Lessons from Trent Reznor on Marketing and Branding in the Digital Age

I have to admit it. I am completely fascinated by Trent Reznor. People that know me, know that I am a real die hard Nine Inch Nails fan, but besides Trent's "Prince" level of musicianship, he is by far one of the great thinkers of our day in terms of understanding the new media landscape and how to use the internet to fortify your brand, and solidify relationships with your fans, (the anti Prince approach). He is the winner of this year's Webby Artist of the Year award, and no doubt deserves it. The guy is incredibly bright! I am an unabashed fan/admirer and if you watch this entire interview you will be too.

Trent Reznor Digg Dialogg from drawaside on Vimeo.

CultureLab Youth Pulse-The Recession

Recently, we went out to interview Dallas-Ft. Worth area college students about how the current economic crisis has effected their behavior in terms of spending, saving, and consumption. Here are several videos of some of the responses to our questions.

Female Attitudes Toward Money



Male Attitudes Toward Spending



The Role of Frugality

Travel Trends

written by Priyanka Patel

So you thought that with the economy going the way it is that there was no possibility for you to travel the way you love to. Well, GOOD NEWS, there is now an affordable, foolproof (mostly) way of staying at nice places on the cheap. These days a travel trend has emerged where ordinary citizens are treating their abodes with the mentality of "mi casa, su casa" - allowing people to stay with them for free or for a low rate.

Similar to couchsurfing (http://www.couchsurfing.org/wiki/) and the Hospitality Club , but with more security (as it relates to living arrangements) built in, iStopover is a great way to see the world in style without breaking the bank. Not only does it handle all your monetary transactions, it also lets you see the place (via online) before you put your money down. And when you arrive, if you feel like the place was grossly misrepresented (kind of like an online date), you can find you another place without ever have wasted your money.

To find out more, check it out: http://www.istopover.com/

Is Black Music Still Cool?

http://www.theroot.com/views/rock-black-music-too

The Digitalization of TV...Please read!

http://adage.com/mediaworks/article?article_id=136232

Teens Are Strapped Too

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/23/fashion/23TEENS.html?em

A new "Twist" on Media Sharing

Having trouble transferring media across all your many devices? Worry no more, check out the following article:

http://www.thrillist.com/free/doubletwist

SXSW Music 2009

A CultureLab Recollection by Aden Fissihaie

I was sort of skeptical of SXSW this year due to the economy. I thought it would not be as great as last year but I was wrong it was way better than last year. At this year's festival, I discovered Janelle Monae is a rock star.

Monae and her band are the sickest band ever: she dances, spins, crowd surfs, jumps, screams, I think you get what I am saying. It was pure excitement watching her and her band. She was also very down to earth talking to all her fans and walking around like she was nobody when her outfit and hair-do alone lets you know she is definitely somebody out of the ordinary.

Theophilus London was also very impressive. He really reminds me of Dwayne Wayne from A Different World because of his style, but his performance is legendary for a hip-hop artist as its never been done the way he does it. He dances and walks around like Michael Jackson at times I cant even put it into words, but he definitely has his own swag. Look at the Youtube posted.

Also caught the Bun B. show and he rocked it with all the UGK songs and some of his solo songs. Dead Prez also performed they are always dope and good people. Then there was the most talked about show at SXSW, Kanye West at the The Fader/Levi’s Fort, with his G.O.O.D. Family of artists. There were so many artist sharing that stage: KiD CuDi performed, Kanye West did all his new songs and some of the old songs, Common performed with a surprise guest which was Erykah Badu and they freestyled with Kanye which was ridiculous!!! Gotta love Erykah.

GLC, Big Sean, Really Doe, Bentley Fonsworth, Mr. Hudson, Tony Williams, Consequence were the G.O.O.D. Family label performers who shared the stage, the only one missing was John Legend.

Then, there was the last show I went to which was the Perez Hilton show and Perez always picks the artist that will be the hitmakers of the new year. Last year I went to the Perez Hilton show and Katy Perry, Chester French and N.E.R.D. performed and next thing you know Katy Perry was the "it" girl for 2008. So at the Perez Hilton One Night In Austin show, Perez had the same hat Aretha Franklin had on at The Inaugration but his was pink and that was hilarious.

KiD CuDi performed with this girl named Lil Boots watch out for her she is gonna be big. Then, Kanye West took the stage and performed a few songs. The one thing that really stands out from that night was being able to go backstage after Kanye's set. Kanye hugged every single person in the room and afterwards the people backstage all collectively began to hug and show love to each other as if they were celebrating all things G.O.O.D. It felt like the part in mass where the priest tells you to wish everyone sitting beside you "peace be with you" and you are randomly hugging and shaking hands with strangers. I think Kanye is a great guy especially after witnessing the Kanye hugfest, I mean, what rockstar does that?

Lifestyles of the Rich and Real

Check out this article:

We're now on Twitter!

CultureLab now has an active account on Twitter so start following us on cLabCreative.

SXSWi 2009

This past weekend, I attended the South by Southwest interactive festival. It was really a fantastic event! I had a chance to connect with many people that I admire, Andy Hunter (guru of digital communications planning, CEO of reboot strategy), Dr. Henry Jenkins (author of Convergence Culture and professor of Communications, Journalism, Cinematic Arts at USC), and Elvis Mitchell (NPR commentator and producer/writer of HBO’s the Black List)

I would vouch that the interactive portion of SXSW may soon eclipse the importance of the SXSW Music fest.

The key ethnography of those in attendance could neatly be prescribed to the tech geek/hipster tribe: smart, nerdy, wear glasses, skinny jeans, track jackets, etc. It was also very noticeable that there were many Europeans in attendance. The attendance of people from all over the world added to the overall cache that SXSWi currently has.

The staff and management who run this festival should be commended for flawlessly executing the logistics of such a large event and for doing such a great job with the panel and core conversation topics.

Here are a few observations form SXSWi I would like to share:

1. Twitter is All the Rage!!
This year’s festival could have easily been dubbed the Twitter festival. Twitter was used to make real time comments during panels by audience members, it was used as a buzz detector to see which panels were worth attending or not, and it was also used as the primary tool to bring order to the chaos of the SXSWi schedule.

By the end of my attendance at the festival I had Twitter overload. However, I realized that Twitter is a most effective form of communication that will be with us for a while. It is much like a musical instrument. It can be used at a very basic level or it can be used at a virtuoso like advanced level.

2. The iPhone is a Real Game Changer
iPhone has expedited Americans’ ability to use their phones in an advanced manner much like the Japanese do. We are still behind Europe and Japan in smartphone functional usage but the iPhone is helping us to catch up.

Applications will continue to proliferate thus adding to the already great functionality of the iPhone.



3. Augmented Reality or AR is a real mind expander coming to your mobile phone, soon!
Mobile phones will soon be able to use AR to create artificial landscapes in a real world setting. For instance you could use your phone to play a make believe game of tennis in the middle of Times Square with a cohort using their phone as a paddle. AR would allow you to look at your phone and see a tennis court projected onto the street while you and a fellow AR user paddle the ball back and forth on that AR court.

AR can be used in catalogs as well, bringing 3 D images of products that can be manipulated. Some auto manufacturers are already using it in Europe.

4. IM VJ
IM Video Journalism is a new form of journalism coming out of the UK and is pioneered by a black Brit by the name of David Dunkley Gyimah. I learned from David’s lecture that IM VJ, is a form of videojournalism that incorporates design oriented storytelling, efficient and quick shooting, subject driven narrative, and imaginative video techniques. The IM VJ panel goes down as one of the better ones I sat in on at SXSWi. David Gyimah was engaging and extremely well versed.



5. Social Media is Here to Stay
Social Media along with Twitter was the buzz of the festival. Web 2.0 is now the most influential media outside of broadcast TV, and may even surpass TV in importance to GenY . The Obama campaign was the wakeup call to America about the importance of Social Media. The key takeaway from the festival was that those who master the social media tools will be the masters of the marketing and influencing universe. The use of Social Media will intensify and before we know it, email will be obsolete.

6. Social Media as a tool for Activism
I attended a great panel entitled can Social Media End Racism. Of course the answer is it can’t but it can be used to bring racist behavior to light and to call people out. This is the panel where I laughed the most because of two people, Jay Smooth and Phil Yu (Angry Asian Man) they were really funny and insightful.

The bottom line is that Social Media has a HUGE democratizing effect where people can really make themselves heard, and it is an aggregator that can be harnessed for protest and justice.

Those are my highlights but please hit us up to give us your feedback on the festival if you went. We welcome comments.

New Age, New Consumer
written by Desmond Blair

The growth of digital technologies is leading to a new type of consumer. We are seeing the beginning of consumers who are now well informed and seek more of a direct contact and feedback with the businesses they interact with. This new and informed consumer seeks interaction not inaction. This is why it is important large companies invest time and listen to consumers when entering the online domain.
There are several things to be aware of in the online arena. First, it is of utmost importance to establish a relationship with the consumer and not just feed people information. People want to feel engaged they want to share their ideas and opinions to form more of a bond not only with the company whose products they consume but also with other consumers. Too often, companies announce products that are destined to fail because of this idea that “Big Business” still controls the habits of today’s consumer. This notion is a tremendous fallacy in the online arena because people share and seek out information. This brings me to my second point, attempting to bottleneck information in an environment that is supposed to be free and open will damage a company’s reputation immediately. This is very important to remember because reputation is very important in online spaces. This is very important for garnering consumer trust and also important for gaining word of mouth support that can transition into increased “real life” (people who may not get their information from the web) support as well.
A shift in the relationship between businesses and consumers is beginning to occur. Consumers are no longer limited to obtaining goods from companies. Now consumers are able exchange goods with fellow constituents on a mass scale. (Interactions are not as localized as they used to be.) Consumers are more empowered and knowledgeable about the products they consume. This knowledge changes the dynamic because people can now research products and companies to determine whom they are willing to buy from.
The web is not just changing people it is changing the way people consume. The notion or idea of the web is creating a generation that seeks to be engaged, seeks to be knowledgeable, and desires the ability to express ideas and share concerns.