Netnography, Reddit, and Why Human Conversations Matter
During my doctoral studies, I learned what netnography is. And I was way too excited to realize that what basically feels like doom scrolling has an actual research term attached to it (not technically what netnography is, but still).
Netnography is essentially the study of online communities, conversations, behaviors, and digital culture. Researchers observe how people naturally interact online to better understand attitudes, emotions, opinions, routines, identity, and consumer behavior in digital spaces.
In marketing, we usually call this social listening. Brands monitor Reddit threads, TikTok comments, reviews, forums, and other online conversations because people tend to speak more openly there than in traditional research settings. Some of the most honest consumer insights happen in spaces where people don’t feel like they’re being formally studied at all.
And I think that’s exactly why Dove’s recent Reddit campaign worked so well. The brand invited Reddit users to publicly review its Intensive Repair Hair Mask, committed to publishing the first 50 reviews unedited, and then turned those reviews into the campaign itself, including the negative ones.
For years, brands tried to make marketing feel as polished, controlled, and optimized as possible. Perfect visuals, perfect copy, perfect positioning. But online behavior is not perfect. People increasingly look for spaces that feel human, unscripted, and emotionally believable. That’s a huge reason platforms like Reddit have become so influential in beauty, wellness, and shopping behavior overall. And now, that influence extends beyond consumers.
A recent Peec AI report titled Top Domains Cited by AI Search: Analysis Based on 30M Sources found that Reddit is now one of the most-cited domains across ChatGPT, Google AI Mode, Gemini, Perplexity, and AI Overviews.
That changes the role of consumer conversation entirely. Reddit is no longer just a place where people casually discuss products. It’s increasingly becoming part of the information ecosystem that both consumers and AI systems learn from.
And I think brands are starting to recognize that relatability is becoming incredibly valuable again online. People trust human language more. They trust imperfections more. They trust opinions that feel lived-in, specific, emotional, and real. In a digital environment filled with polished content, optimized captions, AI-generated copy, and recurring trends, relatability is standing out more. Not because people suddenly stopped caring about aesthetics or branding, but because people want to feel like there’s an actual person behind what they’re consuming.
What made Dove’s campaign smart is that they didn’t just talk about trust. They placed the brand directly inside an environment people already trust for honest product opinions. Because consumers increasingly don’t just discover products through ads. They discover them through conversations, comment sections, screenshots, recommendation threads, TikTok discussions, and Reddit searches. The internet spent years becoming more polished; now it feels like it’s moving back toward proof of humanity.
Dania Khalife
