Has fragmentation gone too far?
We used to live in a monoculture, but now marketers and content creators are expected to aim for more granular audiences, catering to the individual rather than the masses. Eleyna Michael, strategy manager at Equality Media + Marketing, wonders if it's all gone too far.
If you’ve read or listened to marketing discourse over the last six months, it’s likely you’ve seen conversations of fragmentation aplenty, how we’ve moved from a monoculture, to microculture, and now we’ve tiptoed one step further into the era of atomisation.
The thinking suggests that because culture is no longer shared at scale, our marketing and advertising should splinter accordingly. One message for one audience no longer cuts it. Instead, we’re told we need infinite versions, tailored to every niche, every feed, every moment.
From a cultural perspective, this might be true. But should the same be true for brand? Is marketing more effective because it’s hyper-targeted, or just more complicated?
From monoculture to atomisation
It’s easy to see how we got here. Monocultural media moments, like tentpole TV spots or major sporting events, are rarer and more expensive to buy into. In their place are TikTok trances, peculiar podcasts, group chat gossip and stan subcultures. Paired with media multitasking and fractured attention spans, the theory makes sense. But we’re not just adapting for context anymore. Instead, we’re diluting creative into oblivion.
What began as an effort to be relevant has become a race to cover every sub or fringe cultural area and idea. And instead of creating standout work, we’re slicing ideas so thin they risk losing meaning.
When big still works
Would it surprise you to hear that the most memorable ads of the last quarter were not built for a thousand microsegments or moments? Instead, they held one premise, one creative angle, were delivered at scale, and resulted in cut-through.
According to Cubery and TRA, Telstra’s Wherever We Go and Allianz’s Care You Can Count On topped memorability studies for the last quarter.
The stats from Cubery’s report show that 28% of Australians spontaneously named Telstra’s Wherever We Go ad, while 15% named Allianz’s Care You Can Count On.
These ads were not hyper-personalised, platform-native or algorithm-gaming. They are bold. Confident. One idea, executed well, and backed by a clear sense of identity.
Theory tells us that the most effective ads share common traits: character-led narratives, the strategic use of music, and emotionally engaging content that reinforces brand messaging and aids recall.
These are not microculture tactics. They’re classic tools built to spark emotion, create association and stay in the mind. Crucially, they work across audiences, not in spite of them.
Telstra’s ‘Wherever we go’ campaign aims for the masses – and succeeds.
When specific becomes forgettable
None of this is to say that creative shouldn’t flex to suit format, it should. But there’s a difference between adjusting your work and atomising it beyond recognition.
Ads built specifically for microcultures (overly native, overly tailored, overly safe) can risk becoming indistinguishable from the content that surrounds them. They blend in and flatter the algorithm, but forget the brand.
In trying to speak to everyone individually, we risk saying nothing memorably to anyone.
The truth is, brands don’t need a million messages. They need one strong idea, expressed boldly and orchestrated smartly across formats.
Reclaiming the big idea
This isn’t a call to go backwards. Fragmentation isn’t going away and executional nuance still matters.
The thing that has always made brand marketing great (and is evidenced by the great brands) is the universal appeal of the message. Something built on human truth, whether that’s the need to stop, snack and Have A Break, or to make haste and Just Do It, the thing that separates great brands from the rest is their single-minded positioning that is unavoidably appealing.
In our rush to personalise, localise, optimise and contextualise, we may have lost the thing that made brand marketing great in the first place: the power of a big, distinctive, emotional idea.
Eleyna Michael
So, how can we practically put this into practice?
- Prioritise clarity before complexity: Start with a strong, emotionally resonant idea and then decide how (and if) it flexes.
- Don’t over-segment at the cost of standout: Just because we can tailor a version for every audience doesn’t mean we should. Ask instead: is it still memorable and ownable?
- Let media placements amplify the idea, not dictate it: While executional changes should occur based on format, the core idea should remain the same.
In an age of atomisation, culture may be fractured, but your brand doesn’t have to be.
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