John Winsor

Rolling Rock Does it Again

Once again, Goodby, Silverstein shows how to use YouTube as a powerful adversiting medium.

Just Right...

I hadn’t stayed at a Kimpton Hotel for at least a year until I stayed the last couple of nights at the Monoco in San Francisco. I love the Monoco. Kimpton has established itself as a leader in what I call the “Just Right” category. The hotel’s are not too hip but not too unhip, they’re just right. They are not too expensive but not too cheap, they’re just right. Being just right, or being relevant is the new cool. Is your brand just right for your customer’s ever changing needs?

The Rise of the Regular Guy

Have you noticed that this season’s male runway models are sporting a new aesthetic. They’re not the steroid-laced uber-mench with buldging muscles, the waif thin heroin models or the over manicured metrosexual. They’re regular guys.

“We’re not just designing for a small specialty audience, we’re designing for guys in Illinois,” says John Crocco creative director at Perry Ellis.

It’s about time!

What is Community?, #7

From Ed Magee at Harley-Davidson:

1. The invisible bonds that tie people together—the tangible outcome of passion in a product, service, or institution
2. Products, services, experiences, or events that create a sense of family in its participants
3. The left-handed, two finger wave that you received from other Harley-Davidson riders.

What is Community? #6

From the ever thoughtful Henry Beer of Communication Arts:

My basic thesis as I told you is that true community-deep and enduring community not the community of ease and convenience--
the kind of community that fought WWII, isn’t the result of independence (people willingly aggregating for convenience or mutual interests or benefits. Real, enduring community is the by-product of interdependence. Without absolutely needing others, we create the synthetic forms of Community seen all around us today. It bears a resemblance to the difference between “life” which is real and “lifestyle” which is an artificial construct.

Community is, on one hand, deep in our lizard brains. On the other hand, the first thing we do when we can afford it is create distance. In an affluent society like ours in most circumstances we don’t really need anybody. We can buy or facilitate anything we want. Curiously, when people achieve that state of not truly needing anyone they find that it is not satisfying. It is somehow empty and impoverished in a way they’d never anticipated. They long for “community,” which is rather like longing for simplicity and parsimony in the midst of a ridiculously complex and affluent lifestyle.

I always enjoy watching footage of victims of mud slides in Santa Monica. The “victims” are invariably affluent people who haven’t intersected The Big “R” (Reality) in years and are incredulous as they come face to face with something that could give a shit about whether or not you’re a 1K or have a Black Platinum AmEx card. Watching them bond with their fellow victims, people they’ve never shared a word with, is always remarkable because for the first time, they really need somebody! You can argue that the most powerful community are forged when together a great obstacle is surmounted (the barn was finally raised or the fire was put out) a battle was won (look at the “community of players who’ve triumphed or the soldiers who made it through the battle) These are bonds that aren’t evanescent. They last a lifetime.

John, this is the short version. I would also direct you to Google “communitarianism,” a movement started in the early 80’s by a guy named Emilio Etzioni. There are about a hundred links that really go deep into the subject. Here’s one of my favorite sites on the subject: http://www.cpn.org/tools/dictionary/communitarian.html

Do Influentials Really Influence Anybody?

Francois posts about a couple of new research reports that point to the fact that influenctials might not have as much influence as we believe.

My hunch is that the world of influencing is much more complicated than we think it is. Case in point. I've been watching the company Lululemon and the rise of yoga clothing with interest as an emerging trend. Yet, I thought they only made women's clothing. Recently, two friends, both designers, showed up with very interesting, but different, jackets. I asked both where they had gotten their jackets. They both had discovered Lululemon from their wives and really liked the men's clothing and the brands story. Well, I had to check it out. And, indeed, they were right.

No matter how much advertising Lululemon did I would have never walked in the store without being inspired by my friends.

Influence does work.