Producing Culture, Not Just Products
For decades, brands treated media as rented space. You bought a 30-second TV spot, a full-page ad, or a billboard and hoped to catch eyeballs. Today, that model is as outdated as Blockbuster late fees. Social platforms have become the new entertainment studios – places where audiences binge, discover, and emotionally invest in stories. The twist? Brands aren’t just buying airtime anymore. They’re creating the shows.
This shift flips the script: success doesn’t come from screaming “buy me” but from producing content worth watching, sharing, and remixing. Whether you’re selling homes, snacks, or sneakers, the challenge is the same: how do you become part of culture, not just commerce?
Why Social Platforms Act Like Studios
TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and even LinkedIn function like production lots. They control distribution, set algorithms that act like program schedulers, and elevate “stars” (influencers, creators, and occasionally brands) who deliver compelling storylines. The “series” that win aren’t ads. They’re moments of entertainment, information, and cultural connection.
Audiences don’t log on to see your product. They log on to be entertained. Your job as a brand is to create content that makes people stick around and in doing so, sneak your product or place into the cultural bloodstream.
Real Estate: From Brick-and-Mortar to Binge-Worthy
Developments used to live or die on brochures, renderings, and maybe a grand opening ribbon-cutting. Now, the most successful communities behave like serialized dramas:
Lifestyle Episodes: Show a day-in-the-life of a resident through short-form video. Walking the dog through the trails. Coffee at the lobby café. Sunset on the rooftop deck. Each clip is an “episode” that paints the bigger picture.
Behind-the-Scenes “Making Of”: Audiences are fascinated by process. Construction updates, design decisions, even the quirks of local zoning become storylines when told right.
Community-Generated Content: Residents and tenants become co-creators. Their testimonials, vlogs, and Instagram Reels add credibility and expand the story universe — much like fan-created spin-offs extend a hit franchise.
The community stops being a real estate project and starts being a character people want to follow.
Food & Beverage/CPG: Snacks as Storylines
If real estate is a drama, food and beverage is closer to reality TV meets comedy sketch. These products naturally lend themselves to episodic entertainment because eating is inherently social and cultural.
Mini-Series Launches: New flavor drops can be teased like season premieres — countdowns, sneak peeks, tasting parties. Instead of a press release, you create a cultural moment.
Challenges as Audience Participation: Think of TikTok challenges not as “ads” but as interactive shows where consumers are contestants. A berry brand can spark a #5WaysToBerry challenge that creators riff on endlessly.
Casting Influencers: Partnering with creators is less about sponsorship and more about casting. Who best embodies the tone, style, and demographic you want to reach?
Done right, snacks don’t just fill shelves — they infiltrate conversations, memes, and rituals.
The Payoff: Attention as Currency
Brands that embrace the studio mindset don’t measure success only by impressions or foot traffic. They measure by cultural resonance. Did people tune in? Did they talk about it? Did they share it with friends?
The winners aren’t the ones who shout the loudest but the ones who tell stories so compelling that the product becomes secondary to the culture it fuels.
The Big Picture
From real estate developers shaping neighborhoods to food brands shaping cravings, the playbook is the same: stop selling products, start producing culture. The platforms already act like Hollywood. The question is whether your brand is content to be an advertiser… or ready to be a showrunner.
