By Sophie Ozoux, Co-Founder of Kin
This year, the internet moved at its usual breakneck pace. 2025 will be known for “Coldplaygate” storming our feeds, “skibidi” dethroning “delulu,” and AI slop beckoning us back to the ’80s. This summer, the algorithm even spilled into the streets; every corner store I passed was suddenly selling knockoff Labubus. Each craze felt inescapable for a moment, and then, almost overnight, they were gone.
As someone who’s spent the past twenty years helping brands navigate our lightspeed cultural landscape, I’ve watched too many smart companies exhaust themselves chasing viral moments that vanish as quickly as they appear. Here’s the truth: a 17-second TikTok about air-fried pasta can quietly rack up 20 million views with zero media spend, while a $7 million Super Bowl ad barely trends. That contrast reveals everything about where cultural power actually lives: with the people.
Despite brands continuing to ask for “viral moments,” the truth is, it may spike awareness, but it doesn’t inspire lasting connection. As we look to 2026 and how real brand building is evolving, we need to be challenging ourselves with a harder question: in a world of countless cultural conversations and communities, how do you find the right ones—and earn your invitation in?
Earning Cultural Citizenship
The answer isn’t louder messaging or omnipresence across platforms. You can’t buy your way into these spaces. You have to be invited in — and that invitation is earned through cultural citizenship: the earned right to participate meaningfully in a community or cultural space. It requires humility over entitlement, participation over promotion, and contributing without the expectation of immediate returns.
Duolingo continues to offer the perfect case study of this. When users started memeing their green owl mascot as “unhinged” and threatening, the brand didn’t clamp down or try to sanitize the joke. Instead, they leaned in; hiring from Gen Z communities, giving creators like Zaria Parvez the freedom to play with the character, and letting the internet’s interpretation shape Duo’s persona. The owl became less a mascot to manage and more a co-created character audiences could riff with. But it only landed with warmth because Duolingo had already earned its cultural invitation: listening first, hiring from the communities driving the jokes, and learning their codes instead of buying their way in through sponsorships.
This approach requires embracing three fundamental shifts.
From Mass Appeal to Micro-Connections: First, forget going viral—meaningful impact comes from specificity. Every global cultural moment begins in niche communities. Chappell Roan didn’t rise through traditional PR; her deeply connected fanbase in theater and queer communities lit the fire.
Action: Chase proximity over scale. Map the communities your products already serve and identify the most culture-shaping micro-communities among them. Shift focus from broad demographics to the people setting trends, shaping conversations, and driving influence. Hire from those communities and invite them in to teach you the language, values, and practices you need to belong.
From Campaigns to Co-Creation: Today’s most resonant content is co-authored. NPR’s Tiny Desk is shaped by artists and audiences together. Supercell, the mobile game behind Clash of Clans, saw fans creating unofficial game assets and instead of policing them, built tools and incentives to co-create officially—driving deeper engagement and loyalty.
Action: Build structures for creative contribution. Hand over authorship where possible, and reward participation to turn fans into collaborators.
From Perfect Planning to Play: Cultural moments aren’t engineered—they’re caught and evolved in real time. Barbenheimer or Jet 2 Holiday social chaos weren’t in a media deck, yet they became defining cultural moments because all parties hopped on the bandwagon, leaning into the internet’s playful rivalry and jokes. Brands thriving today are willing to experiment in public.
Action: Treat your ideas as prototypes. Share, gather reactions, iterate. Take creative risks and embrace the unexpected.
Why This Actually Matters
This isn’t just about marketing tactics—it’s about brand survival. Consumers now curate their cultural inputs with surgical precision. Ad blockers, algorithmic silos, and resistance to branded noise mean communities can keep brands at arm’s length.
Bridging that gap isn’t about hijacking the next trending sound or sprinkling Taylor Swift’s orange glitter everywhere. It’s about earning cultural citizenship: the right to participate meaningfully in the spaces where culture is created. Brands that earn that space don’t just show up—they listen, participate, and help scale the ecosystems that nurture the communities they serve.
Going viral is a sugar rush. Belonging builds enduring brand equity—the kind that keeps you relevant long after the spotlight fades.
