultural intelligence and your audience in a real-world way, they are probably doing something with your brand that you haven't even thought of. And with fandom, being global and online, these rituals, if they work, can catch on, almost overnight.

__How can marketers create new rituals as well as identify existing rituals to tap into? How would you advise marketers who are trying to evaluate these two options?__

It’s a case of how you bring these two things together.

It’s back to that cultural positioning. The starting point to answer: What are those deep insights that are important to your community and cultural audience? What do they need your brand for, and how do you bring them together? You want to have a conversation with people who are fans of your brand. They want to be involved in co-creating new rituals. That's the future of brands and their consumers. Talk to them, and create something together. Then it's already got the weight of the audience you're trying to talk to.

__What are the risks or rewards for marketers who participate in rituals?__

I think the risks are far and wide and exist everywhere for marketers. I would be careful when it comes to assumptions. Being able to have the right people in the room is going to mitigate risk.

Sometimes you see that creative and strategy teams don’t have the people in the room that they want to talk to. These people constitute those with lived experience of what you're trying to do, the audience you're trying to reach or the product you're trying to promote. It’s important to make sure that their input is taken on board because they're the ones who are going to be not only consuming your goods but sharing it widely too within their communities.

We call these people cultural voices. We use them because they’re the voices that influence cultural difference. They are voices who are shaping and shifting that community or whatever that culture might be. Having them in the room up front means you get the required nuggets of gold to create rituals that are truly representative of the brand community.

__What examples have you seen of brands who understand rituals and have that all important cultural intelligence you mentioned?__

Guinness is a great example. You wait for the surge and that slows everything down. That can become a really beautiful place to slow you down, to connect with yourself or someone. Where it wins, is where you find the sweet spot that only that brand can do. I call it a cultural positioning and it's where I start all my work. That was specific to that brand with the Guinness Surfer ad which doubled down on ‘Good things come to those who wait’. It is still one of the best ads ever made. For me, this is still a type of ritual – about taking a breath while you wait for your Guinness to settle – it’s cultural and emotional.

In a post 2020 world, inherited culture has become much more important and in our diverse world, things like dual heritage and what that means from a ritualistic point of view is as important as representation. It’s important to do this authentically. The context and nuance really matters when it comes to rituals.