The new age of cultural intelligence
Today i bring you an excellent conversation with Amy Daroukakis, Co-Founder of Cultural Connectors. She's pioneering a new form of trend reporting cultural intelligence. It's wonderful to see it in action.
5 useful things Amy taught me when we spoke:
Geographic bias is everywhere. UK agencies are maligned for being London-centric. But this isn't just a UK thing. Amy says 90% of trend reports come out of 10 cities. So everyone's thinking is riffing on the same source material. It becomes commoditised. The worst place to be in a creative industry.
More strategy less stuff. Most trend reports are 'interesting', but that's it. They lack in sparking action. To solve this, Amy thinks in trend galaxies. They vary by timeframe and business application, depending on the industry. Architecture firms might work in 10-year timeframes. FMCG companies are closer to 18 months.
The specific is universal. A saying from comedy, that also works for strategy. Amy works with local experts whose role is to identify universal human truths. But local perspectives are what gives them texture. The more you learn from sources your competitors may not, the better your odds of beating them. That simple.
Human internet. The slopification of the internet is real, and therefore things will get boring. The answer? What Amy calls a more 'human internet'. One thing we don't discuss enough: all LLMs broadly draw from the same material. So finding new material through local voices will become a competitive advantage.
The senses are your sensei. It's refreshing to see how Amy briefs experts based on the six senses. What's a fresh sight? Smell? Sensation? Sound? And so on. I wish we had more research debriefs structured that way. Less about what people say or think in their minds. More about how a specific culture feels in the body.
For more like this, you should watch the full video. It's 30 minutes. Packed with good stuff. Shorter than your daily TikTok doomscrolling. And will leave more positive lasting effects. I hope Cultural Connectors takes off. We need it.
