right after i’d written the cult of the gate-crasher post i found an op-ed video of sorts made for the wall street journal by scott karp, responding to the question of whether bloggers can be journalists, and i’ve been following him since.
“The word “blog” has way too much baggage — it’s too often equated with opinion. But a blog is just a content management system, and you can use it to publish shrill opinion, or you can use it to publish traditional journalism…or you can use it to publish journalistic reporting with a bit more point of view.”
he’s totally right. the word blog does have a lot of baggage, and i personally refuse to carry it even though i actually even have… you know… one of those things. i practically never say the word, and i certainly don’t think of myself as a “blogger.” (don’t take it personally, i went to burningman when i was 18, and am inextricably enmeshed in the burningman community in l.a., yet i refuse to say i’m a “burner” either. i’m equal opportunity when it comes to defining the difference between something i do, and who i am.)
what i am is a writer. and there happen to be quite a few other writers out there, with the same sort of approach to articulating a combination of insight and opinion, and publishing their writing using the same kind of content management system that i do. a blog IS just a content management system, and lumping all the people who use the same system into one category, rather than actually examining the difference in the content being produced, is kind of ridiculous.
in a lot of instances a blogger (that is, the content creator, not the system user in this case) is nothing different from what has traditionally been called a “columnist.” you know… opinionated and personal, yet creating something informative and entertaining enough to get to see the light of print. i mean… look at the layout of a blog! they all even LOOK like a column. there may be a nation of blogges out there who all use the same sort of content management system, but i think i’ll claim my allegiance to the nation of columnists.
the do lab’s hope flower, 2006
photo by: Natalia Valik
it’s the middle of summer. this means i’ve been spending time lately putting together the next issue of the Do Lab Artist Network. it started in the winter, when a ton of the producers we work with at the do were making noise about the new noise they were making, so i got the idea to put together an email from the dolab covering the latest moves happening in the music in our music-driven scene. i realized even then that if we were to do this on a quarterly basis, we could time the spring issue to coincide perfectly with the peak of promotions for lightning in a bottle, the do’s music festival. it just so happened that there were a bunch of new videos (music and doc-stylie) coming out of our community at that time, so the spring issue was dedicated to this multimedia explosion. with LIB over, and my move to a freelance lifestyle giving me insomnia, i started sharing work space with skin.graft designs in an effort to curb the sensation that my home was my office, hoping this would get me back to sleeping normally. it’s no surprise then that summer is going to be the do lab artist network “vogue” issue with a focus on fashion designers/photographers.
as always any do lab project inevitably becomes more than just the sum of its parts. (the do motto is “go big” after all). a great part of the reason that i cherish what i get to do with the do is that at its most profound, my ideas and projects develop into all sorts of insights on everything from branding, to campaign strategy, to business organization, the artist network publication is now no exception.
for the past seven years the do has been producing events, and in the past couple of years is when the scale of these productions has begun to grow exponentially. we now count such companies as redbull, scion, lexus, and the coachella music festival among our portfolio of clients (and before the fall issue of the artist network comes out we will have added summer sonic festival in japan, electric picnic in ireland, virgin festival in baltimore, and that’s all i can keep track of so far). on top of this we are still also producing our own events. we had our biggest creation ever (LIB) go down just a couple of months ago. creating events for our community is what the dolab was doing before any big corporate brands ever knew our name, and it’s still where our heart is and always will be.
what we do isn’t just about entertainment. it’s about taking people’s breath away. people come to our events to have visions, make discoveries, get inspired, fall in love, (among other things you don’t mention in polite company). we design super dynamic, interactive environments, and our creations move people. it’s hard to describe what it’s like to see people ride up to the giant hope flower, and look up at this insanity that was pulled out of the ether of magic and heavy machinery, speechless, tears streaming uncontrollably down their faces.
then a funny thing happens when you are the consistent purveyor of epic, life-changing, reality-bending experiences… you end up developing a very dedicated and suuper engaged community.
people not only keep coming back to event after event, but people spend the time in between telling their friends about it, or talking to the new friends they made there about it. people become interested not just in participating in the experience, but in actually being a part of the creation process itself. our events run on an army of volunteers, and everything we build is the result of a kaleidoscope of collaboration. the fact that an event production crew said “sure, let’s do it,” when i suggested we start an arts publication is testament to this collaborative spirit.
(…. and thank god that segue brings us back to the point–i was getting so far into back-story exposition there, i was kind of getting worried about how i’d be able to suavely transition us back to the action. did you notice?)
in the process of brand development there are elements that are the well-established usual suspects. experience and design are crucial, “content is king,” and community is…. well, you know. but there is such a vital element that is so often neglected.
culture.
in all the time i worked at house of blues, the only kind of communications we ever sent out to our huge database of avid music fans were emails bugging them to buy tickets. there’s a never-ending stream of popular musicians touring through the clubs at any given moment, and yet the idea of leveraging these relationships with culture creators into, say, a house of blues publication, that could, for instance, offer its readers exclusive interviews with the artists, conducted over drinks after soundcheck…. would have been considered ridiculous. instead it was all just emails about show pre-sales and desperate reminders. cuz what would a concert promotion company get out of becoming a publisher, right? (you know… just thinking about the out of control drinks at the house of blues restaurant–a chocolate vodka concoction that sips like an alcoholic tiramisu, margaritas that are so whipped you’ll feel like any other margarita is cheating on you thereafter–i’d be down to read an interview even with the bartenders.)
anyway…something really strange and amazing happened to the open rates on do lab emails that we were sending out leading up to our music festival. they kept getting better with each one! which is unheard of in the land of event reminder emails. the difference between the kind of “reminders” that the do sends vs. house of blues–or, i suppose, really any other major concert promoter–is that we make sure to approach each communication with our community as not just another opportunity to send a banner ad into their inbox, but as culture creation. that is, a transmission of the aesthetics, sound, news, and values of the community.
not like hiring the words “culture” and “marketing” as a team to model your brand’s latest collection is all that new. in fact, no less a sage than faith popcorn has already hailed “culture as the new medium,” pointing out that in the future (and by that i mean, you know… the present) brands need to find ways to “embed” themselves within culture to stay relevant and competitive, and that considering a “culture plan” is just as important as a “media plan.” culture marketing, however, depends on the process of co-opting existing culture. and hey, i’m not knockin’ that. the hippies, hipsters, and hiphop-sters are all equally entitled to free redbull, and brand logos on their flyers. it’s all love, baby, fo sho. but i’m not talking about “embedding” your brand into culture here. (most “sponsorship” at this point has devolved into essentially nothing more than just getting a new place to put a billboard.) this post is called “create culture.”
it’s about brands being platforms of cultural expression. in the ballyhooed (what the hell kind of word is ballyhoo?) future where “brands are the new networks, and advertising agencies are like Hollywood producers” you can think of culture as… cable. mtv, in fact, is THE perfect example of a brand creating culture. (in case you didn’t really think i meant that the concept should be applied literally, you’re wrong.)
ok, but not every brand is mtv or house of blues or even the do lab for that matter, that has cultural content literally walking through its doors, right? and by the same token, not all cultural content is created equally relevant to your particular community (though music is almost always a good place to start). either way, it’s not necessarily about brands needing to create their own proprietary cultural content (we’ve totally got enough of that already, thanks). but perhaps partnering with culture creators to license their stuff would be a direction to consider. after all, the do lab artist network is not us stroking our own egos on our decor and lighting designs, it’s about the many varied cultural creators relevant to our community.
culture not only facilitates communication within a community–it is a medium for expression and communication at its core, after all–but it’s a way to build brand value! think of it like the advanced level you get to in the game after you beat the koopa at the end of the “creating community” level. and this level involves giving something back.
you know, back in the day, people used to get dressed up to fly on an airplane? it wasn’t simply about getting from point a to point b, it was actually–before the concept even really existed in the kind of marketing sense it does today–an experience. same like when movie theaters were once movie “palaces” and likewise, banks were too. participating in this space-age activity of flight somehow commanded respect for the sheer wonder of human mastery over the laws of physics themselves.
now, the entire process of flying is like the biggest pain in the ass ever, ranging in degree of horror from irritating teeth cleaning to root canal without anesthesia. it may still be the safest way to travel, or whatever, but the whole experience is so fucking antiquated, it’s like…who cares? i mean… everything about it is a holdover from a bygone era, from those arm rests that still have ash trays built in, to the whole centralized process of having to get to an airport. somehow, in comparison to, for example, having to drive for three hours to get to the closest commercial airplane from santa barbara, even the NYC subway system is more progressive in terms of the decentralization of its accessibility.
and that’s all before i even bring up the T-E-R-R-O-R-I-S-M thing.
wasn’t the teleporter supposed to have already been invented by this point?
anyway, short of that, it’s nice to know that someone out there’s giving any kind of crap about addressing the fact that the air-travel experience that once upon a time carried as much weight as dressing up for sunday mass has essentially turned into the equivalent of taking a greyhoud in the sky.
thanks boeing, for–at least coming off like you’re–taking this issue seriously. we’ll see how well it flies (badumching).
maybe boeing should start its own airline? but they’re probably way too smart to think about dealing with all THAT noise.
** side note, speaking of antiquated, i’d just like to reiterate again, how ridiculous it is that all the brands and publications out there producing dynamic online content INSIST on chaining it down to their sites, without considering any way to let that shit move, by making sure it’s branded and embeddalbe. (i had to go looking for the video on youtube instead of being able to get the code right on the boeing site.**
we’ve been getting quite a bit of coverage in the wake of LIB. a lot of traditional press, a decent bit of blogosphere attention, and a ton of photos (both press and ugc stylie). there are also a couple really great videos that have gotten me to thinking about the future of online media content, and even an idea that could help the desperate newspaper industry in the online space.
(side note: while everyone’s busy making a big deal about the alleged online video revolution that seems always to be coming, and yet never really arriving, i’m casting a vote for the multimedia slideshow revolution instead. it’s an especially great medium for documentary and journalistic expression, as we’ve been primed on it with pbs and history channel specials. and within the context of online usage, it’s a medium that feels more liberating than online video yet still totally engaging. it allows you to comfortably go off and do other online activities while still being able to take the audio of the piece along with you, and lets you return to the visual part at any time without feeling like you’ve missed anything. it’s kinda like the more versatile “to go” option for the online viewing experience. you can both take your coffee with you on your way or stick around at the coffee shop with your “to go” cup, but online video is the more commitment-requiring ceramic mug you get “for here.”)
crap, that was a really long aside. but maybe i can tie it in after all…
see i liked eric’s slideshow so much because i really feel it managed to capture the breadth of what this event was all about, that i asked to use it for the LIB myspace and website. when i inquired about embedding it, however, the answer from the powers that be at the ventura county star was that all we could get was a url:
http://gallery.venturacountystar.com/videoPlay.cfm?videoID=36
the idea, i’m told, is that the ventura county star wants to keep the content on their site in order to get the traffic over there. the tragic flaw in this logic is that a random link just does not scream “yo! i’m highly dynamic content, i’ve got lots of pretty pictures, and interesting information, you should check me out.”
by keeping the really engaging stuff locked to their site, instead of allowing it to act as a mobile ad “unit” to lead people to the site, they’re kind of shooting themselves in the foot.
i suggested possibly creating a branded frame that could be embedded around the video content, and tonight, this arrived from metrowize.net, like venus from the foam of my suggestion…
brightcoveis was totally on the ball with this branded frame bit. [edit: this component of the embed has stopped functioning since i originally made this post. no idea why.] do any of the other video hosting/sharing services out there allow you to do that? they should all be looking into it. cuz the future of online media is gonna require that it has to be able to move! trapping your content on your site is just a waste of effort. if you’da made it emeddable, link-backable, and let your audience itself disseminate that shit far and wide, that WOULD help you generate traffic!
LIB07 went off with nary a hitch, and wild success a week ago…finally! i liken the process of working on a music festival to going through labor with 20+ people for 5 months, and when the baby’s delivered it graduates, and moves off to college.
so we ushered LIB off, and in the aftermath, as per usual, i got insanely sick. full on can’t-get-out-of-bed sick, the ground moves when i get up sick, my sinuses are on a rampage sick, there’s a symphony in my lungs sick, etc…. this generally happens after every big production. back when i was managing the circus, we would all get sick after big performances, as if on cue. maybe it’s a matter of immunity being the first to get dumped overboard once the momentum throws a mutiny, or maybe it’s a matter of the celebratory champagne bottles that get passed around the whole crew at the end of the weekend. either way…. it’s been like that for the past week, and i am finally now starting to head in the direction of health once again.
there is a LOT of new news coming up in the next couple of weeks. changes are afoot, and on their heels are a some new projects that i’m gonna be wrapping my head around–and hopefully, a few of them are going to be MY projects, which should also be an exciting change.
– – –
until THEN, however…. i wanted to make a belated little mention here about…
the Spring 2007 Do LaBAritst Network email that we put out just one day before the festival doors opened. in the ensuing madness i didn’t have a chance to post anything about it here before, but it’s something i’m tremendously proud of, and keep getting prouder of with each issue. (this is the second. the first one came out in Winter 07). we put out this online arts publication showcasing the best of the creativity emerging from the Do Lab’s community on a quarterly basis and i’m very happy to be able to report that as the Do LaB’s email list keeps growing (now, a full 30% larger than it was back when we did the first issue of the AN, just 4 months ago), our open and click-thru rates get higher and higher. the Spring AN email, featuring some kick-ass videos, had the highest open & click thru rates of any of our emails, with almost 3 times as many people actually checking it out as did the first one).
and furthering the community- generated direction that this project is heading, the design for this issue of the AN was created by the winner of the LIB Poster Contest, Albertico Acosta. having different graphic artists within the community participate in creating the AN is definitely something i’d like to continue. albertico’s winning poster entry (chosen by the community’s vote):
