[SIC] 123: DTC 2 D2Me

January 14th, 2021

Hi all,

Big day today so let’s get straight to it. First and foremost, you’re all invited to join a session I’m doing at Retail Innovation Week at 1p ET / 10a PT with friends Ben Pruess, Ali Edgerton and Jon Wexler about the present and future of retail. It’s called “DTC 2 D2Me” and it’s free and you can register here. Will be fun.

Secondly, [SIC] Talks is back today with my old friend and Supreme video/photo auteur William Strobeck. We’ll talk about the newsletter of course, but also about growing up skate, the immutability of style, the Cuse, and youth culture going global. Bill’s a rogue genius and always a great vibe. Check it out at 4p ET / 1p PT on my IG @dietznutz, and in my grid thereafter.

Last thing before you dig in: big thanks to Charla, Ben, Corey for contributions this week; I really appreciate everybody’s ideas and references. Keep ‘em coming.

Til next week,

Ben

=====[SIC] 123: DTC 2 D2Me=====

Retails they are a changing

• CCI on how Taobao turned product listings into entertainment by personalizing its landing pages. (Substack) 

• Shopify is "arming the rebels" against Amazon (Quartz)

• PSFK and Avalara on how to win in the digital marketplaces in the new report, is free here. Great foundation for Day 4 of Retail Innovation Week, including my session on DTC 2 D2Me. 

• Via Lean Luxe: Hodinkee founder Ben Clymer on how to build a $100 million ecommerce and media empire (WatchPro) 

• Long but useful explanation of the Alibaba ecosystem and China’s e-commerce and digital worlds, through the lens of Jack Ma’s recent absence from public view. (Not Boring) 

• Speaking of Xi v. Ma (Financial Times) 

• Free Game: fave China plug Jing Daily is doing a live webinar exploring “How Collaborations Are Defining Experiences in China” on Tuesday, January 26 at 10 a.m. EST / 3 p.m. GMT. 

The Division Economy

• The internet’s hot new clubs are Telegram and Signal. (Stefon voice). These places have everything….  (Axios) 

• Mailchimp is betting that you'd like brands to text you a lot more (Fast Company)

• But worryingly, QAnon falsehoods move to text message chains (NBC News)

• While Far-right militias are using TikTok to organize and recruit new members (Media Matters for America)

• The Media Nut’s Josh Sternberg notes that Twitter, Facebook, Google and others have all deplatformed Donald Trump, but chum boxes [paid recommendation stories] are still widely used for spreading bad information. (Motherboard)

• Meanwhile, Over 1,000 brands ran ads alongside election misinformation (Axios)

• And Facebook Has Been Showing Military Gear Ads Next To Insurrection Posts (BuzzFeed News)

• A running list of corporate responses to the Capitol riot (Vox)

Socials-ization 

• Taylor Lorenz rounds up the year on TikTok. (NYT)

• Via Dealbook: TikTok and Discord Are the New Wall Street Trading Desks (WSJ)

• Logical then, that Walmart created a fintech startup to leverage their customers and win more of their spending (Bloomberg).

• How Tinder became the app that defines online dating (Financial Times)

• Instagram Is Dead (It Just Doesn’t Know It Yet) (Medium)

• Via Protocol: Jeremy Liew on Clubhouse's diverse user base and evolving from "dinner party" model to "talk radio" model. 

• Via Protocol: Black users are making Clubhouse a more creative, fun place.

• He Created the Web. Now He's Out to Remake the Digital World. Tim Berners-Lee wants to put people in control of their personal data. (The New York Times)

AI / Gaming 

• How deepfakes could change fashion advertising. Tech experts predict positive applications for fashion. (Vogue Business)

• Via Elevator: Here’s a ‘Beatles’ album made by AI (Youtube) 

• Via Music Redef: Sony launched a new Unreal Engine project, Sony Immersive Music Studios, by way of a Madison Beer song called “Boyshit” (Music Business Worldwide)

• Also via Music Redef: 8Ball’s Sean Monahan for The Guardian on how Video games have replaced music as the most important aspect of youth culture. 

• Related: Gaming Talk Soars on Twitter in 2020 (Adweek)

• This is interesting: a paper exploring the relationship between video game expertise and fluid intelligence (Pubmed) 

• Hence Virgil Abloh’s thoughts on the future of fashion and gaming: “My brain is turned on” (Vogue Business)

Marketing Creativity

• Speaking of Virgil, this week saw more “FREE GAME” from his Public Domain crew (Instagram) 

• The future is fluid: is the age of gender neutral marketing upon us? (The Drum) 

• Related: design studio Wedge created a visual language  for Gender Creative Kids Canada. – a non-profit resource company for trans, non-binary and gender creative youth. (It’s Nice That)

• How GE, of all companies, groomed a generation of tech leaders (Protocol)

Media-ites

•  2021 in Podcasting: Now What? (Vulture) 

• Related: Condé Nast had big plans for podcasts. But producers say the company bungled their new network through mismanagement. (The Verge)

• Via Music Redef: With radio giants taking a hit during the pandemic, companies like iHeartMedia and Entercom have increasingly turned to outsourced DJ talent to lower costs. (Billboard)

• Via Nieman: Protocol laid off half its staff just 11 weeks after launch. Now, they’re hiring and expanding (Digiday)

• Tiny News Collective aims to launch 500 new local news organizations in three years, with half based in communities that are unserved or underserved, run by founders who have historically been shut out. (Nieman Lab) 

• Univision, the largest Spanish-language broadcaster in the U.S., launched "PrendeTV," a free, ad-supported streaming service (Axios).

• Via Nieman Lab: As marketer interest rises, Black media brands are investing in growing community coverage (Digiday) 

• This will be a trend, via The Rebooting: Travel & Leisure found a new home with Wyndham Resorts (Skift)

• Nylon and Raygun founder Marvin Scott Jarrett is back with Marvin mag, with an assist from Roger Gastman.(Instagram)

• Dust off the Jeroboams! Cannes Lions Says It Will Move Forward With an In-Person Festival in 2021 (Adweek)

• And via NYT: Gov Ball is back live in September. (Daily News)

Regarding Your Ears

• Via Music Redef: Police prosecute drill artists with their own music (Huck Mag) 

• More on that point: Why Digga D, a British Drill Artist, is Banned from Using Violent Lyrics (NYT)

• Via Music Redef: How MF DOOM joined The [Adult Swim] Family (Okayplayer)

• FKA Twigs created a station on Sonos radio(Instagram) 

• Via Music Redef: Meet The 83rd, the music professor who makes radical Black club music (Mixmag) 

Fashion / Luxury

• Hypebeast culture has stormed India (Vogue Business)

• But McDonald's J Balvin merch line has been canceled due to production challenges. (Business Insider)

• Archival fashion is great for consumers-but less so for brands trying to sell new clothes.The Row, Gucci, and a few others are hunting for solutions. (GQ) 

• Can Phillips’ Online Auction across 20th century and contemporary art, watches, and jewels spark a new model of luxury sales? (Jing Daily) 

• An A-Z of Sweater Vests (Buro) 

• From Charla Caponi: The ‘He Economy’ Is Luxury’s Next Big Thing (Jing Daily) 

• Behind the rise in fungi fashion lies a psychedelic revolution (The FACE) 

• Via Lean Luxe: Increasing chatter on mushroom-based fabrics (Modern Retail) 

• Longstanding Aussie street style experimentalists PAM have a new line with Cali Dewitt Thornhill. (Instagram)

The Arts and Artists

• What 2021 Looks like for the creative community (It’s Nice That)

• The Louvre’s plan to create “the memory of humanity.” (Airmail)

• Caroline Harrius makes Embroiderable Pottery. (Colossal) 

• Jack Shainman Gallery is bringing Gordon Parks’s photos, most recently on view in London, to its New York City spaces. Images range from his “Segregation” series to a portrait of Muhammad Ali. (Airmail)

• IG takeover of the week comes from buddy @samuelryde and his @telephonebooths and @handdryers handles 

• Via Maekan: Photographer Mikey Corcoran took to the streets of Grand Theft Auto 5 to capture the crowd. (The FACE) 

Space is the Place

• Via The Dork Web: The CIA have released all of their UFO documents. You can download ISOs of the PDFs, as well as some PDFs that now have indexed text all from The Black Vault.

• And the regrettable decline of Space Utopias shows the need for optimistic sci-fi. (Current Affairs)

Future Cities

• Saudi Arabia announces plans for a 100-mile, car-free linear city called The Line, belt of zero-energy walkable communities for a million people. (Dezeen) 

• Maybe the entire population of planet Earth should live in a giant sustainable city? (Dezeen)

Stuff to Watch

• From Ben Duhl: “Over the break watched one of my favorite actors in French Tv version of “[Vernon] Subutex”. It's on Topic. Really good."

• Via Quartz: John Dillermand is a Danish cartoon made for four- to eight-year-olds about a man with an extraordinary penis.

Skate to Create

• From Corey Tinelli - “Angry and Dejected” Yours truly, growing up skate in the late 80s (eBay). 

• Ricky Sans, strategic partner manager for memes at Instagram calls memes a new form of expression akin to skateboarding, punk rock and hip hop. (The Drum) 

• The struggle is real. Via Public Announcement: A look at the skateboard drought of 2020 (Jenkem)

• Climbing might be the next skateboarding. (Instagram)

• Rubbish Heap Highlights. IYKYK. (Instagram) 

• Tommy Guerrero’s got a new record out (Instagram) 

Odds & Ends

• Blow out your eyes with this explanation of what color-blind people actually see (bonus Brexit symbolism) (Creativebloq)  

• Blackbird Spyplane went mutton-busting with Phoebe Bridgers (Substack)

• Via Public Announcement: Happy Mondays star Bez launches online fitness class‘Get Buzzing With Bez’ (Evening Standard)

• Elsewhere in dancing, via Quartz: Brown tree snakes are doing a brand new dance now. They figured out how to climb a pole using “lasso locomotion.”

• Finally: Via Dealbook:  Quant fund or Metal Band? 

=====[SIC] 123: DTC 2 D2Me=====