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03. Put your brand in the hands of fans
The era of the passive celebrity endorsement and highly scripted broadcasting is officially over. Today, authentic influence is built within decentralised, peer-to-peer communities, local subcultures and active co-creation spaces. As our colleagues at Burson observed "the era of 'always on' is giving way to 'always in.'"
“Audiences carry your story into rooms that you can’t enter.”
WARC Editor
To capture the attention of highly skeptical younger demographics, brands must learn to speak their native language, take part and accept the vulnerability of two-way dialogue. Reddit’s EVP of Community, Laura Nestler, explained "audiences get spoken to, communities speak to each other," while Mary Kish, Head of Community at Twitch, underlined that fans are no longer mere spectators – they are actively "part of a collective event."
Navigating this decentralised landscape requires brands to treat community platforms like real-time focus groups. Brands must enter these spaces to listen first, contribute genuine value and step outside their corporate comfort zones by leaning directly into the friction of real life.
When a truckload of KitKats was stolen, the brand resisted the instinct to issue a safe, sterile press release. Instead, they launched The KitKat Heist, turning a logistical incident into a massive, real-time narrative that invited the community to play along and help "solve the heist."
Unilever's Vaseline Originals demonstrated what happens when you stop treating creators as advertising channels and instead empower them as true creative partners. Reflecting on his decision to approve Vaseline's raw, unpolished creator-led work, Leandro Barreto, Global CMO for Unilever, recalled thinking the risk "would either change the brand or would get me fired." Ultimately, Barreto concluded: "We have decided to stop asking what our brands want to say and start asking what others want to say about our brands... The moment people stop reshaping our brand is the moment it stops mattering."
The opportunity
Give up creative control and embrace the chaos of public dialogue. When a real-world challenge or cultural conversation arises, resist the urge to deploy a sanitised corporate response and look for the creative opportunity hidden in the friction. Treat community platforms as real-time listening hubs, stop asking "what should we say?" and start asking "how can we contribute?" Build brand meaning so strong and simple that consumers can easily play with, reshape and participate in it, allowing your fans to carry your story into spaces your marketing budget could never reach.