WE ARE CULTURISTS
Not because we esteem culture, but because we live it, we influence it.
Whether it's nightlife or technology, food or fashion, we pride ourselves in being able to make your brand a part of culture, not just a contributor to the conversation about it.
Partner with us to see how much your brand can be celebrated by consumers and envied by the competition.
Our client, LACOSTE L!VE, held a big bash at their Soho boutique in NYC, celebrating the launch collab of Tezuka and LACOSTE L!VE. We were there of course, representing music, flavor and everything in-between. If you haven't gotten your hands on the collaboration yet, it's in stores now!
The city was buzzing with art fairs last weekend with the Frieze show headlining at Randall's Island. We were invited to the Young Curators preview of Pulse last week and it did not disappoint.
Here we go...
1. Colin and Dan wanted to create an app
2. What are some good apps that we can reference? Here they are:
- Dark Sky
- Moves
- Über
3. Why are these good? Well, because great apps are simple AND complex; each of these apps solve a simple problem with a complex solution, are easy to use and understand, and to-the-point.
4. Why does Vine fit that? Because all you can do is create a video and watch videos, quick simple and on the fly.
5. Why is it 6 seconds (6.5 but who is counting...) - That's because 5 was too short, and 10 was too long.
6. Check out our Vines @JWALKNY
Want to hear more? Check out the presentation here.
If you haven’t heard, ArchetypeMe was just named Time Inc’s 10 NYC Startups to Watch in 2013. Who cares? WE DO.
ArchetypeMe is a friend of the family here at JWALK and we’re beyond proud of ArchetypeMe’s success, so we want to share with you the epic-ness that is them.
If you’ve taken a personality test as an insecure high schooler attempting to find where you fit in, then this will be a no-brainer to you. ArchetypeMe uses the wisdom of Plato and Carl Jung to analyze your personality (without all the flashbacks to Psych 101). ArchetypeMe asks eight pivotal questions to determine the mix of archetypes that make up most of your personality. Because like most people, you don’t fit in a perfect, neat little box right?
Once the quiz is complete, you’re given a personal homepage filled with unique content generated by your personality(ies). Say you’re a Creative, Fashionista, Visionary: ArchetypeMe aggregates content (both original and from around the web) to give you only the stories and unique finds you want filled with the Top C’s: Content, Community & Commerce.
As people do, we change. You can easily customize your profile based on who you are and who you’re becoming. Enticed yet? Think of it like this:
It’s Facebook + Pinterest + Shopping + Refinery29-like. Oh, and it’s free.
Go on then, what are you waiting for?
Since Coachella came to a close over a week ago, we’ve seen a TON of absurd footage depicting the beautiful madness that comes with the epic event.
Over the weekend, Get Whirled director Chris Crutchfield released our (2nd) favorite video from the two-weekend festival. Chris strapped a GoPro to his seven-foot plus head and took Coachella by storm. The result… An amazing video from a viewpoint that most festival-goers would kill to have. Plus, it’s already amassed over 100,000 views.
Experience COACHELLAVATED.
The LACOSTE L!VE Desert Pool Party went off without a hitch- and we were there to doc it all.
With our social team on hand, we captured some of the greatest moments of the pool party in Indio, CA. Playing off the invention of the first tennis ball launcher by Rene´ Lacoste, we helped to ideate a paintball machine to launch paint-covered tennis balls at LACOSTE's Polo Gigante. We also brought our friends, Bosco, to the party where the cool kids congregated, making epic gifs. We also brought a bunch of our blogger friends like Leandra, Jules, Liz, Aimee, Danielle and more cool cats. Flower crowns from Cult Gaia were definitely their calling. We brought along Sin Thirst Sin, who served the parched line queue outside the party and the beauties inside the party. Sin was a major hit, boosting energy while the pretty people partied in the sun.
Hard work pays off however. But the desert has those secrets now.
Were you at Coachella? (Phoenix + R.Kelly were pretty much the most epic moment)
Yesterday, Arianna’s namesake, the Huffington Post, and its writer Mark Brennan Rosenberg published a charming little piece titled ’10 Reasons NYC Isn’t as Great as You Think It Is.’
It set the citywide-web ablaze.
Well, sir, every good argument deserves a rebuttal.
Here’s mine.
10 Reasons NYC Is Even Better Than You Think It Is
The weather...
Is shit. Most of the year. You know what that means? We appreciate the few weeks of perfect weather that we get on either end of the shit weather all the more. A perfect day in The City is like no perfect day anywhere else. I don’t care if you got shat on by a pigeon that morning or your boyfriend dumped you that afternoon, a stroll through Central Park on a perfect Spring Day will change your outlook on the world.
It’s the best place to be if you’re having a good day…
Everything is amplified in New York. Everything. The sounds are louder, the smells more acrid or more harmonious, the sights more startling. And so are the pleasures. A good day in The City is unlike a good day anywhere else. Filled with microscopic delights – the perfectly timed subway transfer, skipping the morning coffee rush because it’s your bodega and they know you, being stopped on the street and photographed for a street style blog (it doesn’t matter which one) – and monumental ones – nailing the big pitch and knowing it, finally touching hands with the girl (or guy) who always gets one Fuji Apple, one navel orange and one head of swiss chard at the Lower East Side Whole Foods, falling in love. A good day in New York is like no good day anywhere else, because everything in New York is magnified, compressed, intensified.
The Stereotypes Are True
Yes, The City is dirty. And loud. And occasionally smelly, and crowded, and non-stop. And the people are self-involved. But they’re also gorgeous. Gorgeous. And well-dressed. And smart, and driven, and interested in the arts, and often times creative, and sociable. They have to be; our apartments are too small to not know how to socialize and it’s too hard to afford living here if you’re not all the other things. And it really is the center of the known universe. Any industry you could want to work in, any cuisine, any aesthetic, any form of art, it’s all here. The bagels really are better, and so is the pizza. So yes, The City is dirty. But it’s also all of the other things you’ve ever heard about it, too. And that’s pretty damn cool.
You get intimately involved in strangers’ lives
Who doesn’t want to know about a guy who impregnated his girlfriend’s sister? Or a power broker threatening to chop the balls off another human being if he doesn’t ‘get the deal done.’ I mean you don’t even have to be a student of the human condition to learn all about it if you live in New York. It surrounds you. It invades your every sense, at every moment. We are a smelly, vulgar, crass, cruel, emotionally unstable, beautiful, kind, mercurial species, and if you don’t know or didn’t know, walk around New York without headphones for a few days. You’ll learn.
You might not be able to find love here, but that’s ok, because The City is all the emotional tumult you’ll ever need.
New York will make you feel more than you ever imagined you could. She’ll make you cry harder than you’ve ever cried and be overwhelmed with pleasure like you never have before. She’ll give you more memories, more stories, more crap nights and more perfect moments than any person is even capable of giving. Ever imagine that your life is a movie, with cameras following your every move, every moment playing out cinematically in front of you, as though you’re simply a bystander, witnessing the wonder of it all? Well in New york, it really is. Who needs love when you have all that?
Everyone’s an artist, everyone has a story…
And isn’t that wonderful? Would you rather be surrounded by dull, apathetic zombies or people who want you and everyone else to not only hear but listen to what they have to say, to marvel at their accomplishments, their creativity, their ingenuity.
That’s what I thought.
It’s the land of titular slashes
In New York, nothing is as it seems. A blogger is a photographer is a writer is a model. A comedian is an actor is a bartender. A banker, even, (I know) might be the lead guitar of a Motorhead tribute band. Is this a product of a generation, or a city? The point is this – even if you’re the most narcissistic egomaniac out there, you have to take the time to at least try and get to know everyone you meet in New York because everyone here is something.
The people are all New Yorkers
This point is likely to draw the ire of much of The City’s true locals, the people who have lived and breathed New York for as long as they’ve lived and breathed, but it’s truly what I believe. The question that so many New Yorkers have asked before us and I often times ask myself is ‘does New York create New Yorkers or are New Yorkers simply drawn to New York?’ Now… if you live in New York, you almost certainly know what I mean when I say ‘New Yorkers.’ I don’t actually mean people from The City, I mean a grander archetype – the person I’ve been describing for most of the piece – the driven, sharp, motivated, inspired individual who is always on the hustle, always looking to know more, learn more, do more.
And in this city, everyone is a New Yorker… in that sense.
Quality of life is overrated
That’s right. Overrated. I said it. Who needs a beach and the sun and freshly caught fish when you can have the stench of another man’s armpit in your face on a crowded subway or the gentle aroma of fresh bum-urine on your doorstep. That will wake you up in the morning.
Quality of life is for later in life. For the meek, the old, the tired. For those who have already lived, already witnessed, already experienced. For those who want comfort and shade and rest and pedantic normalcy. For those who run tepid.
But if you run hot, New York is for you. For the young and the hungry. The alphas. For those who want to howl at the moon and party all night and coo at the rising sun on a rooftop by the river and then, after everyone else has faded off and it’s only them and the realities of the coming hours, drink their $13 smoothie and work their 14-hour day.
Because New York isn’t about quality of life.
It’s about life. Period.
And finally, we’re in New York.
Chances are, if you’re reading this, you live here. Or you live in LA and secretly wished you lived here. As I said, we’re a self-interested people.
The opening to Woody Allen’s Manhattan features his protagonist, Isaac, narrating through a series of potential opening lines for his novel, all about New York, over beautiful black-and-white photography of The City with George Gershwin serving as the musical backdrop. As the music comes to its climax, he finally lands on the line he likes best, and the photography cuts to fireworks exploding over The Hudson.
He says: ‘New York was his town, and it always would be.’
And that’s that.
-Toby Nathan
Everyday on the news we see yet another corporation, individual and even the U.S government itself fall victim to the malicious plunderers of our time… HACKERS! Hackers have the ability to penetrate your inner most secrets and extract precious information that could cause massive turmoil for your bank account and your life.
Here at JWALK we know how serious this epidemic has become, and do not take the fad of computer hacking lightly. Everyday, friends, family and clients ask us “JWALK please, how do we protect ourselves?” They can’t sleep, can’t think, and they are constantly afraid of hostile penetration.
We are here to tell you, fear no more.
Here are SIX foolproof ways from protecting your computer and smart phone from any such computer hacking debauchery.
1. Camouflage
Simple, yet effective; this ancient art of concealment method will be sure to deceive even the sharpest of criminals
2. Always Wear Protection
You’ve heard it countless times: “don’t be a fool, wrap your tool.” The same story goes when protecting your smart phone from hackers. (Note: JWALK’s Alex prefers Sir Richard’s extra large but any condom will do)
3. Show Me The Money
Nothing distracts a thief like good old Mr. Benjamin. ($10 lost is better than all those drunk messages you sent to your ex going public)
4. Use Hacker Repellent
No one likes George Lopez, not even the scum of the earth -- A.K.A computer hackers. Make this photo your desktop background, and we guarantee no one will come within a 10-mile radius
5. Deny. Deny. Deny.
We are not advocates of lying, but desperate times call for desperate measures
6. Use What You Got
And for all you workaholics working from home, using your furry thing is by far the most effective method of our time
We hope you use these to your advantage. We're not here for nothing, you know.
Share with your friends. It's the least you can do.
Our resident Charmer, Alex went down the land of the weird- Austin, Texas.
On his agenda:
-Eat some BBQ
-Head to a few rodeos with our resident Texans, Charming Charlie
-Eat more BBQ
-Attend social panels/Get mind blown
-Have a brew or six
-Draft an awesome post for JWALK
-Eat more BBQ
Find out what knowledge Alex brought us back from the land of the weird. We like weird.
Compiling data from surveys doesn’t give you the insight you thought it would, and in return doesn’t allow you to correctly target your consumer and build your brand. We all have an ‘idea’ of who we are, but frankly, if you are trying to build trust by focusing on your imaginary consumer, it's not happening. Step outside of the box and really listen to your customers. Social media is the best place to connect, not just promote. So listen up. Deliver. Execute strongly.
You have every social channel and you’re blasting out branded messaging every day. Good for you! But you’re doing it wrong. Word of mouth is still the number one way for new consumers to learn about your brand. Did you know that only 7% of it is done online? There is a good reason for this. People don’t trust Facebook; they trust their friends. Influencers have reach but they aren’t your friends. Solution: reward your best customers and let them be your voice. It works… we know.
You’ve got all the channels, but do you have the content? Grassroots campaigns can sometimes (if not always) beat over-produced content. Getting your campaign to go viral isn’t about the messenger; it’s about the message. How we see something isn’t always the way the consumer sees it. They want information and entertainment, so give it to them. Create something fun and inspiring with the appropriate amount of branding, and you’ll be surprised how much further it will go compared to traditionally branded content.
Did you go to SXSW? Preach your notes below. We like to learn.
