Digital Culture Review: don’t hoard cultural capital, compound it
Thought Leadership
In Q1, we asked what happens when systems stop making sense, and found people investing in things that can’t be faked: the body, the offline playgrounds, and the archive.
Agalia Tan, our Global Social Intelligence Associate Director, explores how Q2 provides an addendum: amassing unfakeable capital is just the entry ticket. What matters is not how much you hoard, but how well you use, convert and grow your capital across a well-designed personal portfolio.
INDIVIDUAL
We’re no longer building a singular personality, but identity stacking to build the self as a diversified portfolio.
During a panel at the recently concluded Cannes Lions Festival, Founder & CEO of Brigade, Max Stein described the talent that he’s looking out for as the kind of people who “if you want to work with them, you can’t run down a list and find the next one.”
Whereas we had once aspired towards a clean singular identity as a means to sell our personal brand, this legibility has become a liability. Today, to be archetyped is to be replaceable.
So we begin to diversify.
The most obvious manifestation can be found within the celebrity realm.
It’s not new that celebrities are beginning to extend their identities beyond what they became famous for. Madonna didn’t just want to be known as a singer, she also became an actress and a writer; Snoop Dogg wasn’t just a rapper, but he also became a correspondent at the Olympics and co-hosted his own food show; and Selena Gomez launched her own beauty line.
Today, it’s become more prevalent. Dua Lipa is running a book club. Sam Smith is sharing Foodtok content via his new TikTok account sam.served. And Bridgerton’s viscountess Simone Ashley is writing songs.
You could say they are whimsical side quests, but really, it’s a smart financial move that not only entrenches them across different cultural touchpoints, but also diversifies what they can eventually monetise. Just take a look at how Bieberchella had JB raking in a hefty $15million from selling merch – not his performance.
In the consumer realm, we are witnessing a similar trend around stacking one’s identity via purchases, products and experiences. Against the backdrop of rising costs of living, HighSnobiety has reported a shift in our chosen markers of identity: from fashion and conventional luxury goods to small everyday products like groceries and beauty.
Just like how we accessorise our bags with Labubus and keychains that signify fandom or interest, we accessorise our identity, charm by charm. Carry a Shakespeare and Company tote bag. Read the Margaret Atwood book of the month. Eat a David Protein bar. Use a Rhode beauty case. Wear a Swiftie friendship bracelet. Deck out in royal blue and orange to celebrate on the streets of New York.
And they aren’t mutually exclusive. You can stack and layer all these small legible units of identity capital until you become an unLLMable mosaic of interests and idiosyncrasies that are uniquely you.
In fact, nothing is too taboo, too weird, or too niche to be an asset class now.
Be it ‘obsessive fangirl’, ‘divorcee’, or ‘cyberdeck girlie’, we are claiming these identities before anyone can use them against us – and wearing them proudly. Cyberdeck girlies are out in the wild evaluating Hinge matches on their eyeshadow palette, divorcees are sharing their hot divorcee summer look with wide-brimmed Madagascan hats and English sparkling as the accessory of choice, and fandoms are revelling in lookalike contests.
In short, gone are the days of monolithic legible identities. The self isn’t a single asset anymore, but a diversified portfolio you continually manage and update according to the times.
COMMUNITY
Entertainment is now the reserve currency of cultural capital, and creators & media are the ones minting it.
In his Cannes keynote, Sir John Hegarty pointed to the entertainment category as the one to watch and learn from when it comes to holding attention and getting people to engage with the topics they otherwise wouldn’t care about. Creators also got a shoutout from Scott Galloway who, in his recap video, said: “Creators are the new celebrities…Creators used to be the cool kids invited to the afterparty at Cannes, now they host the after parties.”
Clearly, the tables have turned – and not just on La Croisette.
Brands are paying to borrow what they can’t manufacture in-house.
On the other end of the spectrum, some brands are choosing not to rent attention, and building their own.
Last year, venture capital firm a16z built a New Media Team with the sole purpose to help founders acquire the skills, taste and expertise required to win the narrative battle online. This year, others followed suit: Palantir created a journal featuring commentary and essays on technology, national security policy and international affairs; and Google Deepmind established a partnership with A24 to help artists develop new workflows and techniques.
And then there are those who neither buy nor rent. Capital simply accumulates around them.
Take for example, Emily Sundberg who has built a newsletter that industry leaders, brands and CMOs are queuing to be featured in. Or the Mayor of New York, Zohran Mamdani, who has somehow shown up credibly across a myriad of cultural moments – from Heated Rivalry and Taylor Swift’s wedding, to taxing the rich and helping New Yorkers date. Akin to a centripetal force, these figures pull every sphere of culture around them.
And they stand out from any brand who trades in entertainment currency. Sure, you could rent it like Meta, or build it like a16z. But Sundberg and Mamdani deal in something else entirely: capital that’s so layered, and so specific to them that it can’t be exchanged for anything at all.
Just like identity, the real flex isn’t holding the currency. It’s becoming impossible to trade.
SOCIETY
In a world this liquid, investing in time will be your best bet.
There is a strange sense of isekai looming over this quarter, a feeling of being transported into a world that looks familiar but runs on different rules.
When almost everything becomes liquid and fungible, we get hit with a bout of vertigo: What rules apply now? Can I still act the same way to maintain my status quo? Must I switch tactics in order to reap returns? And, how do I diversify without losing what is most true to me?
In a world this liquid, there is a huge risk of overextending.
Jeff Bezos learnt this the hard way when he chose to become the lead sponsor of the Met Gala. Despite having fashion icon Anna Wintour’s backing, it wasn’t enough to convert his money into cultural cachet overnight. The announcement was met with a barrage of criticisms including how money can never “buy culture they have never cultivated and will never inhabit.”
Capital that’s converted too quickly without the underlying work to justify the exchange rate will undoubtedly get rejected upon arrival. And this points to one rule that has held true even amidst the volatile nature of the market: the market always rewards compounded effort over time.
Sundberg was no overnight success. She cut her teeth on marketing at The Cut, Condé Nast and Meta, and began publishing Feed Me on a regular basis after getting laid off; and it took her 3 years before the newsletter officially took off.
The breakout blockbuster of the quarter, Backrooms, also testifies to the importance of active compounding over time. The A24 film was based on internet lore, having started out as a 4chan meme and later adapted into a popular web series by 16-year-old Kane Parsons in 2022. The web series tracked over 200m views, and its strong following helped Backrooms open with an estimated $81.5 million at the domestic box office, making it the highest-ever debut for a horror film that isn’t a sequel or based on a book.
Amidst this volatility, one thing we can all hold on to is this: in a world where everything can be converted, the best move may be to invest in time.
The brands and creators who will remain relevant in culture are those who won’t rush to act, but those who accumulate and convert capital intentionally, and let it compound over time – slowly but surely.
Thought Leadership
