The Creator Economy

create sign

A new era is dawning called “the Creator Economy” and we’re all part of it.

Some of you are creating new flavors. Others, a new sustainable packaging concept. And a few of you may have a breakthrough product you’re about to launch. But if you’ve used Google today—or Wikipedia, YouTube, Facebook or any of the myriad interactive channels—you are truly part of the new Creator Economy, a term McKinsey & Company is using to describe the third major economic turning point in just over a century.

Goodbye to the Producer and Consumer Economies

What we commonly call “The Industrial Revolution,” McKinsey has labeled “The Producer Economy.” Starting in about 1900, advances in manufacturing promised a future of amazing abundance to fulfill the desires of an emerging middle class… but raw materials were scarce and production facilities limited. After WWII, industrial giants who had geared up to supply a war were able to produce far more goods than the post-war public would ever want to buy.

Undone by our own excess, we entered “The Consumer Economy” around 1950, when companies had abundant supply and little demand. Problem solved by the Golden Age of advertising and marketing. Mad Men. Mass Media. Suddenly the American consumer craved everything from cake mixes to muscle cars. Power brands came to life. Global CPG companies ruled the world.

So here we are.

Sneaking onto the landscape over the last couple of years, the new Creator Economy is now quickly killing off the Consumer Economy we’ve come to rely upon. As marketers, we all instinctively get it. For sure, we’re feeling it.

Winning companies harness even small creative acts

Now we are navigating “personal media platforms,” where all of us create as we move through our day. Sometimes actively, by blogging and uploading content to YouTube and Facebook. Often passively. Merely by searching Google, a thread of information is created, providing us the value of an instant answer and giving Google all sorts of behavioral information proving so valuable to their share price.

We’re just at the beginning of the Creator Economy.Social media influence will continue to grow. Our involvement with technology will continue to evolve. Just as my parents were both captivated by (and somewhat afraid of) what the television was “feeding them” every day, we’re all trying to get used to our new reality as food and ingredient marketers… a world where there are no secrets and little control over message. As McKinsey states, “smart companies will be the ones that harness creator instincts, and the biggest winners will be the companies who harness the smallest creative acts.” I couldn’t agree more.

So what have you created today?