June 9, 2008
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Has skate culture picked up where Hip Hop left off? It's still one of the last refuges of “authentic” cool. And suffice to say that any popular pastime whether it’s Hip Hop or video games becomes fertile ground for marketers. And adding advertising rarely makes the past time any more compelling than it previously was, and more often the commercialism both detracts and alters the thing that it has descended on. This is one of the causes of the current crisis that has befallen Hip Hop; its current commercialism versus its original authenticity.
But skate still has an underground edge which gives marketers something on which to hang their brands hat. But not all brands in skate are alien to the culture. And is one big reason why it is holding up so well; its core of authenticity.
Brands like even Vans, or Supreme and etnies are not so pimped as to alienate their core. To speak to the core about the core I had quick conversation with Jay Maldonado (pictured at work) who is the Influence Marketing Manager for skate brand etnies:
John Pasmore: How long have you been skating?
Jay Maldonado: For about 18-20 years
JP: And how did you end up working for etnies?
JM: I had a friend who was brand manager for eSfootwear and they needed a team manger so he called me. I went through the lines of interviews and landed the job. After a year at the position, another position opened up in the marketing department so I transferred. Now I rep all the brands, etnies, eS, Emerica, 32snowboots, and Altamont Apparel.
JP: Now that you’ve lived on both coasts what makes New York skating different from California?
JM: They’re both very different, but in regards to skating, well we (East Coast) have many more elements to deal with like bad weather, and not so prefect skate spots. Because of these elements we have a bit of a different style cause we have to adapt to these conditions.
JP: Are brands like etnies associated with one coast or a particular style of skating?
JM: I don't believe we are associated with one coast ‘cause we have skaters worldwide. However if there is one particular style of skating I would say street skating for sure more, we’re more of your core skater kid, sneaker brand.
JP: It seems that we see an awful lot of West Coast skate culture on MTV and television in general, why do you think that is?
JM: The culture has grown cause of X Games, plus you have artists like Pharrell and Lupe Fiasco so our audience has grown outside of your core skaters because of the presence on TV.
JP: As skate culture moves into shopping malls is there a danger that like hip hop it could become too commercial and loose credibility with its core audience?
JM: I think yes, it kind of has affected the skate industry – bigger companies stepping in buying other companies up. The core skaters love skating cause it's self fully and it’s only the skater themselves who go commercial or skate brands that go commercial and loose their core audience. As for the sport it'll never lose its core.
JP: Was Hip Hop ever at the center of skate culture?
JM: Yea in some ways or another. In my personal experiences I would say during the mid 90's it's seemed to be very strong!
JP: Who are your skate icons?
JM: This one is a tough cause their so many. I never view them as icons but the ones I respect are.
Steve Rodriguez
Keith Huf (Hafnagel)
Keenan Milton (RIP)
Jeff Pang
Harry Jumonji
Jeremy Henderson
JP: What movie best captures the culture?
JM: I would have to say "Kids" in some sorts, that’s if you’re talking about culture. Then again California has their own interpretation for skate culture.
JP: Snow boarding is often mentioned in the same sentence as skating in terms of reaching a similar audience, are the two audiences the same?
JM: There is a fine line, but there is some sort of a cross over.
JP: What music or bands do you most associate with East Coast skating?
JM: Hip Hop
JP: What’s the funniest thing you ever saw a skater do?
JM: Hit a pole ‘cause he was pointing out some chick in the street.
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June 1, 2008
10:36 pm | 1 recommendation | Be the first to comment
Image: Gill Linton (left) and Rupert Newton (right) co-founders of The Joneses.
I am an addict when it comes to media consumption. I read a wide range of everything and the Internet has only further enabled my addiction. But, I’m also fascinated by how marketers use media as the messenger or environment for their messages and how they evaluate media.
There is a quantitative aspect to media that is very apparent at agencies and not so much with many content creators. So rather than use this space for my thoughts on the more strategic side of media and marketing, I talked to an expert who I met during my time within the Russell Simmons empire. Gill Linton from the Joneses.
John Pasmore: Would you consider yourself an advertising expert?
Gill Llinton: My friend is an expert advertising witness in a court case at the moment - I could do that.
JP: You’re British, that’s apparent with your accent, how did you end up in New York?
GL: I was approached to be the head of planning at dRush, the agency created by Russell Simmons and Donny Deutsch to merge authentic pop culture with the ad business - hard to say no to that, or New York for that matter. I wanted to do more than develop advertising and at the time the concept behind dRush was a rare opportunity for me to do that.
JP: Was dRush focused on just urban efforts or was the goal to produce work facing a general market audience as well?
We created work based on people's attitude regardless of their demographic.
Did you feel that not having a background in “urban” culture was any type of hindrance in speaking to brands?
We were more focused on creating popular culture than any distinction between 'urban' and 'general market'. I don't think Russell would have given me the job if I didn't have a good understanding of brands and how to make them a credible part of culture. Having said that, I was surrounded by a great team of people originally from Def Jam who kept me in check.
JP: Your current company, The Joneses, focuses on strategy. Traditionally advertising happens in silos where strategy is separate from creative, which is separate from media buying, etc. With The Joneses you ideally want to be integrated in the entire process. Am I getting that right? Or perhaps you can explain how The Joneses works with a brand or agency in a perfect world.
The single biggest communications challenge today is creating a brand idea that can be brought to life in new ways. The ad industry has spent decades creating one-dimensional brand ideas with a linear strategic process, and that has to change. It’s why we combine brand strategy and communication strategy into one function, where both disciplines work together, like a creative team, to produce a Creative Strategy. We call it the ‘new creative team’ because it’s a new way of working - instead of separating strategy out by discipline, department or agency - we merge the two skills into one simultaneous creative process.
When The Joneses work on a brief we decide what the brand stands for and how that should come to life before creative development, whether that's digital, point of purchase innovations, content, the role of PR, revenue generating ideas, paid for advertising, and exactly how it all works together.The conventional linear process starts with the brand strategist working out a space for the brand, then typically creatives will express this as a tag line, the communications planner will then be given the creative work and tasked with figuring out how to distribute it and then PR and promotions get briefed. The traditional advertising idea is basically baton-passed down the line, which the industry has always done. The difference now is that the process as been re-framed with new buzzwords. In our experience you can’t break the habit with ad-hoc, loose collaborations between different agencies; the brand strategist and communication strategist have to tangibly work on the brief as a permanent team, where the client sees development of their Creative Strategy as one function, not two competing voices.
JP: Over the past seven or eight years here in the United States what do you see as the most striking change in the advertising landscape – outside of the development of the Internet which is kind of obvious.
Advertising used to be a unique way for telling a brand story very quickly in a restricted space, now that it’s unrestricted, every aspect of a business becomes about the brand narrative, not just the ads. Brands have started using their packaging more creatively to tell a story creating their own media, not just design it to function well and look good on the shelf. Otherwise, I don't think things have changed enough beyond the Internet. The industry has spent a lot of time repositioning itself and creating buzzwords to describe new approaches to marketing beyond advertising, than it has actually doing it.
There's a lot of talk about integration, communications planning, aka connections planning aka engagement planning. But, aside from a few exceptions, I don't think the industry has moved significantly beyond amplification of advertising ideas, where the media is just another place to stick the ad message rather than creating new media ideas that bring the brand message to life in a unique way. Virals, pop up stores, stunts and street teams isn’t anything new these days. Having said that, it's a quality argument at the end of the day - how you do something is more important that what you do. It’s the tactical amplification of ad ideas that frustrates us.
JP: Do you think print is dead?
Alvin Toffler in 1962 declared (in a book) that the practice of printing ink on dead trees was "the last smokestack industry" and would die. But I’d argue that an industry that issued 14,000 news titles in 1927 that has reached 120,000 today and rising is a phenomenal success.The decline of newspaper sales is well documented and the business model of their web sites is replacing dollars with pennies, at the moment, but these are incredibly powerful brands with serious international news gathering infrastructures and real gravitas. So it's not dead, it's evolving. The Guardian now has more readers online in the US than it has in the UK, and you just have to look at the amount of video on most newspaper websites to see how they are starting to compete with broadcasters like CNN and network news programs.
JP: How do you see hip-hop evolving from where it is today?
There are two hip-hop worlds, the culture and the marketing machine that exploits it. I think most of the unrelated brands that exploit it rather than being inspired by it, (and some related brands for that matter), reinforce the clichés instead of its creativity. I know sales of hip-hop music have been in decline, what I don’t know is if it’s just been dispersed into other genres. Now that Timbaland produces for everyone from Madonna to Duran Duran, do their raps count as hip-hop too? If it did, sales would probably be doing better than ever. So my point is that hip-hop is appropriated everywhere and the marketing machine is still quick to cash in on its popularity. My personal hope is that it will regain some of that organic creativity that Russell lead, before we knew what hip-hop was. I’d love to have been part of that.
JP: We tend to think of the British influence as being generally highbrow with the BBC and Tina Brown, although "Maxim" is a UK export and that’s not so highbrow, but do you see British media and advertising as having any significant impact on the current state of media or advertising in the US?
I think America is much more open to British creative talent, who then become part of American culture - from writers to comedians - than the other way round. Britain tends to import American culture, repackage it and then sell it back. Of course we practically invented reality TV that's had a huge impact (sorry about that). And I guess we'll always be the go to country for the Hollywood bad guy. That should make up for reality TV.
JP: Do you think that going “Green” is a still good strategy for brands or have so many companies tried that path that it’s becoming a cliché?
It only feels like a cliché because it's new and brands are adapting to the shift in culture. Green is going to become - and should become - standard business operating procedure. As for marketing ‘green’, it reminds me of that Curb Your Enthusiasm episode where Larry and Ted Danson both donated a large amount of money to a good cause - Larry bragged about it, Ted didn't, and people thought more highly of Ted because he didn't brag about it - it seemed more sincere. Brand sincerity, or rather the lack of it, is an obvious issue. For me the problem is that brands aren't thinking about what green means uniquely to them now, or in the near future when every brand is also 'green' - but frankly that's a problem for brands in general, green or otherwise, their strategies are never unique enough - that's just my opinion.What we are seeing at the moment is, thankfully, the last throes of bad marketers cynical, superficial adoption of an emerging trend - it's one of the least inspiring things about working in marketing, a lack of imagination and honesty.
JP: Who do you think is doing the best work in the US advertising business?
There's a reason, three years on that Dove still gets the credit for having one of the best strategies. When the product isn't entirely unique, there are few brands that have established a bigger cultural role for themselves. In our experience, most strategies actually limit the potential of the brand and in general, marketing isn’t held to the same quality standards as the product it’s selling.
JP: Who’s executing the smartest strategy?
It’s equally telling that Apple still has that title. Their strategy is to make products that don't require an instruction booklet and they deliver on it every time. ‘Inside Steve’s Brain’, is a great read. It explains how Apple’s success isn’t based on rigid process or consumer research but creative freedom, (and because Jobs is a perfectionist). How many times have we all been asked by clients to make them the Apple of their category, and what’s our ‘process’ to get them there and do consumers think it’s right. The brands that are successful either financially or culturally (or both) aren't always the ones with a great brand strategy but a great product - Wholefoods, Zipcar, Apple - their marketing is driven by the product. I'm not suggesting that’s a bad thing it obviously works. I do foresee a time when resting on the laurels of products or visual identity won't be enough and innovator brands will need to stand for something much more in culture beyond the product itself.I have to give a nod to Opening Ceremony, they know with who and how to do collaboration really well at all levels, from Top Shop to Acne Jeans to Chloe Sevigny and artists and musicians too. As arbiters of style and culture they get the balance of art and commerce exactly right every time.
JP: Do you think the efforts to integrate brands into hip-hop or music generally damaged the credibility of the music?
Hip-hop is so mass market that I don't think the average music fan, where the volume comes from, really cares. Do they think Jay Z is a sell out for singing about Nike, or consider the business of branded music when they buy into an artist and their music? I doubt it. It's when brands hire an artist to write a hip-hop track, or any style of music for that matter, about their product that damages everyone’s credibility. For the brand it's the equivalent of watching your dad dance - some brands and agencies just have a credibility chip missing. The reason 'Pass the Courvoisier' became a hit record was because Busta discovered the story we created behind the brand and wrote the song without outside influence, not for a paycheck.People place a value on art and music being commercial free for good reason, Art and music is supposed to be an uninhibited, personal look at the way we live. To be truthful that has to be free of outside influence.
JP: Will music be free to consumers by subsidizing the cost with advertising?
Off the top of my head I don't know how people like RCRD LBL are doing, whether it's scalable and whether the ad revenue replaces the retail revenue. I read somewhere that Radiohead said they won't be doing a repeat of In Rainbows, so you'd have to assume that model doesn’t work, even for one of the biggest bands in the world. You know, there is a whole industry trying to figure this one out, and I do believe that at some point the culture will shift and people's attitude and acceptance of downloading stuff without paying and file sharing will become a bit like smoking, it was kinda cool now it's not. I personally hope music won’t be free. I think creativity should be respected and people take things for granted when it's free; also I don’t think the ad industry are the right people to make it happen credibly. Dad will be dancing at that party too. (p.s. I just bought the new Portishead album on vinyl. It *does* sounds better)
JP: What’s the most common mistake you see in advertising strategy?
Strategy has its fashions just like anything else, right now it's ‘Your Brand Your Way’ and the current obsession with putting the consumer in control. There’s a big difference between involving consumers and saying, ‘here we are, we have no point of view, do what you want with us’. A powerful, long lasting brand has it's own point of view, is polarizing and charismatic - which the brand is in control of. I think a lot of the stuff you see out there at the moment is strategically insipid.
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May 16, 2008
09:08 am | 0 recommendations | 1 comment
So the Kindle is clunky. It comes only in white. And it is several times bigger than most portable devices we carry (phone, Blackberry, camera, iPod, etc). That's three strikes right there. But the Kindle does one thing really well, it allows you to read a book virtually wherever and whenever you want save a completely dark room (there is no back-light). I doubt I would have ever bought the Kindle myself at $399, but as a gift it's been a blessing and now I would buy one. Sold.
Why? Because as much as I love bookstores, getting to one is not always convenient and getting the right book, say at the airport, is not always possible. But more than that, the Kindle does something that's harder to measure than just convenience. Just as the iPod encourages music consumption, the Kindle encourages a reader to buy more books (and newspaper and magazine subscriptions).
Living in New York City and already burdened with a "portable" computer and relentless paper that must be carried day in and out, a book and or even a newspaper seems to get lost in the triage of loading up for the day. Books are heavy and there is never any guarantee that I will have time to read it or be in the mood to read that particular book. With the Kindle I can carry several books and my Wall Street Journal subscription, and surf the web wherever Sprint has service (virtually everywhere in the United States).
So how could the Kindle, a book reader, ever assault the iPod? Well, it already has an "experimental" music player that allows you to listen to music while you read (via headphones or through the speaker). And because of its large screen and full keyboard it can potentially have much more functionality than a current iPod. For instance, you wouldn't want to edit a Word document on the iPod screen.
And the Kindle could be a killer app with a very important demo. If the Kindle can find a way to load up all those textbooks that students drag around it will win this audience. And if that audience becomes Kindle-ized then the iPod has an issue. A big issue.
Buy one or at least try one. Amazon only has about 120,000 books in inventory at the moment, but I think we all see where this could go given Amazon's on-line inventory.
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October 17, 2007
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Lots of ink has been spilled over Che Guevara becoming an icon here in the center of the capitalist world, the United States that is. Che was executed on October 9th of 1967 and some 40 years later I'll add a bit more ink.
Reading Che's speech to the UN in 1964 one sees little reason why an average American would want to sport a Che T-Shirt. He condemned this country as an overbearing imperialist power. Yet today wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with his image is a 'downtown' fashion staple. But why would Che be fashionable?
US teens enjoy much of what Che would have opposed. The idea of individual wealth is not something we often question, so from $100 sneakers to time-churning video game machines, US youth seem somewhat out-of-step with Che’s Marxist 'buy only what you need' ideals. That is just not our current credo here in the States. That said, the picture of Che we so often see is a great image. The photo was taken by Cuban photographer Alberto Korda.
Che is fashionable because today the social and political revolutions that roiled the '60s have been replaced by others such as the technological revolution, which is for sale. And the symbols of Che's era from Chairman Mao to the Soviet-style iconography used to hawk high-priced vodka have morphed from symbols of Enemies of the State, to some that offer a simple nostalgia for another time with a kind of soft rebellion built-in sans the intellectual or political ramifications. And as Apple’s now famous Orwellian "1984" commercial illustrated, selling to the rebel in us all can create big bucks.
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August 26, 2007
11:14 pm | 1 recommendation | 1 comment
The urban online community dipped well before the urban music industry. The urban online effort crumbled with the rest of the dot-bust in 2001. But several recent sites signal that Urban 2.0 is on the horizon.
Soundblaze calls itself, "the first private network for the music industry." But from what I've seen of the still in Beta site, it will be much more than that. It comes complete with a very robust offering for consumers, and is built by music and marketing industry veteran Chuck Baker and his team. Impressively, much the same team that took aim at the space with Urban Box Office at the turn of the century. While the site still sits behind an invite-only wall, their blog The Blaze Report is keeping the industry humming.
And then there is Global Grind. Another walled-off offering still in Alpha. Rumor has it that Russell Simmons is helping to incubate the project, which seems to be a form of portal-play.
Add to that the robust redux of All Hip Hop, the current King of urban on-line by most measures. The re-designed site now joins the Internet-as-Television revolution with a much more robust streaming media offering. Speaking of television You Are TV, is not necessarily urban-focused and not in Beta, but is developed by entrepreneur/programmer David Dundas, who the urban community can claim even if he's not calling what he does "urban." YouAreTV is a solid general market play, and that's a smart strategy given the ubiquity of cross-over culture.
All this in of itself would be an impressive set of developments with this just being a few that have crossed my desk. Then the 800lb gorilla, Joost, developed by the founders of Skype, with an impressive $45 million round under the belt, added the Urban 1.0 brand 88HipHop to their channel selection, giving Randy Nkonoki-Ward a very solid platform to work with. The Joost experience will have people turning off their televisions.
Who knows what will come out of these Alpha's and Beta's, but it looks good. And is equally good to see Urban 1.0 executives back at it with improved products and, I'm sure, a healthy respect for all-important robust revenue models needed to power-up these businesses.
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June 23, 2007
08:26 pm | 1 recommendation | 17 comments
To anyone who follows the music business the fact that Hip Hop sales have tanked is not a surprise. A USA Today article illuminates the swoon with sobering statistics: Hip Hop sales are off over 43% of their high in year 2000. That Hip Hop is down is widely understood, but "why" is hotly debated. There is more than one factor at work. (Photo of Run DMC by Ricky Powell)
First off Hip Hop's success in selling records was driven by the core audience of Black consumers. That audience is intact. They may buy fewer CD's, but they still listen to Hip Hop.
The driver for multi-platinum sales was not only appealing to the core, but getting lots of non-Black kids to buy in as well. Here is where the problem begins. One need only watch HBO's Entourage to get the idea that white kids, have adopted the culture to such an extent that they don't really need the "authentic" version. They have their own. DJ AM, who appeared on the show is a good example of how to be Hip Hop without being Black. This new non-Black Hip Hop head has taken the swagger and left some of the music behind. They can listen to rock just as easy to Hip Hop, and to demonstrate their keen kinship to the culture they go out of their way to listen to who's next in Hip Hop as opposed to who's pop.
One need only look at the days in rock in the late 70's as the powerhouse bands like Led Zeppelin and the Rolling Stones faded. Their replacements were no match for disco. But rock didn't die. It evolved.
USA Today goes on to mention over-commercialization with the endorsements and product placements, etc. But with the whole world trying to understand where and how they want to listen to music (and how much to pay), the commercialization theory takes a back seat to these bigger and more fundamental issues.
One need only step into a club or even a department store to note that there are still some very good hooks in the music. But to take it back to the top, Hip Hop needs its next Puffy, Tupac and Jay Z. The ingredients are still present, the talent just needs to find that perfect beat.
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May 5, 2007
09:20 pm | 1 recommendation | Be the first to comment
Sibusiso Vilane climbed Everest. The South African joins fewer than 3,000 people who can say the same. And no other Black man can yet make that claim, though African American woman Sophia Danenberg did the deed in May of 2006.
The challenge of being an entrepreneur or a successful business person closely matches the skills needed to tackle the challenges of an extended expedition. The learning from these individuals includes a key understanding of just how much of a challenge is mental as opposed to physical or even financial. Their journey tell us that realizing a dream lies more within our grasp than we readily admit.
At times we attribute a lack of achievement to something other than the amount of effort we’ve applied or some aspect beyond our control. That’s usually not the reality. Sibusiso tells us dream big, take risks, and pull those dreams into the real world.
JP: What do you enjoy most about being outside?
SV: The openness, the air, the serenity and the unpolluted freshness that is there. I personally feel uplifted if every time I lift my eyes and all that I see is vastness and the unique creation of the universe, the scenery, the sky and all that is there to enjoy while being outside.
JP: Several hundred years ago Black people lived close to nature. That bond has been broken, and it seems as if in the rush to Westernize being outside or close to nature is frowned on or even ridiculed. Have you found that to be so?
SV: We Africans have always been living very close to nature and you can see that from the way we built houses in the olden days where my ancestors never looked at what was there before they could build a house, all they wanted was a piece of land, whether in a forest or mountain without any roads that did not matter. But all that has been taken away by the modernization and that has taken away that connection that we had with the natural world.
JP: What is special about being the first Black man to do much of what you do?
SV: The fact that it comes from a poor ordinary African who had no opportunities, was underprivileged and with no formal education. I had no home while growing up, was never empowered but have been able to excel and do these things which are a testimony to all Africans and people everywhere that no matter how poor, they can still live a life of personal fulfillment and joy if they commit to their dreams.
JP: In climbing, there are the world’s seven tallest peaks; some call them the Seven Sisters. How many of these have you climbed?
SV: The seven summits you mean? Well since I was never a keen climber or mountaineer from a very young age the seven summits had not appealed to me, not even after my successful climb to the top of Mount Everest. But since last year I decided to climb them solely to promote the sport among Black Africans and to build a reputation that would go as a CV for sponsorship for my big mountain climbing project in the future. My dream is to climb as many 8000m peaks as possible, maybe all 14 of them and join the likes of Ed Viesturs and Reinhold Messner. So I have now climbed six of the seven summits all self-sponsored and will be living for the last of them which is Mount McKinley in Alaska this coming May. Mount Everest will always stay as my ultimate when I speak of the seven summits, but each one of them has uniqueness in it that makes each experience very special.
JP: How much of these challenges are mental and how much of it is sheer physical strength and stamina?
SV: That is an individual take, so my take is that 60 percent of the climbing expeditions are mental and then 40 percent physical. But when I prepare I do a 50/50 approach on both. That is to say I maintain the same level of preparation on both as I value them equally. A lot of stamina is needed when the going gets tough particularly on summit day where every step you take is of utmost importance as it surely brings you closer to your goal.
JP: You have a wife and children. How do you feel, and how do they feel about you risking your life to climb mountains?
SV: Yes, I have a big family who do not even understand clearly the implications and consequences that comes with the risks I am taking but I feel very grateful that I have their full support at my hand. Actually I get the huge motivation to take these risks from the realization that if I didn’t do any expedition for more than few months it would really be almost impossible for me to provide for my family. In short what I am doing now is work for me. My family misses me when I am away, my departure always create a huge vacuum that cannot be filled by anyone until I return. They understand that success is about taking some risks in life. But having their full support is all that matters to me.
JP: I think a lot of men, married men and women actually, feel like they simply can not get away from their responsibilities to live out their outdoor dreams or fantasies and they remain simply dreams. What would you say to those people?
SV: I will be brief on this one because that is how I think everybody can do what they have always wanted to do of cause by embracing their families and responsibilities. You must do what you love.
JP: Do you ever talk about race while on an expedition?
SV: No we do not talk about race in expeditions. I have always found it challenging to mix well with people where the majority is white, and in all the expeditions that I have done I have always been the only black person among the hundreds of white people. That does create a lot of uncertainty in me when it calls for decision making, it sometimes make me feel that decisions will be in favor of the majority, and it has happened once and that almost cost me the expedition, but naturally I adapt very well to any cultural group.
JP: What do you think ever increasing modernization is doing to the planet?
SV: Modernization is destroying the beauty of the planet, creates permanent damage to the natural environment and the very sad part is that mankind cannot reverse the act and the universe is yet to suffer from that act and more disasters are yet to strike as the universe tries bring a balance to counter all that modernization has done to the planet.
JP: You also are a motivational speaker. Do you feel that the lessons you learn in climbing are relevant to business?
SV: Expedition life is similar in many ways to what everybody’s life and business is about really. To succeed in anything you must first want to succeed and then take all the steps that are needed to get to the top of your mountain or business, in short I encourage having big dreams and then committing to making them happen by associating with people that share ones dream.
JP: What is your next expedition?
SV: Next is an attempt on Mount McKinley this coming May, after which I may become the first Black person in the world to have climbed the seven summits. That would be fantastic as I never thought I would be on the count down to the last one anyway. But committing to making it happen even without any sponsorship has made it work well for me.
JP: What will you do once you’ve climbed the world’s seven largest mountains?
SV: Since I have decided this is my life then as soon as I am done with the seven summits I am planning for two polar journeys, that is south pole at the end of this year and then the North pole in 2009, I have teamed up with another south African and we want to mount South Africa’s first unsupported walk to the poles.
On top of those I will be running marathons for charity as I really want to do something that is charity oriented. I have formed a running club called the “Born to Win Athletics Club” based in a rural community in Africa and will focus on underprivileged young aspiring athletes.
John N. Pasmore • New York, NY • mailto:jnpasmore@gmail.com • Next Things Next
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April 25, 2007
09:19 pm | 1 recommendation | Be the first to comment
You may have missed the headline, and maybe you never watched the channel, but Black Family Channel (BFC) is taking itself off the air and according to Multichannel News is selling its subscribers to the Gospel Channel.
Black Family Channel was launched by mega-lawyer Willie Gary, baseball's Cecil Fielder, Marlon Jackson (of Jackson 5 fame), business pioneer Alvin James and Evander Holyfield. Last year the station tried to add even more star power to its executive ranks pulling in Robert Townsend to oversee programming.
The channel was supposed to deliver a family-friendly alternative to the oft-times over-the-top content found on BET, but the better positioned TV One may have beaten them to that dance. You may not have even noticed Black Family Channel because for most of the US they actually weren't even on the dial. The channel achieved distribution in only 16 of the more than 90 million cable homes that make up the universe in the United States. TV One , another BET-alternative is available in some 30 million homes and growing. And TV One has the benefit of some very well placed partners with both radio powerhouse Radio One and Comcast on board.
So what do we lose with no Black Family Channel? A little diversity certainly, but with African Americans making up only roughly 10% of the overall population it's hard to see how many channels race-themed programming can support. BET reaches some 80 million US homes according to Hoovers and dominates the demo.
As with all media, the biggest competition is not necessarily found on the set-top, but the Net. As broadband grows everyone has more power to watch whatever whenever. And with sites like YouTube making content creators out of anyone, cable has to do more work to keep audiences tuned-in. BFC could be the first of many to suffer and shutter as advertisers shift TV dollars to the Net. Could cable go the way of print in the on-line onslaught? Doubt it. Good content is compelling but the Internet is a merciless competitor. Stay tuned.
John N. Pasmore • New York, NY • mailto:jnpasmore@gmail.com • Next Things Next
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April 15, 2007
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New York City grinds down entrepreneurs and ships them out as if the Meat Packing District was named for business owners. Some make it. And some seem as if they were made for taking on City-sized projects and churning out businesses. John McDonald chose to tackle restaurants and magazines in what seemed like a peculiarly bad choice of two notoriously difficult businesses. What he delivered, however, has been a success.
Starting with Soho’s MercBar, McDonald has added to his repertoire of restaurants with Lure, Chinatown Brasserie, and Lever House. All this while publishing City, an award winning magazine. Both the restaurants and the magazine showcase McDonald's use of design as a way to speak to consumers and readers. These are the types of businesses where every detail adds to the experience. Miss a detail and risk losing a customer. McDonald has delivered on the details for over a decade. I spoke to him to find out how:
JP: How long have you been an entrepreneur and what was your first business?
John McDonald: Fifteen years. My first venture was when I opened MercBar in 1994.
JP: What do you think is the single most important attribute of a successful entrepreneur?
John: Passion. You absolutely must love what you are doing to the point that you never really know when you are working or count the hours.
JP: You’ve chosen two notoriously hard businesses: the restaurant business and the magazine business. And you continue to open more restaurants, what about these businesses do you love?
John: With the restaurants, I truly enjoy the process from A to Z. Crafting the concept and seeing it through the design phase, construction and opening is akin to putting on a Broadway show. After, then I love to be in them, to see people and feed on the energy. Every day is different. The magazine has similar creative satisfaction but has a boundless freedom to discover and produce great content for design, travel and fashion. Every issue is like a mini-construction project.
JP: What was your most memorable event or moment in publishing City magazine?
John: Two years ago we were nominated (National Magazine Awards) for Best Design and Best Photography and actually won for Photography competing against the likes of Vogue, Details and Vanity Fair. It was a true testament to the young talent that exists outside of the famous names that only work for the major publishing houses. And just last week, we received more two nominations for “Photo Portfolio.” CITY’s two stories are up against GQ (Bruce Weber), Vanity Fair (Annie Liebowitz) and Details (Michael Thompson). While the odds are slim going up against their talent and budgets it feels good to be acknowledged.
JP: Who has helped you become the success you are today?
John: Almost all the credit has to go to my parents. Both of them gave me the confidence to attack any challenge and never fear failure. They showed me by example how to work hard and persevere with dedication to what you love; and must do to succeed. In part, I work today to show them they did it right.
JP: You love the food business and have created very successful businesses in New York City, besides your own, what restaurants and restaurateurs do you look at as the prototypical or best examples of excellence in food service if I can call it that?
John: I have great respect for Jean-Georges Vongerichten. Few people work harder or are more passionate about food. While he has built a vast collection of successful restaurants he never looses focus on what is important. Also, you may find this surprising but I have to say that George Biel who owns Houston’s (I think he has almost 50 of them) is the absolute operational king. His standards and ability to execute with consistency are in a league of its own for such a large company.
JP: Besides making money, what do you think really drives a business owner, or you specifically?
John: I am driven to compete and challenge myself all the time. The great football coach Vince Lombardi said, “You don’t do things right once in a while; you do them right all the time. Winning is a habit. Unfortunately, so is losing.” I keep that saying on the wall in my office and If I know one thing about myself, it is that I hate to lose.
JP: How has New York changed since you started? Your Merc Bar is an institution on Soho, and Soho has seen quite a bit of change since you opened your doors does that affect your business, do you adapt or were you anticipating the trend that turned Soho into one of the most desirable retail locations when you opened?
John: I am not one of those people always complaining about “the way it used to be.” It was amazing when it was still undeveloped but then again my staff was getting mugged all the time. Even today with all the change Soho still has a remarkable personality that is unlike any neighborhood. MercBar always stayed the same regardless of the evolution...I loved it in '93 and still do in '07.
JP: Whether you own a great restaurant or a magazine you can only be as great as your staff – you can’t do it all yourself. What have you learned as an entrepreneur about getting excellence from the people on the front lines of your business?
Any business is only as good as its people. I have been very fortunate to have great talent and amazingly dedicated people to work with...any accomplishment or success is much sweeter when done with a team and shared. I also believe in giving a lot of rope to allow for creativity to thrive. Too much micro-management can kill you.
JP: In and interview in 2002 you said that on your drive home after finishing work, even late-night, that you sometimes stopped at newsstands to check on the distribution of your magazine. At the time, you said, "I can't even fathom being at the point where I wouldn't do that." Have you reached that point or is that still a stop you make?
John: Funny enough, I just did that very thing this week. I am always interested in my visibility and shelf space. I travel frequently and stop at every single stand to make sure I am being sold and displayed properly.
JP: Through your effort you’ve added to the way someone living in New York or visits New York experiences the City. There is a corner of New York that is created by John McDonald, is that enough? What’s next or what would you like to add to the City that you haven’t yet?
John: Right now I am pretty happy with my corner so-to-speak but every time I tell someone that I am not working on something new, something comes up and I have to eat those words. My latest venture is completely out of left field, not a magazine or restaurant, but a vitamin called E-BOOST. It’s a high powered vitamin C and B12 product similar to Emergen-C or Berocca. The same basic elements of design, packaging and marketing that go into the magazine or the restaurants in part are applied to this venture as well.
John N. Pasmore • New York, NY • mailto:jnpasmore@gmail.com • Next Things Next
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April 5, 2007
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It’s funny how giving gets controversial. Superficially the idea of donating money from a purchase to a charity seems pretty innocuous. And providing money or treatments for Africans suffering from AIDS truly saves lives. (Pictured Left: Gisele Bundchen and Keseme Ole Parsapaet, a Maasai warrior from Kenya, photographed by Nick Knight for American Express RED)
Advertising Age took exception with the actual giving as compared to the overall marketing effort required to make RED a recognizable brand. Lots of ink has been spilled about Bono being the beneficiary of much of the publicity as opposed to companies simply giving the $100 million that has been spent in marketing RED directly to those in need. Instead Africans received some $18 million according to Advertising Age.
And yes, we as individuals should give to those less fortunate and not rely exclusively on corporate-sponsored giving to substitute for our personal efforts. Granted, that’s an important point. But, I would not expect retailers like GAP to simply give money away. I’m sure their shareholders believe that getting a financial return on their investment is most important. Corporations are entities that people create for the purpose of making money. I asked African businessman, G. Kofi Annan for his view, and he offered, “If the charitable effort doesn't make business sense, then it's dead in the water from a corporation's perspective. That’s just the way capitalism works and RED is attempting to create a happy median.” He supports the effort.
People who lend money to a corporation or invest in the equity of a corporation expect that if the business is successful that their funds will be returned in one form or another. Then if capital is returned, perhaps then that individual can give some money to charity. Corporations, even successful ones, are not charities.
Celebrities catch flack for doing good or being Britney. I applaud the work of Bono and Bobby Shriver (who co-created RED). Corporations don’t have to give – it’s hard enough to get many of them to pay workers, provide health care and be cognizant of the environment. So getting them to give to Africa has value. Does it promote Bono, yeah, but if RED provides millions of dollars for AIDS drugs that’s a price those of us sitting well away from the suffering in Africa can bear.
John N. Pasmore • New York, NY • mailto:jnpasmore@gmail.com • Next Things Next
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