my good friend marsi frey was the visual effects producer on this goodby silverstein & partners spot for HP.
the flow of the whole thing has such a slick pace that it actually has the feel of more substantial scripted entertainment. that’s right, the ad is entertaining.
(not surprising considering Goodby and Silverstein predict that brands will become the new networks, making advertising agencies more like Hollywood producers.)
cute.
we’re embarking on a new experiment for the winter issue of the do lab artist network publication. looking for animators/ motion graphics/ v-fx artists to participate.
full info here:
For the past year we have been producing a quarterly arts publication showcasing the diversity of artistic expression within, and relevant to, the Do LaB’s community. For our forthcoming issue we seek to spotlight the creative output from various sonic creators combined with that of visual effects, motion graphics, and animation artists.
Many talented musicians have submitted original music, and we are now seeking the rockstar visual artists in our midst interested in creating an interpretation, accompaniment, or re-envisioning of the music through THEIR eyes to complete this collaborative, cross-media experiment.
We are calling this an experiment because we have never attempted to do anything quite like this before, and are just as curious as you to discover where such a project can lead and what kind of dynamic creations it can inspire.
The end-results of this collaboration will be distributed to the Do LaB database and beyond, as well as screened at one of our upcoming events.
If this project sounds like something you would like to participate in, you can get all the info HERE.
this friday i will be part of the Marketing 101 panel at the StartupLA conference, an event “committed to building the startup community in Los Angeles.”
i’m really excited to be a part of it and share my insight, and i’m also excited that the organizers included this panel in the programming. marketing isn’t necessarily at the forefront of many technologists’ discussions, and precisely because of that, an opportunity to gain some understanding of the options and pitfalls in the current marketing landscape is crucial. (even if the understanding is just basic enough to glean that you could use a better understanding ;).)
after all, as any event producer knows, it doesn’t matter if you’ve booked the best music and curated the most amazing art, if no one comes to your party…it doesn’t matter.
my panel is at 3:35 on friday, october 26. for more info on the whole event visit: startuplaevent.com
worst case scenario, who would lose out if the music industry disappeared?
the fans and musicians would still be able to connect now that they have the internet to act as matchmaker. in fact, even huge acts such as Radiohead and NIN are starting to ditch their labels , cutting out the despotic middleman to regain more control over the relationship with their fans. so they would always have each other.
sure, the record *industry people* would lose out, but no one seems to really like them that much anyway, so that’s not really enough to rally around.
and then there’s the third element of this music ecosystem: brands. beyond being simply sensory crack, music is a significant community-creating, identity-defining force. often, it has been the primordial ooze from which new cultural shifts evolve. for brands (and hence the advertising/marketing industry) that need to speak to specific communities, facilitate the expression of specific identities, and that are affected by changing cultural tides, there is ALOT invested in this industry. and conveniently, the investment isn’t dependent on selling music.
from NPR’s on the beat:
Honda announced this week an online-advertising initiative that would generate $500,000 to $1 million for Sony/BMG. The advertising plans will include interactive video exposure for Avril Lavigne, Dido, Christina Aguilera, and Alicia Keyes.
For decades, artists and record labels scoffed at the notion that Madison Avenue would one day own the record business, but those days are over. Advertising agencies are now doing significant business with all the major labels, generating millions of dollars in income. This seismic philosophical shift was inevitable. As music sales began to recede, the market had to change.
so if you’re wondering about what’s going to “save” the music industry (and no, it’s not gonna be rick rubin’s ridiculous “subscription model” idea— i got mad love for rick as a producer, but give me a break), it can ONLY be a model that does not depend on the desperate idea of trying to sell something which can easily be copied for free.
that is the inevitable future of digital music recordings. face it. and rather than trying to rearrange the deck chairs on the titanic, or even worse, as the glitch mob’s justin boreta says, “getting rid of extra weight by sniping the passengers ,” the music industry ought to be focusing on how it can make this new model profitable.
it’s not fucking rocket science. after all, advertising figured it out. and now music has something that advertisers are in desperate search of: people’s attention. in a consumer landscape where all the standard channels for disseminating a message are fracturing, music still compels people’s attention and sustains that relationship like nothing else. music itself has become a channel. obviously one that needs to be treated differently than some kind of affiliate TV network, but a channel nonetheless.
and at the end of the day, artists stand to gain from this model too. according to on the beat:
While some bands would rather quit music than sell their songs to a commercial advertiser, many have made the transition with great ease. Money, of course, is a great motivator, but the secondary benefits of a strong advertising campaign can be equally important to an artist’s career. Consider this: In the past, hit songs got repeated commercial radio airplay in America, but with programming so tight, many artists will never achieve a hit record that way. Commercial radio programming is just too narrowcast.
So, artists have to look elsewhere for their exposure and TV advertising is the most effective way to generate mass awareness.
Putting a song in a car commercial still won’t get an artist a hit single, but millions will be exposed to their music.
As the Norwegian band Royksopp knows, selling the rights to a strong song can be enormously effective. Their track, Remind Me, has been used on many of the Geico “Caveman” commercials. Royksopp is not alone. The list of recent bands who sold their music for ad campaigns is amazing. Critical darlings like Postal Service, Bloc Party, Of Montreal, the Flaming Lips, MIA and Badly Drawn Boy are all on that list. And legacy artists can really cash in. Songs like Queen’s You’re my Best Friend to AT&T and the Rolling Stones‘ I’m Free to Chase have earned a pretty penny for these bands.
When done right, the advertisers add credibility to their brand in selecting the right songs. Target, Apple, Budweiser, Volkswagen and Motorola have all demonstrated excellent A&R sensibilities with their choice in song selections on TV ads.
For those naysayers, it’s important to remember that the artist makes the final decision whether to associate with a product or service.
And given that it’s impossible to watch more than a few minutes of ads, without a contemporary song cutting in, the artists are clearly comfortable with this change in the business marketplace.
tiffa novoa 1975 – 2007
heavy shit today.
tiffa (née tiffany ann snead) was not just a fashion designer, she invented an entire aesthetic style. she was not just one of the founding members of a notorious performance troupe, she helped to create an entire subculture. she wasn’t just a visionary artist, she was a force of nature whose ripple effects inspired, and will continue to inspire, her closest friends and countless, thousands, of people who are likely not even aware that this is the woman responsible for their inspiration.
i barely knew tiffa, and i can easily say that she affected the course of my life.
in the spring of 2004 i ran into an unusual-looking group of folks walking around venice beach. later i would describe the way this posse appeared at the time as superheroes in street clothes–from a street on a different planet. having previously worked with the dresden dolls in boston before moving out to LA, i had only one idea of what this gang could be. i went up to them and asked, “what are you guys? are you a band?”
the answer came back, “no. we are a circus.”
the group was called, simply, el circo.
two months later i found myself at a seminal event in the los angeles underground. it was a fashion show for onda designs at a downtown warehouse. the fashions were tiffa’s, though i had no idea who she was at the time, and the people i met that night, and would meet in the years after who had been involved with the production of that night, would become some of my dearest friends and colleagues. the name of the party was “VITAL.”
in the scrapbook i have from that year, full of flyers and other mementos, i still have a flyer for VITAL, and underneath it, in a bout of prescience that completely astonished me when i rediscovered it looking through the scrapbook a few months ago, i had written the words:
“THIS CHANGED EVERYTHING.”
so i had known even then.
i had known immediately.
seven months after VITAL i became the production manager for an LA-based circus troupe called lucent dossier, which was just two months old at the time. five months after that i was working with lucent and the do lab on redbull’s ascension event, getting a hands-on, crash-course education in culture marketing from the experts in the field. (that event was also the first time i actually worked with el circo, 1 year after meeting them on venice beach.)
the night that 2005 became 2006 i was at the new year’s eve party put on by madison house and anon salon where i watched the dresden dolls and el circo perform on the same stage.
a year and a half later i was developing the marketing strategy for the do lab’s lightning in a bottle music festival, on which el circo were very significant collaborators. and now, six months after that, i’m writing this post on my marketing website, getting so nostalgically lost in the mystical, cyclical serendipity of all these events, that it actually made me manage to forget for a moment why i sat down to write this post in the first place.
by the time i’d become involved in this whole circus, tiffa had moved on to a new design label, ernte fashion systems, moved to bali where the production was based, and become a significant couture force from paris to tokyo.
i know this because many of my friends who have themselves become designers and gone on to start fashion labels are her friends, her artistic progeny, and have been inspired by the path she blazed and the creative visions she wrought.
in a 2005 SF-Bay Guardian article on the effect that the various groups within the burningman community have had on san francisco nightlife, and west coast underground dance culture in general, the writer paid particular attention to the legacy of el circo:
El Circo has fused a musical style and a fashion sense that are major departures from the old rave scene.
El Circo [is credited] with creating the postapocalyptic fashions that many now associate with Burning Man. Most of the original El Circo fashions, which convey both tribalism and a sense of whimsy, were designed by member Tiffa Novoa, who has since hit it big with her Onda Designs.
….That fashion sense has carried over onto the streets and into the clubs of San Francisco, giving an open and otherworldly feel to many parties.
….It can also be a personally transformative experience. “At first, this was all costuming, but now it’s who I am,” says Matty Dowlen, who manages El Circo’s operations and looks like a cross between a carny, a hippie, and a trapper.
…. “A lot of the women in El Circo were some of the most beautiful in the world, and [Novoa] dressed them up to look even more beautiful,” [Electronic musician Random] Rab says, noting that it changed how the denizens of El Circo conceived of themselves. “One day everyone was all hippied out, and then they were all tribal and tattooed.”
…. El Circo strives to cultivate a new kind of culture and communal ethos.
she was one hell of a powerful being. powerful enough to create a vision of the world that was so mesmerizing it enchanted a whole subculture and even managed to redefine people’s sense of self.
my love goes out to all my friends who are mourning her loss. she will be greatly missed. what she has created will continue to inspire countless others to pursue their creative dreams. it is bigger than life–or death.
this changed everything.
update:
“Tiffa Novoa, whose legendary creative and artistic impact will be forever felt, will be honored in a public memorial next week. All who knew her or were impacted by her life are invited to come and share space and memory. If you have a piece of her clothing, please feel encouraged to wear it. Also, in order to relieve her family and close friends of the necessary finances of this event, there is a suggested donation of $10. After the reception there will be a potluck gathering at a near-by park in the Oakland Hills.”
Memorial Service:
Monday, Oct. 29th
1:00 to 2:30pm
Chapel of the Chimes
4499 Piedmont Ave
Oakland, CA 94611
(510)654-0123
