Lia Haberman is the author of the popular ICYMI newsletter sharing weekly platform updates and social content trends. She’s been tapped for social media insights by brands such as Google, Robert Half, and AT&T; led social branding and creator workshops for Disney's Creator Lab, Macy's Style Crew and YouTubers Colin and Samir’s Creator Startup, and teaches social media and influencer marketing at UCLA Extension. When she's not working, she's scrolling TikTok and Instagram looking for new places to eat in Los Angeles.
Gen Z and Gen Alpha don’t just consume culture — they remix and redefine it. And they expect brands to build experiences that invite online audiences to participate in every step of the way. These generations grew up immersed in social platforms and digital creation tools. From an early age, they’ve been curating and co-creating content — not waiting for permission to make something their own.
That’s why platforms like Instagram (Remix), TikTok (Duet), and YouTube (Remix) rolled out official collaboration features. These tools formalize what teens have already been doing for years.
But participation doesn’t begin and end with platform features. Today, audiences want content they can react to, remix, and rebuild from brands who actively welcome this level of involvement.
The mindset shift is clear: Social is no longer a passive, one-way broadcast. It’s a collaborative experience. Whether it’s a social scavenger hunt, an interactive poll, or an IRL pop-up, brands must design with participation in mind — and be prepared for fans to influence the outcome.
“When fans engage online, they want to drive the experience, not be driven through the experience,” Deloitte Managing Director, Social & Influencer, Kenny Gold told me.
This mindset expands far beyond social teams, too. Forty-two percent of fans polled by Deloittewant to be involved in product or content development with the brands they love — not just respond to a finished release.
Overview
How can brands enter the co-creation era?
Here are four ways to design with participation at the center — and how Adobe Express can help bring it to life.
1. Use prompt-driven participation
Audience engagement can be as simple as a question in the captions or as advanced as a dynamic interactive digital feature.
We’ve seen brands like McDonalds, BMW, and Peanuts weave participation directly into creative assets — swipe to reveal answers, tap and hold to unlock a prompt, or screenshot your pick.
At CES, Samsung Ads’ Courtney Howell shared how interactive storytelling was powering the company’s partnership with the Jonas Brothers. “A new interactivity tool called Fan Mode gives fans the opportunity to vote during the live stream on what song they want to hear next,” she said. “We’re thinking of different ways to engage the consumer while they're watching.”
Fans aren’t passive viewers — they're active collaborators.
Quick tips: Create tap-and-reveal or screenshot-driven prompts quickly in Adobe Express using:
- Export in vertical formats to share across TikTok, Reels, or Shorts.
Don’t just show up in the comments — use those conversations as part of the creative brief to re-incorporate feedback, questions, and comments directly into the content itself.
Platforms like Instagram and TikTok now let creators reply to a comment in video form. But brands are going further by turning comment threads into narrative design elements.
Saie used years of “please make this product” comments as the hero of a launch announcement, turning fan demand into a full campaign reveal.
And Popflex Active founder Cassie Ho regularly incorporates community comments, questions, and complaints into the design of her social posts — and talks about how the feedback sparked product changes.
Involving your audience isn’t only good marketing — it builds loyalty and trust.
Quick tips: Turn comments into scroll-stopping visuals in Adobe Express using:
- Animations to highlight key comments
- Mixed-media templates to combine screenshots + stylized text
3. Invite audiences to remix and reimagine your content
Fans want to play in your world, so give them the building blocks.
Brands like Disney and Lionsgate are using fan edits, fan fiction, and Wiki site updates to inform everything from social content to real business decisions. Lionsgate leaned into Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping fan edits so directly that the studio reached out to Elle Fanning after fans repeatedly cast her online.
“Everything they’ve put out shows a deep understanding of the fans,” Lore founder and fandom expert Zehra Naqvi said. “When you show that deep knowledge, it can transcend the need to do traditional marketing.”
Listening is no longer optional — it’s a strategic advantage.
Quick tips: Make your content intentionally remixable:
- Share brand kits for superfans (stickers, logos, color palettes)
4. Use collages to reflect your audience — or let them build their own
Collages capture remix culture at its most visual — layered, chaotic and highly expressive.
On Pinterest, collages are its most engaging format. In fact, Gen Z saves and creates collagesat dramatically higher rates than other users. The rise makes sense: Collages let audiences curate their identity, passions, and aesthetic — and remix a brand’s world into their own.
For brands, collages serve a dual purpose:
- Represent your audience by incorporating diverse fan imagery, cultural touchpoints, or community submissions.
- Empower your audience by giving them assets — textures, stickers, images — they can assemble into something unique.
When audiences are invited to make something themselves, connection deepens.
Quick tips: Make collage creation turnkey:
- Apply Photoshop Filters for cohesive visual style across source photos
- Release your own collage starter pack as a Project
Why designing for co-creation isn't just a trend
So, what does this all mean? Designing for co-creation isn’t a trend — it’s a shift in how brands relate to their audiences.
A few considerations for your next marketing campaign:
- Gen Z and Gen Alpha expect to co-create, not just consume content.
- Make content that sparks participation — prompting comments, remixes, reactions, collages.
- Build shareable assets that invite personalization in public feeds and private group chats.
- Lean into layered, customizable design — and let Adobe Express make it easy to scale.
