Belonging in Britain: The power of community-led strategy

The Media Leader Interview

Sophia Durrani (MG OMD) and Ailsa Mackenzie (Global) answer questions on the latest edition of their Belonging in Britain research.

MG OMD and Global have published the latest edition of their Belonging in Britain research, examining how community membership shapes consumer behaviour and what it means for media planning and brand strategy.

The headline finding is that sports supporter groups have overtaken hobbies and interests to become Britain’s number one community type, while 86% of people within communities say they have been influenced by things they have seen or heard within them. The report argues that community-led thinking should sit alongside precision targeting, not replace it, offering planners a richer framework for understanding audiences beyond demographics.

The Media Leader spoke to Sophia Durrani, head of strategic planning at MG OMD, and Ailsa Mackenzie, commercial strategy director at Global, about what the findings mean for briefs, media owners and brand strategy. Read the full report at mgomd-belonginginbritain.com.

The report argues that community-led thinking should sit alongside precision targeting, not replace it. But for most agencies, the planning process is built around audience segments and buying parameters. What does a community-first brief actually look like in practice?

Sophia Durrani: There is an easy misconception to make in that community-first thinking means a new way of targeting. In some instances, that may be the case, but it’s much more about an extra layer of understanding. In practice, I think there are three ways to harness communities.

The first is an insight tool that uses communities to understand your audience. By exploring the communities they belong to, you can gauge the parts of their identity that matter to them, their values, who they trust, what influences them, what makes them tick. This gives us a richer understanding of the audience than demographics alone.

The second is as a strategic tool. Different community types play different roles. Some are better for discovery, some for behaviour change, some for attitude change. Understanding which communities best align to your objectives can shape who you target and, therefore, your planning and messaging.

The third is activation. Once you’ve identified a relevant community, the question becomes how you participate in a way that creates value. The strongest activations rarely feel like a brand campaign announcement but more like a brand contributing to something people already care about.

Think of sport as a useful example: most briefs ask “Who is watching?”, “Where are they watching?” But the most interesting question is often, “What role does this sporting moment play in their life and how can we enhance that?” The opportunity may lie in anticipation, rituals, conversation, or post-match analysis, not just in the broadcast itself.

Ailsa Mackenzie: All briefs include a target audience, but advertisers and agencies can also explore and include which communities they feel they can authentically connect with based on their category, brand, product or campaign.

As I was travelling around London today, I saw a great outdoor ad on the Piccadilly line platform at Kings Cross station for Loop earplugs, with the headline “Screaming Encouraged”, which works for multiple communities who could be travelling through, from football fans to Harry Styles fans.

Sports supporter groups are now Britain’s number one community type, overtaking hobbies and interests for the first time. What do you think drove that shift?

SD: We’ve had a number of major sporting moments in recent years, from success in women’s sport to significant performances in other team and individual sports. Those moments create shared experiences that people want to be part of. Participation creates social currency, connection, and more.

Secondly, media diversification means sport has become much more participatory. Fans don’t simply watch anymore; they follow creators, listen to podcasts, join group chats, post reactions and debate decisions in real time. The community experience isn’t a passive viewing; it extends far beyond the match itself.

Sport offers people something many are actively looking for at the moment: a reason to feel hopeful. National conversation is often dominated by economic pressure, geopolitical uncertainty and anxiety about the future. Sport provides shared moments of joy, escapism, and collective pride that people can participate in together. Communities often grow around things that make life better, not just things that occupy time.

AM: In addition to sports supporter groups, the interplay between culture and community is evident in the popularity of Music and Artist Fandoms, which were new for this round of research and ranked number three. The cultural context to the research included Oasis embarking on its first live tour in 16 years, creating positive news stories and flooding social media with videos of joyous sing-alongs.

We helped fuel fans’ passion around this cultural moment by creating Radio X Oasis, a pop-up Radio X station dedicated entirely to Oasis, built around the band’s reunion and tour. It played Oasis music 24/7 and also included B-sides, archive interviews, live recordings, and fan-picked set lists.

The finding that 86% of people in communities have been influenced by things they’ve seen or heard is striking. What does the data tell us about what that influence actually leads to in terms of behaviour?

SD: The interesting thing about communities is that influence rarely stays confined to what brought people together in the first place. Parents don’t just talk about children. Gaming communities don’t just discuss games. People share recommendations, opinions, experiences, advice and behaviours.

We tested a range of actions, from discussing and recommending brands through to brand engagement, product creation, and purchase behaviours. What people are prepared to do varies by community type and category but, regardless, communities are places where people validate decisions. They add credibility to information because it comes from people and environments that are already trusted.

The implication for marketers is that reach and influence aren’t the same thing. A national broadcaster may have a larger audience than a supporter podcast, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it has greater influence within that community. The most influential voices are often organisers, moderators, volunteers, creators and community leaders because they’ve earned trust over time.

AM: This research provides robust evidence of the powerful influence of recommendations from other members of your communities. The data is based on real action from real people, and it is incredibly compelling to see the range of influence across different types of communities and behaviours.

There were some clear themes, in which certain types of action were more commonly influenced by certain types of groups. For example, making a new life choice or changing a behaviour was more commonly influenced by groups focused on personal development, such as fitness, health, and wellbeing, as well as those focused on shared life experience. Whereas visiting a new place was more likely to have been driven by information in travel and adventure groups, which makes intuitive sense given the nature of the group, followed by sports teams, sports supporters and music and artist fandoms.

Ultimately, all types of communities have the potential to influence, so the important thing is to identify the communities most relevant to your brand or campaign.

Many of the communities described here- the fandoms, the fitness groups, the local neighbourhoods- are hard to buy programmatically at scale. How should media owners package and evidence community inventory differently?

SD: Communities that relate to sensitive and protected characteristics like religion, heritage and health conditions shouldn’t be targeted in this way at all. These communities need to be engaged with thoughtfully and responsibly. For all these community types, context becomes especially important.

The opportunity for media owners is to help planners understand the environments, interests, moments and cultural spaces where communities gather, and the role their offerings and environments play within them.

AM: Outdoor is a great way to meet these communities where they are, without feeling intrusive or unnatural. The application of highly respected, privacy-compliant industry data sources such as TGI, census data, and broader insights allows planners to identify how individual communities interact with different media types and, crucially, where they can access them at scale and in their everyday activities without the need for intrusive tracking capabilities.

For example, you could display a billboard next to a run club meetup location when they’re likely to be there, and then reach those interested in running again on their way home.

Identity is described as increasingly curated and conscious. Are there risks for brands that try to insert themselves into communities, and what separates the ones that get it right?

SD: Brands tend to make one of two mistakes: assuming they need to create a community, or assuming they simply need to appear alongside one to cut through.

Most communities already exist, places where belonging, trust, and relationships are already established. And actually the real opportunity is to add value to those spaces rather than trying to intercept or own them.

So, the brands that succeed add value by helping people express something about themselves, improving experiences, enabling participation, supporting creators, funding things that matter, or solving genuine problems.

The brands that get it wrong tend to prioritise their own objectives over the community’s needs. Brands should behave like a guest, not the host.

AM: My advice to any advertiser is to start by researching the community to understand why it exists and what role they can authentically play. Getting it right doesn’t have to involve a long-term commitment; sometimes simply creating an ad that nods to a shared truth is enough to cut through and get talked about.

For example, Paddy Power’s “A Shirt’s Not Just for Christmas, It’s for Life” campaign included bespoke outdoor creative outside Premier League stadiums which took playful digs at football’s biggest clubs, warning fans of the perils of Christmas shirt gifting. Such as Tottenham: “Trophies Not Included”, reflecting the team’s silverware struggles. Humour is an effective way for a brand to signal it understands a specific community.

If a mid-sized advertiser with a performance-focused CFO reads this report, what is the single most actionable change they should make to their next brief?

SD: I’d add one question to every brief: “What communities are most relevant to the people we’re trying to reach?”

Precision can help us reach your audiences better than ever before; however, community insight will help you understand how best to connect and resonate with them. It can shape your creative, your partnerships and the contexts you optimise towards. Communities tell us what people care about, what influences them, who they trust, what they aspire to and what brings them together.

Without this understanding to enrich our precision approaches, media targeting risks becoming increasingly commoditised, and every brand in the category will chase the same audiences in the same places.

AM: I would also encourage advertisers to put the right measurement framework in place. This research has demonstrated the powerful influence of communities in driving action, but the best media ecosystem for engaging a community doesn’t always have a direct response feedback loop, so establishing the right measurement is key to proving effectiveness.