FROM CULTURAL INFLUENCE TO COLLECTIVE ACTION
Portuguese for “anthill”.
Formigueiro researches, designs and tests strategies to mobilize fandoms and turn the relationship between artists and their fans into social impact.
A fandom is more than a group of an artist’s fans. These communities are self-organized, active and engaged, with the potential to drive impact just as powerfully as the artists they support.
01 / STARTING POINT
Where many see an audience, we see a community.
More than simply following artists, fans build bonds, shared languages, identities and networks. They share information, influence one another, organize and act collectively.
We want to give these communities the tools to strengthen their voices and drive social and environmental impact.
The community is already here. The question is how we can help it become a critical mass for change.
02 / WHAT'S MISSING
The capacity to mobilize already exists, what’s missing is the infrastructure.
Organizations need to mobilize, artists want to contribute, and audiences want to take part. But these three forces do not always act in a coordinated way.
Formigueiro aims to build a database to understand what drives people to mobilize, which causes move them, and how they are most likely to take action. The goal is to build the infrastructure needed to design campaigns with measurable impact.
03 / HOW IT WORKS
It all starts here:
01
UNDERSTAND THE ARTIST
Identity, values, trajectory, public positions, cultural context and capacity to mobilize.
02
UNDERSTAND THE AUDIENCE
Who makes up this community, how it behaves, what it believes, how it relates to the artist and what mobilizes it.
03
FIND THE CONNECTION
Bring together artist, audience, context and cause to identify where there is relevance, legitimacy and a real possibility for action.
04
DESIGN THE STRATEGY
Turn this intelligence into campaigns and experiences with specific objectives, audiences, messages and calls to action.
05
MEASURE AND LEARN
Understand who was reached, who participated, what changed and what we can learn for the next action.
04 / WHAT WE DO
We find where influence can become action.
ARTIST
×
PUBLIC
×
CAUSE
Formigueiro combines research, audience intelligence and impact strategy to identify where artists, audiences and causes can connect in ways that are relevant, credible and capable of driving action.
RESEARCH → CONNECTION → STRATEGY → MOBILIZATION → MEASUREMENT
When individuals recognize themselves as part of a community and find concrete ways to act together, scale becomes collective strength.
05 / WHY NOW
We have never had a greater ability to understand and bring people together.
Artists and creators bring communities together at a scale once almost exclusively reserved for large institutions.
These communities share attention, references, identity and trust, and can influence behavior, participation and action.
The next step is to understand how cultural influence can contribute to collective action responsibly and based on evidence.
06 / UNDER DEVELOPMENT
We are building the methodology before scaling the solution.
Formigueiro is currently in the research, methodology development and pilot design phase.
We are combining research on fandom, behavior, mobilization and impact with interviews, case analysis and practical experimentation to develop and test our model.
We are looking for partners who want to build this infrastructure with us.
Funders, researchers, organizations, artists and strategic partners interested in exploring new ways to turn cultural influence into participation and action.
07 / ABOUT
Culture mobilizes. Formigueiro wants to help move it into action.
Formigueiro is an organization dedicated to researching and developing strategies that connect culture, communities and social impact.
Our work begins with a simple premise: large audiences are not homogeneous masses.
They are communities made up of different people, who respond differently to causes, messages and forms of participation.
Understanding these differences is the first step toward mobilizing more effectively.
08 / WHO'S BUILDING IT
Founder & Strategist
Isabel Pessanha works at the intersection of culture, strategy, production and social impact.
Her career spans organizations and projects including NOSSAS, Amazônia de Pé, Greg News, Peri Productions, Apocalypse in the Tropics, and BaianaSystem, with experience ranging from mobilization and social impact to audiovisual production, entertainment and music.
Throughout this journey, she has coordinated projects, research, partnerships and initiatives involving artists, organizations, and national and international industry players, gaining different perspectives on how culture, communities and mobilization come together.
Formigueiro grew out of the convergence of these experiences and one question: how can culture’s capacity to mobilize be turned into smarter, more targeted and measurable impact strategies?
LET'S BUILD IT TOGETHER!
