Patreon: The Power of Crowdsourcing for Artists

It is quite frustrating for artists to spend $10,000 over a span of a few months to create their video project only to turn out only $100 once adorned online. Jack Conte was one of these “victims” who has maxed out his credit card while creating his music video for uploading to YouTube. While it cost it so much for him to finally come up with a video online, Conte was inspired to create a crowdsourcing site for musicians called Patreon.

Conte’s idea was to ask the fans to donate $1 for every video he makes. In just 13 months, Patreon was able to funnel $2 million from fans who loved art. Conte said these patrons were not limited to music lovers who watched the videos. Some of them visit the site to learn a lesson in science or read a comic strip.

Patreon started with just three artists. Today, 180 new creators are added every day to its 25,000 content creators already on board. One of these creators is the YouTube artist Kina Grannis. Her Patreon has already recruited 289 patrons. They subscribe to her videos at prices that range between $1 and $25 each.

Geak Watch: Creating the Next Generation Smartwatches

The Geak Watch is a part of the growing business of smartwatch manufacturer Shanda. With more than 300,000 Geak watches sold in 2013, Shanda was cited as the world’s leading smartwatch producer in 2013. Geak’s market was limited to China at the onset of the productions but this year, Shanda has announced that the company is now ready to expand to international markets. Foxconn subsidiary Saibo Electronics was granted the license to sell Geak Watch in Southeast Asian markets this year.

At a price of $325, Geak Watch is relatively high although its initial sales performance has been very impressive. This indicates China’s evolution into a world-class technology hub. The figures also show that more and more Chinese can afford a relatively expensive gadget. Indeed, China is becoming a huge market.

As a product handled by Shanda, Geak’s connection with the Chinese market is already a given advantage over other foreign companies. The Chinese prefer Weibo over Facebook and Twitter; WeChat over WhatsApp, Baidu over Google. Non-domestic companies will have to hurdle these challenges first before becoming successful on the Chinese market. What do these tell about Geak? It has a competitive advantage.

The second version of Geak Watch comes in a round shape. In the smartwatch world, the round shape is more preferred. Geak’s strategy was to go for the Android Wear over Android 4.3 to build its own apps store is seen by many as a risky move. But for Shanda, those two operating systems have too much in common and Shanda perceives that it can change once they get further in the business.

Since Geak Watch was launched on July 3, 2013, Shanda reported sales of 300,000 units. Although this number is way below Samsung Galaxy Gear's 800,000 and just a little above Pebble Smart Watch’s 280,000, Geak Watch was manufactured by a Chinese producer that was playing on fewer resources. This year, CEO Gu Xiaobing promised extensive product development efforts to improve its service and app customization to bring a whole new product experience in 2014.

Zaha Hadid Architects: Curved Designs and More

Zaha Hadid Architects is a company of professional architects led by Iraqi-British architect Dame Zaha Mohammad Hadid. Hadid was the first woman recipient ever of the Pritzker Architecture Prize which she received in 2004. She was also the Stirling Prize winner in 2010 and 2011. Zaha Hadid Architects is known for neurofuturistic designs, mostly characterized with powerful curves in elongated structures.

The World Cup Stadium in Qatar is an expression of a powerful curve. Observers conclude that the structure resembled the female genitalia. While the rest of the world behold angular designs and phallic towers, Zaha Hadid Architects changed the landscape of architecture through its standout signature of curvy designs. Zaha Hadid Architects’ fearless designs landed it in the shortlists of the designers for the newest aquatic center in London and the luxury superyachts in Miami.

As a Stirling Prize awardee, Zaha Hadid Architects was invited by Lego in the 2014 London Festival of Architecture. Along with three other Stirling Prize awardees, each team was given one hour and 45 minutes to create an urban masterpiece out of Lego blocks. The judges chose Zaha Hadid Architects to win the contest where the company still used curve buildings.

RebelMouse: More Social in Growing Brands

RebelMouse is a social digital publishing platform that provides solution for individuals, media companies and brands to create vibrant contents that can build communities and can reach and grow audiences from different niches in the web.

Using an approach, completely different from conventional ones, that emphasizes management of content workflows, RebelMouse is more liberal with the way it delivers contents across websites, social media, ads and apps. RebelMouse tries to amplify the engagement by giving intelligent recommendations, real time trending alerts, and social calls to action. Among the major clients of RebelMouse are Viacom, United, T-Mobile and GE. To see an increasing traffic shares and sign ups with in just days after implementation has been a natural occurrence in these brands. Since its founding in 2012, RebelMouse has empowered more than half a million sites worldwide. RebelMouse did not escape the watchful eye of Fast Company and was listed among the Top 10 Most Innovative Companies in Social Media and Advertising in 2014.

These days, Facebook and Twitter are no doubt the standard for social networks. Social tools for brands are quite unpredictable. RebelMouse stands as the platform that would integrate socials and brands. In conventional approaches, brands tell about their story piece by piece and chapter by chapter. With RebelMouse, all these chapters are put together into one complete story.

RebelMouse was founded by former Huffington Post CTO Paul Berry. Berry has described RebelMouse as the “frontpage to your life in the internet.” Essentially, RebelMouse is a platform that takes all contents brands have created on social networks in order to bring them together in one feed. The job and service looks simple. But RebelMouse is more than just simplicity. It is the next big social site for brands.

BBDO NY: Re-defining Work

BBDO NY is a world-renowned advertising agency based in New York City. It began as Batten Company in 1891. Batten Company merged with Barton, Durstine & Osborn (BDO) in 1928 creating BBDO. The Grunn Report cited BBDO as the “Most Awarded Agency Network in the World” six years in a row beginning in 2005. BBDO is also a five-time winner of the “Network of the Year” award at the Cannes Lion.

For more than a century, the motto “The Work The Work The Work” has been the company’s business philosophy. But early this year, BBDO has continued to deliver work as much as it as re-defined what “work” really means. After creating the “Fix in Six” Vine campaign for Lowe - a campaign offering DIY quick fixes in simple videos - Lowe has dominated the social media waves.

For the telecom giant AT&T, BBDO’s “It’s Not Complicated” campaign has proven that leaving improvs to young audiences can result to funny moments. The AT&T campaign also proved that BBDO’s partnership with filmmaker Werner Herzog will yield incredible range. The product was the 'From One Second to the Next', a documentary that revolved around anti-texting-and-driving which exposed the trivial nature of text messages that can cause catastrophic damages.

Deutsch Inc.: Creating New Waves in Advertising

Deutsch Inc. is a New York-based advertising agency. The company was incorporated in 1969 as David Deutsch Associates Inc. When the company’s founder David Deutsch relegated the company to his son Donny in 1989, the company was renamed as Deutsch Inc.

From its headquarters at 111 Eighth Avenue in the vicinity of Chelsea, New York, Deutsch is working with a team of distinguished agencies. Notable advertisements were produced by Deutsch NY including the “Football Cops” for DIRECTV, the Salma hayek-starred “The Breakfast Project” for a milk brand, the PNC Christmas Price Index, and the “Inside/Out” which Deutsch produced for Go Daddy.

The Los Angeles office, on the other hand, has opened in 1995. Deutsch LA created a revolution for car advertisement in 2003 following the success of the musical spots it created for Mitsubishi. The ad featured songs by Dirty Vegas and The Wiseguys. Deutsch LA did another advertisement for Volkswagen in 2009, as the company continued to create waves in car advertising. Deutsch LA’s campaigns for Volkswagen were award winning.

These past years have been very challenging for Deutsch as the agency moves from dormant creativity to a storied agency that has reached new creative strides, especially with the Super Bowl campaigns for Volkswagen. These accomplishments have been rewarded over the past decade. For ten times, Deutsch was named as Agency of the Year by the trade press. Deutsch was also featured in the Ad Age’s list of Best Places to Work for two years in a row. Deutsch is also a recipient of other awards including Cannes Lions, Effies, OneShow Pencils, Addys, Clios, Webbys and Emmy. For the company’s active involvement in community affairs, Deutsch the Inclusion Award for Community Partnerships by IPG, the Multicultural Talent in Advertising award by the AAF Mosaic Award, and the Live Out Loud Corporate Leadership Award.

Best of all, Deutsch is evolving into product development. Deutsch is producing mobile apps, which would eventually upgrade the agency’s position in the industry in the very near future.

Pereira & O’Dell: Using Social Media to Deliver the Unexpected

The social media has become a great tool to deliver an engaging advertisement but only a few ad agencies have learned to push its boundaries to translate the advertisements into revenues. One such ad agency is Pereira & O’Dell. After featuring Toshiba and Intel in the short film entitled, The Beauty Inside and winning three awards at the 2013 Grand Prix in Cannes, Pereira & O’Dell has earned the reputation as the ad agency that creatively integrates brands with storytelling and social participation.

Pereira & O’Dell is always adding another layer of unexpected things, like the one the agency did for Skype. Critics say the long-form ads were tear-jerking. Then Pereira & O’Dell also worked for Airbnb in which the agency created birdhouse-sized models of actual website listings.

Five years through the rise of Pereira & O’Dell to the top of the marketers’ circle, the company is still willing to take the risk of the culture of a startup. The growth trajectory of this San Francisco- based ad agency showed that it can perform alongside the more established ad agencies. In 2012 for instance, Pereira & O’Dell reported more than $20 million in revenues - a figure 40% more than its revenues in 2011.