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Coolhunting: A Minefield for the Out-of-touch

The ‘coolhunting’ practice originated in the 90s as a result of attempting to infiltrate a highly resistant yet increasingly profitable demographic; the youth. Self-proclaimed ‘coolhunters’, a new breed of marketing professionals, made judgements and observations through various research methods to catch a glimpse of trends and fads. But, once brands delved deep into their pockets in exchange for this information and put it to practice, they’d murder the very thing they were looking to become. Simply, coolhunting is flawed.

An important point to mention is this: you cannot buy cool as a brand, you can only become it. For example, in Men’s fashion, the success of brands like Supreme, Gosha Rubchinskiy, Balenciaga, and Gucci come solely from their own perception of fashion. When inferior brands imitate their designs and concepts to cash in on their success, the youth will talk, mockery will follow, and more often than not, original counterparts will be abandoned. The cycle of cool will revolve once more. But of course, there’s money to be made. However, the only people imitator’s will profit from are late adopters and laggards; uncool and un-influential.

An interesting point is the coolhunters themselves. Surprisingly, it is extraordinarily rare that they’re a member of the demographic they wish to crack. Subsequently, their efforts to uncover information often come from sources they perceive to fit the idea of cool, whether that be from an individual, individuals, or certain outlets, when in fact the mark has been missed entirely. Today, being a coolhunter is deemed easy through the power of social media, but a fact often overlooked is the smoke and mirrors of the mainstream. Once a trend hits the mainstream, you’re too late. Yes, there are ways of catching trends before they happen, but the private lives of the youth are as unbreakable as they’ve ever been. In simple terms, you cannot fully relate to or understand your demographic unless you fall into the bracket yourself.

A final point for this think piece is unpreventable and lethal to industries trying to keep up with cool; Time. With every influential industry that tries to cash in on the cool, there will always be factors that go into creating a product or service, and those factors will always take significant time. Companies like Zara pay great attention to streamlining the process of concept to store and achieve this in an average time of 3 weeks, which is around 8 times as fast as the fashion industry’s average of 6 months keeping Zara at the top of their game. But even in 3 weeks, trends will die.

Ultimately, finding cool could be all for nothing. Even though your product or service may sell, and in some cases sell very well, a brand will never become cool by riding off the success of a superior counterpart. The only way for a brand to achieve cool status is through originality, and if this isn’t achievable, then maybe give up altogether.

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Influencers & the Modern Advertising Landscape

As each year passes, traditional media outlets become increasingly unappealing to the current generation of young consumers. In an age of exciting and genuinely appealing digital content, brands must leave behind old platforms and adapt to the new if they wish to succeed in selling their product or service. One of the most powerful tools in Advertising today is the social media influencer. Otherwise known as a social media personality, an influencer is someone who has reached a level of fame via the Internet, and someone with an established, loyal following as a result of personal content created for their respective social outlet or outlets. An influencer’s ability to sell to their audience can be astonishing, and this can be accredited to a number of factors.

The content created by an influencer plays an integral part into their following, and subsequently the ability to influence their audiences so effectively. Arguably, the most successful influencers are made in the modern entertainment industry due to platforms like YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and the late Vine. These platforms offer influencers an uncensored voice and boundless creative freedom, and with attitudes around Television turning more and more sour as time goes by, influencers with the ability to create highly personal, limitless content catered exactly to their audience’s interests without the interference of higher management are undoubtedly more desirable. Furthermore, with such creative freedom, influencers are able to incorporate brand deals and sponsorship so seamlessly into their content. In fact, some creators have faced controversy in response to lack of transparency with sponsored content. For example, Gaming influencers Tom Cassell and Trevor Martin narrowly avoided civil penalties of over $40,000 for lack of transparency in promoting a ‘gambling’ site, CS:GO Lotto. The site orientated around a winning content within a popular video game, and was in fact partially owned by the pair; a point unbeknownst to their audiences.

Unlike the typical celebrity, influencers rarely shy away from publicity. In fact, their brand relies on constant communication with their audience to create a stronger bond necessary to have such influence. This publicity and audience interaction can occur online through methods like videos, pictures, and tweets, or offline through scenarios like meet-and-greets, live interviews, or even performances. Whether online or offline, this strong interaction naturally attracts sponsorship and paid promotion. Of course, celebrities have communication with their fans as well, but what makes influencers so appealing to brands is their authenticity and their genuine interest to hear first-hand from their audiences. With fame becoming easier to achieve than ever, influencers often show a gratitude unknown to most celebrities, simply in response to the support they receive. This gratitude is key to keeping audiences both loyal and easily manipulated by brand deals.  

With such strong responses from brands utilising the power of influencers, it’s unlikely the practice will go out of style anytime soon. From my perspective, we’re only going to see more in the future. And, as technology evolves and new social platforms emerge, the landscape will surely continue to shape until we reach the next turning point of Advertising in the modern day.

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non-coursework endeavours / mini lookbook / london ‘17

model: Samuel Moir-Smith - https://twitter.com/samuelmoirsmith

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Print Concept based on AMV BBDO/Nicorette’s ‘One Breath’ campaign - Charles Loxley

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Concept print ad for Moving Mountains B12 Vegan Burger - Charles Loxley

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Recreating bad ads - Burger King ‘7 Inches’ - Charles Loxley

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Recreating bad ads - 1st Bank ‘Worry Less’ - Charles Loxley

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Assignment - Campaign encouraging young people to vote - Charles Loxley

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A Fairytale on behalf of the ‘North Korean Tourist Board’ - Charles Loxley

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My Manifesto - Charles Loxley

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To anyone who considers themselves caring:

The prompt for this letter lies solely behind something I care about with the intention of starting, stopping or changing that said thing. However, there’s nothing at the time I genuinely feel so passionately about in order to spark a response.

This is what I’d like to address.

Anything I somewhat care about is always contradicted by a justification. To put it in perspective, I see it as a spider’s web of sorts. I see through it, I know what’s on the other side, but the shrapnel of a situation gets caught in it and I’m left unscathed. You can discover these situations with ease but rarely do we delve into the heart of them.

Child labour exploited by Zara. It’s a known fact. Hordes of children used for their tiny, delicate fingers and their desperation to provide for their families, regardless of the fact some may not get paid at all. But at the end of the day, a bargain is a bargain, and the last thing I think about when buying a pair of jeans is a child in a third-world country and their strenuously long shift who’s likely abused if they underproduce.

Furthermore, North Korea. The only remaining communist nation. Citizens are told their country is superior to any other, yet their only glimpse of the outside world is through controlled state media. People are prosecuted for petty crimes, and their punishments are often fatal. The life goal of a North Korean, young or old, is to satisfy 2 men; one a psychopath, one dead. But I don’t lose sleep, I don’t make a fuss, and honestly, I don’t care enough to openly say something about any of it.

Ultimately, the web that shields me is what I’d like to change, and upon further reflection, this web is desensitisation, and I know for a fact I’m not the only person to experience this.

However, I’ve come to realise that this has happened to myself and others through no fault of our own. Controversy is so commonplace now, and through the media outlets of the world, information has become remarkably easy to obtain. How can we possibly learn to care about the bigger picture if we hear the same stories every day?

Simply, we must learn to care and care to learn. But how? We don’t have the time, nor do we have the ambition, and why would we want to care about issues so far away from home when we’re so comfortable in our own surroundings? In this instance, we have to look to both the past and the present. We have corporations that have got away with and are still getting away with crime and cruelty, a country that manipulates their citizens for the sake of loyalty and power, violence and conflict between governments, disgustingly large numbers of people who don’t know when they’re next going to eat or drink, droughts stealing the lives of millions, people caught up in chemical warfare for causing no harm, and closer to home, a president who’s blocked travel on a list of predominantly Muslim nations.

You tell me this. What is it all for?

If you’re still lost for solutions, here are some suggestions. Make yourself heard. Petition, picket, and protest. Use our connectivity to regurgitate and reiterate the importance of the atrocities we ignore. Donate to organisations at the core of the causes, and whether that be a pound or a penny, for christ sake, learn to care and care to learn. If not, it’s only a matter of time before we become meaningless headlines ourselves.

“First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out - because I was not a Socialist. Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out - because I was not a Trade Unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out - because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me - and there was no one left to speak for me.“

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An Apology on behalf of Apple

(A blank background appears and remains throughout the ad. At notable points in the main body of the script, polaroid-esque snapshots are displayed momentarily in reflection of pinnacle moments in Apple’s history)

Sorry.

Our faults can’t go unnoticed any longer. It’s about time we acknowledge them.

We’re sorry the Macintosh disrupted the 80’s and put out competition to shame. We’re sorry we revolutionised the operating system and made computers more accessible to consumers. We’re sorry we made computers stylish with the iMac, and made getting online easier than anything else on the market. We’re sorry we embarrassed our retail analysts in 2001 who told us our stores would fail. We’re sorry we started the digital music revolution with the iPod and made cassettes obsolete. We’re sorry we changed the mobile phone industry and gave headaches to the ones who tried to copy us. We’re sorry they failed. We’re also sorry for the countless times we’ve made your lives easier with products and features like iPad, Siri and Touch ID. Finally, we’re sorry we can’t stop innovating.

We’re not perfect, but that’s just another thing we wish to perfect.

(End on Apple logo)

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The Big Issue - Charles Loxley

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McDonald’s Salads - Charles Loxley

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Nescafé Extra Strong - Charles Loxley

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some illustration for a long copy on the fictional North Korea Tourist Board. the idea behind the illustration came from the way citizens of the DPRK are conditioned to view their country, as well as Joseon-ot (traditional dress). the general citizen’s perception is embodied in the copy itself, entitled ‘jewel of the yellow sea’. the text alongside the illustration translates into “glad to meet you”, chosen intentionally to tie in with the tourist element.

- designed and conceived by me

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lil conceptual bit for Nescafé. had pulp fiction on my mind at the time.

- designed and conceived by me