Chapter 8: broody over mood boards | oh no am I obsessed with the Kardashians? | 2 Quick Trader Joe's dinners
Do you have a normal blood pressure level and are unsatisfied with that? Do you want to increase your chances of having a heart attack or stroke? If you answered yes, then may I recommend working with overseas suppliers and dealing with supply chain issues during Covid lockdowns. My 2nd factory sample has been delayed for months because of the strict quarantine rules that have been implemented in China, but I finally just got an email saying that the sample shipped out earlier this week. Hooray!
I went from feeling like this Ben Affleck…
…to more like this Ben Affleck:
What is Art?
I read this article the other week that criticizes the use of mood boards in art direction/creative development and the impact it’s had on brand aesthetics. The TL;DR version of the article is that reliance on mood boards, which is primarily built using existing visuals as reference points makes new content derivatives of existing creative, thus making everything look the same.
I think there are some other macro issues driving this effect that the article doesn’t touch on:
insatiable thirst for new content: I think the one of the biggest challenges Marketing teams face right now is having the budget and capacity to keep up with the insane amount of content that is needed to succeed these days. The old school version of Marketing: a brand works with an agency to create one, maybe two big creative campaigns a year and that content is then pushed out to every marketing channel.
Now there are so many more channels and each one requires its own specific type content - what works on Instagram does not work on Tik Tok and what works on Tik Tok does not work on Linear TV. Don Draper could never. The rate of wear out of creative assets on digital channels is also incredibly fast so you have to continually pump out new stuff. In this new environment where speed to crucial, there’s no time for luxurious creative brainstorming.
rise of content creation at scale: tied to the point above, churning out new creative at a breakneck pace is not cheap and it’s inherently not scalable. But, new creative studios with a more ‘scaled’ model have popped up to address this problem. Soona is an example of a company that offers creative content at very low prices. They way they are able to this is to basically make shoots as scaled as possible. They create ‘sets’ of creative concepts and then plop in different brands and their products into the set design, which has the effect of making the images look the same - the only difference is the featured product.
While I understand article’s argument that using existing creative as inspiration will inevitably create similar styles, if inspiration is pulled from different industries and unlikely places, it can still feel new for your category and consumer. And ultimately most brands are not in the business of creating groundbreaking art. They need to appeal and resonate with the target audience. I like using mood boards. It’s a great way to organize your perspective, identify themes, and clearly communicate your vision to others. I particularly enjoy the exercise of creating mood boards of competitive brands to identify trends. It’s a helpful way to determine how much you want to follow category norms or not. I created competitive mood boards out of several of the major online baby products and gear brands:
It’s a lot of beige on grey on greige. It has the effect of making me feel calm but also a little sleepy. I want Huhu’s visual identity to stand out from its competitors and also help bring a little bit more life and vitality to category. A few brands that I used as inspiration for my mood board - a lot of which ended up coming from the food & beverage category:
These are some initial ideas, which will eventually get turned into a detailed shot list. More on that soon!
What is the deal with those scammy Kardashian Giveaways on Instagram?
Every time a Kardashian posts a Giveaway Sweepstakes post on Instagram, I end up trading texts with multiple people about our conspiracy theories on why they continue to participate in these tacky campaigns. And why Scott Disick is inexplicably involved. I had a theory that Scott has some dirt on the Kardashian family and blackmails them into doing these promos so he gets paid a cut and in return keeps their secrets safe. But after I did some more research, I think it’s purely for the money.
After the most recent giveaway from Kim’s IG account in March, there was a lot of speculation on Tik Tok about reason behind the posts, which Buzzfeed summarized. It doesn’t explain much aside from the basic mechanics of the promotions:
Kim posts on IG about a giveaway with a grand prize of $100K in cash and $20K worth of flights and hotel accommodations. The post is only up for 48 hours and after that she deletes it.
To enter for a chance to win, participants must follow 75 (yes, 75) accounts listed on Scott Disick’s IG account.
One random is winner is selected.
Sweepstakes is managed by a third party company called Curated Businesses.
I was curious about exactly how Curated Businesses works and who is behind the company, so I decided to reach out to them myself. And it took me down a strange rabbit hole. Here’s what I learned:
Curated Businesses is a legitimate company. The first question on their website FAQs page is “Is this real?” And the answer is an emphatic “YES!”. They post their Australian business registration number on the site, which corresponds to a listing on the Australian Securities and Investments Commission website. The company was incorporated in 2019 and is based out of Brisbane.
But their operations feels bare bones. I only received automated emails with ask of ‘immediate payment’. I never got a response to any follow-up emails.
They are constantly running audience building campaigns. It’s a sliding scale of cost depending on the person. A campaign with Lisa Rinna costs $2500 and a campaign with Khloe costs $10K.
There’s no curation or commonalities amongst the brands that participate in these giveaways. The 75 brands that participated in the Lisa Rinna campaign spanned the gamut of a large, established brand like R&Co, a small business selling dog treats, a plastic surgeon in the Bay Area, and a Ketamine clinic in LA. It is the strangest assortment of businesses that have no connection with one another.
The owner of the company is named Schye Fox, who also manages the social media account of her eight-year-old daughter Millie Belle Diamond. MBD has 1M+ followers and has been active on IG since she was in diapers.
When I found myself on Millie Bell Diamond’s IG account, I had a flashback to a memory from many many years ago of watching a 5 minute clip of the tragic show Toddlers and Tiaras. In the scene I watched, one of the toddler beauty pageant contestants is in the middle of getting a spray tan for a competition and wailing to her Mom, “Mommy, I don’t want to get a spray tan right now!” And her Mom yells back, “Stop crying, it’s going to leave streak marks on your face.” Anyway, after I had that depressing flashback, I decided I didn’t want to do anymore research on Schye Fox and Curated Businesses. I never figured out the exact relationship between Curated Businesses and the Kardashian Krew, but it can’t be a coincidence that both enterprises are run by Momagers.
I think I’m fascinated by this whole thing because of the strange and spammy intersection of the immense social clout of the Kardashians and the very tactical (and increasingly more difficult) work of building an audience on Instagram.
There is a lot of value in having a big following on IG (I’m talking purely about the number of followers, not about the engagement or community building.)
social proof
gives a perception of success that generates more followers (although it’s been proven more followers does not necessarily beget more followers.)
a vanity metric that can be used as a data point with investors and retailers to showcase the relevance of a brand
But a large number of followers that is comprised mainly of bots and fake followers that leads to zero to little engagement (likes, comments, shares) is pointless for a business. And Instagram is known to punish brands who buy a lot of followers by shadowbanning or banning outright.
Don’t get me wrong, I think there’s a lot of value in conducting legitimate giveaways with brands in the adjacent categories or brands that target the same consumer. You reach a new but still qualified audience and it helps with social proof to be placed with other brands. Established brands do it all the time. But I think with the Curated Businesses type of giveaway, where way too many brands participate and there’s no curation, this is a minuscule step up from directly buying followers. And it’s more expensive than buying followers and if the objective is to hit a certain number, you might as well just outright buy them. Based on the Lisa Rinna campaign estimates, it costs ~$0.14 to acquire a follower through Curated Businesses. Compare that to ~$0.05 to straight up buy followers from sites that specialize in this line of work.
Speaking of which, I’m dropping a shameless plug to follow me on Instagram. I’m still building out my precise content strategy and testing out different types of visuals and content to see what works and what doesn’t, so I welcome any feedback that you have!
Trader Joe’s: the unofficial grocery store for tired parents who just. cannot. right. now.
I am lucky and privileged to live in a place where I have easy access to an embarrassment of riches when it comes to high-quality grocery stores. I live walking distance to Berkeley Bowl, a store so beloved people will drive across the bridge from SF to shop there and some want to capture major life milestones there. B-Bowl is my go-to, but the times when I’m exhausted and don’t have the energy to try new and inventive but also kid-friendly recipes, I head straight to my local Trader Joe’s. I love Trader Joe’s because you can walk in with zero ideas about what you want to eat or cook and walk out with some really good semi-prepped meals and a jumble of random ingredients that can be turned into something pretty decent. I think the main reason by Trader Joe’s seems particularly attuned to the needs of parents is because of:
Elimination of Analysis Paralysis: This book is super old now and not often mentioned in those “Best Business Books” listicles, but The Paradox of Choice is a Marketing book that has stuck with me for a long time. The main thesis is that more options is not always a good thing. It can cause stress and indecision, which leads to less overall satisfaction.
I think this is particularly true in the food and beverage categories. There have been so many times when I’ve said to myself “you know what, today is going to be the day I try a hard kombucha” and then I stand in front of the massive kombucha aisle at Berkeley Bowl for 10 minutes and give up because there are way too options to sift through. On any given day, we have to deal with an endless number of decisions in work and in life. The thing that could definitely push me over the edge is having to choose between 10 different kinds of vegan, gluten-free, non-GMO animal crackers. At Trader Joe’s, there’s only one kind of peanut butter crackers. If you want a jar of pasta sauce, there is a reasonable number to choose from. There’s a calming effect when you know that options have been eliminated and decisions have been made for you.
Here are a few lazy and quick meals and items from Trader Joe’s that our kids like (no chopping onions here):
Pesto Salmon
2 table spoons of Trader Joe’s Fresh Genova Pesto
1 table spoon of unsalted butter, softened
~1 lb of salmon
salt
mix the pesto and butter together until it’s fully combined.
Spread across the top of the salted salmon
bake at 350 degrees for about 25 minutes or so, depending on thickness of the cut of salmon
serve with your sides of choice
bonus: you can use the leftovers to make Emily Mariko’s Salmon Rice. It’ll just have some extra pesto flavor to it.
Korean Beef
pre-marinated ‘bulgogi-style’ beef
broccoli or zucchini
slice the beef into thin strips
sauté over medium heat until cooked through
serve with rice and sautéd broccoli or zucchini or other veggie of your choice
Hash Browns
Don’t sleep on this hidden gem of an item at TJ’s. These hash browns often get lost in the frozen breakfast section because of its small footprint, but they are delicious. It’s probably not all that healthy, but they cook quickly in a toaster oven, are easy for toddlers to hold and eat, and it makes your whole house smell like a greasy diner. We serve these to our kids so often, my son calls them ‘breakfast’.
Miscellaneous Links
This is a very accurate timeline of a Day in the Life of a parent.
I’ve been following Britney Spears’ Instagram account with curiosity, increasing confusion, and slight concern over the past year. And Anne Helen Peterson finally wrote about it from a place of hope and redemption.
Now that I spend long stretches of time working by myself, I’ve been listening to ambient music on Spotify to help stay focused. Flowstate.fm is a newsletter that sends daily emails with ‘work music” recommendations.
10 years(!) ago this month, Girls premiered on HBO. The show was polarizing from the get go and the criticisms about and shortcomings of the show are true. Despite that, I loved it. Name a better episode of prestige television than Season 3 Episode 7: The Beach House. To mark the 10 year anniversary, Lena Dunham wrote a moving piece for Vogue about the ebb-and-flow of female friendships. If you want to get a little emotional, I suggest reading the article while listening to St. Vincent’s ‘New York’.