Culture War
There's a culture war happening.
Burnout, quiet quitting, and a new generation struggling with work while also being addicted to both their phones and the idea life shouldn't be this hard.
In a dopamine addled, infinitely complex world, there's voices in people's heads that they need to take their free time, optimize and balance their lives. The very thought that everything is overwhelming has become addictive in itself.
For many creatives, work life balance can be the wrong kind of balance. It shouldn't be you're either at work or your relaxing/doomscrolling... It should be you're at work or you're creating.
To get to launch for a new brand, or take creating to the next level, it's rare to find those that haven't embraced that shift in mindstate- if you want to get something done, your free time is up for grabs.
As a creative you should want to spending doing free time on creative work, it should be burning within you to get out. Free time, is time to be used with purpose.
I think of what creatives are now in a new light.
Do you create content? Design? Copywrite? Do you have an entrepreneurial idea that lights you up? It may be hard to concept, but commercial is creative in our new world, there is little true art for arts sake, and while sad, this is okay.
Creativity is inherently personal, and however it manifests in your or in others, embrace it. This is the flywheel of our lives, and ideas are stimulation, energy that propels us forward. Anyone reading what I write here has had the thought "what if I created my own thing", or you wouldn't be here.
Embrace it. Move your time to it.
Instead of a social scroll, look up a factory below. Sketch an idea. Find a collaborator. Make a plan. Do all of the things, watch them compound. Nothing else will feel as good as the continuation of your journey.
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THE CREATOR CAPITALISM JOURNEY
Creators started as simply a vehicle for eyeballs online, and quickly became a potential marketing channel for brands to spend on for influence.
This went from a fringe idea, to a complete industry, with rates, management, software, analytics, and action that displaced a significant chunk of traditional advertising.
Then came the creator brands, from monsters like PRIME energy to rising category stars like Beis luggage to niche upstarts like Minted NY to thousands of small brands that turned creators into creator/entrepeneurs, in control of their own destiny's versus sponsorship dollars.
This power hasn't gone unnoticed. Brands started hiring full time creators to be the face of their brand on social media, now a best practice for CPG and lifestyle companies and beyond.
And now, the stakes are raising even higher. For brands that are doing hundreds of millions to billions in revenue, they can't hire marketers that know content the way big name creators do... and big name creators, even just rising creators are making a lot of money. I've encouraged entrepeneurs for a while to find a creator co-founder (and I still do), but the stakes are rising even higher.
I've been seeing immense comp packages floated recently for Director, VP and C-Level marketing and creative jobs to hire individuals with big followings, and also deploy those followings, and this is also branching into HR, and even rockstar engineers with followings. This is JUST coming to reality, and it will disrupt the way we think about compensation. You are hiring an executive, a force multiplier to market on the internet, and leveraging their audience like a paid influencer. These team members will be the highest compensated members of orgs outside of CEO's, and they will be worth it.
The ripple effects? Are going to be curious. Creators who have jobs and balance them are going to be less worried about it being frowned upon, and more interested in how using it to support is built into their comp.
Watch this space.
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πΆ CRO πΆ
I am painfully deep inside a conversion rate optimization initiative at the moment, taking a website at low conversion rate (half a percent) and working through the various tasks needed to upgrade it. Why should you care if you have an ecom store? Improving half a percent would effectively double DTC revenue in this scenario. You'd be surprised what a few tweaks can do for any business that's driving decent traffic to their site to simply better leverage your existing interest.
Which brings me too--the sites I reference when working to improve conversion rate. This is where I go to look at what little things their doing on their home page, category pages, product detail pages and checkout process to increase conversion, and lifetime value.
βhttps://www.trueclassictees.com/ (video on product detail pages, easy readable and comparable, great positioning supported by video)
βhttps://www.rhodeskin.com/ (category pages with frictionless add-to-cart, then great in-cart upsell)
βhttp://ridge.com/ (check the upsell toggle on the product detail page)
βhttps://hexclad.com/ (the celebrity endorsement on home page really ties the site together)
Good bookmarks to keep in you quiver!
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Quick layups for your brand if you want to improve your Shopify store:
- Integrate checkout upsell or post-sell with a team like Recart
- Use SMS abandoned cart with services like OneText or LiveRecover
- Add a persistent "add to cart" button on your product pages that scrolls with the user
- Add reviews, and show your review stars above the fold by your price
- Add a FAQ accordion section on your product pages
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π₯ WORKFLOW π₯
Capcut has made my life so much easier its hard to even describe. I record and edit my TikTok and Instagram videos in it, and now use for work video workflows because the feature-set and SPEED of pro editing on Capcut just destroys traditional video editing workflow.
Workflow breakdown video is here.
We can record, start and edit on one device - and since files are cloud shareable pass off to team members for edits, skillsets or versions. Same thing with recording via phone and passing to desktop to use the more advanced version. The LUT workflow if you're shooting on the same cameras or phones as your team is simple and effective. You can cutout pics and green screen super fast, overlay videos and photos in intuitive layering, and the ease is shocking. Captions are automatic and dynamic. Pros will hate to hear it, but this is the workflow of the future, and it's built for social first teams. I was stoked with the Capcut team hit me up to talk about workflow on video, truly a partnership I can endorse and support.
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π FACTORIES π
This week on the internet I covered... ideas for corporate merch that isn't terrible. Links to the factories I mention are below:
Lighter holders: https://superfect.en.alibaba.com/β
Curduroy Tote Bags: https://fbag.en.alibaba.com/β
Cufflinks: https://verenadesign.en.alibaba.com/β
Tech decks: https://ywyisun.en.alibaba.com/β
Airpod holder covers: https://anderason.en.alibaba.com/β
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π NEW RELEASES π
The Understated Leather Fall '23 Collection is live now.
Explore: https://www.understatedleather.com/pages/neo-bohemiaβ
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π΄KITCHEN SINK π΄
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Faux Out of Home Advertising in the New Normal
βhttps://www.instagram.com/p/CuxAbgyOcnd/?hl=enβ
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Using 600k to test the ideal Meta Ads Structure
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UMBRO x Boiler Room
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424 x Liberal Youth Ministry for Leagues Cup
The power of a viral moment
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Brands should be building sets:
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I can't wait to see what you create!
β Oren β
ACTIVEWEAR CREATION COURSE IS HEREβ
THE TREND REPORT ON TENNIS IS HEREβ
JEWELRY CREATION COURSE IS HEREβ
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BRAND PARTNERSHIPS & SPONSORSHIPS
Contact: oren@delucamediagroup.com
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Oren John | Product People
THE INTERNET'S CREATIVE DIRECTOR
www,productworld.xyz
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