For those that create the culture of consumerism can be detrimental to the whole process

I recently came across two very amazing people on the internet.
The first, who I haven't looked into much, just listened to what he had to say is his name is John Perry Barlow. The second is an author by the name of Kurt Vonnegut.

Both are terrific examples of people who have a perspective on things on. Whether you agree or disagree with them is irrelevant. They are creators.

It got me thinking about artists. Then I combined those thoughts on artists with proverbs.
'Do something that you love and you'll never work a day in your life'
'If you do it for the love, the money will come'
So and and so forth. Now this isn't exactly anti-cap capitalism but it is something different from making money for moneys sake.

I believe that an artist - those who makes music, write books, paint pictures, dance etc - that create art for the sheer point of turning a profit will never, ever, achieve greatness. However, an artist who is able to turn a profit through their art done in a meaningful and constructive way is destined for great things.

Some business advice I would give an artist or a creative company is this.

We all need to eat, pay for bills, rent and petrol. There are costs of maintaining your artistic tools.
What you need to do is use the skills that you have to do something that is able to bring in money, whether that is initially plying your trade in a commercial sense that funds your ability to be free and create freely that is great! If you have another skill use it so that when you 'clock off' you can truly let your mind wander the creative halls of your imagination rather than worry about money.

How does this relate to marketing?
I would apply these concepts to the 7 P's of marketing. If you don't know what they are have a squiz.
Process - The process of creating, improving, practicing and learning the skills required to be a dynamic artist. If the job is unrelated, then it will help you focus on the process of creating.
Promotion - It's self promotion, but done in a way that is credible
Price - It will potentially allow the artist to ignore the fact they might give away their music for free but this can be made up in the form of touring.

Art + branding = clever

I wonder what the sales were as a result of this famous print....did people unconsciously decide to by Campbell's Condensed Tomato Soup rather than the other brand?

Regardless of whether art can increase ROI,what I find to be cool is that people look, engage and talk about. It becomes a bit of fun, and interesting conversation. 

When a piece of marketing activity can make the world a little bit more interesting or fun, I think they have done well. ROI should also take into account the unmeasurable. Quality and quantity can be linked you just have to know how to do it!

The task was event marketing, it's like they assigned me cake

I recently went for an internship where the task to get to the next round was to design a brand party. A piece of cake I thought. No, not a piece of cake, a whole ice-cream cake. There were three parts.

So I thought that it might be nice to share my creative flare with you, demonstrate how I would ensure coherent branding as well as experiential marketing at it's most fun.

I present, for your pleasure, my Nintendo brand party!

Part 1

Choose a brand and write 2-3  short paragraphs outlining why you chose the brand

The reason that I have chosen Nintendo as the brand I would most like to create a ‘brand party’ for is because it holds a unique place to me personally, within the global community culturally, and perhaps most importantly it pervades several generations. It is a fun brand, that encourages creativity, friendship, and learning. For instance it has been a source of joy, entertainment, conversation and friendships in my life.

Nintendo has been servicing the entertainment market for over 100 years in Japan and for at least the last 50 years internationally. The company is a pioneer in the electronic gaming and toy industry. Having been a strong player in the market since they entered in the 1970s. This means that children and young adults in the 1970’s who were exposed to arcade games and the original brand champions of Nintendo now have children of their own who are also fans of Nintendo. In this way Nintendo has spanned generations of brand champions globally.

The fact Nintendo has captivated the leisure time of so many people world over has contributed to Nintendo’s ability to influence culture. No longer can we think of plumbers named Mario with out the image of a mustachioed man with a red cap of Italian heritage being invoked. Nintendo characters and themed jokes regularly feature in memes as well. It is for these reasons that to host a brand party for Nintendo would not only be an honour but also fun.

Part 2

Where would it be? Who would be there? What type of music would be playing? What is the atmosphere like? and why?

Where would it be?

The venue would be ‘Cookie’, ‘The Toff’ and ‘Roof Top’  in Melbourne on Swanston Street, the venues are operated by the same business and housed in the same building. The whole venue would be harnessed to deliver a completely inclusive experience. The reason that Cookie would be chosen as a venue is due to its central location, its varying rooms/areas and also the staff’s skill in creating amazing drinks and food. The food and drinks although secondary will be an important aspect of the brand party.

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Who would be there?

A completely diverse guest list would be created but as Nintendo operates in the technology and entertainment segment there would be a focus on technology-based invitations that will generate positive word of mouth as well as free publicity via blogs. Owners, buyers, managers and staff at various electronic (whether exclusively dealing in games or just a stockiest of game products) owned businesses. These would include Electronics Boutique, JB Hi-Hi, Toys-R-Us etc.

Avid game bloggers, and online contributors from various tech related websites such as Gizmodo would also be invited to attend the event. The reasons for these invitations would be to generate publicity for Nintendo through online third party endorsements and dialog.

To capitalize on the family friendly nature of Nintendo, especially the Wii, families would be invited to the event early with a special showcase and area that would be appropriate for children. The families would be chosen through a number of channels such as online competitions and buyer reward programs.

There would also be a component open to the general public especially for the tournament.

What sort of music would be playing?

The music that would be playing would be a combination of bands as well as DJs and producers. The music would be themed around video games. The musical talents all having some sort of influence gained from video games, spanning the 1970’s to today. There would also be background music in the foyer, elevator and stairwell which would be a combination of soundtracks from Mario, Tetris and Pokemon.

There would also be a live show where Nintendo characters would perform a stage show of sorts. This would occur during the family section of the party to provide family friendly entertainment.

Girl Talk - a world renown remix producer - would be commissioned to create a remix compilation featuring tracks, reworks, edits and remixes of Nintendo music.

The artists that would be used and the order in which they would appear would appear are as follows.

Melbourne Symphony Orchestra( playing various songs from well known video games, featuring Nintendo game compositions exclusively)

Yellow Magic Orchestra (Band, Japan) http://www.ymo.org/

Girltalk (Producer/Remixer, USA) http://www.myspace.com/girltalk/

Boy 8-bit (DJ, Australia) www.boy8bit.com

These artists have been chosen to showcase the depth to which Nintendo has penetrated society. The music would be a showcase from around the world of Nintendo or arcade inspired musical compositions.

What would the atmosphere be like?

The atmosphere would be that of a showcase, party and tournament. There would be people interacting with each other and on their own. There would be music in the background and it would be a fun, safe environment where everyone can find a spot to have fun. No detail would be spared for instance when the elevator reached a floor the Nintendo ‘ding’ would be heard that is so familiar to the original Game Boy player.

The experience starts immediately once a person enters. As people enter the foyer and move up the stairwell or elevator, Nintendo pop culture encapsulated their senses. Each room and building floor after floor would contain Nintendo paraphernalia.

The drinks and food would be themed to either mimic or replicate food from various Nintendo games over time. All of the staff would have Nintendo themed costumes. The security staff would be a combination of Donkey Kong and Wario. The bar staff would have free reign as to the attire they chose to dress up in. Waitresses would be dressed as Princess Peach whilst waiters would be Mario and bus boys would be dressed as Luigi.

‘Roof Top’ would be the centerpiece. A 3D projection technique would be used to allow individuals to play a live Tetris game (refer to references for youtube clips). This live Tetris game would utilise the whole side of the neighbouring building. In this way the blocks would literally be suspended in the air and cast on to the canvas that is the surrounding environment. A staging area would also be set up to allow for all of the musical performances to be held outside.

‘Cookie’ would house the console units, where all of the consoles that Nintendo has produced over the last 30 years can be showcased. All of the originals would be there such as Nintendo Entertainment System, Super Nintendo, Nintendo 64 etc. The cult games would be featured with each console emphasizing a multiplayer approach to try and include as many people as possible. A limited number of games would be available to play due to the sheer size of the catalog available.

Using the booths in ‘The Toff’ section of the venue Game Boy tournaments would be hosted. A variety of tournaments would occur featuring retro consoles such as the original Game Boy systems as well as tournaments with the new systems such as Game Boy Advanced and Game Boy DS. Games would range from Tetris to Pokemon. The right section of ‘The Toff’ would also play host to arcade machines that Nintendo has produced as well as an area to mingle and converse.

Nintendo is much more than one thing and the experience that is needed at a brand party for Nintendo would involve the complimentary combinations of sounds, lights, food, music, decor, colours, people and space. The atmosphere would be a part of the experience, which would encompass the whole building and its surroundings.

Part 3

What you think the brand could do better?

Nintendo is a globally recognised brand with positive connotations, it is embedded into the culture and memories of young adults born after the 1980’s and it has the amazing ability to become multigenerational. Individuals who grew up and purchased the first Game Boys (the first hand held Nintendo product) in the 1980’s are now having children of their own. They in turn buy Nintendo Wiis and Game Boy DSs for their children. With this in mind I think that they can do better to grow and strengthen their brand equity further.

I think that the brand is lacking in the ability for a true multigenerational cross over and interaction. Where games can be shared and passed down from parent to child – Super Mario, Wario, Tetris, Kirby etc. Children beating their parents’ high scores can be a source of pride and sharing in the same ‘digital adventures’ they experienced as children.

Nintendo can do this by integrating better the past consoles into the new consoles. This is not a new concept for Nintendo either, there was some ability to do so originally with the Nintendo/Super Nintendo/Nintendo 64 and Game Boys but there is little or no transferability for later consoles.

This improvement can be done through converters, adaptors and emulators built into the consoles which could also interface with old Nintendo hardware. Hardware has been created in the passed to allow for this to occur with Game Boys integrating with Super Nintendo systems.

A game changer..events for events sake? No thanks, I'd rather not come.

It's a new dawn, it's a new life, and I'm feeling good.

After starting this blog a year ago and not doing much with it for some time. I have decided that I might start to 'critique', comment and other wise explore, extrapolate and examine campaigns and trends. Let's start the conversation with something that is dear to my heart, event promotions on Facebook.

Web marketing relating to night clubs is an area within marketing, social media and social life that I have become somewhat an expert at.

Facebook cleverly built into its platform the ability to create events where an invitation can be send to all your 'friends'. At one point all friends could be invited at once very easily, this quickly became problematic and it was taken away.
A Java script code was quickly invented to allow all friends to be invited at once. Although the ability to invite all friends at one has had speed bumps put up it seems near impossible to take the ability away.

Why was 'invite all' taken away? Direct mass marketing/personal selling, in an attempt to disguise it as referral marketing was the main reason. Who was the perpetrators of this? Promoters of night clubs, concerts, live music and anything else that an 'event' invitation was sent out for.

There were also those that would show the weakness and vulnerability of the system. Pranksters who wanted to show the 'security' flaws of Facebook and the ability to exploit the fact that things can get out of hand easily. E-anarchists.

Now whilst this tool was beneficial at first about notifying people. Once it was harnessed with the power and speed of Zeus' lightening bolt by the web 2.0 marketers of the world things quickly turned from light rain to a torrid thunder storm. If there is lightning, thunder is sure to follow and soon the events became noise within the cloud that is the internet. What is the result of this noise to the peoples personal database of 'friends' and acquaintances? They get blocked from sending events, ignored on news feeds and muted from the internet community that is facebook. People opt out, without the marketer realising it.

To criticise is one thing, but it's useless if no alternative is suggested. What I would suggest a night club for a specific night to do is rather than saturate the market with 'meaningless' promotional events (not that your event isn't the most important in the world, but rather it can't be given in a effective and efficient way to the target audience). Move to SMS marketing techniques were it's possible to opt out. Further to the point, utilise the 'like' and fan pages in order to propagate events directly to the people that genuinely want to engage in conversation with the event/club etc. When this is done properly the people that need to know will know through more effective promotion.


Photos need to be utilised as well as interesting content that makes people enjoy seeing the page come up. This is not to say that mass invites should be used at first as a tool to generate awareness but it should be temporary and phased out, so that only new clubs/nights/events use it rather than a constant stream that gets bigger and bigger.

Marketing channels need to be carefully watched as to the effectiveness of them. Are you using it as a useful tool for awareness or have you become annoying in your attempt to make people aware? It's shocking but you probably aren't as interesting as you think you are.


When the people that want to know, do know, they will tell others. This creates TRUE word of mouth, referral and viral, marketing.