THEME: DECENTRALISED EVERYTHING
Every few years you get a big idea that infiltrates every aspect of culture.
Take ‘fluidity’, for example: It began with a conversation around gender identity - young people pushing back against the binary they’d been forced into since they were children; claiming gender as a constellation of traits we all have a right to. But it quickly gathered momentum into a cultural concept that went broader than gender. We started talking about our mental health as a spectrum, rather than as the binary of well or unwell. We invented and evolved nuanced language around sexuality. Fashion reached peak trendcore and became harder and harder to pin down. Even our taste in music opened up. The notion of fluidity became a defining concept of the last few years.
There’s another one that’s been building for a while and is reaching full speed: Decentralisation.
Of course it has its roots in technology: Web 3 is built on the principles of decentralisation. From digital currency to DAOs to interoperability to social spaces like Discord, it is baked into how our world will run. Technology shapes the minds and behaviours of those who use it, so of course shapes our major cultural ideas too.
The concept of decentralisation is already reaching way beyond techology:
A fresh energy behind co-living.
Creative collectives are making their presence across multiple industries.
#peopleoverprime sees TikTok creators exerting pressure on Amazon in solidarity with the Amazon Labour Union.
A growing exploration of decentralised food systems.
For creative agencies this will be felt in the increasing decentralisation in the creative process as improvements in technology allow brands to work directly with a long tail of creators. In those cases agencies will add value by setting the direction, facilitating and curating outputs.
For brands this may mean letting go of control a little: From a world where you control the two or three messages you want to communicate each year, to a world where you throw an idea to your communities, then surface the stories that come out of them.
For every category, it’s worth keeping an eye not just on how decentralised technology will change your business, but also on how decentralisation as a cultural concept and values system will change your world.