Defining CultureLab, From Dallas to New York

Recently, I took a trip to New York to drum up business and soak in authentic urban culture. Most of my meetings were with Account Planners at large agencies who we have partnered with in the past. (Shout out to Carmen Baez and Alvaro Cifuentes of Omnicom DAS Global, Katy Alonzo of Anomaly, Dick DeLange of JWT, Ted Ellet of Draft FCB NY, and Andre Torres, Michael Coxen Loren Odom, and Adrian Younge of Waxpoetics magazine. Loren and Adrian are incredible musicians who are doin' it in the retro funk genre emerging from NY and LA.)

Check out their Black Dynamite Sound Orchestra:

I came across a very well put together mini-doc on the recording of their Black Dynamite Soundtrack. If there was no Waxpoetics, cats like these would more than likely lack exposure for their work.

This trip totally inspired me and further validated my theory that young creative class workers and creative class industries, even a tight-knit but solid creative class circle in the urban core of any city is important. I visited DUMBO, a creative sector in Brooklyn as well as spent time walking the streets of downtown Manhattan. The energy was palpable and even in this economic downturn, the office buildings of DUMBO were filled with cutting edge publishing houses, digital agencies, and software development businesses that are going to help drive the economic engine of the 21st Century.

The question I kept asking myself was do I need to move CultureLab to DUMBO to thrive and prosper or is there something to starting my own "Digital DUMBO' in downtown Dallas? I think the answer is the latter. Eventually CultureLab will have a permanent presence in New York but Dallas Ft. Worth is the fastest growing metropolitan area in the U.S. according to the recent U.S. Census, so there is much potential here. However, the business and corporate community must foster and patronize businesses like CultureLab in order for us to compete successfully with Creative Class cities like NYC, Austin, and LA. The time is now, and CultureLab is at the vanguard of a budding creative class industry movement here in the core of Dallas. So, I will end this post by explaining to you just exactly what CultureLab is. We are on to great things and if you hire us you will see!

CultureLab is a forward-thinking Trends & Behavior Research, Marketing, and Creative

agency that utilizes the results of current and anticipatory lifestyle intelligence to help

brands and institutions better and more effectively market to their consumer. Our efforts

generally focus on youth and young adult (NextGen/ Millennial's) anthropology and social

media as it continues to evolve in the realm of technology. The name CultureLab reflects

our research based approach in understanding the NextGen consumer.

Simply put, we are strategists, digital comm planners, writers, filmmakers, researchers and

designers that take a look at what’s current, predict what’s to come and use that

information, unfiltered, to create and execute effective marketing and creative plans. Think

of us as a think tank slash marketing agency slash creative boutique.

Our Research leads to Strategy. Strategy to Engagement. Effective Engagement creates a

relevant Experience.

We Already Knew This....Teens Are Not That Into TV and Foursquare

• 97% of teens spend two hours or more on social media sites
• 95% update their status at least once a day
• Don't really use Foursquare or Gowalla

Television is out. Half of teen influencers spend three or more hours online while only a quarter spend the same amount of time watching television. (Although time shifting of TV watching online is a significant occurrence)

Click on the link for more:

Study: Teens Who Are Social Online Are Social in Life, But Don't Like Television, Foursquare