New York Archives - Steve Sammartino

New York Series: Magnolia Bakery – In content is rad.

Posted on March 4, 2009 by Steve Sammartino

Still got a few New York stories up my sleeve.

If anyone had any doubt that mainstream media is ‘still’ the most powerful communication tool, here’s some proof. While in New York we just had to check out the famous ‘Magnolia Bakery’.

The only way I had ever heard of this infamous business was via the TV show ‘Sex in the city’. It wasn’t advertised during the program, but in content. That is, discussed during the show, part of the story. This only ever happens when we have a ‘worthy business’, something worth talking about because it is so cool.On many occasions during my stay the line to get in was all the way down the street. And the cupcakes were tremendously yummy.

And so it proves a few things:

Mainstream media ain’t dead yet.
In content is way more powerful than paid for advertising
Only ‘cool’ stuff ever gets talked about.

Startups, go make some cool stuff.

New York Series: Contingency Plans

Posted on February 25, 2009 by Steve Sammartino

It’s no secret I’ve spent some time abroad recently – the tile of recent entries has been a total giveaway.

One of the areas I reckon all entrepreneurs should cut their teeth in is a bit of gardening. The skills required for successful gardening happen to be highly transferable for entrepreneurs. I always keep my my garden in good nick. But this is the condition is was in upon my return.

My beloved box hedges are not very healthy to say the least.

Sure we had some hot weather. But I knew it was the middle of a Melbourne summer which regularly gets temperatures above 40c / 100f . So why didn’t I prepare for the resources to cater for the ‘potential challenges’ the hot weather could present to my garden? It’s pretty simple really. I assumed it would be OK for a few weeks. I assumed that things would progress as normal and we wouldn’t have the hottest temperatures on record – which we did.

I failed to prepare for the worst case scenario. Actually I failed to have an infrastructure set up so things would not only continue in my absence, but have the ability to respond to extraneous circumstances. The net result is business failure. Dead garden. Which means that my garden business is still a sole trader, a side interest or maybe just a hobby.

We only have a business when we can be absent and;

things get done anyway
emergencies get attended to
our customers are unaware of our absence
we return with no ‘noticeable’ difference

So the questions we must ask ourselves as entrepreneurs, is how we are building an infrastructure which doesn’t rely on us? It’s only once this is in place, that we actually have a business.

New York Series: Nice copy writing

Posted on February 10, 2009 by Steve Sammartino

Here’s a nice piece of copy writing I found on a store in Soho. The thing I like is that ‘fun’ have finally entered categories which go beyond toys, chocolate bars and candy.

Life was meant to be fun, so I think it best we inject it into our startup regardless of what category or industry we play in.

New York Series: idea from Starbucks

Posted on February 8, 2009 by Steve Sammartino

While in Starbucks I stumbled upon this cool little piece of branding. A branded chocolate coin:

Such a simple idea with relatively low cost. If you’ve got a small business or startup and you are handing out flyers or stickers, maybe a gold call will be more memorable, and leave a good taste in peoples mouths.

New York Series: NBC ‘Scareface’ & UGC

Posted on February 8, 2009 by Steve Sammartino

I went to 30 Rock to check out the NBC studio. One thing that struck me was the involvement they create for customers in the studio. Here’s a picture of me as Al Pacino:

It’s an old trick, but the point is simple:

The days of passive consumption are over.

We now demand to be part of the experience, to create the stuff we buy. Especially in new media and web forums.

New York Series: Dylan’s Candy Bar

Posted on February 8, 2009 by Steve Sammartino

I was so impressed by Dylan’s Candy Bar – they get it.

It’s just perfect in every way. The understand the following important factors in branding, retail, business, marketing:

Theatre at transaction – best I’ve ever seen
Premium product
Single Minded proposition
Being the experts
Feel good factor
Service by people who dig working there (when you get served they say ‘have a sweet day!’ – love it)
Escapism
The brands are the stars – the product ‘is’ the promotion. No advertising required here.
They know the category is more important than their ‘Dylan’s brands’.

In fact, instead of me raving on…. here’s a huge photo essay I took. That should give you the idea. Enjoy.

New York Series: So much advertising

Posted on February 6, 2009 by Steve Sammartino

I am absolutely flummoxed at how deep the media channels flow in the USA.

I’ve never such visual pollution in one city. So much advertising.The thing I’m most surprised about is the ethical (pun intended) pharmaceutical category. TV advertisements for Drug X, encouraging people to go to the doctor to see if they have disease Y, in which case they should ask the doctor to prescribe drug X. This is so wrong, on so many levels. Start ups out there, please be in business for good – sales should be your secondary objective – helping people your first.

times-square

Sure, Times Square is kind of cool to look at, a real visual orgy. But it just never ends.

If you’re in the media business in Australia or Europe, there are plenty of new spaces which can be leveraged. I’ll provide a summary of new media channels with a photo essay at the end of the trip. But in the interim here’s a link to an historical advertising photo stream I found on flickr. Quite interesting.