The familiar internet with its free content is quietly disappearing. And not because of AI, but because advertisers risk losing their audience… the paying audience that will become inaccessible to them.

Advertising has been the main sponsor of internet content production for many years, and it’s what kept that content free. But something has started to change...

Recently, my favorite stand-up club launched a Patreon where you can get more good content for money than on their YouTube channel. Late last year, Polish auto YouTuber Budda left the platform for a paywall, launching his own streaming service. He openly admitted that advertising monetization doesn’t cover the cost of content production. Almost every reasonably notable project now has its own paywall, and some have simply gone paid-first.

Is advertising which drove the development of the open internet for several decades starting to fall short? The conclusion feels counterintuitive, given the sheer volume of ads on YouTube, Instagram, and everywhere else. But I want to draw attention to something different.

Quietly and almost imperceptibly, privacy has become a commodity. Major platforms have already launched, or are launching, services that let users buy themselves out of ad targeting essentially selling the right not to see ads. An ad-free Instagram subscription costs €8 per month (available in the EU), YouTube stops torturing you with mid-roll ads every ten minutes for $14, Snapchat for €10, and TikTok and Meta are testing similar options. You pay and live without ads. Sounds fair. But let’s slow down and realize what just happened: paying audiences have bought themselves out of advertising but does the platform itself remain attractive to brand advertisers? Not nearly as much.

How big a problem is this right now? Probably not very, for the moment. I tried to estimate the demand for this service in both dollars and users, but neither Google nor Meta disclose this information in their public reporting, it’s often bundled with other services or counted under broader revenue categories.

But we already have one industry that has gone down this road: media. Major global outlets have long been firmly behind paywalls, giving away only a small amount for free. I’d venture to guess that other creators will follow a similar path: cheap (AI slop?) or low-value content gets given away for free to attract new audiences, while the real good stuff sits behind a page with a credit card form.

So, what’s in store for all of us?

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I wouldn’t call this trend fully formed yet, but it has definitely started to take shape. What should businesses be prepared for? Let’s try to forecast (think of this as an exercise in imagination and apocalyptic thinking :)).

What awaits brands, and how to respond

It looks very much like the internet could split into two versions: free and premium. I’d compare it to air travel, where passengers choose between economy and business class. Choose economy and you fly in noisy, cramped conditions; business class is about privacy and comfort.

The free internet will be associated with lower-quality content, even more aggressive trackers, the erasure of whatever privacy remains (businesses will need to squeeze the last profits out of those who haven’t yet bought themselves out of advertising), and a sense of being second-rate. The premium internet will be quiet, calm, private, and free of advertising noise (funny how you now have to pay for peace rather than noise). It’s safe to say that not every brand will want to be associated with the atmosphere of the series Altered Carbon, premium brands especially (Hermès doesn’t advertise on bus stops).

Another problem is the inability to target financially capable people. And here, as I see it, brands need to invest not so much in squeezing value from free users, but in owned media: blogs, podcasts, newsletters.

Building relationships with your audience (hello to the new definition of PR that I wrote about earlier) is the new must. Truth be told, the communications paradigm has been shifting for quite some time now: away from outbound (where a brand broadcasts one-way to the whole world) toward inbound (where people seek the brand out and make contact themselves; as a bonus, word-of-mouth kicks in here). The principle is simple: your people should stay with you on your own platforms, and everyone else should want to join them.

How do you do that? Through thoughtful and serious work to create additional value. There’s a temptation to oversimplify this into advice like “make useful content and don’t make useless content” - but we all know that’s no longer enough. Every brand will find its own path. The universal principle here (and of course it sounds more like a toast): after interacting with a brand, the user’s life should be just a little better than it was before.

Value and trust that’s what matters now, and it will only matter more.

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The Public Relations and Communications Association (PRCA) decided to reconsider the definition of the term PR (Public Relations). The association’s members launched an internal discussion about what PR actually is and what it does in practice today. The old definition no longer reflects the current reality. Spoiler alert: the new version turned out to be more than adequate. But let’s take it step by step.

What was previously understood by PR?

For many years, the business understanding of PR has been reduced exclusively to media placements (media relations). This single tool has substituted the entirety of PR. Not long ago, I spoke with the founder of a performance-first advertising agency that wanted to introduce outsourced PR as a service for its clients. I tried in roundabout ways to find out what exactly he meant by PR, but every time we still ended up at media relations. And this is symptomatic.

In slightly more complex and slightly more advanced cases, the conversation turns to publicity in general, but almost always these activities are expected to deliver performance outcomes: KPIs in the form of the number of publications or mentions (debatable metrics, but that’s not what we’re discussing today).

If we generalize, for business, PR is about the ability to broadcast one-sidedly to an audience and create noise. PR typically doesn’t appear in business strategies.

Why was it necessary to update the definition of PR?

This decision was long overdue. Times have changed, the ways and tools of communication have changed, the audience has changed. The old formulations stopped reflecting reality.

PRCA cites the following reasons:

Their inconsistency with modern realities. As I mentioned above, PR was viewed primarily through the outdated lens of media work, as a tool for one-way broadcasting and manipulation. The pursuit of publicity at any cost, of course. All of this is a very narrow understanding that doesn’t reflect the breadth and depth of modern practice.

Recognition of the strategic role. PR professionals are no longer just executors. They act as strategic advisors who help leaders navigate complex situations (crises, criticism), manage risks, and build relationships with stakeholders. There arose a need to establish PR’s status as a management discipline at the board level, and not just “give me 10 laudatory publications.”

The environment has changed. The world has become more volatile and complex due to geopolitical uncertainty, political polarization (look at how fragmented and divided we are), technological disruptions, and disinformation. The new definition should reflect PR’s ability to help organizations survive in such conditions.

A paradigm shift from attention to trust: attention can be bought, but trust cannot. And PR is the primary tool for building that trust. Old approaches focused on “creating noise” and flooding the internet with content have been recognized as ineffective compared to the long-term accumulation of reputational capital. And this trend will only deepen. Judge for yourself: the world currently has an excess of literally everything. Recently, I tried to find a platform for brand management and was completely stumped: Google returned a dozen and a half solutions. What to choose? I have no idea. I closed it and decided to vibe-code my own :).

The shift to two-way dialogue. The old understanding of PR as “one-way broadcasting” to a passive audience is outdated. Now the emphasis has shifted to mutual collaboration, listening, and engaging the audience as an active participant in the process.

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How is PR defined now?

The updated definition finally shifts the emphasis from “public” to “relations.” It looks like this:

PR is a strategic management discipline that builds trust, strengthens reputation, and helps leaders better cope with crises and situations of uncertainty. It delivers measurable results such as stakeholder confidence, long-term value creation, and commercial growth. What is proposed to be measured is not reach, mentions, ER, and other performance metrics, but the quality and depth of relationships: sentiment, reputation, the quality of relationships between all parties and their development (at this point, adherents of performance-first logic should leave this post).

In the new expanded version, PR:

Increases brand value and shapes corporate culture that helps gain and maintain recognition in the eyes of society. What does this mean? Essentially, through PR activities, a business (or a person) proves to people that it has the right to operate and develop because its actions bring value and meet the expectations of society.

Becomes ethical. The foundation is built on ethical approaches and tools in order to build trusting relationships on which all metrics depend, as well as lifetime value for clients and shareholders. It would be strange to build relationships and trust on lies, wouldn’t it?

Acts as a strategic advisor, helping leadership reduce uncertainty and manage risks through working with data, forecasting, and crisis management.

Ensures two-way interaction that shapes perception, informs the decision-making process, and contributes to changes in behavior of both the company and the audience.

At its core, PR works to create strong and healthy relationships with people and groups (including within the company) on which the organization’s ability to function, grow, and succeed depends.

What does all of this mean for business in practice?

This paradigm shift has been brewing for a long time. Seasoned brand strategists have been talking for about four years now about the changing audience and its behavior. First, it has become very, very fragmented, living in its own echo chambers with its own heroes and villains, news and narratives. The algorithmic nature of platforms has led to the fact that even while being on the same platform, different groups of users may never cross paths. Making noise and becoming visible, as people used to love doing, is already harder, and often impossible. Second, no matter how much noise you generate, it’s unlikely to captivate anyone for more than an hour. Especially if the news hook is not interesting or important to anyone but yourselves (99% of corporate PR cases). What difference does it make how many publications and mentions you have if you’ll be forgotten in 15 minutes? Third, products or services are easy and inexpensive to replicate. Betting on a unique product in the era of Lovable and Claude Code is naive (even I, a person who got a D in math, not being a programmer, vibe-coded myself a handy tool for working with photos on macOS). Engineers and technologies (unless they are revolutionary) are no longer an advantage: there is no longer a need to translate from the language of engineers into plain human language. So what is the advantage then?

That very trust. When you have an unlimited choice of everything that is more or less the same, you will most likely choose not even from those you know, but from those you trust.

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Where to start with PR?

A veeeery obvious answer: with yourself. It would be worth starting by establishing connections within the company, increasing transparency, and explaining to employees what exactly they have gathered here for. Management paranoidly tries to hide everything (both the good and the bad), which in times of crisis only destabilizes the situation within the company, raising the level of anxiety (I’ll write a post later about how distrust leads to employee attrition, a decline in their productivity (I’m sick of this word) and engagement, this has already been calculated).

Only after establishing contact internally can you move forward to building relationships externally.

What do you think is Ireland's main tourist attraction? The Cliffs of Moher? Something to do with James Joyce? No. It's the Guinness Storehouse, a beer museum that attracts over 1.5 million visitors a year.

I visited the Guinness Storehouse last week and I think I've figured something out about great branding and brand narratives. And about how to build brands that literally get into the bones of the audience. I'll try to explain using the Guinness Storehouse as an example.

What is the Guinness Storehouse?

I’ll start with a brief description of the museum (and show a few photos). It's a seven-story building, with each floor revealing a different aspect of the beer-making process. The first floor is about where the ingredients come from, followed by fermentation, then packaging, ad campaigns, management, a guided tasting, and finally, you get your own pint in the Gravity Bar with a panoramic view of Dublin.

You might think, what's new here? All major brewers have museums with more or less the same content. The difference is that Guinness creates its own Universe and focuses directly on the experience of interacting with its brand.

For example, the museum is totally immersive, engaging every single one of your senses. You can touch real growing malt, see water flowing, smell the aromas of everything (different herbs, yeast, and lots more stuff I don't know about), see hops hanging from the ceiling, touch old barrels, imagine yourself inside a pint of beer, and taste a fresh one. Where it's possible to show something in its natural state, it's shown. If not, illustrative material is provided on huge screens. It all looks really cool!

As a result, you find yourself not in Dublin, not in Ireland, and not in a beer museum for an hour and a half or two hours. You are in the Guinness universe with its mythology, heroes, and rituals - it's an interesting story. And this is where we get to the topic of branding.

How Guinness Shifts the Paradigm from Place to Experience (Universe)

I've been on tours of many factories. As a rule, these tours focus on a specific place (a production facility, an office, a company store). It's as if we're given access to a specific place for a very short time, shown how things work there, and then released. In this case, we passively consume information and leave with new knowledge, without getting an immersive and/or emotional experience.

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With its museum, Guinness changes this paradigm. Its approach involves your full immersion in the brand's narrative: from the story of the lake in the Wicklow Mountains (where the water comes from) to meeting the heroes of this Universe (on each floor, there are large portraits of employees with brief information about them). These heroes have their own stories that are told to you: and now you admire the ingenuity of Arthur Guinness, who managed to lease the brewery for 9,000 years for 45 pounds a month (to this day), his obsession with good beer, his rituals, achievements, and his desire to leave a legacy.

What's it all for?

By creating its own narrative, Guinness, as a brand, isn't just telling you something between tastings - it's allowing you to live its story with your senses and become a part of it. This is a completely different level of emotional engagement and loyalty. The visitor doesn't just learn something; they live IT and gain an EXPERIENCE. And at that moment, the person stops being a passive consumer and begins to actively empathize with and become attached to the brand (what it takes to build such an experience will be in the next posts).

Creating one's own narrative looks very tempting for brands. And many companies are really good at it.

A couple of examples:

• Disney: This is probably the most famous example. Disney didn't just create amusement parks; it built universes. Visitors can immerse themselves in the worlds of Star Wars or Avatar. These worlds don't just sell rides; they sell the opportunity to live inside a favorite story. People are willing to spend thousands of dollars and hours in lines to be a part of this narrative (otherwise, they would just go to another park).

• Red Bull: The brand doesn't sell a drink; it sells a universe of extreme sports and adrenaline. Red Bull creates content, organizes events, and supports athletes who embody the brand's values. In this case, the drink is just a part of this world, the fuel. And it's often not even the main thing.

• LEGO House: This isn't just a store or a museum; it's the "Home of the Brick." LEGO created a space where people can not only look but also create. Here, visitors interact with the bricks and build their own worlds, which supports the brand's mission to inspire future builders.

How to Create Corporate Universes?

First, you need to understand that this is not a one-time advertising campaign and its goal is not to increase sales (an important point that many people refuse to believe). It's about building relationships with people. It's about a full-fledged effort, similar to the one that begins the Bible (though not everyone can create a universe in 6 days). You'll need to do more than just make up a story; you have to design a complete ecosystem and breathe life into it (to rest on the seventh day; I should stop with the biblical metaphors).

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What do you need to create such a universe?

1. The Big Idea. A truly big, truly important, truly an idea. Most companies try to substitute this idea with a regular advertising slogan, which may sound effective but doesn't resonate even with the company's own management (the tired "change the world," for example). A big idea must resonate with people's deep needs and be something the business itself is passionate about. For example, belonging (I will constantly return to the topic of deep needs in this newsletter).

   In the Guinness Storehouse example, the big idea is to leave a legacy. The brewing industry is about mass production, efficiency, technology, taste, and so on. Guinness, on the other hand, moves away from this and talks about something more important and eternal (this is also reflected in the brand's ad campaigns, which you'll notice if you study them). They have turned a purely technological process into magic that spans centuries.

2. Archetypes and characters. Every universe needs heroes. A brand needs to decide who's who in its story. Who is the customer? An explorer, a creator, or a fighter? What about the employees?

   Which archetype best suits your brand (I'll write more about archetypes in detail in future newsletters)?

   In the Guinness example, the museum visitor is a Hero (or a Seeker) who goes on a journey. At the end of this journey, they get a reward in the form of a pint of Guinness at the Gravity Bar (conquering the summit and all that). The figure of Arthur Guinness himself is the founder and Sage who shares his wisdom.

3. Mythology and history. Every universe needs its own story. It's a kind of corporate myth about how the brand came into being and what problem it's trying to solve. This story must be rich in detail and evoke an emotional response.

   The Guinness Storehouse example: instead of dry facts about the company, the museum tells a "Myth of Origin." Visitors learn about the almost eternal 9,000-year contract. This isn't just a fun fact; it's a narrative that speaks to foresight, stability, and legacy. This fact creates the feeling that Guinness is forever.

4. Rituals and symbols. A universe won't be alive if it doesn't have its own rituals and symbols.

   Guinness has several rituals. The first is the process of pouring the perfect pint. Unlike other beers, Guinness is poured in two stages (due to nitrogen). The process takes about a minute, which is quite a long time. Decades ago, Guinness even played on this in one of its ad campaigns with a slogan like "the best things come to those who wait" (or something like that). This ritual is so important that the museum even holds master classes on how to pour Guinness correctly.

   Another ritual is "Guinness Time": every day at 10 am, a special commission gathers at the brewery to taste each new batch of beer.

   When it comes to symbols, there's the Harp a symbol of Ireland and the Guinness brand. Its image is everywhere, and it instantly evokes associations with the brand. Black is another symbol that speaks of premium quality, legacy, and style.

5. Units of Culture. Units of culture are the artifacts of your world. In your universe, every product must have a meaning and a function, helping the customer solve problems or achieve goals.

   Beer is just such an artifact, symbolizing Irish heritage, friendship, and celebration. A pint of Guinness becomes the key that unlocks access to this world. A tour of the museum is also a unit of culture that sells not just entry, but an immersive experience.

   

A Plan for Creating a Brand Universe

• Step 1: Research and Discovery

  • Find your Big Idea: Study the "quirks," contradictions, and non-obvious trends in your industry and in culture as a whole. What seems illogical but is also appealing? What is truly important for you and your audience? (we'll talk about finding a big idea in future newsletters).

  • Study your audience as heroes: Figure out what drives your customers. What are their dreams, fears, and aspirations? What Big Idea are they already looking for?

• Step 2: Creating the Mythology

  • Write the "myth of origin": Create a story about how your brand came into being to solve a big problem. This can be a non-linear, emotional story.

  • Develop archetypes: Define what your brand is in this universe (for example, a wizard who gives magic) and who your customer is (for example, a hero who is looking for their calling).

  • Create a "universe guide": Describe what your world looks like, what places, symbols, and rituals it has. This will be the basis for all your future communications.

• Step 3: Implementation and Realization

  • Create artifacts: Your products and services should be the physical embodiment of your mythology. If you're creating a world of freedom, the product should also give freedom.

  • Communicate consistently: Use one narrative from your universe across all customer touchpoints - from advertising and packaging to service and promotional content.

  • Engage all of the audience's senses: As much as possible.

  • Involve the community: Allow customers to become part of your world and help build it. Create spaces (online and offline) where they can share their stories related to your brand.

By creating a Universe, you'll stop simply selling products and start building a deep and lasting connection with your audience.

If you do everything right, the buyer becomes not just a consumer, but a resident of this world, which increases their loyalty and willingness to stay with you longer.

See you soon!

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