Dr. Marcus Collins, chief strategy officer at Wieden+Kennedy, on how people make meaning through culture

In the latest episode of The Speed of Culture podcast, Dr. Marcus Collins joins Matt Britton to discuss how brands propagate, how people make meaning through culture and his personal journey from an engineer to the CSO of a global advertising agency.

Collins thinks many brands mistake information for intimacy and therefore cannot integrate themselves into people’s cultural zeitgeist. He explains why it’s not enough for brands to have a desired meaning, and why brands must close the incongruency gap with consumers.

Collins went from studying polymers and material science to developing digital marketing strategies for iTunes, Beyoncé, Nike and other globally recognized brands and musicians. His vision for brands is to make emotional connections with people by understanding that culture is meaning and that there is no vehicle more influential on human behavior than culture.

In this episode, Collins talks about his journey from being an engineer to developing digital marketing strategies for well-known brands and musicians by adding culture to brand equity pillars.

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Key Highlights:

• 05:47 – 06:08 – How Marketing Communication has Changed – Like so many other industries, what is hot is not controlled by the boardrooms anymore. It’s driven on the sidewalks. Nowadays, the biggest arbiter of popular music is TikTok. Generated by individuals and algorithms, TikTok has helped create a music industry that is much more reflective of consumer culture, giving them the power.

• 12:07: – 12:52 – Culture as Governing Operating System – Brands must understand what they mean to people. If their desired meaning is incongruent with how people see the brand, it’s time to close the gap. Culture is the governing operating system our world runs on, and brands must figure out how to be congruent with that OS. “The brand sees the world the way I do. And because the brand sees the world the way I do, I use the brand to express my identity. It’s not about the brand. It’s really about me.” 

• 23:41 – 24:07 – Misunderstanding Information for Intimacy – Brands may have more information than ever before, but that doesn’t always add up to greater intimacy with consumers. To Collins, that is one of the biggest misnomers when it comes to marketers in today’s hyper-connected digital world. Brands should not mistake information for intimacy, and should instead work to understand why consumers do what they do.