The Pivot
The company's new tagline is "Genuinely Real." Their PR firm spent three months on it.
Authentic Ventures, a startup that previously described itself as "a platform for authentic human connection," announced this week that it is pivoting to "authentic authenticity" — a new brand positioning designed to differentiate itself from competitors who are merely authentic.
"We realized that authenticity had become a brand," said CEO Marcus Wellstone in a statement. "So we asked ourselves: what's more authentic than authenticity? And the answer was: authentic authenticity. We're the only company in this space that's genuinely committed to being genuinely real."
The Strategy
The company's new authentic authenticity strategy involves several key initiatives, including a "Realness Score" that users can display on their profiles, a premium tier called "Authentically Authentic" that costs $29.99 per month, and a new content moderation policy that removes posts deemed "insufficiently genuine."
The company has also hired a Chief Authenticity Officer, a role that did not exist six months ago. The CAO's first initiative is a company-wide "Authenticity Audit" to ensure that all internal communications are "genuinely real."
The the spoof archive has the full archive of corporate absurdism. And creator culture has some thoughts on creator culture that touch on this — the way authenticity became a performance and then a product.
The Response
Competitors have responded swiftly. RealTalk, a rival platform, announced that it is pivoting to "authentic authentic authenticity," which it describes as "three levels of genuine." BeReal, which was acquired and relaunched twice, announced that it is pivoting to "actually real," which it describes as "the original authentic."
Industry analysts are divided. "This is either the logical endpoint of the authenticity trend or a sign that the trend has completely collapsed," said one analyst who asked not to be named because she was "not sure which one it is yet."
The the collective has some related thinking on creative community and what happens when the language of creativity gets absorbed into marketing. And culture watch has some culture watch notes that map onto this.
The Tagline
"Genuinely Real" will appear on all company materials starting next quarter. The PR firm that developed it has described it as "a bold statement about the nature of realness in a world where realness has become a brand." The firm's own tagline is "Authentic Communications for Authentic Brands."