From Burnout to Trust to Tension
Corporate jargon gave us “moving forward.” Let’s reclaim it. Each edition breaks down three curious shifts: what’s happening, why it matters, and what future-thinking brand leaders can do next. So what will you do…moving forward?
The Creator Economy Is Burning Out
If you read only one (more) thing this week, let it be this: Matt Klein and Brooks Miller on The Creator Economy is a Race to the Bottom for Human Dignity.
From the article: “Goldman Sachs predicts the creator industry will swell to $500,000,000,000 by 2027…But amid this creator hype, what’s not considered however is that the workhorses powering this “revolution” are collapsing under the weight of their own success. A whopping 78% of today’s creators are already reporting that burnout is impacting their motivation. Meanwhile, many still think of the “creator” as a full-time profession, while in reality it's a side-hustle at best. Turns out, 96% of creators earn under $100K/yr.”
Naturally, there’s opportunity in flipping the script...
Instead of treating creators as disposable reach machines, brands can position themselves as enablers of sustainable creativity. How can you be the brand that all creators desperately want to work with?
Moving Forward: Stop thinking in terms of campaign and shift to collaboration. The value of working with creators is no longer in gaining visibility, but trust. What kind of partnership, revenue and upskilling models need to be in place to reflect this?
Trust In The Time of Attention
The battle for attention is getting out-rage-ous. An interesting post from Misty Foster over on LinkedIn caught my eye, suggesting that we may soon need dedicated “attention strategists” as virality trumps loyalty. And on the other side of the coin - and admittedly much more my tempo - is the pivot of brands shifting to episodic, serialized content i.e. social-first formats that accumulate engagement rather than chasing spikes. Check out Rachel Karten’s very wonderful Inside Bilt’s popular “Roomies” series over on Link in Bio if you know what’s good for you.
Attention is cheap, but trust compounds. A self-immolation style campaign à la e.l.f. or American Eagle might burn twice as bright but after the bonfire, what is left in the ashes? Loyalty is what sustains revenue and cultural relevance. And let’s be honest, nothing collectively good can come from the rage farm, right?
Moving forward: Don’t engage with the rage. Instead, invest into episodic storytelling, host real community around shared niches beyond the brand or develop membership models where trust-building is heart and centre of the quest for attention. Consider the KPIs fit for purpose beyond the obvious - what do we incentivise with the data we track? And what are the potential unintended consequences we need to track too?
Living In The Tension
Maybe you’ve already come across it? God-tier Cultural Futurist and CEO of Concept Bureau, Jasmine Bina described the power of “existential tension”- where brands are at their stickiest and most relevent when they live in the messiness of contradictions rather than smoothing them over to sell perfection. Then Chris Bailey’s add-on caught my eye; surfacing Amazon’s decision to insert ads into Alexa (ick) at a time when content romantising the idea of making dinner in your tiny apartment exists. His point was that brands often add friction without meaning:“You can’t keep selling tech utopias and “frictionless futures” while people are quietly trying to survive.”
Meanwhile, Kyle Chayka’s “Revenge of Millennial Cringe” shows how cultural contradictions are revalued over time: what was once cringe is now being reframed as sincere. Is there a new appetite for sincerity? Definitely keeping an eye on this one…
Moving forward: Recognise and design within contradictions vs. seeking to resolve and clean it all up into one nice little snackable package. This is what makes your brand interesting and sparks up those parts of our brain so desperately trying to resolve the contradiction = memorable.
Burnout, attention, and cultural tension aren’t isolated blips - they’re signals of a deeper shift in how brands and audiences connect.
If you’re curious about where this leads - and how to turn these cultural signals into strategy - that’s where my deeper dives begin. Explore more via Curious Strategy over on Substack, or get in touch to talk about applying these shifts to your brand.