As another year flies by at the speed of light, marred with its own hellscapes and highlights, it’s a good time to look back and try to piece together learnings through the world around us, both in and out of The Industry.

Rather than cherry-picking trends and work that frankly, an AI could do for you, I thought it better to muddle through some softer thoughts and feelings that have caused ripples in my world, and probably yours too.

“Culture” means so many different things to all of us. It can span the breadth of what you had for dinner, to the Marxist influence on Barney the Dinosaur. It’s an abstract thought process that frames, decodes and categorises our existence, whilst simultaneously being a thing you can touch, feel and input into - whether you intended to or not.

Culture is often a direct, deliberate reaction to the things that are out of our control. It’s a way of taking back agency (not that kind of agency) and our identity on a planet that feels like it’s spinning faster each month.

There’s a reason punk was huge in the 80’s - looking at you Thatcher.

There’s a reason oil companies are greenwashing their brands.

There’s a reason you’re using that typeface.

There’s a reason you’re wearing those sneakers.

There’s a reason your Spotify Wrapped has 80% more “lofi rain sounds to fall asleep to” than last year.

There’s a reason you left Twitter.

All the things that happen around us, all day, every day, all the time, are feeding into how we deconstruct the world through the means we have at our fingertips; the daily choices we make are the product of our environment.

When our environment starts to collapse, through warfare, drought, hurricanes or political instability, our culture reacts - violently and beautifully. In a time where a badly designed app can tip our already piqued anxiety levels into the danger zone, it feels, to me, that 2024 should be a time to revel in the innate softness, love and compassion that exists in all of us, just under the surface.

Social media in particular has become a callous, divisive place where binary rules, tribalism governs and bullying always wins.

It’s part of our job to create and feed a culture of forgiveness, accessibility and understanding in an ecosystem that is designed for just the opposite.

Clockwork (an agency that works with 45+ markets with Xbox, for example) understands the importance of culture, warts and all, and we constantly strive to lean on and support passions, shared kindness, and community.

It would be easier to harness divisiveness, hate and headlines to generate clicks and engagement, but we have a responsibility to lead the charge carefully and with consideration in a world that feels more hostile to those on the fringes of society every day.

We have our work cut out - it’s harder to be kind and meet people in the middle than it is to hate. The path of least resistance is often the most damaging.

Nuance and diversity in culture is so important, as without it, “culture” simply wouldn’t exist.

Let’s turn our feelings into things.