Kicking off Neo-collectivism Week, we’re trying to answer the question brands have been asking for decades - what is the future of community?
As real-world uprisings rage on and our journey to the metaverse accelerates, global consumers are busy forming new types of alliance. Losing their sense of individualism, they are engaging in new forms of collective thinking, doing and consuming, becoming a neo thinking society.
In response, brands will need to change from sellers to coordinators, blurring the boundaries between how we define a company, a community and a collective.
It’s time to match community-centric thinking with community-centric actions. Don’t let your brand be left behind.
Scroll down to explore some of our latest trends, unpacking what's new and what's next for communities - both online and offline.
Published by:
28 March 2022
Author: Holly Friend
Image: Sam Miles for The Future Laboratory
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Kenzo’s Utopia is Possible campaign is a celebration of harmony, optimism and community. Photography by Vicki King
Neighbourhood Futures:
As people exchange individualism for collectivism, here’s how this movement is manifesting in local communities, creating new networks of hospitality and care.
: Neo-collectivism Society is facing a mass re-organisation. United by values of empathy and community, consumers are shunning individualism in favour of alliances that are decentralising industries and redistributing power at scale.
: Humanity Hospitality Alternative hospitality networks that prioritise care over profit are emerging in response to the corporatisation of home-sharing models.
: Salon Confidantes Salon spaces and staff training are evolving the meaning of ‘beauty therapy’ as trust, client safety and their wellbeing become integral to salon services.
‘Given the increasing complexity of our society and the issues we face, our ability to form, grow and work through networks has never been more essential.’
David Ehrlichman, author, Impact Networks
Left: Taki.app. Right: Nifty Pantry is an NFT project developed by Zippy Pantry.
Cyber Squads:
It’s not just offline spaces that are being reconfigured by collective thinking. As new innovators enter Web3 and the metaverse, we could see in a future in which we roam the web in groups.
: Crypto-cliques Amid a big tech backlash, cyber-savvy consumers are gathering in decentralised social spaces that use blockchain to unlock elite communities.
: Crowdsourced Companions Digital apps are reviving physical meetings, helping despondent members of Generation Z to expand their social groups in safe and meaningful ways.
: Crypto Dining Clubs Web3 communities are using technologies such as blockchain and DAOs to encourage people to break bread together – both online and offline.
‘We’ve spent all this time moving relationships online. This is an exercise in moving them offline again. What better way to build bonds than to meet and break bread?’
Austin Robey, founder, Dinner DAO
Pangaia, Global
Co-operative Business:
These trends are transforming the way brands, agencies and retailers operate. Explore how the businesses of tomorrow will move away from transaction in favour of new systems of consumption and marketing.
: Next-door Commerce Having re-engaged with their local communities, neighbours are inspiring new retail models based on hyper-local trading and sharing of goods.
: Barter Brands Inter-Covid, bartering is gathering pace, giving retail brands a chance to explore systems where customers trade items for access to their goods or services.
: A post-demographic future Generational terms like Baby Boomer and Millennial have shaped the way we conduct research. But are they helping to predict the future – or holding us back?
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