From Communications to Brand World Building

Examining how to continuously expand, challenge, and evolve your brand.

, and

Jun 28, 2024

When brands think about how they show up, it’s often within the context of trying to figure out their audience’s needs as they exist today. It’s an important part of understanding how a brand works, but it misses the bigger opportunity to see the brand as an ecosystem in the much broader world of culture and human experience. When brands welcome people in instead of chasing them down, they begin to build worlds that audiences want. These worlds can grow and connect with bigger ideas, and be inviting, engaging, and transformative in expansive and brand new ways.

Here we continue our deep dive into crucial mindset shifts that can help marketers and strategists move toward a new practice of brand building. Earlier this year, we delved into rediscovering the magic of being a brand by shifting from brand strategy to Brand Anarchy. That shift to Brand Anarchy is what’s needed to create Emergent Brands: brands that are always in motion, deeply human, and constantly growing.

The first mindset shift is all about unlocking better outcomes, the second shift is about tuning into the inputs that actually create meaning, and this third mindset shift focuses on the power of continuous world building to drive growth. Brands need to move away from communication silos and focus on how they actively engage in the world. This requires collaboration and shared ambition to create potent, transformative ideas — ones that help us imagine the world in new, aspirational ways.

Emergent Brands Are Constantly Evolving

The most powerful brands don't just deliver solutions; they inspire us to see the world differently. These brands, on the cutting edge of culture, craft immersive experiences that meet aspirational needs and introduce new ideas about the world. They get there by creating expansive narratives that leverage a wide range of tools and mediums.

A Brand World: Dynamic and Immersive

A Brand World is an expression of the brand’s living strategy that comes to life through cultural products and experiences. It's a dynamic and immersive ecosystem where a brand's vision, values, and identity are brought to life in many ways. This world is not static; it is continuously evolving, driven by how the brand unites with the evolving cultural context.

The Brand World is comprised of:

The Core Brand Idea. This core idea keeps the brand grounded in its enduring human truth and sets the foundation and direction for the world.
Identity Assets. These ideas and assets shape and guide the brand's living narrative. They are the source of the brand’s identity, but should be flexible and fluid, so the brand can show up more authentically in different cultural contexts and connect with more people in more ways.
Brand Example: Duolingo (Core equities built for storytelling, friction, and reinterpretation). Learning a new language can be a daunting prospect, and many brands engaged with it lean into with a mix of scholarliness, authority, and formality. Duolingo’s approach has been to gamify it, making it fun, engaging, and — above all — interactive and cooperative.
Cultural Products. These products push brands to continually reinvent and innovate to introduce new ideas in service of culture growth, and to participate and deepen connection in the spaces the brand plays in.
Brand Example: E.L.F. (Collabs with Liquid Death, Dunkin Donuts, Chipotle, NASCAR). Where many brands look for collaboration opportunities that stick close to their own brand identity, cosmetics company E.L.F. has opened the door wide for every collaborator from Liquid Death to NASCAR. They’ve made the surprise and inventiveness the point.
Participatory Experiences. This layer of multiplayer experiences and artifacts welcome others in to make their own meaning and add new expressions to the brand world, furthering the brand’s cultural influence.
Brand Example: Meow Wolf (Building multi-sensory experiences that require self-guided exploration). At a time when more and more experiences are purely digital, brands that can activate real-world spaces can engage in more compelling, authentic ways. Meow Wolf’s brand is grounded in the kind of in-person explorations that stick with people beyond the moment.

Building a Brand World

Building a Brand World starts with a compelling and enduring idea that helps the brand attract and unite people. Once you've centered your idea, it’s time to start building, designing, experimenting, and co-creating. Here are some questions to ask:

Questions to ask to begin World Building:

What does this world look like?
- What are the brand's iconic / distinct assets?
- What attributes define the cultural context your brand wants to exist in?
- What exists in the world of your Aspirational Muse that you want to pull forward?
What is the story you are building?
- What are the different storylines that emerge from your brand idea?
- What activations and experiences can you invite people into?
- What new ideas about the brand can you introduce?
What movement are you making in culture?
- What cultural waves are you riding?
- What role will the brand take on in this cultural space?
- How does your brand choose to participate?
How will you continuously amplify this world?
- What are the channels, spaces, places that will best amplify your brand world?
- Who are your peers in this space and how can you collaborate with them?
- What do you need to do to maintain a continuous pulse in culture?

Evolving the Brand World

To truly embrace the world-building mindset, you must see your brand world as a living, breathing entity. You’ve built the brand world and rely on it as the guide for how the brand comes to life. But with a “world-building” mindset, you’re always looking to expand, challenge, and evolve it.

Here’s how you can continue to evolve it:

Experimentation: Constantly try new things to keep the brand world fresh and exciting.
Storytelling: Keep your living narrative dynamic, introducing new storylines and settings.
Amplification: Deploy a continuous approach to amplify the brand world through tech, media, collabs and communities.
Feedback Loops: Establish strong feedback mechanisms to understand cultural impact and influence.
Tech Integration: Leverage new technologies to enhance the brand experience.

A Brand World is more than just a collection of branded elements; it's a strategic approach for guiding how your brand interacts with the world. By adopting a world-building mindset, you commit to continuously expanding, challenging, and evolving your brand. This approach ensures that your brand remains vibrant, relevant, and deeply connected with its audience, ready to meet the future with creativity and confidence.

Start building your Emergent Brand

We’ve created the Building Emergent Brands guide as a quick-hit resource for Brand Anarchy mindset shifts.

Click the button below to see the third chapter of the guide, which is centered around this third mindset shift and builds on what you just read here. Flip through to find what resonates, then share it with your team to get inspired to keep moving toward Emergent Branding.