Why Not Now
On Sunday, I attended the Climate March in New York City. 100,000 people were expected to show up. Instead, it was estimated that 400,000 people showed up. I'm excited that there seems to finally be a huge shift in how we perceive climate change. It's reached a tipping point as widely accepted to be a man-made phenomenon that will have dire consequences in the near future if we don't act. But is it too late? There are so many mass behaviors that people participate in as preventative measures despite not knowing 100% if something negative will happen to us. We purchase car insurance, home insurance and health insurance on the off chance things go wrong. We invest in our financial future early on through social security and 401K's on the off chance we don't fall into large sums of money before retirement. We even ward off the effects of aging and the possibility of cancer through sunscreen.On a corporate level, companies protect themselves from unforeseen issues through insurance, savings and even hiring practices. It is considered a wise business practice to smartly prepare for the future even if that means making sacrifices and expenditures during this preparation.
So why do companies, policy makers and governments so widely question the importance of preventing climate change? At this point in our scientific understanding, it's become clear that further damage can cause irreversible damage. We've already seen billions of dollars spent and millions of lives lost from the effects of climate change, from draughts to hurricanes to heat waves. Is it worth waiting and questioning this statement when so much is at stake? What are we waiting for?
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtQyg1l3p9g]
POP!
I interrupt your ponderings about Beyonce (conspiracy theories?!), Jay Z and Solange to bring you something that might bring a few tears to your eye.Can definitely imagine this being the next Pharrell Happy phenomenon. And nice reference to Michael Jackson's 1991 video Black or White (remember when it was considered progressive and modern!? Justin Timberlake celebrates Michael Jackson in Love Never Felt So Good.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oG08ukJPtR8]
Weekend Web Guide
Just in case there's a moment this weekend where you actually want to spend time at your computer - you know - glued to it like it's a weekday- here's a short list of some of my favorite sites.For honest, entertaining and helpful relationship advice whether you're single or dating, check out The Date Report from HowAboutWe.
For gift ideas, fashion and all around regular inspiration for women, check out my favorite blog Cup of Jo by Joanna Goddard.
For a regular dose of creative inspiration, add Visual News to your RSS reader.
NYC Guide: Cheap & Chic Dresses
Nearly a decade of living in or near New York City has taught me a thing or two about where to find the best coffee, where to get cheap dresses that aren't from Forever 21, decent work spots, etc. So here goes the start of another series. None of these posts are paid for and are all from my own experiences. If any of that changes, I'll let you know.
First up, what all my male readers have been waiting for. Dresses!
I discovered Cora dresses about two years ago at Artists & Fleas right outside of the Williamsburg flea market. The dresses are a very simple but femininely cut, made in one size. They're less than $50 and they constantly come out with new and interesting patterns, making a collection inevitable. (I have three!) I especially love how the cut is sweet and feminine but the patterns; ranging from graphic elements to foxes, are cleverly unexpected. Wear them over jeans, leggings, stockings or go bare. Dress them up or make them look more casual. And see their website for locations. I'm a fan of their stand at Chelsea Market but I recommend eating the obligatory crepe, lobster roll or gelato after you try on their dresses.
And if you plan on wearing a Cora dress while attending an event that I'm attending, for heaven's sake - contact me first so we can coordinate!
Advice from Jake Johnson From New Girl On How He Writes
In New York, it seems like everyone has a side project; an idea for a novel begging to be written, a startup idea itching to be actualized. But how on earth do we self propel ourselves to work on our other passion while maintaining a successful full time job, a social life and even perhaps a relationship? Fast Company interviews one of my favorite characters on T.V., Jake Johnson from New Girl on how he writes while being part of the ensemble to a hit T.V. show. See interview below.
BY: JOEL KELLER
Jake Johnson, who plays grouchy Nick Miller on the Fox hit New Girl, talks to Co.Create about how he was able to sell a pilot while working the grueling hours on his day job. Hint: He treats "show business" like it’s just that: a business.
It isn’t often that you hear about someone treating the second word of the phrase "show business" as seriously as the first. Jake Johnson is one of those people, and his approach has allowed him to sell a pilot to Fox while playing Nick Miller on the same network’s comedy hit New Girl.
The pilot, called The B-Team, is the fourth pilot idea Johnson has sold, the second with his current writing partner, television director Max Winkler (whose dad just happens to be Henry Winkler). The "soft pitch" for this idea, according to Johnson, is about a group of people who have been lied to and cheated on and otherwise wronged in life whose A-Team-like mission is to get revenge for others who have been equally screwed. But, they don’t have any special powers or skills. "So they’re not a powerful group," he says, "they’re just regular people that are just sick and tired of other people getting fucked over. And so they form a team and it’s not the A-Team, it’s the B-Team."
Johnson would define himself more as a writer than an actor, having studied creative writing at the University of Iowa, then at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. But from almost day one he realized that, in order to maintain control over how his writing is produced, he’d have to do something else in addition, which is when he turned to acting. He talked to Co.Create about how he’s able to make the time to write and generate ideas while spending the grueling days shooting the show, and how he tries to not get too high or too low in a business where there are usually nothing but highs and lows.
DIVERSIFY SO YOU CAN PURSUE YOUR PASSION IN THE WAY THAT YOU WANT
My transition happened in New York. I had a play produced at the Ensemble Studio Theater and I was I think 21 years old and I was writing a lot of plays at the time, and the director kind of took the play away from me a little bit because I was young and he was experienced and I guess that’s how it works. And he directed it in a way where I wasn’t at any of the rehearsals, and I went to opening night and I hated it. And I was very embarrassed by it because it was just not the kind of show that I liked, and so I decided that the stuff that I would write, the only rule would be that I would be in it and direct it.
And so an old writing partner and I started writing plays and performing them throughout New York City. And then we traveled around the country with them and did a bunch of festivals and fringe festivals.
FIND WHAT MAKES EACH JOB INTERESTING TO YOU
What I get out of writing is more the intellectual side of it, and I get to see the whole story, and I get to think of the whole arc. And I get to control what happens with everything and it’s more of almost like a mental exercise of it all. And what I get out of acting is the exact opposite and it’s just purely living in the moment and it’s more emotion based and physical based and I’m not thinking of anything greater than what’s right in front of me.
LET YOUR CURRENT JOB INFLUENCE YOUR WRITING
Well, when I first read the script of New Girl it was called Chicks and Dicksand it was a real ensemble piece. And then when they got Zooey Deschanel I think it was such a coup and they were so excited that the show went from Chicks and Dicks to New Girl. And they moved the story around a little bit to really put emphasis on the fact that we’ve got this great breakout character named Jess Day played by Zooey Deschanel who’s one of our best actresses. And then I think as the show went on and the way that I saw it as a writer was, it felt as if they had that and then they started realizing we don’t have enough life, because you just can’t do a series based on one person.
So they started really highlighting Schmidt and saying, “Can another character break through?” and, credit to the writers and Max Greenfield, they did. And then I think they thought now we’ve got this going, let’s see if we can push everybody through and they’ve now really given everybody ample opportunity. You know every script Jess has great stuff, Schmidt has great stuff, Nick has great stuff, Winston (Lamorne Morris) has great stuff, Cece’s (Hannah Simone) got great stuff. And so now we’re at a point where they’re giving us the looks and now we just all have to hit our shots.
When I went back to writing I realized two things. One, I need to build the model that potentially has five interesting characters. So I will not create something unless it has a built-in ensemble, but you need a star to anchor that ensemble. And so somebody in there has to be the Jess Day or the Sam Malone from Cheers; somebody’s got to be your leader who breaks you into the television world and shows the audience who we’re following first.
IDEAS IDEAS IDEAS
So what [Max and I] will do is we’ll talk on the phone throughout the day and a lot of it is how you and I are doing this right now like when I’m driving to work. Or you know he’s directing The New Normal these days and so while he’s at work or if we have a break we’ll just get on the phone really fast and talk things out. And this idea happened because we started scheduling times where we’ll sit and say Saturday we’re having lunch from twelve until three o’clock, and we’ll spend the first two hours just pitching each other TV show ideas. And so throughout the day something will happen and you’ll think, "Oh that’d be funny; what if we did a show about you know a young reporter blah, blah."
So I’ll think of like ten to fifteen different ideas and he’ll do the same and then we get together and we just basically pitch each other. And we pitch until we both feel like that is one that works for him and works for me and we both like it. And then we both think about it on our own and then we just start emailing and texting and calling each other and both of us obsessing on the idea. So that I’ll be in my trailer, I’ll be at work, and I’ll finish shooting and I’ll come back and they’ll be three emails about the idea, and I’ll just respond to that. And then we save all those emails and then when we get together on the weekend we have all these documents about it. And so then we just keep forming it and keep forming it and then in terms of our writing process we write it individually.
So we’ll say, “All right, you take the first stab at the first act,” and then he’ll take two days and write it, and then I’ll have the pages and in between scenes or on weekends I’ll block off all of Saturday and spend 10 hours and do a rewrite on it and so we just kind of tag team it.
KEEP UP THE SAME PACE YOU HAD BEFORE YOU GOT THE STEADY GIG
When I moved out to Los Angeles I had eight hundred bucks to my name and I was working as a caterer and at a casino and just really scared of going to zero and having to leave town. And I was working constantly like so many actors and writers out here who aren’t working yet do. Every night I was on a different stage performing, during the day crashing commercial auditions to try to get in and writing whenever I wasn’t catering a wedding or working a day job. So I would work an eight-hour shift, get off, go perform, come home and write, and be sleeping five or six hours like everybody else out here who’s struggling.
When I started actually working and making a living as an actor my pace didn’t stop because that’s just how I do this business. And so now the fact that the things I am pitching are selling, well it doesn’t change the fact when I was just performing on improv stages five nights a week I had a bunch of TV ideas. You know I’ve written probably 15 screenplays and I’ve outlined 15 to 20 different TV shows, but nobody has heard of them. And so now the fact that I’m getting the opportunity, I’m not actually doing anything that different so it’s not as if I’m like very disciplined, I just don’t know how to do this business any other way.
[Now] I’m working on a television show instead of being a waiter. Otherwise, it’s the same process. In this business if you don’t obsess over stuff nothing gets done. So rather than working for an eight-hour shift and then going to do a live show that takes two hours, well I’m just at FOX dressed in a flannel and jeans playing Nick.
DON’T GET TOO HIGH OR TOO LOW ABOUT A PROJECT OR IDEA
I don’t think there’s time in this business to mourn losses. So if we find out that The B-Team is dead the next day we schedule a lunch and we sit together and we start re-pitching. And I think that the likelihood of things getting on TV are so rare, the likelihood of one going from idea to pitch to script to pilot to being on air to being successful is such the lottery that you’ve just got to keep trying.
That’s being in the business. That is auditioning for three hundred commercials and missing them all, and being on stages night after night and not getting things, and you keep going and then all of a sudden things start coming. There are just so many people trying in this game.
My approach to it is less emotional than a lot of people I know. I think a lot of people when they get rejected they take it very personally. And so if they have a TV show and they’re pitching it and they sell it, and then the network doesn’t shoot a pilot, or they shoot a pilot and they test it and it tests poorly and it dies, people allow that to crush them and then they have to build themselves back up and I don’t believe in that. I’ll put my heart and soul in a project but I understand that the likelihood of it still going is so rare that a bad review or a failed project doesn’t emotionally have that big an effect on me.
I think I’ve missed so many fucking times that to get hurt every time I miss it’s just not realistic. It’s too exhausting. Because I’m on a nice streak right now people will talk about the successes that I’m having, but even now if people saw the amount of rejection and the amount of fails I’ve had on a weekly basis professionally…if I was a batter I’m not hitting a thousand. This business is like baseball, if you hit three out of ten you’re a great hitter.
Trend Series: Caffeine Culture
This is the first of what I hope will be a regular series where I explore trends that I've captured mostly through my iPhone.
As you may know from following my Instagram feed and reading my blog, I have a love / hate relationship with caffeine. Mostly love, of course. Starbucks was one of the first companies to develop a brand around coffee, modeling their in store experience after sophisticated European cafés. But with the saturation of Starbucks, the last few years have seen a distinct 180 shift from the Starbucks aesthetic. Perhaps due to the sea of chain restaurants, plastic, disposable and mass produced everything, we're desperately seeking more permanence. Growing coffee companies like Stumptown and Kaffe 1668 use the dim lighting of incandescent bare light bulbs, candles and mason jars to hark back to a time where the General Store dominated, long before mass production and globalization. But with the added conveniences of wifi and elegance of a Dwell-worthy spread. Patrons are reminded of the craftsmanship, personal touch and ritual that goes into caffeine consumption through porcelain cups and latté art. Baristas have become artists, identifying themselves by wearing the uniform of newsboy caps, vests and the occasional bright red lipstick to remind customers that they are part of the creative class.
In New York, the four dollar cup of coffee has held its ground despite our stagnant economy. Perhaps we use this perfectly poured cup of coffee to escape the realities of our fast moving world, filled with constant email pings and chatter of always being busy? Ironically this escapism is often ruined by the compulsion to document and share our coffee experiences through social media channels like Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.
In the last few years, it seems that Brooklynites are nearly obsessed with this pre World War II lifestyle. Can you spot some examples?
Stepping Away From The Internet
One of my favorite things to do is wander around the city, photograph people or draw them. Yes, I know, all slightly stalker-ish activities. But I've always found endless fascination with people-watching. Yesterday, I did just that and thought I'd give you a visual recap of my day.
I spent a significant amount of time at Ground Support in Soho. My initial intention was to read and catch up on news but with my iPad, new Bamboo stylus, and Paper 53 app, I couldn't resist one of my all time favorite past times - sketching people. I later overheard the French girl I drew talk about how high rents, mentioning she took a Skillshare class about how to live rent free. Which I mentally noted was the same class I took. Small world.
My sketching was briefly interrupted by a celebrity sighting. I think that years or should I say, 10,000 hours of memorizing figures and faces in order to draw them, has given me excellent facial recognition. Can you spot him in the above, right picture?
One of the benefits of everyone being glued to their devices is that they sit relatively still for a few minutes, giving me enough time to draw them. Thank you internet. While I was admittedly tempted to sit across from MG and practice my sketching using him as a subject, I smartly chose to sit outside instead.
I witnessed a lost pigeon flying into a café that had trouble getting out. So like MacGyver, I instructed the panicked staff to create a trail of crumbs out the door. Success!
The Art of the Television Commercial: W+K New York's Latest Target Ad
There's an often a debate between art and commerce. Is something art if it's selling something? Where is the line drawn? Although this is clearly a television commercial, there's no denying that it's riveting, visual eye candy, and dare I say - ART.[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMi5fFtye6o&w=560&h=315]
How Nike Is Embracing Digital & Social Media - Re-Blogged from Fortune
Nike's new marketing mojo
February 13, 2012: 5:00 AM ET
How the legendary brand blew up its single-slogan approach and drafted a new playbook for the digital era.
By Scott Cendrowski, writer-reporter
FORTUNE -- Few outsiders have visited the third floor of the Jerry Rice Building at Nike's headquarters. Even most Nike employees know little about just what the staffers working here, on the north side of the company's 192-acre campus in Beaverton, Ore., actually do. A sign on the main entrance reads RESTRICTED AREA: WE HEAR YOU KNOCKING, WE CAN'T LET YOU IN, and it's only partly in jest. Inside, clusters of five or six employees huddle in side conference rooms where equations cover whiteboard walls. There are engineers and scientists with pedigrees from MIT and Apple. Leaks are tightly controlled; a public relations man jumps in front of a visitor who gazes at the computer screens for a little too long.
Once upon a time, the hush-hush plans and special-access security clearance would have been about some cutting-edge sneaker technology: the discovery of a new kind of foam-blown polyurethane, say, or some other breakthrough in cushioning science. But the employees in this lab aren't making shoes or clothes. They're quietly engineering a revolution in marketing.
This hive is the home of Nike Digital Sport, a new division the company launched in 2010. On one level, it aims to develop devices and technologies that allow users to track their personal statistics in any sport in which they participate. Its best-known product is the Nike+ running sensor, the blockbuster performance-tracking tool developed with Apple (AAPL). Some 5 million runners now log on to Nike (NKE) to check their performance. Last month Digital Sport released its first major follow-up product, a wristband that tracks energy output called the FuelBand.
But Digital Sport is not just about creating must-have sports gadgets. Getting so close to its consumers' data holds exceptional promise for one of the world's greatest marketers: It means it can follow them, build an online community for them, and forge a tighter relationship with them than ever before. It's part of a bigger, broader effort to shift the bulk of Nike's marketing efforts into the digital realm -- and it marks the biggest change in Beaverton since the creation of just do it, or even since a graphic design student at Portland State University put pen to paper and created the Swoosh.
Nike's new digital hook: the Nike+ logo; the new Nike FuelBand; and the Nike+ SportWatch GPS
Just try to recall the last couple of Nike commercials you saw on television. Don't be surprised when you can't. Nike's spending on TV and print advertising in the U.S. has dropped by 40% in just three years, even as its total marketing budget has steadily climbed upward to hit a record $2.4 billion last year. "There's barely any media advertising these days for Nike," says Brian Collins, a brand consultant and longtime Madison Avenue creative executive.
Gone is the reliance on top-down campaigns celebrating a single hit -- whether a star like Tiger Woods, a signature shoe like the Air Force 1, or send-ups like Bo Jackson's 'Bo Knows' commercials from the late '80s that sold the entire brand in one fell Swoosh. In their place is a whole new repertoire of interactive elements that let Nike communicate directly with its consumers, whether it's a performance-tracking wristband, a 30-story billboard in Johannesburg that posts fan headlines from Twitter, or a major commercial shot by an Oscar-nominated director that makes its debut not on primetime television but on Facebook. Says Jon Bond, co-founder of Kirshenbaum Bond Senecal & Partners who now runs a social media agency: "Clearly they think they can get by without big television campaigns anymore."
The reason for the shift is simple: Nike is going where its customer is. And its core customer, a 17-year-old who spends 20% more on shoes than his adult counterparts, has given up television to skip across myriad online communities. Not only does Nike think it can do without the mega-TV campaigns of old, it says the digital world allows the brand to interact even more closely with its consumers -- maybe as closely as it did in its early days, when founder Phil Knight sold track shoes out of his car in the 1960s. That's a major change, Nike CEO Mark Parker explained toFortune during a recent interview in his tchotchke-filled office in Beaverton. "Connecting used to be, 'Here's some product, and here's some advertising. We hope you like it,' " he says. "Connecting today is a dialogue."
Of course, it's impossible these days to find a Fortune 500company without an app or a social media strategy. But Nike has been lapping other blue-chip marketers in this domain: It spent nearly $800 million on 'nontraditional' advertising in 2010, according to Advertising Age estimates, a greater percentage of its U.S. advertising budget than any other top 100 U.S. advertiser. (And Nike's latest filings indicate that that figure will grow in 2011.) It's hired scores of new engineers to make technology for online communities (Digital Sport has grown from 100 to 200 employees in the past six months and has moved into a larger space on the outskirts of campus). And the brand has overhauled its $100 million-plus campaigns around major events like the World Cup and Olympics to focus on online campaigns first. The result? Before, the biggest audience Nike had on any given day was when 200 million tuned in to the Super Bowl. Now, across all its sites and social media communities, it can hit that figure any day.
That's all the more impressive given that Nike shouldn't be good at this. After a decade of growth, its sales have reached $21 billion, making it the world's largest sports company, a full 30% bigger than closest rival Adidas. But biggest is rarely best in the brand game, where niche players routinely run circles around lumbering giants, especially in the new digital world. Hot upstarts like Under Armour (UA) and Lululemon (LULU) have established fast-growing, cultlike followings, while smaller players like Quiksilver (ZQK) and Vans are already going after next-generation tweens. Even Adidas's 2006 merger with Reebok has created a new formidable global foe.
None of this is lost on Parker. "My fear was that we would be this big blood bank of a company that was dabbling across all these areas and wasn't seen as cool, as interesting, as relevant, as innovative," he says. Not too long ago Parker sketched a big Swoosh being eaten by a dozen Pac-Men to demonstrate how easily competitors could overtake Nike.
Just market it: 7 of Nike's notable campaigns
Like almost every large company, Nike stumbled early in the digital world. In the late '90s it celebrated the start of NCAA March Madness on its home page in every country. Europeans had no idea what was going on. But it improved over the years. Around 2005 its then-revolutionary Nike iD online store, where customers could design their own shoes, became a surprise hit, reaching $100 million in sales within a few years.
In 2006 it started experimenting with social networking and online communities, partnering with Google (GOOG) for a World Cup-related social network called Joga. Then came Nike+. After Nike engineers started noticing everyone on the Oregon campus using iPods, teams at Nike and Apple met to hash out a simple idea: synchronize jogging data with an iPod. Steve Jobs loved the idea (Apple CEO Tim Cook serves on Nike's board, but Parker also had a good relationship with Jobs). Powered by a sensor inside running shoes, the service both monitors a runner's performance and provides digital coaching. A voice lets runners know how much farther they have to go; the PowerSong function generates a musical blast for extra motivation. At the end, it logs details of the workout onto Nikeplus.com, where users can store and analyze the data, get training tips, and share workouts with friends. Whereas Nike's digital campaigns communicate the brand image, the Nike+ platform creates an intimate conversation and a laboratory that lets the company study its customers' behaviors and patterns. The company won't offer financial details about Nike+, but analysts say the 55% growth in membership last year was important in driving sales in its running division up 30%, to $2.8 billion.
Two years ago a group including Stefan Olander, 44, a longtime marketing executive (and Matthew McConaughey look-alike) formally pitched Parker on the idea for Digital Sport, a cross-category division that would take the Nike+ idea -- chip-enabled customer loyalty -- into other sports. Up and running a month later, the Digital Sport division now works across all of Nike's major sports.
A massive digital billboard in Johannesburg asked fans to submit messages.
For all its success, though, a follow-up blockbuster to Nike+ has been elusive. The company has high hopes for the FuelBand, a $149 wristband that measures movement and calculates its user's exertion levels throughout the course of the day. Like Nike+, users sync to the Nike platform online to analyze their results. At the FuelBand's official unveiling in Manhattan -- a splashy event emceed by Jimmy Fallon -- Parker compared it to the launch of Nike Air or the first Air Jordan shoe.
While Digital Sport is crafting gizmos, Nike has also been revamping its giant advertising bursts around major events like the World Cup and Olympics. The highlight of its 2010 World Cup campaign, for instance, was a commercial produced by Nike ad agency Wieden + Kennedy and shot by Babel director Alejandro González Iñárritu. Called "Write the Future," the ad featured Nike soccer stars Wayne Rooney and Christano Ronaldo imagining the riches that come with winning the cup. But instead of making its debut on-air, the ad launched on Nike Football's Facebook page. Wieden and other agencies spent months cultivating a base of 1 million "fans" and teasing the ad's debut. When it aired, it whizzed around blogs and wall posts at warp speed, gathering 8 million views in a week to set a viral-video record.
For decades Nike's closest partner in reaching the masses was Wieden + Kennedy, the famously hip place whose 30-year collaboration with Nike is one of advertising's longest and most prolific. But Nike's digital shift has had reverberations here too. In 2000, Wieden handled all of Nike's estimated $350 million in U.S. billings. Now those campaigns are increasingly split between Wieden and a host of other agencies that specialize in social media and new technologies. In a closely followed dustup in 2007, Nike dropped Wieden from its running account reportedly because the agency was behind in digital efforts. Wieden has added more digital positions to its Nike "platoon." (Wieden reclaimed the running account just 13 months after losing it.) But it now splits billings with agencies like R/GA, AKQA, and Mindshare. "Collaboration is the new thing," says Dan Sheniak, Wieden's global communications planning director on Nike, maybe trying to look on the bright side.
Perhaps the biggest impact of Nike's shift falls to the people whose names adorn every building on its campus: superstar athletes. Consider the controversies that Tiger Woods, Michael Vick, Lance Armstrong, and LeBron James -- Nike endorsers all -- have sparked over the past five years. Industry insiders say the effect is difficult to measure in the short term. But as the marketing mix becomes less about hero worship and more about consumer-driven conversation, they say, Nike is insulating itself from an era of athlete endorsements gone wrong. "Everybody's realized there's not the same one-to-one relationship as in the past: When Jordan's hot, his shoes are hot," says a former Nike executive. "I don't know if hero worship is the same as it used to be."
To be sure, marquee athletes haven't disappeared: Kobe Bryant is arguably the biggest sports celebrity in China, Nike's second-largest market, and Michael Jordan's brand remains one of the company's most powerful franchises. But for the first time in its history, Nike isn't wholly reliant on a handful of superstars to move merchandise.
So is it working? Is Nike's massive digital push a true replacement for its marketing past? Its unconventional approaches have won accolades from insiders. "They have their finger on the pulse of what their customer is looking for," says David Carter, executive director of USC's Sports Business Institute. Institutional investors who pay close heed to Nike's subtlest moves have voted in favor of the changes: The company's stock has returned 120% over the past five years as the S&P 500 index (SPX) has returned just 2.5%.
That's not to say everything has been a slam dunk. Nike shut down its Joga network after the last World Cup game in 2006, confusing the million-plus members who'd signed up for it. Its Ballers Network, meanwhile -- launched in 2008 as an app that let basketball players organize street games -- recently had less than 300 users in the U.S.; a recent wall post was a teenager complaining he couldn't get it to work. And critics say products like the FuelBand and Nike+, while dazzling, are more about keeping Nike's retail prices high than innovating.
In public Nike executives will protest this characterization. But if running shoes continue flying off the shelves, they won't blink at the criticism. That's exactly the kind of shrewd marketing attitude that drove Nike's past success. After perfecting the art of big branding, it's moving on to a world in which its consumers want to be told less and just do more. Which, when you think about it that way, might not be such a big change after all.
This article is from the February 27, 2012 issue of Fortune.
Friday Afternoon Inspiration: Gravity // Un Reve De Demain
Nice find Michelle![vimeo 34896859 w=400 h=225]
GRAVITY // UN RÊVE DE DEMAIN from Filip Piskorzynski on Vimeo.
JWT 10 Trends For 2012
Are you just as excited as I am about all the trend reports for 2012? 2011 was such a tumultuous year and it brings to mind the idea that things have to get worse before they can get better. Well.. I'm hoping 2012 marks the year things get better. Most notably, I think there has been a breaking point in how much longer we will put up with a broken system, selfish politicians, people and corporations - a sentiment that's echoed throughout the world. And I'm hoping that 2012 is the year where we realize that selflessness, intelligently redistributing wealth and focusing on sustainable practices is good for everyone all around.Slowly but surely, American corporations are moving towards sustainability. In fact, it was reported in Ad Age today that Unilever is putting their $6 billion global account in review because "We want to make sure that we continue to have best-in-class agency partners to deliver Unilever's vision: to double the size of our business while reducing our environmental impact," Mr. Di Como said in a statement. "We will be looking at strategic planning and in-market execution capabilities from our agency partners."
And before you say that they're greenwashing, according to Climate Counts, a non profit, Unilever has the highest climate count score under Food Products for their climate footprint, reduction of global warming impact, support of climate legislation and their practice of publicly disclosing climate intentions and practices.
So I leave you with JWT's Annual Trends for 2012. I specifically hope the Rise of Shared Value #4 becomes mainstream. As we see with Unilever, Coke, Nike, Levi, L'Oreal, Clorox, GE, etc., companies can be both successful and environmentally sustainable. Now if only Apple could get on board.
Monday Morning Inspiration
Just thought this was perfect Monday morning inspiration. This commercial for Levi's by Wieden + Kennedy brings tears to my eyes every time I see it. What an amazing insight - the idea that when things break, or are not working out, it gives us an opportunity to work hard and make things better. Think about all the areas this can be applied to - our economy, our country, our infrastructure and most importantly, when we have personal failures, we can rise above them, work hard and become better versions of our selves. For me, the start of crisp fall weather and reminder of starting school always signals a time to start again and work with gusto.[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=635XItRDU7g&w=560&h=315]
Saturday Night Live
Yesterday, I ventured into Queens for the first PS1 Warm Up Party in Long Island City. The 45 minute wait and $15 entry fee was worth it. Except for ex-boyfriends (thank god), I ran into people from every area of my past - a former college classmate, former MAS classmate, former coworker - you get the idea. And of course met some new, interesting people. But as is usually the case with a night out in New York City, my adventure did not end at the first stop, nor the second, or the third.Fast forward a few hours and one delicious burger later - I found myself sitting at a LIC bar with friends, talking to a very tall Kiwi and Cypriot (I had to look that one up). Naturally, the conversation very quickly evolved from "what do you do" to "where did you go to summer camp." Or something like that. To which my friend and the Cypriot discovered that they went to the same summer camp in Serbia the same year. And then all our heads exploded.
It never ceases to amaze me how everyday in New York, I experience a moment or two where people of very different backgrounds connect in the most unexpected ways.
A few beers later, I found myself waiting for the 7 train into Manhattan to take the long journey home to Brooklyn. No sooner had I sat down than 3 young, non-fratty guys, one holding a guitar, asked me "What song would you actually pay us to play?" I quickly saw an opportunity to knock off a line item from my bucket list and accepted their invitation to sing with them in Times Square. Oh, there's something I should add. The guys were taking turns holding a sign that read "I slept with Snooki last week. Please help." I knew this would be interesting.
We sat in the street, pulling up lyrics from our iPhones, surrounded by laughing, picture taking tourists as we attempted to do Katy Perry justice. One guy told me that in Chinese-American culture, when parents want to say something very important, they will say it in English. He described his mother very painstakingly, and carefully telling him in English that "He needs to go to college so he doesn't end up busking on the streets." Listen up kids, you can go to Yale and still end up busking in Times Square. These are hard times. Ten minutes in, a game of planking ensued, the tourists energetically arranging their friends' bodies into the letters NYC.
This is a story about how the internet has brought us closer together IRL.
The boundary between strangers and new friends has significantly diminished as social networks like Twitter, Facebook, FourSquare and Instagram have allowed us to peek into people's lives. Viral internet and pop culture phenomenons like planking, Snooki and the widely accepted meaning of PBR has given us a common language so that we can relate to one another. The knowledge that everyone is easily Googleable with a first name and a few key details allows us to more intimately connect with someone we've just met. We've taken the play mentality of the internet and brought it into our daily lives. Why go straight home after an already fantastic night when you can take a short detour sitting in Times Square, trying to sing, surrounded by tourists and a guy holding up a crazy sign?
Inpsired by Design
On any given day, I'm overwhelmingly inspired by Design Sponge. Why not take something slightly worn and make it beautiful? See full article here.
Or take something generic and make it your own.
A New York Minute
I've been living on the Upper West Side since Friday night, cat-sitting for a friend. Kind of the perfect situation and I really lucked out. So far, I've lived in the East Village, Upper East Side and Chelsea. Hmm.. What's next? I'm not going to get into how confused I am. I'm pretty sure they put some sort of addictive substances in the New York water because there's no logical explanation as to why this city has such a strong pull on me when I was so gong-ho about San Francisco - At a time when the garbage hasn't been collected, it's 30 degrees and the curbs are full of murky, cold puddles. Oh yeah, I know.. it's the people. While I've met many cool people in San Francisco and I'm sure I have yet to meet many more, the fact remains that I have so many friends here and have built relationships in every area of my life during the five years that I've been here. Good thing I just have to leave things up to the job market, at this point.
So I was taking the 2 train which I rarely ever take - whole different crew from the 4/5/6 and noticed an interesting scene. It was about five, very charged, minutes on the subway ride that said so much about New York and what makes it so interesting. A (presumably) Orthodox woman was with her young child who was cranky and misbehaving in his stroller. He was about 3 years old and wouldn't sit still and kept accidentally kicking me. A black man with tattoos all over his body including tear marks near his eyes, started speaking to the pretty, young, blond woman, telling her to control her child. He was swearing at her and mumbling about white women not being able to control their children and how the children needed to be smacked around. Her response was that her son was tired and cranky and she sounded kind and exhausted, not wanting to get into an argument. I stood in the middle of them hoping it wouldn't escalate but wondering what I'd do or say if it did. On the way out, I looked back to see the mother with her son talking and laughing with another black woman who also had a child, presumably bonding and making friends over the situation.
New York is obviously incredibly diverse as a whole but each neighborhood is fairly segregated. I'm pretty sure my home town in Northern, NJ was more racially diverse than the Upper East Side but we came from similar places economically which at least united us in some way. But on the subway, there are people coming on from Brooklyn, to Manhattan, to Harlem, to the Bronx, & Queens. It unites us all. It's a place where stereotypes and frustrations all come out, where rich businessmen are tightly squeezed next to Bronx gang members, who are tightly squeezed next to Jewish mothers, who are tightly squeezed next to millions of other people that don't fit or defy stereotypes. So as addicting as the sound effects are to Angry Birds, turn down your phone and listen to what's around you. You may learn something.
The Cosmopolitan Las Vegas
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REdE-YyVmdQ?fs=1&hl=en_US&w=640&h=385]Kittens, glamour and entertainment - what more could a girl ask for?