GoKawiilOpinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Key Takeaways Treat culture (media, music, storytelling, events) as infrastructure, not just a line item. Investing in cultural resonance builds trust and lowers future brand awareness costs.
Instead of chasing short-term “home run” campaigns, focus on “perennial sellers” — consistent cultural assets and experiences that compound brand relevance over time.
Cultural investments should be evaluated with data, due diligence and risk management, mixing safer bets and bold creative bets — similar to balancing investments in a financial portfolio.
Music and media have been a lifelong passion of mine. Movies, records, the way a great story can shift how people see the world. That’s always been the thing that gets me out of bed. For years, that passion and my work in financial services existed in parallel. Then, during a major rebranding at Siebert Financial, the two collided.
We’d been in business for nearly 60 years at that point. Loyal client base, institutional credibility and the kind of discipline you’d expect from a publicly traded firm. But we also recognized that our industry has a tendency to stay still. People keep doing things the same way because it makes them money, and they don’t always see the paradigm shifting underneath them.
Particularly post-Covid, when audiences started engaging with content and culture at a completely different pace, we saw a huge opportunity. Moving our headquarters to Miami sharpened our focus: There were entire segments of people (across cities and generations) that we could reach with the right cultural and media investment.
So we made a decision: We stopped treating culture as a line item and started treating it as infrastructure.
Cultural match is everything
Gebbia Media exists because of a single conviction: People resonate with services and companies only if a genuine cultural match exists.
... continue reading