LIVErtising 2012 notes #2 – Social Branding
Here are the notes for the second part of our LIVErtising course. It is entitled “Social Branding”. I recommend printing these notes and bringing them to class this Thursday.
First, the PDF version, which is easier to print out.
Second, the PPT version.
Added Feb 27 – here is the embedded video from the PPT. Take your time to watch it again, let it sink in!
And as a reminder: take this slide from the PPT into account:
Your comments are always welcome.
Feb 27, 2012 @ 10:49:32
You’re absolutely right, Sébastien. Thank you for pointing this out. Threadless indeed started their collaborative T-shirts eshop in 2000, four years before Lafraise. Threadless was immediately associated with the concept of “crowdsoursing” when it was coined in 2006 in a Wired article (http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.06/crowds.html).
There is an excellent visual recap on 10 years of Threadless here: http://www.fastcompany.com/pics/accidental-business-threadless-10-years-later#0 – here is a quote: “Jake Nickell and Jacob DeHart started Threadless (in 2000) with $1,000. They never intended it to be such an enduring business–it was more of a fun thing to do online, given the growing number of designers searching for a place to share ideas. Still, today, anyone can sign up, download a tee template and submit ideas, which are then evaluated and voted on by the Threadless community. The winning designs are printed and sold, often providing the savviest artists with a bit of cash — and a moment in the spotlight.
But as a business, the T-shirt company has capitalized on a buzz that never seems to fade. Threadless now has two flagship stores in Chicago. And they’ve recently published a book full of their best eye candy. In the Threadless book, excerpted here, Nickell recounts the company’s decadelong success.”
Now I feel it is good to highlight examples in Europe, possibly in Belgium when they are available. The French example Lafraise managed to become market leader in Europe, and shows there is room for non-US individual enterprises as well!
Do bring up more examples and cases you know of! Sharing is all social media are about!
Feb 23, 2012 @ 12:41:27
May I bring to your attention the fact that Threadless.com is, according to figures I found in my book “Crowdsourcing”, a much bigger and older website, doing the exact same thing as lafraise. I think the community is larger, the amount of submitted designs too, and so are the rewards. I might be wrong, but I think the founders also initiated the concept. I’m not entirely sure about this though, but I thought it was worth mentioning it. I hope you find it useful for your English course. Have a nice day.