#WhatTheInternetWants: Identifying "generatives"

Winning in marketing today means playing according to the rules and implications of the technology that has transformed the world. 

In his early work, the great Internet guru Kevin Kelly identified a series of values or scarcities that rise in importance as the Internet creates new parameters and plentitudes. He calls these value drivers “generatives,” which he unpacked in 2008 thusly:

“A generative  value is a quality or attribute that must be generated, grown, cultivated, nurtured. A generative thing can not be copied, cloned, faked, replicated, counterfeited, or reproduced.”

Kelly’s thinking and our collective understanding of the Internet (its nature, trajectory, implications, etc.) have evolved since, but most of these insights and their broader implications are still relevant.

The Internet is a certain way, wants certain things and is moving in a certain direction. Let’s call these the Internet’s primary features.

Given the Internet’s awesomeness, these features have incredible impact on our world. In fact, their impacts are so substantial that they create secondary effects – many of which Kelly identifies as “generatives.”

There are many generatives, which I’m translating as “broad value sources,” in the Age of the Internet. Kelly identified eight or so, some of which I’ll address going forward.

In addition, there are other values sources that Kelly didn’t initially identify. Some he outlined in subsequent works. Some were perceived by other thinkers. And some are relatively timeless; they had worth before the Internet and continue to be desirable in our new landscape. “Beauty” is such an example.

I make these points for three reasons:

1.   Full disclosure & attribution: Again, this is foundational thinking that’s not my own. I’m merely an interpreter, which not coincidentally is another of Kelly’s generatives.

2.   Hierarchies matter because they help relate the size of the prize. Bigger, core energies put more wind in your sails; smaller ones like generatives are still mighty, but less so.

3.   Applying hierarchy to #WhatTheInternetWants suggests how we can best prioritize – or often, where we should begin. Because the truth is that in the Age of the Internet and hyper-competition, marketing must harness every bit of current it can.

A hybrid, multi-disciplinary creative/brand strategist with skills developed across the entire marketing ecosystem, Todd Lowe does everything from brand, connections, campaign and content strategy to communications/content ideas and marketing innovation.

As he decodes the marketing lessons from #WhatTheInternetWants, offline he unpacks the underlying strategic implications and applies them to building solutions on behalf of brands, agencies and consultancies.

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