Advertising’s movement to the connection era: a new paradigm for understanding connections among brands, people, content, and technology

This article introduces Connectism as a meta-theoretical paradigm for advertising research, developed to address communication complexity in digitally networked, algorithmically mediated environments. Connectism conceptualizes communication in the connection era as a relational, distributed, and emergent process of meaning-making and systemic persuasion, reframing advertising around connected influence. Under Connectism, advertising is defined as a ‘brand-activated communication system that connects people, content, and technology to generate influence as it emerges within connected environments’. The paradigm comprises five core assumptions – relational primacy, distributed cognition, embedded shared agency, emergent interpretation, and systemic persuasion – and is conceptualized through five integrative constructs: Connectibility, Connexity, Connectedness, Connectance, and Connexus. Together, these constructs provide a systemic framework for analyzing advertising within contemporary communicative ecologies. A discussion drawing on diverse theoretical traditions and a research agenda are offered for rethinking advertising in the connection era.