Decentralisation: The Great Platform Reset

Decentralisation. Distributed ledgers. Web3. These words alone are enough to make most marketers break out in a cold sweat. Too techy, too complicated, too far removed from the day-to-day reality of building brands and selling products. 

It’s not about technology at all. It’s actually far more about people, anthropology and history.

But decentralisation is an inevitable future. And as humans (and marketers and creatives) we can’t ignore this truth. We’re currently witnessing a turning point - slowly but surely seeing the monopoly of social platforms interrogated and new, community-owned platforms emerging from the ashes. These new platforms are going to change how we do marketing. 

Before the invention of the printing press... If you wanted to reach a mass audience, your best bet was to stand on a hill and shout.

But here’s the thing – it’s not about technology at all. In fact, it’s actually far more about people, anthropology and history. Understanding what this means requires us to go back in time a bit - not just to the dawn of the internet, but to 1436 and the invention of the printing press. 

Before the invention of the printing press, communication was strictly one-to-one. Parent to child, scholar to student. If you wanted to reach a mass audience, your best bet was to stand on a hill and shout it out. Everything up until that point was the era of primary orality – a time when information was passed on directly, with no central authority controlling the message. 

[When] advertising as we know it emerged and the deal was simple: publishers held the keys to audiences.

Then came the printing press. Suddenly, the ability to influence a mass audience was no longer about how loud you could yell but about whether you owned or had access to press.

Fast forward a few centuries and advertising as we know it emerged and the deal was simple: publishers held the keys to audiences, and brands paid for the right to get their message in front of them. 

Nike's campaign featuring Kaepernick's protest at racial injustice caused controversy but increased sales by 10 per cent. 

Even with the rise of digital, this power structure didn’t change. Print publishers either adapted or died, while social platforms became the new gatekeepers, charging brands for access to their users.

Brands are used to shooting fish in a barrel... But decentralisation removes this barrel altogether.

 Facebook, BuzzFeed, and Twitter all followed the same playbook: we’ve got the eyeballs, you pay for the privilege of reaching them. 

Decentralisation is daunting because it is fundamentally breaking that model apart. It gives users more autonomy, privacy and control. It takes down the walls of the walled gardens that publishers and platforms have relied on for decades. 

If you’re a brand that’s spent the last two decades relying on push messaging, you’re in trouble.

Right now, brands are used to shooting fish in a barrel. Platforms conveniently round-up audiences, segment them and hand them over for a price. But decentralisation removes this barrel altogether. 

What were once fish packed into a small, neat container are now swimming in a vast open sea. And if you’re a brand that’s spent the last two decades relying on push messaging, you’re in trouble. You can’t shoot fish in the ocean. You need to attract them, to lure them in. 

Ben & Jerry’s is known for its social activism and leverages its platform to champion a variety of social issues.

In a decentralised world, brands won’t be able to buy their way into consumer's feeds. No more forcing ads onto timelines, no more paying for reach. Instead, brands will have to earn attention by offering something of genuine value. Stories, moments, and experiences that people actually care about. 

Brands [must] stop acting like faceless corporations and start behaving like real people – engaging, listening and actually being part of the communities.

This initiative is a complete reversal of how most brands operate today. Instead of pushing messages into the void, they’ll need to rely on pulling consumers in. This requires brands to stop acting like faceless corporations and start behaving like real people – engaging, listening and actually being part of the communities they want to reach. 

Some brands already get this. Ben & Jerry’s and Patagonia have built loyal followings by standing for something beyond their products.

However, money moves the wheels of history, and the current model where publishers and platforms make billions selling ad space, is still too profitable to abandon. Decentralised platforms like Steemit have been around for over a decade, proving that the model can work, but they’ve struggled to gain mainstream adoption because quite simply, the money isn’t there yet. 

Consumers demand privacy, control and freedom. And while big money might not be backing decentralisation yet, the tide will eventually turn. In fact, it is beginning to turn, with users flocking to lightly decentralised platforms like BlueSky following the tumultuous past few years of ownership of a… certain platform.

The question is, will brands be ready to embrace this new future?