Cookies are out.

So what’s in? We all know that cookies are getting phased out.

It’s going to get harder and harder to target in advertising that way.

I’ll tell you what’s in: community. Brands that really take the time to build community are the ones that are going to be the winners at the end of this decade.

Now, you may say, well, what’s the secret to building community, Shama? Well, the answer lies in the word itself.

Common. You’re looking for what is common—bringing your audience together based on common pain, common challenges, even perhaps a common enemy. Building a community in your industry, being that thought leader in spearheading that community bringing people together, that’s really what’s going to differentiate the excellent brands from the mediocre brands. Because, listen,the truth is you can’t just outspend your competitors anymore.

And you can’t—even if you do that, you can’t outspend your weight into a consumer heart.

You’re not going to be able to use advertising as a sole venue to gain market share.

You’re going to have to start thinking about it more broadly, especially in a post-cookie world, and that brings us to, of course, community.

The sooner you embrace this, the sooner you start building community.

That’s really where the magic happens.

And if you need help figuring out how to build your community and gather them together.

This is exactly what we do at Zen Media.

So check us out ZenMedia.com

Drop us a note! We’d love to chat with you about best practices around community building.