The Keyword is Curation
Nod if any of the following is true for you.
1. Are you playing a Spotify playlist while reading this?
2. Have you been carefully curating your Instagram or X’s feed?
3. Are you subscribed to ‘Morning Brew,’ ‘the Internet of things, or the ‘Creative boom’?
Well, even if you didn’t nod, you are here for a reason.
The keyword is Curation.
Talk 2024, Curation is so mainstream. Hans-Ulrich Obrist, the London-based star curator, says, “The ‘cur’ in curating can obviously be freely associated with curiosity. I believe curiosity is why I am a curator. It is a desire to know and connect what we know.” I find that very fascinating and think, to a certain extent, we all are curators…Culture curators.
Derived from the Latin "curare," meaning "to care," the term "curator" originally referred to caretakers of a collection of art or artifacts, a custodian of objects, books, or documents primarily in museums and archives settings. The last few decades saw a shift in its meaning from being caretakers polishing artifacts to creative visionaries using context to shape socio-political and cultural narratives through exhibitions and art. And now, curation has panned out from realms of museums and art to almost everything- menus, playlists, experiences, storefronts, and data companies exploring curation-as-a-service. Curators have become the makers of meaning, shaping cultural and consumer narratives, influencing beyond influencers, and sifting through noise to offer synergy that appeals to different audiences.
The need for curation stems from our innate need to simplify complexity, convenience, and modern aspirations. Enter the curator economy – a paradigm shift in discovering, consuming, and making sense of the world around us. At its core, the curator economy recognizes the inherent value of curation – the art of sifting through the noise, identifying the gems, and presenting them in a cohesive and meaningful way. Michael Bhaskar, the author of ‘Curation: The power of selection in a world of excess’ in this Talk at Google refers to the need for curation in this world where the ‘problem of too much exists’. Too much content. Too many products. Too many choices. The truth of contemporary living is that data never sleeps. Imagine 328.77 million terabytes of data being created daily, and you are trying to find that 0.5 percent, which makes sense to your cerebral living. Phew right! Curation helps us navigate this choice complexity. Through contextualization and insightful framing of shared data, curators serve a vital function in guiding users through the overwhelming deluge of information, and the trust in them comes from our belief that the curators have spent time and effort honing this expertise.
While Curation is not new business but the concept’s growth trajectory has been quite fascinating. Let us see how the art of curation has constantly been evolving and getting implemented in the universe of brands.
1. Curation for unique experiences, niche curators, and passion economies:
Well, the modern age cures curiosity through curation. The insatiable curiosity fuels curators to explore varied realms—from artistic expression to scientific novelty, Innovation in tech to political (in)stability. And this gives us, the consumer, a plethora of experiences- authentic and unique in their being- from the novel concept of Typewalks that possess a unique opportunity to look at our cities through a typographic lens and decipher culture based on this curated experience to the bar that took classic cocktails off their menu, Bangalore based Soka bar, and introduced meticulously ‘curated and created libations’ that infuse nostalgia for the city’s bars of the past. In the immersive "Follow Your Nose" tour at Germany's Museum Ulm, scents are carefully curated and recreated to evoke the olfactory worlds depicted in Renaissance paintings, transporting audiences into the odorous scenes on canvas. Other offshoots of the curator economy are niche curators and passion economies. Individuals with niche interests and expertise leverage platforms like Substack to curate content and build communities around their specific passions, niche hobbies, specialized knowledge, or unique lifestyles. In fact, we are living it now- #booktok, #fandoms, and specialized LinkedIn groups are examples of this digital ecosystem.
2. Curation for personalization & customization to hyper-personalization:
Harnessing the opportunity in the growing ‘need for edited consumption’ in the culture of excesses, curatorial thinking has put varied brands and categories on consumer radar by delivering convenience to consumers' doorsteps. For instance, the rise of personalized subscription boxes: The German brand Outfittery, which curates personal style via apparel for you after a detailed quiz gauging your preference or Khilonewala, an innovative, award-winning approach that promotes screen-free activities by offering a rental service for branded toys, games, and books geared towards children aged 1 to 12 years old.
While personalization is nothing new, algorithms are being pushed, and AI is increasingly optimized to actively fuel curated ‘hyper-personalized products, services, and content’. Viome, the healthcare startup, revolutionizes nutrition through microbiome mapping at every stage of its consumer journey. By analyzing the trillions of microorganisms residing in your gut at a given point, Viome crafts individualized nutrition plans precisely tailored to your body's unique needs. For the orthogonal luxury category, curation is not just ‘à la mode’ but a must. Luxury brands are curating new ways of alluring their biggest spenders, the top 1 percent, and offering curated experiences such as exclusive boutiques to special dinners to high-touch concierge services to Brunello Cucinelli’s Casa Cucinelli, an invite-only shopping location forging intimate relationships with their shoppers.
3. Co-curation:
Curation, like creation, does not happen in silos. Co-curation opens the curatorial platform for outside perspectives via humans, AI, or the community. Airbnb curates its accommodation listings using a blend of human review and AI analysis. In a Research Paper on curation in tourism and hospitality, the author cites the example of Time Out magazine’s selection of the “coolest neighborhoods in the world” based on “uniqueness, timeliness, geographic diversity, and cultural brilliance”, combining expert curation and crowdsourcing. This approach harnesses the power of human expertise and community insights to pinpoint neighborhoods with strong tourism value in the future. By leveraging the power of community, intensified co-curation could very well foster deeper engagement for brands with their audiences.
Curation meets the fluidity of modern consumer identities by offering convenience and trust and fostering a sense of belonging. Brands that successfully position themselves as trusted curators will stand out in a crowded market and forge deeper connections with their audiences. The key is to find what lies at the heart of curation for you and your consumer groups- the synergy, the theme and then present the curated stories of your brand’s creative universe and, in a perfect world, make your consumer a part of it.
Written by Swati Baweja