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The Pulse on Facebook (aka Network Statistics)Posted December 23rd

I’m just as much as a Facebook addict as the next person.

Well today (December 23rd, 2005), when I went to check up on my friends on Facebook, I noticed a new feature on Facebook called “The Pulse”. The Pulse simply shows the latest trends on your campus and even compares them to other campuses or networks. They show the most popular Music, Movies, Books, Clubs, Hometowns, etc. of a college campus or of the entire Facebook network. As someone interested in marketing and advertising, these lists and statistics were amazingly fascinating. For example, 9.2% more UCLA students listed To Kill a Mockingbird than The Bible. The top 3 television shows of college students are 1. Family Guy, 2. The OC, and 3. Friends. The top 3 music acts are 1. DMB, 2. Coldplay, 3. Jack Johnson. Sometime the data/trends are hilarious, sometimes it is dull and predictable, but most of the all it’s interesting. If you would like to know a college or areas top trends (and you don’t have access to Facebook), just shoot me an email and I’d be happy to share the data with you. ###UPDATE### If you are on Facebook, you can find the Pulse on any network page: For Example, Los Angeles Stats: http://www.facebook.com/networks/stats.php?nk=67108865 ############ Tagged as Marketing | No Comments » | Continue linkarrow

Can the Record Labels Last Another 5 Years?Posted October 25th

My favorite bands are only on MySpace, but aren’t signed to a record label. These bands have sold out shows on Sunset Blvd and all throughout Western America, but they don’t have a manager. These shows are full of people that love the music, but would never buy the record.

These bands make their money off of concert sales, and that’s it. Period. Nothing more, nothing less. I don’t know if this is the direction that music is going to take concerning the economics of the business, but even the smallest bands and music acts now know how to capitalize on the internet. They are killing the radio – slowly. They are killing record labels – slowly. They are actually making money and surviving on their own. ‘Clap Your Hands and Say Yeah’, one of my favorite bands of the year, produced and sold their own record through their website. Thanks to a fantastic album, brilliant reviews, and a great internet presence, they have already managed to sell 20,000 copies of their album, allowing them pull in around $200,000 without any record company or distributor. For bigger bands like Korn, deals with record labels are focusing more with concerts then albums. This is great for bands, because it motivates the people at the record labels to put their heart and soul in to the band and leads to more artistic creativity. Furthermore, my favorite outcome of the internet’s affect on the music industry is the quality. The quality is becoming fantastic and bands are starting to realize with no record label, they can have full artistic creativity and rely on their own passions. Thus they can use the internet to connect to the most important market in the music industry - the youth, and turn them in to fans and make profits through concerts ... Tagged as Marketing, Trends, Business | No Comments » | Continue linkarrow

Of Course, Word of MouthPosted October 4th

I’ve just recently discovered the WOMMA’s Word of Mouth blog, which I must say is amazing – so check it out. The advice on the WOMMA blog holds up to exactly what I’ve been reiterating on here. The youth, just like the general population but more extreme, are waiting for great things (products, services, sales, promotions, etc.) to talk about with their peers. When you present them with these great, unique, or amazing things, they will talk up a storm. With the internet, youth dialogue with their peers is accelerated extremely quickly. For example, in one year both MySpace and Facebook were able to add millions of youth accounts with zero advertising dollars spent, no promotions, and no annoying pop-ups. This is why above all, companies need to stop spending huge sums of money on advertising on the youth generation and funnel that money in to making their product better in all aspects. It doesn’t mean cutting advertising entirely; it is the brand’s job to find a balance between effective affordable advertising and an increase of product research and development Mentioned on the WOMMA Word of Mouth blog was a great example of how an organization trying to attract the youth market could apply this technique. They used the Armed Forces as an case in point to show the ridiculous amount of money they spend on marketing and advertising to enlist new recruits. The Armed Forces could simply slash that budget in half and put the money in to higher enlistment fees which I know for sure would entice more youth to sign-up. Give us value, give us something we can fill was the right move; not canned messages replayed over and over again that don’t resonate with us - which I believe the Armed Forces has been doing and will ... Tagged as Marketing | No Comments » | Continue linkarrow

It’s a Viral Thing…Posted August 9th

I’ll admit it; I’m in love with the concept of internet viral advertising. LovemarksInternet viral advertising is the quick and easy way of creating word of mouth by hiding your brand or product inside a medium (such as movie, image sound) which is so crazy, interesting, funny, scary, etc. that people would pass it along to their friends. Two prime examples of this concept would be Burger King’s Subservient Chicken and Ford’s Ka commercial. In the last year though, I’m disappointed to see how mainstream and saturated the entire thing has gotten. Furthermore, I’m more upset about the fact that companies using viral marketing treat it more like traditional advertising instead of something that catches our attention. For it to work now, especially if you want the youth to catch on, the advertisement for the product has to be subtle, but explosive. I know that sounds hypocritical, but stay with me here. The first key to the advertisement needs to be the word of mouth, but to achieve the word of mouth the advertisement needs to be so damn crazy young people have to share it with their friends. Your brand has to take a risk, but believe me; young people love it when a brand takes a risk. Too many companies are playing it safe and throwing soft balls at us all day. We just bat them off and continue on our day. Throw us a fast ball and we have to duck, we have to take notice, and we have to focus. So make the advertisement really edgy, but whatever you do, don’t throw your brand in our face at the end or in the middle of the viral advertisement. Earlier this year, Verizon released this horrible ... Tagged as Technology, Marketing, Branding | No Comments » | Continue linkarrow

Thin Slicing the Good, the Bad, and the UglyPosted August 6th

Hello everybody, my name is Jason – the other half of Wise & Young. This is my first post on Wise & Young: The Blog, and I’m going to continue with Levi’s previous topic about how our generation will not listen to traditional advertising with as much faith as other generations. I’m going to use the movie industry as a prime example. Due to being apart of the MTV generation, the youth is taught real well how to thin slice. We know what we like and what we don’t like by quick first impressions. This concept is explored in Malcolm Gladwell’s Blink, an essential read for anybody in this business. It’s only natural for this ADD generation to be really good at thin slicing—the superficial means everything. You don’t even have to read reviews to know that the movie Stealth was seriously bad. But why did it flop when it had Oscar winning Jamie Foxx? Why did the film flop when so much money was thrown in to marketing it in commercials and billboards? Well I haven’t seen the film, but I’m thin slicing from memory all of those advertising spots on MTV, and I just knew it was going to be a disaster due to the ugly/unclear nature of it all. The billboards of Stealth boast the cheesiest graphics that I’ve seen since the XXX: State of the Union. I looked up at the billboard and wondered what the hell was the production company thinking. Saying the name and throwing some flashy B.S. in my face isn’t going to sale the movie. I need context, I need a connection, and I need love! Our generation defines trends in almost only word of mouth. Malcom Gladwell talks about connectors in his other book, The Tipping Point, and how connectors create trends ... Tagged as Film, Marketing, Branding | No Comments » | Continue linkarrow

The Youth and their BrandsPosted August 6th

LovemarksSaatchi & Saatchi CEO Kevin Roberts, no matter what they say about him (good, bad or evil), has a pretty solid and organized concept when it comes to lovemarks. Lovemarks, in plain English, is when a brand goes from being just a brand to something people cherish and respect emotionally. Lovemarks, in my eyes, are going to become and have already slowly become very important to the youth consumer. The youth want authentic and respectable brands that they can associate themselves with but at the same time not feel like they have sold out. Sold out is a big word for the youth; if your brand has sold out, then in the youth's eyes, your company is a failure. Just look at Von Dutch (enough said). For the youth, traditional advertising and trying to get your brand in to the mainstream is the first signs of selling out. That is why I believe companies trying to attract consumers should focus more on their products and less on trying to get their name shouted a hundred-million times during commercial breaks. From talking to other young people, we are tired of seeing the same commercial a second, third, fourth, fifth..etc. time, even if it is funny – it gets old and your brand begins to look ridiculous! I'm sorry to break it to you, but the youth are not listening to television commercials anymore. If your brand has money for marketing and is trying to attract consumers, get out of television and go focus on the internet. The internet has a plethora of ways to advertise your company without selling out and if your product is great, the word of mouth will spread like wildfire. One way to get your brand out there is to sponsor ... Tagged as Marketing, Branding, Business | No Comments » | Continue linkarrow

Typography Lies!Posted August 5th

Well if you haven't read Seth Godin's All Marketers are Liars, read it...now. This great book isn't technically about lying, but more about stories and the way companies craft these tales around their products so consumers feel connected emotionally and personally. However, I found it interesting to apply this concept to design. Most people don't realize that design can speak the same story, but hell of a lot quicker and stronger. Photos, colors, layout, and most importantly typography, all have an impact on the way the story is told to the consumers and since it is a visual medium it attacks the mind in a way a story would never be able to achieve. Furthermore, when walking around stores or surfing the internet, most products, services, and companies use typography so poorly that I'm surprised they are still around. The companies that seem to have most problems are start-ups. It make sense to cut costs early on, so start-ups will skip design when instead they should focus at least a little time and money in that area to get some solid typography and maybe a concrete color scheme. One example of somebody that follow this model would be Flickr, who uses some clean, easy to read typography, but didn’t blow their whole budget on pulling it off. Another example is a project we are working on here at Wise & Young, which is a confidential internet security company that affiliate markets all their services and products from their website. For each product and service on their website we branded them separately, but kept the entire look and feel connected to the overall company by using the same typography and color schemes. This created a sense that the company was a huge ... Tagged as Marketing, Design, Branding | No Comments » | Continue linkarrow

Adidas Acquires ReebokPosted August 4th

Well it was surprising to wake up this morning, flip on the computer, and see Adidas-Salomon announced today that it had agreed to acquire Reebok for $3.8 billion From my young consumer perspective and education in branding/business, I believe this is the only thing both companies could have done to compete with the ever powerful Nike. In my opinion, currently Nike is doing no wrong, except for maybe signing Kobe Bryant to a shoe deal. Kobe Bryant brings the Nike brand down a few notches, but compared to both Adidas and Reebok, Nike is the strongest brand and over time will actually help Kobe Bryant's overall image and brand. Adidas and Reebok both have been close to reaching a perfect lifestyle product by focusing on other industries outside of sports, such as music and street life. They have also both been releasing vintage/old school shoes which have been increasingly popular in the trend world, but they still both couldn't get that hot product that would propel their prospective brand over Nike. Nike, to the naked eye, seems to stay out of the vintage lifestyle market with their own products, but when you dig deeper, you realize they have just as much of the market as Adidas and Reebok. Nike's brilliant idea two years ago to purchase Converse has allowed to them to compete with Adidas and Reebok in the vintage market, and in some cases, even beat them. For the new Adidas+Reebok company to compete with Nike, they have to continue to explore other markets, such as Reebok's innovative idea to sign rappers to their own shoes deals. The also have to focus on design, which in my opinion, Nike has a strangle-hold over all the other shoe companies. If Adidas+Reebok throws more money in to design ... Tagged as Design, Branding, Trends, Business | No Comments » | Continue linkarrow

Fashion Brands in 5-10 YearsPosted August 3rd

Recently I was speaking and arguing with a friend about which fashion brands would still be around in 10 years. We came to the conclusion that there are two groups that determine the survival of every fashion brand, currently in play, for the next 10 years: 1) The big name brands already have great footing to survive for a while, they would have to really do something insanely stupid to mess up and not still be in play in 10 years. However, the fashion industry is a very competitive and uncertain market, just look at Levi Strauss & Co. (believe me, it is a coincidence that the brand has my name!). Levi Strauss was looking dismal a few years ago, because they didn't watch the trends close enough and Diesel and others stole their market quickly! Levi Strauss has finally gotten their act together, but it took almost a decade to recapture the most important age group in the fashion industry: 18-34. 2) The smaller brands have to be more innovative and try to stay a step ahead of the trends for them to continue to live. The "dirty" and "distressed" jeans for $200 are not going to be selling out forever. Just like the current hot housing market in America, the small denim companies are going to have to prepare for other products/areas to support them when this current trend comes to an end. One brand that stands out is Seven Jeans. Personally, I believe they may be one of the first companies to feel the pinch, because that is all they are known for...dirty and distressed jeans. Diversify now! Brands need to focus on moving towards a more quality and grown up approach to their products. The companies that pour their ... Tagged as Trends, Business | No Comments » | Continue linkarrow

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