The Direct to Community Economy

Why Direct to Community business models are being adopted across diverse business sectors from niche to scale, B2C and B2B.

As a startup studio and venture builder VIDA is continually tracking trends across media, tech, buyer and investor behaviour  - and the broader economy.

Some of the most notable trends to emerge over the course of this tumultuous year include:

  • The growth of the Passion Economy – valued at over $38bn*

  • The continued growth of Direct To Consumer (DTC) brands and subscription business models – valued at over $17bn**

  • The rise of brand communities and Fandoms

  • The emergence of Community Based Marketing in B2B to complement Account Based Marketing (ABM)

  • Niche media / verticals and creator-led businesses taking an ever greater share of our time and attention

As well as being accelerated by COVID-19 we’re also seeing many of these trends begin to converge so we’ve pulled together in this deck, which we’ve called the ‘Direct to Community Economy,’ which we’re delighted to say was referenced in Econsultancy’s annual, and influential, digital marketing trends report for 2021.

“Community was the original business model…”

Ironically, community was the original business model that earliest ‘economies’ were built on but before long this was supplanted by global trade, industrialised brand building and mass media.

But unlike the industrial-sized, industrialised and mass-marketed brands & media businesses that went before, Direct to Community business models enabled by technology are built from, around, for - and with - communities of like-minded people who play an active role in the development of the brand, the products, the content and they directly inform the strategy of the business.

Drivers and implications of the Direct to Community Economy

In the deck we explore the roots and drivers of the direct to community economy and highlight how it is:

  • Transforming marketing for brands

  • Influencing the strategy of big media and platforms

  • Encouraging investment by brands seeking a cost effective way to access an audience, or community

  • Transforming work and careers for creator who no longer need the resource or permission of established creative businesses or the patronage of advertisers to earn an income

  • Enabling a new generation of startup niche media and creator-led brands to build their audience and develop diverse revenues

  • Causing established media businesses to adapt and innovate

  • Creating new asset classes and growth opportunities for investors.

In addition to collating the key trends we have also curated the insights from leading voices and commentators on the constituent parts of the direct to community economy, and by posing a series of questions about the future of community our intention is to raise the issue and stimulate debate.

We’d love to hear from you on these questions and your thoughts on the future direction of the Direct to Community economy.

*Source: Disciple Media / Forbes / Ofcom

** Source: IAB



Mark Maddox