A catalogue ad for the Tommy Hilfiger Game Boy Colour via 8-Bit Central

In 2017 most video game consoles look pretty similar: black boxes of varying size aimed at being as discrete as possible. The brands who manufacture and distribute them also have more clout and prestige of their own. So it’s weird to think that in the late 90s Nintendo thought it was important to use Tommy Hilfiger to promote the Game Boy Colour.
Continuer la lecture de Looking Back At Some Of The Weirder Limited Edition Consoles →

Join the SARAH SEBASTIAN team as Junior Graphic Designer and play a pivotal role in the company’s branded content across all channels.

This is an amazing opportunity to work with a successful, global brand with  a beautiful brand aesthetic and handcrafted product.

Job Role:

• Create all required content for the SARAH SEBASTIAN marketing channels including, but not limited to, the eCommerce store, email marketing, social media and wholesale stockists requests. 
• Photograh and videograph all imagery and video as well as digitally produce (retouching, animate, etc) as per the needs of the business.
• Manage all graphics requirements for the business including, but not limited to, creating colleciton invitations, producing seasonal linesheets and lookbooks, etc.
• Assist the Creative Director and external creative team on seasonal photoshoots and filming, plus take the aesthetic of these shoots and apply it to the broader content strategy for the season,
• Suggest new and innovative ideas for the company’s content strategy; always looking beyond current trends and the patterns of our competitors.
• Understand and maintain the overall aesthetic of the SARAH SEBASTIAN brand as per the instructions of the company Creative Director.
• Understand and meet briefs from the eCommerce Digital Marketing Manager to ensure content meets the marketing needs of the business as well as aligns with the SARAH SEBASTIAN branding.

Technical Skills Required:

• Advanced photography skills
• Intermediate videography skills
• Advanced graphic skills (Adobe Suite)
• Applied studies towards art direction, creative production, etc.

Personal Skills Required:

• The ability to share innovative, exciting and creative ideas that enhance the SARAH SEBASTIAN brand whilst maintaining our aesthetic and messaging.
• The ability to not only understand and meet briefs which have a commercial purpose, but suggest ways to develop the final outcome.
• The ability to work with other creative individuals as well as more commercially-minded colleagues.

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September 16, 2017 —

San Marcos, CA (PRWEB) September 16, 2017

A new wave of entrepreneurs has arrived, and they’re already surpassing their parents. Ranging from just 20 to 35 years of age, they’re building more businesses, targeting higher profits and managing larger staffs than the baby boomer generation before them.

According to Forbes, 67% of young entrepreneurs said their career goals include starting their own business. With older generations launching their first businesses at around 35 years old, millennipreneurs are setting out around 27, giving them close to a decade more experience.

How does this texting generation both stay connected and thrive in their business? Through fresh, creative spins on traditional face to face networking. With a surprising 51% of millennials preferring to speak in person with either work colleagues or potential clients, Hustle Humble by ChicExecs is the ideal resource for cultivating a frontier of new, modern businesses.

By hosting monthly networking events and a unique subscription box curated for staying connected to media, buyers and influencers, Hustle Humble by ChicExecs is motivated to make a genuine impact in how entrepreneurs network.

Engaging the youngest entrepreneurs with tips for product driven brands, Hustle Humble gave mini CEO’s the opportunity to share their secrets to success in the first of a short video series. Watch the full video here: https://www.facebook.com/hustlehumblebox/posts/809703479192889

The two-fold name Hustle Humble has a significant meaning to founders Kailynn and Nikki. When they started their first company 13 years ago, they ?hustled » around the clock to accomplish their goals. More than speed, it was about producing quality work. With the help of the Lord’s grace and guidance, they were able realize their dreams. Above all, these self-made women keep their ethics while remaining humble through all of their blessings. As of 2016, their expanding enterprise includes Chic Blvd, ChicBuds and ChicExecs.

Jennifer A. Marca
Public Relations Account Coordinator
ChicExecs PR Branding
820 Los Vallecitos Blvd. Ste A-C
San Marcos, CA 92069

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2017/09/prweb14698743.htm.

As technology marches forward and more and more of Generation Z and millennials come of age, establishing a greater foothold in the marketplace, brands will need to ditch much of marketing’s conventional wisdom and adapt to marketing trends that will dominate 2018. Brands who disregard recent innovations in social media, the internet, artificial intelligence, and virtual and augmented reality as well as rapidly changing consumer behaviors will surely fall behind.

Influencer Marketing
Chatbots
Artificial Intelligence
Augmented and Virtual Reality
Personalization
Native Advertising
Mobile Video
Live Video
Disappearing Content
Interactive Content

1. Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing became one of the most effective and popular marketing tools in 2017 and looks primed to stay that way, thanks to growing numbers of Gen Z and millennial consumers who are more skeptical of traditional marketing tactics than the older generations.

These young consumers, who number over 120 million in the US, look to and trust their favorite internet personalities and often buy the same things. Brands can see this and are leveraging these popular social media influencers on Instagram, Twitter, Youtube, and Facebook to push their products or services to the newer generations in an authentic way.

While traditional marketing methods can often feel contrived, influencer marketing achieves success by capitalizing on the consumer’s trust and influencer’s transparency. These two pillars are what makes influencer marketing the fastest growing customer acquisition method, according to the Influencer Marketing Hub Study 2017. On top of this, the same study found that influencer marketing has a staggering $7.65 average earned media value per $1 spent.

And social media influencers realize the symbiotic relationships they share with brands and they highly value their credibility that their fans appreciate. For this reason, many bloggers turn down pitches from brands and over 80 percent believe they should disclose any paid post or sponsorship.

Influencer marketing will continue to trend in 2018 and be a go-to for many brands and digital marketers due to the ubiquity of social media, the rise of social media celebrities, and an ever-leery consumer base.

2. Chatbots

In the past few years, chatbots have become considerably smarter and are now a viable and trending marketing strategy for brands. According to a study by Oracle, 80 percent of businesses will use chatbots by 2020. The Chatbot Market Research Report found that 67 percent of businesses believe that chatbots will be more effective than mobile apps in the next five years and that retention rate for chatbots after one month of usage is 40-60 percent compared to a retention rate of 20-40 percent for apps.

Companies like Pizza Hut, Starbucks, and Bank of America are already using chatbots to give consumers an easier way to connect with their favorite brands. Facebook, IBM, Microsoft, and Amazon have all made huge, long-term investments in chatbots.

The main thing driving the growth and success of chatbots are the increasing popularity of messaging apps that many brands think will eventually surpass social media and email in the coming years — Facebook Messenger, WeChat, and WhatsApp have over 2.5 billion active users and Messenger has over 100,000 active bots alone. According to a survey by CONVRG, a user response to chatbots is three times as likely than a response to an email.

3. Artificial Intelligence

AI and machine learning is without a doubt a huge game-changer in every sense of the word — and this applies to marketing as well. Although the barrier to entry to using AI for digital marketing is quite high due to costs, the results speak for themselves.

According to the Salesforce State of the Marketing Report, highly successful marketing teams are twice as likely to use AI than low-earning teams. Even more, the study found that 57 percent of marketers said that AI was essential to their success and found that 53 percent think AI use will grow in the next two years.

Brands can use AI to improve data and, in turn, help predict consumer behavior, target ads more effectively, and determine when to reach out to customers. Just recently, Amazon developed an AI that can help predict the latest fashion trends.

4. Augmented and Virtual Reality

As AR and VR become more mainstream every year, with over 171 million users expected in 2018, major brands are salivating at the marketing possibilities the technologies offer.

VR devices like Samsung Gear, Oculus Rift, and HTC Vive, while not widely owned, can engage consumers in wholly unique ways and provide consumer experiences like almost nothing else. In 2014, Game of Thrones launched a VR experience at SXSW in anticipation of the new season that transported users to the show’s iconic Ice Wall.

As for AR, there are limitless possibilities to provide consumers with new and exciting ways of engagement. AR relies on projecting images and graphics on top of the real world without needing a bulky headset like VR. In the future, Amazon and other major online retailers could use AR to allow customers to try on clothes from home or see what a piece of furniture might look like in their home. Applications like Pokemon Go and the new iPhone X prove that AR in everyday life is right around the corner.

AR and VR may still have a long way to go, but all signs are promising as to its marketing effectiveness.

5. Personalization

Personalization is a huge deal for brands that don’t want their content to quickly be overlooked by consumers — a very common thing in a world of advertising overload.

For this reason, more and more brands strive to produce marketing content that speaks directly to and is tailored for specific consumers, not just generic ads. The main way marketers do this is by targeting consumers based on things like their gender, age, and likes.

In a digital marketing sense, this means paying attention to a consumer’s internet behaviors, including social media activity, buying habits, and web surfing. There is ample evidence that contextually relevant ads that target consumers on an emotional level find much more success.

6. Native Advertising

Already a hugely popular marketing trend in 2017, native advertising will continue to be a top tool for brands looking to advertise their products in an organic and noninvasive way. Native advertising works by seamlessly integrating your marketing into content that the consumer was already going to read or watch anyways.

Rather than overwhelming the consumer with intrusive ads, good native advertising doesn’t disrupt user experience and feels like a natural part of the content. Examples of native advertising include advertorials, sponsored content, branded content, and product placement. Spending on native advertising is expecting to exceed $21 billion in 2018.

7. Mobile Video

As more and more people shift to using their mobile phones instead of their computer or television to consume content, mobile video will continue to play a massive role in marketing, especially among the younger generations.

In 2015, mobile video views grew six times faster than desktop views. And mobile video is incredibly popular with Gen Z consumers. Around 71 percent say they use their mobile phone to watch video daily compared to just 51 percent on their television and 45 percent on their computer, according to a report from the ad firm Sharethrough.

In 2018, mobile video ad spending will increase 49 percent to $18 billion, while non- mobile video ad spending will be $15 billion, a 1.5 percent decrease.

With so many consumers switching to mobile to view video content, brands are scrambling to create quality mobile advertising.

8. Live Video

Much like what was mentioned above, video — especially mobile — is becoming a major part of our daily life and live video is no exception.

Video streaming accounted for nearly 75 percent of all the internet traffic this year and viewers typically watch live video three times longer than normal video. According to a survey by Livestream, 80 percent of consumers would rather watch a live video from a brand than read a social post.

Live video will continue to trend with social media platforms. Facebook and Youtube lead the way in live video usage, but Instagram recently made a big play by launching a feature that allows users to stream live video in their Instagram story.

9. Disappearing Content

There is no doubt that Snapchat struck gold when it introduced its short-lived videos and Facebook and Instagram quickly followed suit and jumped on the bandwagon.

The reason short-lived videos work so well is twofold. First, the fact that the video will disappear lends a weight and urgency to the content. Secondly, and more obviously, short content is more consumable inherently and a highly valued characteristic among millennials and Gen Z due to their ever-shortening attention spans.

Short-lived video content is also another great tool for brands and influencers to work together to produce easy-to-consume marketing content.

10. Interactive Content

There’s a simple truth about interactive content: it’s more effective than traditionally content. The reason for this is that interactive content makes the consumer participate and therefore creates engagement, which is the ultimate goal of any brand or advertisement.

Almost half of marketers (46%) are using interactive content with 79 percent saying they will use it in the future. Interactive ads are typically content that includes an interactive element like quizzes, games, surveys, contests, or infographics.

In 2017 most video game consoles look pretty similar: black boxes of varying size aimed at being as discrete as possible. The brands who manufacture and distribute them also have more clout and prestige of their own. So it’s weird to think that in the late 90s Nintendo thought it was important to use Tommy Hilfiger to promote the Game Boy Color.

“Nintendo’s and Tommy Hilfiger’s ingenuity is more than just fun and games. We strive to push the envelope with innovative marketing strategies,” said Peter Main, former VP of Sales and Marketing for Nintendo of America in the summer of 1999. Nintendo of America’s executive vice president, sales and marketing. “This promotion is a natural partnership, since both companies tailor to the trendsetters who dress to impress and enjoy interactive entertainment.”

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Re-read that last part and just let the cynical whimsy of it wash over you. Then take a second to imagine the floppy haired designer behind the self-titled line of over-priced normcore flashing a Pikachu inspired gadget while waiting at the bar. Nintendo recently partnered with other fashion brands to create a line of gaming inspired clothes, but it’s hard to imagine a limited-edition, torn denim Urban Outfitters Nintendo Switch coming out in 2017, despite the obvious cross-over between the clothing outlet’s target audience and the handheld’s initial marketing.

Still, there’s something quaint to the idea of two completely unrelated companies like Nintendo and Tommy Hilfiger collaborating to exploit people’s insecurities about whether they’re cool enough. In fact, the random, cross-promotional, special-edition video game console has a longer than expected history that acts as something of a time capsule for conspicuous consumption over the past several decades. Part of me hopes that in the future these unlikely partnerships will continue, but in the meanwhile here’s a brief look at some of the more random ones.

Audi R8 Xbox One S

Probably the ugliest special edition console ever designed, the Audi R8 was meant to combine the allure of sporty German cars with a box of computer chips. Maybe there was a way to square this circle, but an Xbox One S in the shape of a faux-Audi R8 hood was not it (the Lamborghini One S is gaudy but still better looking). The shear audacity of it was inspiring though, and I applaud any and all efforts to design any future video game consoles in the shapes and colors of un-related everyday objects.

Taco Bell Xbox 360

A deep purple case with the Taco Bell icon peaking out from the lower right made this particular limited edition console particularly brazen. Instead of just awarding the winner of a contest selected from those feasting on crunchwrap supremes a simple box they could play Gears of War on, Taco Bell decided that lucky individual would have to shoulder the burden of showcasing the companies marketing for whatever wanton soul passed through their abode. It wouldn’t even be that terrible without the logo (I went with the purple 3DS because, while the color does nothing for me in general, I’ve had a special place in my heart for eggplant-looking hues ever since Kid Icarus).

MTV Gamecube

As Console Variations reported earlier this year, MTV made a number of branded Gamecubes in 2003 of varying aesthetic appeal. They were given away during daily broadcasts and went from Zebra Gum like the above to camouflage and even faux-wood veneer, because nothing said Super Smash Bros. Melee like a Snow White brick being raffled off in-between music videos for “In da Club” and “Crazy in Love.”

Men in Black PlayStation

A great movie, a terrible game, and a really lazy console. The Men in Black PlayStation is incredibly rare, fetching over a $1,000 on some second-hand retailers, but also really boring. Just jet black with the movie’s logo plastered over the disc lid. But it was also emblematic of a time when being a blockbuster film insured some sort of video game spin-off, and in this particular case, even a console sku.

Tommy Hilfiger Game Boy Color

I talked about this particular one at the top, and it remains my personal favorite, mostly because of how dissonant the combination is. The Game Boy sold for $60 at the height of the Pokémon craze if you purchased a certain amount of Hilfiger merchandise. That’s not something my parents would have ever done, but I can still remember looking through a fall catalog imagining what boring polos I might wear in exchange for the opportunity to capture an Oddish in full handheld color.  

Coca Cola Game Gear

Unlike a lot of other weird branded stuff, there’s plenty of stuff bearing the Coca Cola script; Toy trucks, cups at somewhere around half of all chain restaurants, any time you see a polar bear sitting on an ice cap. A Coca Cola Game Gear though? Something about it still feels unnerving, like I’d always be thirsty while playing sub-par platformers on a really tiny screen. Maybe when the soda company realizes the error of its way and brings back Coca Cola Zero proper they can cross-promote with the Vita’s successor.

Marlboro Atari Lynx

No doubt the oddest of all, Marlboro, a cigarette company went in on the failed Atari Lynx handheld. In the end it was something of a match made in heaven, given the declining fortunes of both companies, even if Marlboro still sells nicotine and Atari no longer sells handhelds and the latter never killed anyone while the former has battled endless lawsuits about the lethality of its product. While the prospect of another cigarette branded console might seem like an impossibility, vape-enthusiasts seem to have a way of making things happen. Even if Nintendo doesn’t release a vapa-able JoyCon in the near future, I wouldn’t put it past DIY gamers to make it happen.

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Dive Brief:

• Corona launched an immersive virtual reality installation in Mexico City last month to further its mission to “encourage people around the world to reconnect with nature, » the company said in a press release. 
• The experience used VR technology, theatrics and interactive set design and included real-world elements such as sand, heat and scents to make the user feel like they were walking down a jungle path to the beach.
• Thiago Zanettini, Corona’s global vice president, said in a press release that the company hopes to do more projects like this one in the future in Mexico and other parts of the world.

Dive Insight:

Virtual and augmented reality marketing are still novel concepts, but Corona’s installation may give us a glimpse into what the future of content marketing will look like. 

Corona’s VR initiative and others like it demonstrate a continuation of the overall shift in marketing away from direct selling and toward creating value for consumers through experiences. While VR exemplifies this marketing mindset, the technology isn’t yet accessible to most companies due to its high cost. Most consumers don’t have access to it either, except through public installation like this one.

The marketing industry has long been moving away from outbound marketing towards inbound, which focuses on creating experiences that customers seek out, a trend that was evident this summer in a number of unique out-of-home experiences. Visual content including images, video and live video is also on the rise. Forecasts show that, for 2017, 74% of all web traffic will be video. Virtual reality encompasses both of these trends, as it focuses on creating a valuable consumer experience and engages users visually as well as through other senses.

Currently, VR marketing is out of the price range for many companies’ budgets. Interactive video production can cost as much as $30,000 to $60,000 per minute. VR is forecast to become more widely used as prices come down, however, and the VR industry is expected to generate $70 billion by 2020. As the technology gains popularity, interactive marketing experiences like Corona’s may become more commonplace. 

A notorious hacker group broke into the servers of music-streaming service Vevo, releasing more than 3 terabytes of internal documents and video content online — before removing them later Friday morning at Vevo’s request.

The purloined cache, posted by hacking and security collective OurMine, included videos, a batch of documents labeled “premieres,” as well as marketing info, international social-media documents, and other internal files, as first reported by tech site Gizmodo.

Vevo confirmed the hack, which it said was the result of a phishing scam via LinkedIn. “We have addressed the issue and are investigating the extent of exposure,” a Vevo rep said in an emailed statement.

The 3.12-terabyte trove of stolen documents included Vevo’s internal dossiers on about 9o artists, including Ariana Grande, Britney Spears, Calvin Harris, Florida Georgia Line, Jennifer Lopez, Justin Bieber, Katy Perry, Madonna, One Direction, Sia, Taylor Swift, The Weeknd, and U2.

OurMine, in a post on its site, claimed it leaked the Vevo files late Thursday after an exchange with a Vevo employee who — upon being informed of the hack — allegedly told the hackers, “F— off, you don’t have anything.”

In an update Friday morning, OurMine said that “We deleted the files because of a request from VEVO.”

OurMine over the past few years has targeted numerous companies and high-profile individuals, ostensibly as a guerrilla-style marketing effort for its security services.

Last month, OurMine hijacked the social-media accounts of HBO, which separately this summer was threatened with extortion demands from a hacker that stole 1.5 TB of the programmer’s files. Other victims have included Netflix, Marvel, Google, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Twitter chief Jack Dorsey.

New York-based Vevo is jointly owned by Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group, Abu Dhabi Media, and Alphabet (Google’s parent).

NAIJ.com free digital media school which was held in Lagos, Nigeria, came to an end on Thursday, September 15, 2017 with an enlightening workshop session and presentation of certificates to the successful participants.

The 2 weeks intensive training which began on August 28, 2017, was set up to train and educate graduates, entrepreneurs and managers who wish to start a career or perfect their knowledge in the field of digital media.

Cross section of NAIJ digital school participants

When NAIJ.com called for applications into the free digital media school in July 2017, over 3,000 people applied to participate, however, only 879 students passed the online test, out of which only 26 of the best applicants were accepted to be a part of the training.

CMO/Country Group Head of NAIJ.com, Goke Olaegbe, delivering a lecture on « Digital ecosystem: How to be among top 5% of ads users notice »

The lucky students accepted into the program went through weeks of intensive training from international and local experienced professionals who have mastered the world of digital marketing and built successful careers in the digital media industry.

CEO Genesis Africa, Vasily Ulyanov, giving a lecture on « How to build a business in digital marketing? Genesis cases from US, Africa and Latin America »

The topics covered during the training include:

• Module 1. How to build a business in digital marketing? Genesis cases from US, Africa and Latin America
• Module 2. Digital ecosystem: How to be among top 5% of ads users notice
• Module 3. Digital strategy: How to walk a customer down the path of purchase

Editor-in-Chief NAIJ.com, Bayo Olupohunda, giving a lecture on « How we produce content for #1 digital media in Africa »

• Module 4. Social media marketing: How to build a community with 10M fans?
• Module 5. How we produce content for #1 digital media in Africa?
• Module 6. How to make a video worth 15 million views?

PR/Social Media Executive NAIJ.com, Mitchelle Okuku, giving a lecture on « Social media marketing: How to build a community with 10M fans? »

Every lecture was followed with challenging home tasks to help the students understand each topic better.

HOD NAIJ.com Video Team, Damilare Okunola, lecturing on « How to make a video worth 15 million views? »

The entire digital media training program was very engaging and gave participants the chance to learn firsthand from masters in digital marketing who were more than willing to share their knowledge and answer the questions students had to answer.

NAIJ.com digital school participants

The participants were also lucky to be taught the business secrets and strategies that NAIJ.com has employed over the years to win the ultimate spot of number 1 media company in Nigeria; giving them the technical know how to successfully grow their own digital marketing empires and understanding the truth about so many misconceptions in the digital media industry.

At the end of the training, all the participants were fully equipped with the necessary knowledge to build a career in digital marketing and successfully influence the world of marketing using digital tools.

The last day of the training also included a workshop session which served as an avenue for the students to put all they had been taught into practical use.

NAIJ.com digital school students working on their project during the workshop

The lucky participants having been trained and ready to take on the digital marketing industry, were more than happy to receive their certificates of attendance on successful completion of the training.

See pictures of some of the successful students being presented with their certificates:

Would you love to be a part of the next NAIJ.com digital school edition? Then stay informed by following https://www.facebook.com/naijdigitalschool/ on Facebook.

Source: Naij.com

This week, Travis and Stewart interview Jason Miller, head of content at LinkedIn, who shares everything we need to know about door handles and marketing, rock ‘n’ roll, and what the future holds for content marketing. He not only drops a succession of marketing knowledge bombs in our collective laps, he also blows our minds with stories of his amazing live music photography.

In the news, Travis and Stewart discuss all the startups in Israel, companies attacking ad fraud, the use of AI to analyze blog posts and automatically create a compelling video, and customer survey tools. The duo also chat about a marketing-focused AI startup — this one claiming to automatically recognize and label video content.

By listening to this episode of VB Engage, you will hear:

• Welcome to VB Engage episode 68! [0:10]
• This week, Stewart is in Tel Aviv, but he previously spent time with guest Jason Miller in a dingy bar, where he learned about unique door handles (Tease: more on that in the interview). [0:53]
• In Tel Aviv, Stewart is enjoying hot, sunny days and tours of the incredible startups in the Startup Nation. [1:31]
• In Kansas City, Travis is enjoying hot, sunny days and tours of the incredible KC BBQ joints. [1:45]
• Travis notes that investors are interested in Israeli ICOs. [2:00]
• Stewart gives a shout-out to the Minister of Foreign Affairs for inviting him to tour the startups and attend the DLD Innovation Festival. [2:22]
• Stewart had an exclusive this week with The Trade Desk, tackling the huge issue of ad fraud — in collaboration with InMobi and Rubicon — and working to make the industry more transparent and keep the internet free (“…nobody wants to pay for content”). [3:15]
• Travis is reminded of days past when he gamed the system to capitalize rank on Britney Spears terms. [5:00]
• Travis mentions the browser from Brave — which launched an ICO for basic attention tokens — a blockchain-based digital advertising platform from the founders of Firefox and Mozilla and the creator of Javascript that’s designed to eliminate fraud. [5:30]
• Travis mentions a VentureBeat article featuring Ambient.ai, which uses AI to analyze video holistically. [7:15]
• A company called Lumen 5 is also using AI to analyze blog posts and generate video content. [10:15]
• Stewart wrote an article about Survata, whose new survey tool, Survata Customer Research, is connected to the company’s publisher network and gives marketers access to a treasure-trove of self-reported data. [12:30]
• And now, a warm welcome to guest Jason Miller! [14:30]
• This former music industry pro and rock ‘n’ roll photographer has not only made a move to LinkedIn as a content and social media marketing guru, he has a Kickstarter for his new book, Down in Front; hosts LinkedIn’s critically-acclaimed podcast; and is a renowned keynote speaker.
• Promised dingy bar/door handle story: The hidden door’s door handle was a…. hand. “Real-life content marketing,” says Jason. [16:30]
• Jason says emoji have made writing a lost art. 🙂   [17:00]
• Ann Handley received correspondence stating that “GIFs are the future of communication” (followed by much laughter and derision).  [17:45]
• How do you pivot from music exec to tech? [18:30]
• Jason had a passion for tech and social and sharing legacy music tapes and interviews, from Springsteen to Miles Davis. But it was an uphill battle.
• So he quit. [20:00]
• He went back to school for his masters, but it was taking too long, so he went to UC Berkeley and submerged himself in digital media courses.
• And then he hustled (in a good way). Got involved in a startup, attended every conference he could, met as many people as he could.
• Mistake a lot of people make: They lead with their personal brand, hoping to plug it into a company somewhere. “If you do good work for a company, then the personal branding stuff will follow.” [20:00]
• Stewart once did cryotherapy with Russell Simmons in West Hollywood (yes, he said that out loud).
• When Jason asked Russell Simmons “Do you think the music industry could have been saved?” Simmons replied “Absolutely not, they did this to themselves” and recounted a story about Shawn Fanning approaching the industry and not being allowed through the front door. [22:35]
• Stewart talks about painting millennials in broad brush strokes as disrespectful. How do you understand the people you’re marketing to and create content for them? [23:10]
• Jason: You can’t judge people for what they share in their closed circles. Person-to-person: Don’t differentiate based on age. [24:00]
• Jason’s bigger question: How do you create content that will resonate with your audience? [25:00]
• All the content is out there in a conversation. Start with keyword research, map that back to competitive search volume, then break it down into topics.
• Do your research first. THEN it goes to creative to create the content. [25:30]
• Jason: “Content that is informed by insights and research is the content that will not fail.”
• Jason: Any good content strategy has two elements (paraphrasing Andy Crestodina): [27:00]
  1) Research — gets linkbacks
  2) Strong opinions (editorial mindset) — gets shares
• Brands are often afraid to take a stance.
• Jason: “My first blog post was terrible.” [29:00]
• Find Jason on LinkedIn and @jasonmillerca on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. He is NOT Donald Trump’s former advisor.

Next week on episode 69, we chat with the head of mobile acquisition at Match, James Peng! We talk about how to engage customers and what it’s like to swipe right on a job like you would on Tinder and Match.

If you missed last week’s episode, we interviewed Stan Bokov, who managed to promote his “social network of fintech,” TradingView, to millions of users for free. He explains how this was possible, and what lessons were learned along the way.

As always, thanks for tuning in to VB Engage.

If you enjoy the show, please give it a quick rating or review it on your favorite podcast platform. Just search for VB Engage and make magic happen.