The Internet, especially social media, was supposed to herald a golden age of branded content. But some of the most carefully planned and expensive online branding strategies have fizzled - largely because consumers aren't showing up. The problem, argues former Harvard Business School professor Douglas Holt, is an unforeseen phenomenon that ubiquitous social media has made possible: he calls it the crowdculture.
"Powerful cultural innovators ... [are] now so effective at producing creative entertainment that it's impossible for companies to compete," Holt argues. In place of conventional branding, Holt offers case histories for a new model: one that embraces burgeoning crowdculture communities, and champions their ideas in the marketplace. Courtesy Harvard Business Review.