Chevy Seeks to Connect Through Celebrity

In a recent release from Adweek, General Motors has announced that it will be teaming up with Translation Consultation and Brand Imaging in an attempt to connect its car line-up with young adult urbanites. Currently, there have not been any formal announcements as to what celebrity GM and Translation will be signing to endorse its line-up, incorporate into a sponsorship deal, or any other mediums they may have in mind. However, on speculation it will most likely be one of today’s pop culture icons. Per Adweek, “Translation has in the past hooked up Jay-Z with Reebok, Gwen Stefani with Hewlett-Packard, Justin Timberlake with McDonald's and Beyonce with Tommy Hilfiger, the company said.” As for youth and pop culture, we know this is a market rebellious to traditional mass media approaches. At the same time, they do respond well to peers and the influencers of their sub-cultures. Will be seeing a full-blowing media blitz, or a campaign based around a more personal grassroots element, such as a celebrity seeding campaign, celebrity talk show appearances, or will it may stick to the traditional routes for the masses. It will be interesting to watch which approach and to what capacity this endorsement and/or sponsorship will led to.

No More Hunting for Denim Coolness

Denim enthusiasts don’t have to go hunting for cool these days for the new fashion trends. They can create their own image. An apparent fashion craze throughout youth culture is the torn and worn painted jean style. The Denim Design Lab has created “do it yourself kits” used for hand finishing garments, which also includes a copy of the book Denim Design Lab. The kit sells for a pricey $300. According to the company’s website DenimDesignLab.com, the brand will also be releasing a line of artistic inspired tee-shits.

Watches: A Youth Culture Report

Watches are beginning to be viewed as an accessory through the eyes of youth culture. In a recent report by the L.A. Times (reg. required), “teenagers who said they never wore a watch rose to 59% from 48%. The number of teens who said they wore a watch daily declined to 13% in this spring's survey, compared with 18% of those polled in the fall-82% said they didn't plan to buy a watch in the next six months, compared with 76% last fall.” In light of this report, it made me ponder on how I grew my watch collection. Obliviously, I also concur the watch epidemic is more trend-oriented then a matter of time keeping. When I tend to ask my peers the time they will for the most part tend to look at their Side-Kick, Treo, Razor, or another technologically driven device. Thus, it may truly be just another way of accessorizing our image.

News Corp. wants to sell marketers on "Generation Fox"

In preparation for next month's upfronts, News Corp. is dispatching its top sales executives to agencies to tout the benefits of "Generation Fox," the media giant's bid to sell cross-platform ads for TV, the Web and mobile aimed at the 12- to 24-year-old demographic. "They are packaging their assets to appeal to a younger audience. There were a lot of statistics that were new," said Larry Blasius of Magna Global. "It just reminds people they are [a] factor in that marketing." Advertising Age (free registration)

MySpace: "MySpace" or "AdSpace"

In the controversial social-networking world, could critics and advertisers be the massacre of MySpace. Though my experience with youth culture, as both a peer and professional the new objectives of the MySpace business model may be the destruction of the MySpace user experience. Since News Corp. acquired Myspace.com last July for $580 million (MediaPost) one of their priorities, as presumed was to attract the big marketing dollars of Madison Ave. The tactical ploy by News Corp may come back to taunt them. From the inception of MySpace, it organically grew its name into a bold brand amongst youth culture. Through my personal experience, the MySpace brand wasn’t conceived with the goal to tailor its site to the needs of advertisers, it was consumer centric. First-hand, I’ve witnessed the infamous Tom consistently asking for feed-back on how to improve this platform. Now the great News Corp. is changing this massive brand’s goals by seeking out what potential advertisers want. In the experience economy, the measures needed to keep users coming back isn’t to tell them what is “offensive material” and just deleting profiles (MediaPost). Would you enjoy this experience? It requires at the very least an interactive flow of communication between “MySpace” and it’s users (I have a good idea for this one). Forget if you lose one potential advertiser today, because tomorrow you can still keep gaining your estimated 230,000 users per day (Media Post). If my two cents counted, a user experience is one of the greatest obstacles a brand can achieve. In order to maintain the overall experience one should see what their audience wants since it their “Space”. Now really, if they should continue to convert this massive social epidemic into an advertisers “AdSpace” the question that arrives in my mind, will the marketing-savvy youth culture even responded to these advertisers messages. Indeed, I do understand certain guidelines people must abide by and do understand the “corporate censorship” brands need to adhere to. However, MySpace was built on a particular business model with a user based agenda. News Corp. may be taken their role as the “Parent” company too far. As we all know the basic reaction of some given us an ultimatum, which is that it can cause rebellious activity and in the case of MySpace’s a significant users decline. In a recent article published by Media Post, senior vice president of marketing and content for MySpace.com, Shawn Gold said at the OMMA Hollywood Conference & Expo in Los Angeles, “We take a sociological approach to building MySpace, and advertisers need to be cultural anthropologists when they're thinking about their communications strategy on social networks." With no pun intended, how many marketers working for these massive brands are really “cultural anthropologists”.

The Crew's Chronicle

- 50 Cent doesn't seem to be going anytime soon (It seems "50 Cent" is following the philosophy behind his latest CD release labeled, "Get Rich or Die Tryin'". From rags to riches, 50 Cent and the G-Unit squad have developed a house hold brand amongst youth culture and are steeping it up.) (Billboard Magazine) - Brands trying to reach the Gamer (the profound audience we are, we are not stopping for a billboard or watching too many commercials. Today's brands think they may have found the solution to captivate youth culture through gaming. per an Adweek article, they have their study to prove it.) (Adweek)