By Lori Jones, CEO, Avocet Communications
Key Takeaways
- Brands that win in 2025 are stepping off messaging platforms and into movement spaces.
- A movement isn’t a campaign; it’s an ongoing activation designed into culture, product, and community.
- Marketing’s role is evolving from persuasion to architecting ecosystems that mobilize people.
My Revelation
For years, marketers (myself included) treated “brand” as what we say: a positioning line, a narrative, a beautifully orchestrated campaign. But today, the brands earning disproportionate attention, loyalty, and pricing power aren’t just communicating a stance; they’re convening and compounding a movement.
The shift is profound: from message to mobilization.
Why Now
Because purpose marketing is under scrutiny, “authenticity” has become a line item (sadly, often a hollow one) and rising generations aren’t rewarding rhetoric; they’re rewarding useful participation.
Recent studies from ScienceDirect’s Journal of Business Research and UNSW BusinessThink confirm what many marketers already sense: authenticity still matters, but execution and context are where brands are falling short.
Consumers no longer take purpose statements at face value. They want consistent action embedded in real communities, not one-off ads or performative campaigns. The Journal of Business Research found that brands claiming purpose without operational follow-through risk being seen as “woke-washing.” Meanwhile, UNSW’s 2025 insights show that younger audiences have redefined authenticity, not as what brands say, but as what they enable others to do.
The market isn’t buying promises; it’s buying participation.
From Campaign to Community
Across industries, brands are shifting from “campaigns about purpose” to platforms for participation; spaces where customers, employees, and partners co-create the outcomes they care about most.
These brands don’t ask, “What message should we send?” They ask, “What role can we play?”
They build systems for action, inviting communities to pilot ideas, share accountability, and celebrate progress. The result isn’t just engagement; it’s alignment. Employees become ambassadors. Customers stay longer. Partners deepen collaboration.
When brands act as hosts instead of heroes, they generate what I call participation equity, the compounding return that happens when people don’t just buy from you but build with you.
The future of branding isn’t in messaging frameworks or campaign calendars; it’s in movement architecture, designing ecosystems where people act, connect, and grow together under a shared purpose.
Message vs. Movement: What Separates the Leaders
Message-First Brands:
- Treat authenticity as an adjective.
- Launch episodic, one-way campaigns.
- Optimize for impressions and share of voice.
Movement-First Brands:
- Treat authenticity as infrastructure.
- Build durable communities and programs.
- Optimize for participation and co-creation.
Leaders do three things well:
1. Embed the cause into the product/service loop.
2. Design for membership with clear roles and rituals.
3. Commit to cadence, predictable convenings beat viral spikes.
The Movement Architecture Playbook
If your brand is ready to evolve from message to movement, here’s the system we use at Avocet:
1. Cause Clarity: Define the shared cause that aligns with your business’s unique value.
2. Constituency Mapping: Identify who has skin in the game and design visible roles for them.
3. Commitments, Not Claims: Replace slogans with public commitments.
4. Convenings with Purpose: Create a steady rhythm of moments that build trust and momentum.
5. Participation Flywheels: Make contribution easy and visible.6. Measurement That Matters: Track participation, retention, and community-driven growth.
What the Data Tells Us
Across the past year, the data points to three clear truths:
- Trust is action-weighted. Repeated, transparent behavior drives credibility and pricing power.
- Participation predicts retention. Engaged customers renew and expand more.
- Community lowers CAC. Co-created stories and peer referrals compound over time.
You don’t need dozens of dashboards, just correlate participation with performance and watch the pattern emerge.
Why This Matters Now
Skepticism is high. Generational expectations have shifted. Economic pressure is real.
Movements create operating leverage, surface product improvements, attract advocates, and reduce dependence on paid reach. In short, movements pay for themselves, first in energy, then in outcomes.
How to Get Unstuck in 30 Days
1. Pick one cause-aligned outcome to move within 90 days.
2. Form a working group of employees, customers, and partners.
3. Publish a shared scoreboard of progress.
4. Host three convenings and end with a demo day.
5. Ship what you learn, first in action, then in story.
It’s not a campaign; it’s a cadence.
Pitfalls to Avoid
- Treating community like content.
- Centering the brand instead of the cause.
- Over-promising and under-delivering.
- Measuring only vanity metrics.
At Its Best
When we reframe marketing as movement architecture, we stop asking, “What should we say this quarter?” and start asking, “What system can we build that lets our community achieve more together?”
That’s where WOW! lives; not in a headline, but in a brand that reliably creates new possibilities for the people it serves.
Food for Thought
Is your brand still speaking about change, or actively building the change?
If your team disappeared for a month, what cadence, community, or commitment would your market miss?
If you’re ready to evolve your brand from messaging mode into movement mode, I’d love to explore this with you. Reach out to me, Lori Jones at Avocet Communications, let’s architect a movement your customers can’t wait to join.
