Storytelling With Louis Vuitton

Apr 14, 2014 | ,

Louis Vuitton fascinates me. I have posted on them before, from the video they did with Yasiin Bey (on Muhammed Ali) and The Trunk, a book of short stories to streaming their fashion shows. They continue to delve into spaces and do things that engage with storytelling in an interesting way. Louis Vuitton is not the kind of brand that one would imagine running conventional ads on a public broadcaster and so their video marketing campaigns tend to be beautifully shot, unpredictable in their content, while still tying into their positioning in subtle ways. For example, I love L'Invitation au...

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Red Bull’s Film On Music

Mar 11, 2014 | ,

Red Bull has gradually positioned itself at the forefront of sports, creativity and lifestyle, embedding itself in everything from extreme sports and dance to music, football and Formula One. In 1998, they started the Red Bull Music Academy in Berlin as “a world-travelling series of music workshops and festivals” with the main segment attended by “two groups of 30 selected participants – producers, vocalists, DJs, instrumentalists and all-round musical mavericks from across the planet”. It has been held in as diverse places as Cape Town, Sao Paulo, Dublin, Melbourne, London, Seattle and...

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G-Star Presents RAW Episodes

Feb 10, 2014 | ,

Brands have now realised that, beyond simply selling to us, they need to tell stories. As a result, more and more are building interesting platforms to create and curate content that both reflects their values as well as speak to the desired customer base. The Dutch denim brand G-Star has been building a presence in South Africa and recently launched a store in Cape Town. As an urban clothing brand that draws inspiration from vintage military apparel using raw denim, G-Star has been collaborating with individuals it sees as fitting its brand essence, including in the series RAW Episode, the...

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Adidas’ Stan Smith Is Back

Jan 20, 2014 | ,

I have always loved sneakers but my collection has generally been functional. I'd buy a couple of pairs, wear them till they fall apart and then replace. A friend of mine is a serious head though, particularly Air Jordans, and has a wardrobe with boxes upon boxes stacked. In the last two years, I’ve been gradually acquiring a little sneaker game, building a collection based primarily on nostalgia. I tend to lean towards kicks I wore growing up, including the Adidas Samba and Superstar II (shell toes), Nike Air Force 1 and Cortez, Puma Clyde, etc. The list of desired additions to collection...

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Steve Slotow & Kojo Baffoe present The Art of Life

Dec 23, 2013 |

I haven't shared the Art of Life episodes lately - well, in reality, I haven't really shared anything lately. The end of the year is always the most intense from a work perspective and with all the writing and running around I've been doing have left very little room for blogging. I've stopped beating myself up about it. This is something I will continue to do and build on - sometimes, consistently, other times not. It is what it is. To close out the year, check out the last three episodes of the Art of Life. I continue to believe there is a growing space for web series/online programming...

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Kojo Baffoe & Steve Slotow present The Art of Life Eps 11

Oct 14, 2013 |

So Steve Slotow and I are still plugging along - albeit slowly - with the Art of Life web series. We are on Episode 11 and the intention is to keep building. We'll see where the experience takes us. In this episode, Steve talks about the Windows 8 powered HP ElitePad and Telkom Mobile's free wifi offer (in South Africa) which is running till December 5th while I try to get the iHealth Wireless Blood Pressure Monitor to work properly. We are now running the series on a Vimeo Channel and is also running on AlternaTV. [vimeo]https://vimeo.com/76800880[/vimeo] As always, a thank you to 21Tanks...

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