Primal Branding Underpins Rise of the Creator Economy

Advertising Lost Trust—and Then Relevance

The awkward truth is that traditional advertising no longer provides a reliable return on investment.

There are two indicators. First, consumers have been avoiding traditional advertising for decades. During the “Madmen” era, the challenge was to interrupt viewers disappearing to the kitchen or the bathroom—
to “break through.”

Today, the consuming public will pay extra not to watch ads. Hang this on your wall.

Second, audiences not only hate being marketed to but over 90% believe that what companies have to say about their products or services is probably a lie.

This was not discussed at Cannes advertising festival last year.

There is also a third factor.

Traditional brand stakeholders are rotating out of the industry, and the new managers responsible for media spend don’t watch advertising. And they don’t expect anyone else to.

“Advertising has been wagging the tail for too long,” quips one observer.

Instead, modern consumers rely on friends and colleagues for information. They tie into preferences via social media, optimize buying decisions online and optimize their IRL.

Communities cluster around each of these activities as real people. Observers turn them into adjectives: fans, buyers, customers, investors, cohorts, BFFs, citizens, zealots, and other participants. Terms differ according to culture and sector.

Underlying it all is a codework of belief. To believe is to belong. To belong is to cohort.

Primal Branding Identified the Code of Belief

In 2006, the book “Primal Branding” (Simon & Schuster) identified the seven elements that create communities. This primal code drives purpose and belief and has the remarkable ability to launch communities from Employee 1. It also deconstructs and re-engineers existing organizations. It is transformational.

“Reading ‘Primal Branding’ was the first time I was able to truly understand the power of brand and how it can be used as a strategic advantage,” says Eric Spindt chief executive officer of Commonwealth Financial Group in Boston.

Primal Branding is both a book and a practice; a noun and a verb. The construct is as important today as it was 20 years ago. Maybe more so.
“Primal Branding was introduced to me during my tenure at Oakley,” recalls John Sánchez, CEO at Takeya USA in California. “As I became the CEO of Takeya and Thermoflask, we embraced the belief system to unpack our own secret recipe. We are inspired to build differentiated brands with a strong sense of grounded purpose and belonging for our tribe.”
“The $1Billion ‘Halo’ franchise is widely regarded as the game that launched Microsoft X-box,” explains Aaron LeMay, former corporate design lead at Microsoft/Bungie. “When the developing company for Halo wanted to extract their gaming and entertainment company from Microsoft, they asked Primal to come in and help define their new vision, values and forward path.”

“Primal” has been deployed at various times in various degrees by Google, Levi’s, American Express, PepsiCo, Wrigley, Kraft, J&J, Aurora Solar, PayPal, Mamo, and is the construct behind the highest media crowdfund raise in history—over $10 million. It is as viable for startups as it is for billion dollar enterprise.

When consumer product teams and entertainment superstars asked YouTube how they might create videos to hit billions of views, “Primal Branding” became required reading. YouTube is one of the top two or three social platform in the world.

Explain.

“It jolts the primal wiring that dictates why we join or reject modern movements,” explains Jay Zagami, chief of staff at Groma and a former advertising agency principal. “It’s an essential lens into our collective behavior within the chaos of social media.”

“Technology has changed, but our need for Primal Branding remains the same,” affirms Rachel Lightfoot Melby, former Google VP.

The Creator Economy Operationalizes Belief

And here comes the Creator economy. To be successful at any level, enterprise needs stories, stories, stories. As people say, Product without story is a commodity.

Creators, are tasked with how to bundle the seven pieces of primal code into a strategic brand narrative spread across social, digital and tradition media. This means a consistent, coherent narrative communicated across YouTube, Instagram and TikTok reels, feature articles in The New York Times, LinkedIn posts, out of home postings, events, streaming video series, Hollywood movies, email campaigns and t-shirts. And more. Even Super Bowl spots.

Thanks for mentioning Super Bowl spots. The pain for traditional marketers is that the million-dollar Super Bowl spot is on the same playing field as the .06 cent targeted email campaign.

Change happens.

What has changed is that People don’t have a funnel, they have a sieve. They don’t follow products, they follow people. More specifically, people just like them.

Belief Creates Belonging—and Belonging Creates Value

You’re not a part of a marketing plan, you’re a part of a lifetime. People want to know where you’re from, what you’re about. They want to know how you’re different, how you fit into their lives, the language you use to describe yourself (so they can describe you to others), what you’re not and who’s leading your teams. So they can trust you.

Belief plus belonging equals community. Why do we believe in things that we cannot see?

You’re not an out-of-pocket transaction, you’re an opt-in desired want, need, a must-have.

You’re not a fan, you’re a Swiftie. You don’t buy Patagonia, you’re part of a movement that’s investing in our planet. You’re not just eating vegetables you haven’t slaughtered other warm-blooded creatures.

“Primal” is a vibrant ecosystem that checkpoints the rational “makes sense” boxes—and makes the emotional links that drive trust, passion, gut instinct and preference. It feels you.

“The important thing for me is that a brand is not just words on a paper or a logo or selling things to people,” says Brian Takumi, VP Brand Soul and Creative at Oakley, the high-performance eyewear company and part of Luxottica. “It actually feels like there’s that emotional connection where the consumer says, I want to be a part of you guys. And the organization says, We’re going to make things so you feel you’re a part of us. That’s how we stay connected to culture.” Primal Branding has been a part of Oakley’s secret sauce for over a decade.

Belief is as human as skin. You can’t buy it, you have to be it.