By Marcelo Aquilino, Chief Media & Data Officer (CMDO) of GINGA

For a long time, brands relied on buying impact to create and measure relevance. Reach, views, and impressions… For years they believed these metrics generated attention. For a long time, they confused brand recall with brand value. But the market has begun to understand that impact doesn't guarantee engagement, and that no metric replaces the power of a sense of belonging. Buying by audience may be the beginning, but community is what endures.

This shift isn't just rhetoric. A mere 5% increase in customer retention can boost profitability by up to 95%, depending on the sector, according to studies by Bain & Company. At the same time, the Sprout Social Index shows that 91% of consumers see social media as spaces for connection, and 78% expect brands to foster this connection. Genuine connection generates returns: 57% spend more with these brands, and 76% choose them over the competition. Investment follows the perception that sustainable relevance depends on continuous relationships, not peaks in visibility.

The irony is that this discourse has become consensus. Today, every brand manager talks about communities, although few brands actually change their practices to nurture them consistently. When a topic becomes commonplace, the differentiator shifts from theory to execution. And that's where this debate gets interesting. Building community isn't about envisioning a romantic ideal of people spontaneously connected to a brand. That's storytelling. In reality, community requires method, routine, and a long-term vision far removed from one-off campaigns. The first step is understanding that connection doesn't emerge from isolated numbers, but from continuous signals. Data shows behaviors; culture explains the causes. Brands that combine analytical intelligence with cultural sensitivity can read nuances that don't appear on dashboards: the shared codes, the micro-tensions, the repertoires that bring people closer to certain topics and distance them from others. A community doesn't form because the brand wants it to, but because it finds a space that makes sense to it. And this space only emerges when you understand who is on the other side, what motivates these groups, and what kind of relationship they are willing to cultivate. Another common misconception is treating community as something the brand “owns.” Community is not property, it’s an ecosystem. It continues to exist even without the brand’s presence, and that’s precisely why it’s so valuable. Instead of trying to control it, brands need to learn to participate in it. This means abandoning the unilateral and self-centered logic of traditional communication and opening space for real exchanges, continuous conversations, and rituals that create familiarity.

In this sense, talking about community without talking about practice is illusory. Having a platform or investing in contemporary language isn't enough. Without presence, consistency, relational experience, and respect for people's time, nothing holds up. Building community is more like cultivating than planting. It's less about shining occasionally and more about being there every day. The great challenge, and also the great differentiator, lies in treating consumers not as a target audience, but as participants in a shared space. When this happens, something changes: the brand ceases to be merely a message transmitter and becomes part of a broader cultural system. And when a community recognizes real value, it becomes an organic multiplier, a co-producer of meaning, and a spontaneous spokesperson. Not because it was encouraged to do so, but because it makes sense to it.

Ultimately, the logic is simple. Audience is a number; community is a bond. An audience watches passively; a community participates. An audience comes and goes; a community remains. And in a world of fragmented attention, presence is what defines relevance. Brands that understand this difference stop chasing the next peak in reach and start building something much more lasting: relationships that have memory, affection, and reciprocity. Because those who belong, stay. And the brands that manage to generate belonging, those are the ones that transcend time.