It's time we recognised the true power of culture
By Gen Kobayashi, Chief Strategy Officer, M+C Saatchi UK
This article was first published in Campaign on 30 June 2025
Back in January this year, the Foreign Secretary, David Lammy and Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, Lisa Nandy, launched a new government body, the Soft Power Council. The Soft Power Council is formed of 26 members that act as a UK government advisory board to help boost UK economic growth by bringing together experts across culture, sport and creative industries. Already this Council has pledged a £60m funding boost for the UK’s creative industries to help them scale and grow.
According to the UK government’s own figures, the UK’s creative industries generated £126bn in gross value added (GVA) to the economy per year, employing more than 2.4 million people. In addition, it’s estimated that the UK’s culture alone contributed to £5.2bn in exports. From Peaky Blinders to Central Cee, the Premier League and Banksy. These are all highly valuable and valued products that we are exporting across the world.
You’d argue that the Soft Power council is misleading in of itself; £126bn GVA power is far from “soft”.
And this where we come back to the word "culture". A semiotician would have a field day with the word. A word laden with soft meaning, like "the arts". It’s a Sunday newspaper supplement that sits at the back of the newspaper, not on the important pages at the front.
But culture is far more powerful than we give it credit for. Professor, author and marketing academic Dr Marcus Collins, sums up the power of culture in his book, For the Culture. In it, he writes: “There is no force more influential than culture and that framework dictates almost all the decisions that we make whether we are conscious of them or not.”
Culture is both highly valued and highly valuable.
The power of culture is why South Korea has invested significant funds into supporting K-content (this includes K-Pop and Korean cinema and TV) in recent years and why K-content exports give the South Korean government an ROI of 5:1 for every dollar spent.
When it comes to brands we can see the power of culture in commercial growth. According to Kantar, culturally relevant brands grow six time more than brands without cultural relevancy. And according to WARC, culturally resonant brands grow 25% more than competitors.
At M+C Saatchi we call this value creation, "Cultural Power".
So how can we begin to harness Cultural Power for our clients?
Understand that culture is intersectional
Culture exists at the intersections of media, technology, society and policy. It’s the driving force behind what clothes people wear, what car they drive, what politician they vote for and what media they consume. Culture is the connective tissue that connects these behaviours and it’s for that reason what happens in the media doesn’t stay in the media. Look at this year’s Netflix hit, Adolescence or the Bafta-winning Mr Bates and the Post Office as examples of cultural moments in time having a direct impact on governmental policy.
Admit that culture eats the funnel for breakfast
The nature of the connected world in which we live means that the old orthodoxies of how brands are built have changed. Hailey Bieber sold her skincare brand Rhode to E.l.f for $1bn after just three years, making it one of the fastest ever billion-dollar sales in history. It demonstrates how rapidly a new brand can go to market in a highly competitive category and acquire loyalists overnight who are willing to queue for seven hours for a product that had only been in existence for 24 hours.
Get comfortable with being uncomfortable
Culture has always thrived when contexts collide. Some of the biggest cultural moments have happened when brands have embraced the chaos and been happy to open themselves up to entirely new audiences and worlds. Greggs working with Nigella Lawson last Christmas and Hellman’s partnering Chopova Lowena. Brands that have embraced the clash to find tension.
Make something, mean something
Earlier this year we witnessed one of the biggest cultural moments of the year, Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl half-time show. If you look beyond the Drake beef, this was a show that had layers of cultural meaning and significance to modern America. Culture is meaning-making, not just fame alone.
Embrace the multiplier effect of the moment.
As Kenny Rogers sang, you’ve got to know when to hold them and know when to roll them if you want to play the game right. This is no different in culture. When Kraft Heinz jumped on the Kendrick Lamar meme of shouting “MUSTAAARD”, referring to DJ Mustard, who produced the track TV Off, it didn’t just use it as a stunt to promote it mustard condiment. It used the moment to create a multiplier effect for the brand in a longer-term partnership with DJ Mustard (a keen food lover). It appointed him as chief mustard officer and it has now released the first new mustard flavour in more than a decade called ‘MUSTAAAAARD’ (of course).
