Community is the new currency.

In the future, businesses that are audience-first and built around community will be the most successful.

We’re already starting to see the shift.

Mr Beast 🎥 - the most followed person on YouTube, has an estimated valuation of his media empire currently at $1.5 billion.

Kylie Cosmetics 💄- one of Kylie Jenner's many brands brand generates an impressive $375 million in annual revenue.

Prime 🏆- founded by YouTubers KSI & Logan Paul, in year 1 cleared $250 million in retail sales and $110 million gross.

The internet has completely changed the playing field.

Gone are the days when the largest advertising spend guaranteed the biggest market share.

There are now billion-dollar brands being built with an audience-first approach. There’s no need for millions in ad spend, the customers are part of the community, and the community are the customers.

The Internet made it easier than ever to reach millions, but it didn't invent this model.

Walt Disney understood this approach to business better than anyone.

Disney understood the power of creating a connection with audiences before releasing a product.

At Disney, they call it a “Synergy Map”.

Sitting at the very centre of all products and brands Disney owns, is a content engine that produces some of the best storytelling, which has captured the hearts of billions.

Disney then leverages this audience, creating different ways to monetise the consumer’s attention.

They don’t just make a film and call it a day. Each one becomes an experience at Disneyland, merchandise, books, toys, comics, TV shows, and more, with every asset promoting the next.

Every brand has its own synergy map. There’s one thing every brand does which is at the centre of everything else.

In 1957, Walt Disney laid out this vision and at the heart of everything was and will always be incredible content.

In 1994 Jeff Bezos took this thinking to Amazon. What was once a digital book store has turned into the everything store, with Prime at the very heart of it all, retail, video streaming, music, groceries and more.

When done right, the result is multiple unique revenue streams all circulating around one central thing – and the shift more and more is heading towards this central thing being a community of devoted, hardcore fans, brought together by content.

An audience-first approach has always won. Walt Disney showed it previously and creators are showing it’s now possible on a scale never seen before.

The internet has created the ability for anyone in the world to build their own community, reaching millions at the click of a button.

The next Walt Disney won’t be found in Hollywood.

They will combine data, tech, and creativity to build a global media empire that puts community at its core…