Wave 1 from 2005-2009 saw the inception of online communities as economic, technological and social factors enabled their emergence. Wave 2 from 2009-2016 was a period of growth where communities realized significant cost and time savings through bulk buying, lower recruitment costs and letting agencies handle more work. This improved quality through strategic and tactical approaches as well as longitudinal learning. Wave 3 from 2019 onwards involves communities evolving to focus on agility, immersion, and building insight ecosystems through asking, listening, observing and having conversational and observational insights at scale.

1. DIGITAL DARWINISM:
HOW ONLINE COMMUNITIES
CAN SURVIVE AND THRIVE THREE
WAVES OF CHANGE

2. WAVE 1
2005
INCEPTION
WAVE 2
2009-16
GROWTH
WAVE 3
2019
EVOLUTION

3. 3
economic
technological
social
2005

4. 4
2005
economic
technological
social

5. 5

6. 6
economic
technological
social
2009

7. 7
cost
time
quality
2009
-
2016

8. 8
SAVING TIME
• from 6 weeks to 10 days
• savings at all stages of
the process
• less time and hassle
2009
-
2016

9. 9
SAVING COST
• bulk buying
• lower recruitment,
incentives & travel
costs
• agency does the work
faster
= £100k – 1m pa
2009
-
2016

10. 10
IMPROVING QUALITY
• tactical & strategic
• ‘critical friends’
• agile
• longitudinal learning
• robust quant
2009
-
2016

11. 2019

12. QUALITY SPEED
PRICE
QUALITY SPEED
PRICE
AGILE IMMERSIVE
2019

13. 2019

14. 2019

15. THE FUTURE IS
INSIGHT ECOSYSTEMS

16. 2019 ASK

17. LISTEN2019

18. 2019 OBSERVE

19. AGILE
IMMERSIVE
ORGANIC
CONVERSATIONAL
OBSERVATIONAL
AT SCALE
DIGITALTHE FUTURE IS
INSIGHT ECOSYSTEMS