The ‘Community’ Industrial Complex: What’s Lost When Brands Commodify Connection
📌 The Point:
When scale is the goal, genuine connection may be the cost. Growth-minded memberships, festivals, and events all promise “community,” but can they actually deliver?
“Here’s what we heard loud and clear: ‘We love ESSENCE Festival, and we want it to be better.’” That line came from an Instagram post from ESSENCE following a wave of backlash over the 2025 Essence Festival of Culture. Disappointed attendees cited everything from production flaws to corporate partnerships that felt misaligned with the community it claimed to center.
Meanwhile, The Gathering Spot, a private, members-only network for Black professionals, secured $30 million in funding to expand its footprint and services, including The Retreat, a luxe new space in Atlanta featuring poolside cabanas, skyline views, and curated networking experiences.
Both entities proudly fly the banner of “community,” but the contrast between them—and the backlash one received versus the funding the other attracted—raises a fundamental question:
Can community actually be bought, sold, or scaled? And if not, what exactly are brands selling when they package it as part of the experience?
The Promise of Community
We’re in a moment where “community” has become a central pillar of brand storytelling. Whether you’re attending a music festival, joining a private members’ club, or visiting an “immersive experience,” chances are the word shows up somewhere in the copy.
Ryan Wilson, co-founder of The Gathering Spot, said it best: “People connect or want to connect for different reasons.” And that’s true. The club has grown from 500 to 12,000 members across multiple cities, proving that the appetite for curated spaces that blend luxury and identity-driven connection is very real. Its success shows that people are still hungry to gather, especially when they feel seen in the space.
But here’s the rub: more often than not, what’s being marketed as “community” is actually a consumer environment in disguise. A vibe. A brand. A content opportunity.
The Problem with Performative Belonging
The flaw in trying to sell community as a product is simple: real community isn’t about exclusive access and amenities. It’s about mutual commitment. You can’t manufacture the trust, reliability, and sense of belonging that characterize a community with a photo booth or a rooftop DJ set. It’s not about who's on the guest list or the sponsor lineup, either. At its crux, community is about how people show up for each other, and whether they’re willing to stay.
And yet, many “community-centered” brands continue to design experiences that prioritize performance over participation.
You know the type: branded activations with lines for the perfect photo op, conversations you can barely hear in giant warehouse venues, and panel discussions that feel more like press tours than moments of genuine exchange. In these spaces, showing up becomes a FOMO response rather than an act of being in relationship with others.
When the goal is virality, community is the product. But buzz doesn’t build bonds and being featured in the recap carousel doesn’t mean you felt seen in the room. That kind of attention might boost impressions, but it rarely fosters investment. And what’s community without investment?
source: The Observer
The Cost of Growth
Events like the Essence Festival have long positioned themselves as sacred sites of Black joy, cultural pride, and collective celebration. But when production flaws and brand alignments start to overshadow the intention of the gathering, even the most loyal audiences begin to question who the experience is really for. Essence’s response acknowledged this tension: “We recognize that business decisions and shifts in policy don’t always reflect our community’s values.”
Therein lies the challenge. If your business model depends on massive attendance, major sponsors, and steady content output, is it even possible to maintain the intimacy and accountability that true community requires?
You can’t chase scale and still expect soul. At least not without designing intentionally for both.
Toward a New Design for Gathering
If brands genuinely want to foster community and not just rent its language, they’ll have to get clearer about what they’re offering and what they’re asking of their audiences. That’ll require:
Intentional environments that prioritize conversation over content capture
Smaller, more intimate formats that allow real dialogue and relationship
Shared agreements between hosts and participants that go beyond the transaction of the ticket sale
Experiences designed for offline presence
The truth is, community can’t be bought, but it can be co-created. And that requires shifting the focus from consumption to commitment.
So here’s my call to brands, event organizers, and membership communities alike:
If you’re going to talk about community, design for it. Not just for your marketing deck, your recap video, or your bottom line. Design experiences for human exchange and develop campaigns that inspire honest interaction. Otherwise, you’re herding a group of consumers into a feeding ground for commerce and mass advertising. And if that’s the case, just say that. Or is that a little too authentic?
Sources:
“The Gathering Spot CEO Ryan Wilson Believes There Will Be A Shift In Favor Of Upholding DEI And Says 'The Math Requires It'“(AFROTECH)
“The Gathering Spot Bounces Back, Securing $30M To Date With Investors Like Charles Barkley, Will Packer, Big Sean, And More” (MSN)
“Richelieu Dennis, Essence respond to criticism surrounding 2025 Essence Festival of Culture” (TheGrio)
Briaan L. Barron is a media and cultural studies writer, brand architect, and CEO of Heye Frequency, a creator-led marketing agency. Based in Seattle, she has led marketing and development efforts at some of the region’s most impactful arts and cultural institutions. A graduate of Sarah Lawrence College and Boston University’s Graduate School of Communication, Briaan’s work centers on liberating overlooked voices from personal and systemic barriers to autonomy and authenticity.
