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:

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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.

Superbowl Ads: An Overall Lack of Connection

written by Priyanka Patel

The Super Bowl is the highlight of the season among football fans, but for a lot of people the enjoyment of watching the Superbowl is watching the ads and not the actual game. Many people watch to see how creative the ads will be, and advertisers buy these Superbowl slots to try and connect with the nearly 100 million people watching, hoping that in turn, it will create ROI for their products.

Superbowl XXXVIII had 98 million viewers, 20 % that were 18-24, 8 % of whom were Hispanic, 10 .2 % African American, and 4 % Asian, but I felt that this year advertisers neglected to target the diverse young adult market except for a select few. The 18-24 market spends $122 billion a year, including $24 billion in discretionary spending and the three minority markets (mentioned above) also have considerable spending power - about 2.2 billion , so why would advertisers’ choose to ignore them? I'm confused (as a 23 year old market researcher), as to why advertisers would not try to expand their market in a time where ad budgets are shrinking and they need to get the most “bang for their buck”?

There were a few ads that I thought targeted and connected well with the 18-24 year old demo and they are the following:

CultureLab’s Top Superbowl Spots



1) Cash4Gold
2) Doritos
3) Bud Light (this only should connect with 21-24 year olds! LOL!)
4) Bridgestone
5) GoDaddy.com
6) Toyota*

The reason that I feel these commercials resonated with Gen Y is because of their quirky humor mixed in with their originality which us Gen Y-ers typically like. As with the Bud Light, Doritos and Bridgestone spots there was effective use of humor throughout the commercials. I also believe that they were able to connect to Gen Y because they made use of popular celebrities, such as MC Hammer (Cash4Gold), Danica Patrick (GoDaddy.com), and Conan O’Brien (Bud Light), which in this celebrity obsessed culture, resonates with young people today.

• I also want to give Toyota a BIG shout out for being the ONLY advertiser to display any form of multicultural sophistication. They ran a :30 ad from African American agency, Burrell Communications during game time. Toyota should be commended for using an African American targeted spot as a general market spot. It is frankly surprising that when 22% of the people who watched Superbowl XXXVIII are minorities, this is the only spot done from a multicultural point of view.

So here are the spots that in my view, did not deliver for my 18-24 year old set:


CultureLab’s Worst Five

1) Budweiser (the Clydesdale spots)
2) Coca-Cola
3) Pepsi
4) Hyundai
5) Denny’s

The reason that I chose these as the worst commercials is because they lacked excitement and were not particularly relevant to young people. For example, the Clydesdales did not relate to the product; many Superbowl viewers were too young to recall the older commercials referenced and weren’t able to connect the dots between the Clydesdales and Budweiser. Same thing with PepsiCo, where they tried to connect the past generations with the new generation by using Will.I.Am, but the music and pictures were only somewhat recognizable (I am not sure if anyone of my friends really know who Bob Dylan is), and therefore; hard to connect with me as a Gen Y-er. The Coca-Cola, Hyundai, and Denny’s commercials were just plain lackluster.

Overall, I thought the ads this year did a mediocre job at targeting 18-24 year olds, but did an even worse job connecting with multicultural 18-24 year olds. If corporations want to increase their chances for making their revenue targets in this incredibly challenged economic climate then they definitely should aspire to be more inclusive in their messaging and outreach.


To see the ads yourself, check it out at:http:// www.adage.com/article?article_id=134136


Footnotes:
http://www.quantcast.com/superbowl.com#demographics
http://www.lanzagroup.com/ultima-hora.php?id=403
http://www.targetmarketnews.com/storyid02050901.htm
http://www.quantcast.com/superbowl.com#demographics
http://www.harrisinteractive.com/NEWS/allnewsbydate.asp?NewsID=835
http://www.indusbusinessjournal.com/ME2/Audiences/dirmod.asp?sid=&nm=&type=Publishing&mod=Publications%3A%3AArticle&mid=8F3A7027421841978F18BE895F87F791&tier=4&id=E8CD3B33FC7543A5947D92FFFC477CAF&AudID=FEA03865A7CD48368F4997E1F3EE878E

Urban Elegance-Trend to Watch For!

In our Twenty Trends to Watch For in 2009 we made mention of a developing trend of African American/Urban elegance in fashion, and music videos. What jazz musicians used to call "clean" is back in vogue. Check out this new video from one of the godfathers of the progressive soul movement, Raphael Saadiq. It is retro yet modern which kind of describes what the new "urban elegance" is all about.

The Post Bush Era of Global Sobriety

Well, it is over and the real work begins. This has been a remarkable time for our business, for our nation, as well as the world. It has been an extreme time, as we watch the promise of a new year deteriorate into cancelled projects, whacked client budgets, and uncertain futures for businesses like ours. However, our experience is not unique, many American businesses and global businesses are faced with the same thing.

This is our new reality, and after listening to the new President’s inaugural address, it is most likely going to be worse. Welcome world to a new era of global sobriety. No more living on the credit cards, bottle service in the club, $5,000 Gucci handbags, home equity loans, etc. etc.

As marketers, we must face this new world of lower expectations, lessened consumerism, and consumers who are challenged to make ends meet. How are we to live? Or thrive even? Here is what is important for strategists, and marketers to consider:

1) The economy is not going to bounce back soon
2) Lower priced CPG’s will reign, and private label will surge
3) Branding advertising campaigns will lessen in importance, BTW, Pepsi just wasted millions of dollars on their new Happiness campaign!
4) Agencies who focus on direct, grassroots marketing, internet, CRM, and expanded niche markets will do well
5) Madison Avenue and The GOP must retool or they will die, non-diverse organizations will look out of touch in this new era.
6) You must really think globally and understand different cultures
7) Get comfortable doing business with the Fed as they will be the BIG spender these next few years
8) Don’t be selfish, the era of individualism and greed is over too, Gen Y has helped us understand collaboration better
9) Reward creative people. What better time to be creative than now. Be creative!!
10) Finally, this goes to my Latin American, European and Australian brothers and sisters, challenge yourselves to be like America and give YOUR immigrant groups, African descendents and indigenous people equal opportunities in business, advertising and media representation. America should not be the only example of success when it comes to equal opportunity.

We welcome your comments. Please post them!