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the-cyberpunk-zeitgeist · 4 years

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The Cyberpunk Zeitgeist

>>>𝕄𝕜𝕕𝕚𝕣 "𝕤𝕠𝕔𝕚𝕖𝕥𝕪"...

>>>ℂ𝕕 "𝕤𝕠𝕔𝕚𝕖𝕥𝕪"

>>>𝔻𝕠𝕨𝕟𝕝𝕠𝕒𝕕 𝕙𝕚𝕧𝕖𝕞𝕚𝕟𝕕.𝕖𝕩𝕖...

>>>𝔻𝕠𝕨𝕟𝕝𝕠𝕒𝕕 𝕔𝕠𝕣𝕡𝕠𝕣𝕒𝕥𝕖𝕜𝕝𝕖𝕡𝕥.𝕖𝕩𝕖...

>>>ℝ𝕦𝕟 𝕤𝕠𝕔𝕚𝕖𝕥𝕪.𝕖𝕩𝕖...

>>>𝕄𝕠𝕣𝕒𝕝𝕚𝕥𝕪 <𝕝𝕠𝕒𝕕𝕚𝕟𝕘-𝕗𝕒𝕚𝕝𝕖𝕕:

"𝕞𝕠𝕣𝕒𝕝𝕚𝕥𝕪.𝕙" 𝕟𝕠𝕥 𝕗𝕠𝕦𝕟𝕕>

>>>𝔼𝕣𝕣𝕠𝕣 𝕞𝕖𝕤𝕤𝕒𝕘𝕖: "ℂ𝕒𝕟𝕟𝕠𝕥 𝕗𝕚𝕟𝕕 𝕤𝕠𝕔𝕚𝕖𝕥𝕪.𝕖𝕩𝕖. 𝕎𝕖 𝕝𝕚𝕧𝕖 𝕚𝕟 𝕚𝕥."

>>>...

Flash into the past and look into the future. Recall the early stages of the digital age—the new millennium—and how, at the precipice of a thousand transformations, civilization was defined by its endless climbing innovation. In the 80’s and 90’s, when consumer use of the personal computer was infecting society like a virus, our entire idea of communication changed. The net became a pivotal point in shaping what it meant to be human. Through an ever-expanding web of information, human innovation seemed to spiral until promising “authorship over reality itself”. Those who felt constrained by the world, escaped into a fractal space with infinite possibilities of connecting with others.

Douglas Rushkoff termed it ‘Cyberia’—a dreamlike place offering “a way to crack open our civilization’s closed-mindedness, and to allow for a millennial transition that offered something a lot better than apocalypse: consciously driven evolution”, but the mesmerizing unity in this newfound cyberscape didn’t last. What followed—what we see around us now—may lead us to believe that all is lost, but perhaps there’s something more than war, corporate politics, espionage. Perhaps, there still exist some humans among us interested in a higher cause: unlocking the mysteries.

While the net was first adopted solely by military personnel and groups of scientists across academia who saw fit to interconnect themselves for research and communication purposes, it soon fell into the hands of the geeks using hypertext forums to discuss niche hobbies or send pictures to one another. The net became a mystic place of interlocking minds, where interconnected collections of data contributed to the neural network of humans that composed a global brain. As this paradise aged, however, the desire of investors to monetize and capitalize from the cyberscape arose alongside it. Advertisements flooded the web; businesses sprung up in every forum, website, and chat client. It wasn’t long into the 21st century that the nature of the web was forever molded by a greed to optimize its use for social credit, capital, and leverage for everything from corporate intelligence, to data harvesting, to control and censorship of media. The symbol of freedom and exploration was thus transformed into a stratified market and a subversive survival game. It’s all so… Cyberpunk.

In the 80’s and 90’s, alongside the rise of computers and the net, came the rise of Cyberpunk literature—a sci-fi subgenre defined by its retro aesthetics intermixed with contrasting commentary that showed us the wonders of new technology while simultaneously revealing the deep divide that emerged as a result of inequality. Pioneers like William Gibson in Neuromancer, Neal Stephenson in Snow Crash, and Katsuhiro Otomo in Akira revealed the true impact of this divide. In a world where everyone in the streets is chromed up with augmented cybernetic prostheses, but can still hardly afford to eat—a world where cities have been replaced by endlessly sprawling megalopoli—we’re left immersed in the aesthetics of ‘high tech-low life’ people struggling to get by.

Cyberpunk showed sci-fi fans what it might look like if kleptocratic corporations spiralled further and further into the power vacuum created by advancing technology. If caution and regulation aren’t put in place to protect the people from marvelous creations that humanity could hardly predict outside of science fiction, the people are further exploited and economic classes are further stratified. When this is combined with life-threatening dangers around every corner, the difference between economic class can mean life and death.

While the additional flourishes of weapons-grade cyborgs, sentient and sentimental artificial intelligence, and laser guns can make Cyberpunk seem like a farfetched reach into a future that will never come, I am here to tell you that this is Society, and we are living in it. Around the world, rising sea levels begin to swallow more of the coastline, and megafires consume any shred of nature or infrastructure in their path. Both of these events are spurred by human-driven climate change which is created in large part by first-world corporations churning out fossil fuels or slicing up rainforests for profit. The global hivemind that is the internet has become the limitless communications apparatus we wanted it to be, but it is covered in adverts and subverts its users attempts to harness its power with misinformation, propaganda, and profit-driven exclusive content. Riots over authoritarian state measures have propped up not only in the United States, but in Hong Kong, Belarus, and all across the globe. Pandemic disease and refugee crises displace hundreds of thousands of humans each year, and the rich keep getting richer by the billions.

In more recent Cyberpunk writing like William Gibson’s The Peripheral, Gibson describes the Jackpot:

And first of all that it was no one thing. That is was multicausal, with no particular beginning and no end. More a climate than an event, so not the way apocalypse stories liked to have a big event, after which everybody ran around with guns… or else were eaten alive by something that caused the big event. Not like that.

It was androgenic… that meant because of people. Not that they’d known what they were doing, had meant to make problems, but they’d caused it anyway. And in fact the actual climate, the weather, caused by there being too much carbon, had been the driver for a lot of other things. How that got worse and never better, and was just expected to, ongoing. Because people in the past, clueless as to how that worked, had fucked it all up, then not been able to get it together to do anything about it, even after they knew, and now it was too late.

...it killed 80 percent of every last person alive, over about forty years.

Jackpot. The repercussions of humanity’s actions finally catch up, and those bits of humanity that do remain are saved by an extreme surge in innovation that manages to save society’s elites. As Douglas Rushkoff puts it in his recent essay The Privileged Have Entered Their Escape Pods, more and more of those who have the capital to do so have already begun their plans, whether those plans are to escape to Mars or to set themselves up with a cushy work-from-home job while the lower class workers are forced into the public during the pandemic crisis. The need to automate away positions for the safety of our species is becoming even more prevalent than it once was in the minds of corporate conglomerates, but the cancerous overgrowth of our bureaucracy has become so bloated and tripped up in its own processes that we can no longer look to our political systems to keep up with the exploitation of innovation. Lo and behold, the world’s looking pretty CPAF to me.

Where have the visions of Cyberia gone? What happened to the early stages of internet punks, pushed aside in their desire to surf the datasphere purely for the rush of uncovering swathes of data? Where did visions of “authorship over reality itself” twist to become ‘authorship over reality by those with the capital to control’? It may seem that this explosive spiral of technological innovation in the new millennium is driving us towards extinction and only saving those with enough coins in their pockets to buy a ticket on the ark, but perhaps it’s not too late to change course and save ourselves from the ultimate Jackpot.

United by the global nature of the net, every one of us is connected as a single living entity that is the Earth—a Technogaia. Developments in artificial intelligence promises us exponential increase in information processing capabilities across all fields. Breakthroughs in genetic engineering could allow us to delete diseases from our genomes, and have already shown minor success in the de-extinction of species. With the first cyborg part already installed in each of our pockets, every citizen can extend their minds beyond capacity; each one of us becomes a journalist at a moment’s notice when injustice needs to be documented and challenged. Nuclear, hydrogen, solar, and wind energy lead us towards a cleaner and greener future. The rise of urban ecology shows a path to optimize the use of space to lower humanity’s carbon impact while providing more space for habitat rehabilitation and the reintroduction of lost biodiversity.

In the palm of our hands, humanity has taken control of the world. With science and technology, we’ve become the manipulators, but if we do not recognize what our impact is on the Dao of Earth, we may tip the scales too far into the Chaos. I’ll be honest in saying things look grim, but these same innovations that have paved the way for flying killbots and smoke stacks spewing gases into the sky have given us the power to reshape the world in a beneficial image. Futurist politicians call for universal basic income in a world increasingly run by machines. Transhumanists pave the way for the radical extension of the human lifespan. Technogaians design solarpunk arcologies to house a society ready to save their Earth rather than one intent on consuming it. Cyberians fight for our rights to privacy and the freedom of information. Just as the visions of grim dystopias in the 80's and 90’s saw themselves transformed into modern realities, we can use humanity’s greatest tool—this near-deific domain over innovation—to mold this fractal reality into our vision. But is it chaos, order, or some harmonious Dao in between that we seek?

No matter our choice, it’s going to take a lot of united high tech-low life cyberpunks to get there. This is the Cyberpunk Zeitgeist, and we’re living it.

For more works by The Cyberpunk Zeitgeist, see our Twitter page @CyborgZeitgeist

#cyberpunk #sci-fi #science #environment #technology

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williamsockner · 6 years

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LGBT+ Identity in the Time of Mindless Self Indulgence

Mindless Self Indulgence isn’t an act that could have flourished at any other time. The emo/pop punk wave was gathering steam; hip hop was still a novelty one could distinguish themselves from the flock by cribbing. “Random” Invader Zim-style humor was in the decline, while “edgy” no-limits humor was skyrocketing. Nerds hadn’t become the dominant force they are today, but due to the internet and the rise in manga and anime sales in the United States, they were able to access nerdy content much more easily. Youtube was taking off, music piracy was booming, and reliance on both radio and local record-store gatekeepers was at a low for young music fans.

Perhaps most critically, our national understanding of politics and identity at the time, particularly LGBT+ identities, was in a different stage of development than it is today. “Punching up” vs. “punching down” was not a concept that most people considered in their comedy. “It’s just a joke” was more widely accepted as an excuse for transgressive entertainment than it is today. “I’m an equal opportunity hater” was a common refrain.

Early in their career, the band released multiple tracks where Jimmy Urine, a man who was certainly not black, used the n-word. The “Pantyshot” cassingle was a treasured possession among MSI fans, featuring an early song that supposedly lost them a record deal due to being about lusting over a 5 year-old. Little Jimmy Urine sold kisses for a dollar to fans after shows, including to the teenagers. As a whole, the band made punchlines of racial and sexual slurs, rape and child abuse, school shootings, prostitution, drug use, incest, and just about every other taboo under the sun.

The understanding was that none of it was real and that none of it had any real consequences. Calling someone a faggot didn’t matter if we were all in on the joke, that homophobia was stupid. Words were just words. The identity of the speaker didn’t matter so long as their ideology was clear. It was something of an inversion of the way we publicly navigate comedy now, in that their identity determines where on the ladder they are to punch up or down, and the contents of their ideology is of minimal consequence compared to the text of their words. The context of a joke is not a matter of what the audience believes, but of the many complexities of hierarchy that society as a whole believes.

“Who cares?” asks 2008. “It’s just words.”

“How could it not matter?” answers 2018. “Words create culture.”

So LGBT+ identity in the era of Mindless Self Indulgence.

Describing the difference between 2005 and 2018 to young queer people is a source of anxiety for me, because I feel like the old woman talking about how she walked uphill both ways to the library if she wanted to read a book. It’s difficult, however, to put in perspective how quickly the culture around LGBT+ identities has changed. As dangerous as it is for queer kids today, they have much freer access to information about their resources and history than we did, and far greater representation in all forms of media.

When I was a teenager, I was the first person openly LGBT at my school, and my only point of reference for LGBT identities were Rosie O’Donnell and Elton John. There was no “Born This Way” yet, no Halsey and Hayley Kiyoko and Ellen Page, no Troye Sivan and Adam Lambert and Frank Ocean, no Miley Cyrus, no Laverne Cox. There were no empowerment ballads.

Which was fine, because I didn’t want empowerment ballads anyway. I felt disgusting. In reckoning with my LGBT+ identity, I felt small, broken, repulsive, confused, discarded and doomed. I was sickened in my own skin and filled with self-loathing because of my sexual orientation. Sometimes I still am. When I was 15, I drew a map of my heart, and in between the “fields of sexual insecurity” and “possibly irreparable damage” I had written “guilt!” several times and underlined it.

“You’re beautiful” didn’t only feel false, it felt invalidating. I was fiercely defensive of my self-hatred. I was working so hard at it, spending so much time and energy convincing myself I deserved the beating I was giving myself. To this day the barriers I’ve put up against generic bromides persist, and songs like “Scars to Your Beautiful” or “Roar” make me cringe. Maybe someone gets something out of them, but I can only think of the teenagers like me who used that sort of sentiment as fuel for their own self-abuse. I remember once bursting into tears at a “Jesus Loves You” sticker because it served as proof that the whole world was playing a joke on me, telling me that someone so unlovable should have some hope.

It was impossible to internalize that queerness was not dirty, unnatural and loathsome. Any attempt to break that association was drown out by the rest of the messaging we were receiving and our own tried-and-true mental gymnastics. Reassurance could not reach us at the bottom of the well.

At the time, I was obsessed with Mindless Self Indulgence with the kind of all-consuming adoration that only teenagers can possess. I aped frontman Little Jimmy Urine’s fashion, writing slogans across my coats with white tape. “What Do They Know” and “Cocaine and Toupees” were my ringtones, much to my mother’s chagrin. I had catalogues of bootlegs, lovingly sorted and pressed to CD. Mindless Self Indulgence populated my artwork, both in classroom doodles and in art pieces for my portfolio that I labored on for weeks. They were the subject of my college application essay. I met my first love on an MSI forum (which I moderated) and lost a few romantic relationships over my inability to talk about anything else. I owned every shirt. When I was hired on at Barnes & Noble’s music section, I would nominate Frankenstein Girls Will Seem Strangely Sexy for the staff recommendation shelf every single week, and whenever it inevitably got recalled to the warehouse for lack of sales, I’d order it right back.

Sometimes my friends and I would go to the mall parking lot at night and blast Mindless Self Indulgence from my car, dancing around the empty lot with our striped stockings, fingerless gloves and Hot Topic trip pants.

This band kept me from killing myself.

“I’m filthy, disgusting, horrible, irredeemable,” we’d say. “People tell us we’re beautiful and we know they’re lying. I’m a freak.”

“Yeah, you’re fucking ugly,” the music said. “So what? So’s everything else. Have some fun with it.”

Despite the fact that Jimmy Urine has never publicly labeled himself with an LGBT identity, we young LGBT MSI fans claimed him as our own. We enshrined the article where he described being sexually attracted to anyone regardless of gender. We imitated and revered his gender fuckery onstage, the skirts, the pink suits and tutus, the eyeliner, his yelping falsetto leaping up from the masculine shouting, the way he danced. We pored over lyrics - that we transcribed ourselves in many cases, through multiple listens and endless debate - for those nuggets of same-sex attraction and gender ambiguity.

“I make a good girl but I make a terrible boy,” went one song. “These things in my pants that we’re all waiting for, I never really knew what that thing down there was used for,” went another. And the most sacred text of all was “Faggot”, off Frankenstein Girls Will Seem Strangely Sexy, the most beloved record of the vast majority of hardcore MSI fans.

“I played that shit straight / blowing suckas to the side hopin' I get laid / now everybody knows / no way in hell I can ever live it down”.

Shit was a revelation.

Kitty, the drummer of Mindless Self Indulgence, once said of the band’s LGBT fans that listening to MSI’s music was like vomiting: it hurts at the time, but then you feel better. You got it out. And the band always cultivated their relationship with their LGBT fans. Gay marriage was one of the few political issues they openly took a stance on, in a time when states like my own were amending constitutions to protect themselves from Massachusetts’ same-sex marriages.

Thus, we had a place where we felt simultaneously seen and valued by the band, and unseen amongst the chaos surrounding us. The irreverent humor of the band created a safe space where homosexuality could be disgusting, but so was everything else. There was no shame at an MSI concert. You were listening to a man famed for drinking his own urine sing about whipping his meat out, who cared if you liked to kiss girls? That’s old news. We’re all freaks down here at the bottom of the well.

I’m 28 now, and I don’t know if the kids these days have an equivalent band. I don’t know if there’s a market for it anymore; I’m sure there will always be queer kids who have internalized the awful message that they are inherently unlovable, but I’m not sure if they can’t find more accessible and more inherently positive panaceas. I see mutations of the same style of humor in Willam from RuPaul’s Drag Race and in some of the undercurrents of Tumblr’s teen humor. “We’re goblins, trash, garbage babies.”

“Yeah,” my inner child says. “I fucking feel that.”

The paradigm of humor has changed since 2008, at least in my circles, and the reasons for that are manifold, political, social, capitalistic. In many ways, it’s been a good thing: bigotry can be exposed rather than cloaked in excuses. A basic understanding of social inequality is presumed of most audiences. People are responsible for the impact of their words, not the intent. “Equal opportunity hater” is seem for what it is: intellectually lazy and blinkered, the refuge of white guys who don’t want to own up to the fact that some jokes aren’t funny.

But I’ll always have a place in my heart for comedy that meets people where they’re at. Where we’re at isn’t always beautiful or acceptable or healthy, but sometimes it’s the place where we need the laugh most.

#music #personal #lgbt stuff #humor #mindless self indulgence #jimmy urine #sorry guys i can't figure out how to text break

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leilas-digital-scrapbook-blog · 5 years

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Giving Love a Bad Name – Confessions of a Fanfiction Writer

I know we’re supposed to blog about our major projects this week and I promise I will get to that soon, but I’d like to go off book for a moment to address something that’s been bugging me since last Thursday’s class. As someone who’s always tried to engage with fandom in as creative a way as possible, I hoped a class on user generated content would offer a fresher perspective than the usual amount of prejudice and self-righteous superiority that sadly seem to accompany the subject of fanfiction even amongst people that make stories and their passion for it their bread and butter.

Guess I should have known better.

In the world of professional writers, fanfiction is still a filthy word. It sums up everything that’s wrong with the people you’re sharing your stories with: the obsessiveness, the entitlement, the disregard for boundaries, the penchant for making everything about sex. Worse, gay sex, as unspeakably dirty as it’s hilarious. Be warned, writers: if you make it big, your stories will inevitably become a free-for-all at the mercy of those people. A worse fate than even George R. R. Martin could wish on his own characters.

I’m used to seeing the world of fanfiction belittled and disparaged, of course, and I’m the first to admit that the community is often its own worst enemy. But for some reason it still hurt a little to sit in class and listen to people I’ve come to like and respect during these past few months buy into every bad stereotype associated with the form. Not because I felt called out (though yes, I do write fanfiction from time to time, and I happen to quite enjoy reading it too), but because of the underlying assumptions that 1. something that’s not 100% original cannot be art, it’s a violence in fact, especially if it twists someone else’s creation into something it was never meant to be (in this case, queer representation); and 2. there’s something wrong with creating exclusively out of love, without ever expecting to be paid for it. And I have Strong Opinions on that.

So let’s talk about fanfiction.

Actually, scratch that, let’s talk about my favorite subject – yours truly. As you may have gathered by now, I love fanfiction. A whole fangirly lot. My gateway drug into it was my obsession with Lost about 10 years ago and its pesky habit of offing every character I was foolish enough to get attached to. But lo! Someone was keeping them alive through their stories! I felt blessed. I got to spend more time in a world I loved, and I stopped flirting with the idea of giving up on the show every time another character I liked bit the dust. Everybody won.

Even more than as a fan, though, I appreciated the world of possibilities that fanfiction opened up to me as a non-native speaker. I come from a small town in the north of Italy; the access I had to foreign books in their original language was limited, and if I wanted to read something in English I’d have to spend quite a lot of money on one of the very few novels (usually chunky airport bookshop thrillers or housewife romances – not exactly my preferred genres) that shared a single shelf in the bookstore with German, French, Spanish titles. But fanfiction was free, accessible, and there was so much of it. If I didn’t like a story, all I needed to do was move on to the next. Suddenly there was an infinite library of engaging stories to help me make my English better. True, they didn’t all read like a published novel would – there’s a lot of unpolished, error-plagued, stream-of-consciousness-y material out there. But there are also so, so many beautifully written works, and believe me, even for a non-native speaker it’s very easy to spot the difference.

Fanfiction also gave me the chance and motivation to practice my English writing in a way school never could have done. I’ve been writing my own stories since I could hold a pen, but I didn’t dare write in English until I was a fanfiction-loving teenager. It was a marketing decision, really – my first foray into writing fanfiction was for a fandom so small that I wouldn’t be surprised to find out I’m the only Italian representative, so if I wanted any kind of feedback on my work I’d have to suck it up and try my hand at writing in a language that didn’t come natural to me. I would never argue that the feedback I got on my works made me a better writer – contrary to popular opinion, the fanfiction community is made up of the nicest, most supportive people, and alas, you’ll never get a comment on everything you did wrong with your structure or even just pointing out common grammar mistakes from them (though I was lucky enough to have someone explain to me how dialogue punctuation works differently in English than in Italian, so I guess something can be learned even from the Internet). It did motivate me to keep writing, though, and that made me a better writer. If you think I’m being too dramatic, dishing out this monster of a post nobody asked for just to declare my eternal devotion to fanfiction, it’s because it’s personal to me. I can’t even count the number of times I’ve been told that I write in English as well as native speakers, and fanfiction is a big part of why that’s true. I doubt I would even be in this course if it wasn’t for it.

And then, of course, there’s the gay thing. I’m not going to argue about how heteronormativity sucks and representation matters because I’m sure everyone’s as sick of talking about it as I am, but please try to understand how it felt for a gay person like me, used to be depicted in media as a plot device or token secondary-character representation if at all, to be able to step into a world where queerness was the default for once. Where queer protagonists had meaningful queer love stories and queer friends and got to save the world from the Apocalypse too. Or to fight the Empire or go to Hogwarts or everything else fictional straight people have had a right to do since the dawn of storytelling in addition to romancing the hottie of their choice. I’m not asking you to feel as passionately about it, of course, but (especially if you’re straight) you might try and empathize the next time you think a fanart of two boys kissing is something deserving of your amused contempt.

I hope I’m not coming across as the person that screams “homophobe” at everyone who disagrees with her because I guarantee that’s not what I’m trying to do here, but I think the general distaste for slash says a lot about the way our society sees heterosexual relationships as love and homosexual relationships as sex. Yes, there’s a lot of gay porn in the world of fanfiction. But you know what you’re most likely to find? Romance. Not in the saucy literary sense of the word, but in its simpler, most literal acceptation. Fanfiction is just one more way for humans to express themselves, after all, and love has always been front and center in our art. Love, not sex – even if it’s gay. In fact, explicit material doesn’t even make up the majority of what you’ll find on a fanfiction website. Don’t worry, I don’t want anyone to taint their souls by visiting one of those dens of iniquity so I pulled some stats myself. Here’s the number of works for each rating in three of the most popular fandoms on Archive Of Our Own, the current go-to website for the fanfiction community (sorry Fanfiction.net) – Harry Potter, Supernatural and the Marvel Cinematic Universe as of 9/3/2019:

Even counting both Mature and Explicit works as straight-up porn (which I don’t think is quite fair, but that’s a discussion for another day), they only make up less than 1/3 of the material. Kinda disappointing, for a medium that’s supposed to be all about filthy graphic gay sex. Imagine if only one in three musicals actually featured singing and dancing, or superheroes weren’t in the majority of superhero movies. They’re lucky fanfiction is shared for free, or I’d be screaming for my money back.

Maybe I’ve just been brainwashed by SJWs, though, and this has nothing to do with my being an immigrant or a lesbian. Maybe my inability to see what’s so bad about appropriating someone else’s intellectual property for your own amusement is a cultural thing. I apologize – as mentioned, I’m Italian, and we all know Ancient Roman culture was basically just a ripoff of everything those inventive Greeks came up with. It’s in our blood. Hell, our 2€ coin, the biggest, has the face of Dante Alighieri on it, a writer most famous for having written 14.000+ verses of self-insert real-person-fic in which the girl he fancied as a teenager, his favorite author, and God himself all fall over themselves to tell him how awesome he is and he gets to prophesy an eternity in Hell for his political enemies. Talk about wish-fulfilling entitlement. Not to mention all those creatively arid Renaissance “artists” celebrated for stealing characters from the Bible and Greek mythology (seriously, the fact that Greece hasn’t unleashed an army of lawyers on us yet is nothing short of a miracle) and putting them in their cheesy paintings. Other countries can rely on a much stronger moral backbone and endless imagination – I’m sure Shakespeare, Milton, Goethe, those creative geniuses at Disney and countless others never had to resort to something as cheap and despicable as borrowing other people’s characters to tell the stories they wanted to tell.

Either way, I can’t help it – I see the prospect of creating something that will resonate with people so strongly that they’ll make it a part of themselves, that it’ll compel them to make more art, to reach out and connect with other fans, as something incredibly beautiful rather than scary. Maybe this is my usual naiveté speaking, and I will come to eat my words. It’s certainly disturbing that a bunch of entitled fans bullied the Mass Effect developers into changing the series’ ending, and sending actors explicit fanart of themselves is straight-up harassment, but is fanfiction really the problem here? Or is it social network culture, with its power to destroy all barriers and foster hive mind? To give resentment a platform to spread and be heard? I promise that the average fanfiction writer wouldn’t campaign to get an ending changed. They’d just roll up their sleeves and write a better one themselves.

#my thoughts #aka leila goes off about her life story #user generated content #fanfiction #fandom #tmi alert

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fantroll-purgatory · 6 years

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Damali Genisa

(Is Troll Buzzfeed a thing? Well, if it isn’t- she’s gonna MAKE IT HAPPEN)

Buzzfeed has 8 letters, so what if Buzzfeed was just one troll, out there in space, posting about space cryptids?

Universe: Alternia!

Name: Damali Genisa

“Damali” comes from Hydrodamalis gigas, the Steller’s Sea Cow, an extinct animal often reported to still be alive somewhere out in the ocean, a reference to this one’s love of possible mysteries. “Gensia” comes from “genesis” the creation of something. In her case, she’s more generating stories about Trollfoot and The Helbeast than anything substantial.

Age: Roughly 7 Sweeps

Theme/Story: Damali is, in the most basic sense, a naturalist. Her focus just happens to be on what many consider to be “chasing myths” and “writing clickbait articles about Troll Bigfoot” instead about like, moths or plants or whatever. The public just doesn’t understand what she understands yet! They will in time, with enough proof…

Okay, I’m gonna get this suggestion out of the way early on because I thought of it earlier and it’s been eating my brain… You talk a lot about how she’s more gullible than she’d like to admit and how she just wants to BELIEVE in the options!!! And so I… I have to suggest… maybe she’s also super into multi-level-marketing/pyramid schemes. She keeps getting suckered into these scams. She’s out here taking part in scams where she purchases content online and then attempts to resell it for a commission. Self employment rules! (Until you lose all your merchandise in a river while cryptid hunting and have to pay back SO many beetles).

Strife Specibus: Camerakind

Damali’s main way of showing The Truth is through her camera, which she keeps on her person at all times. Shaky video, blurry images, ominous sound recordings- these are the weapons of the modern era, she thinks.

Fetch Modus: Enhance

Ever see one of those crime shows where there’s a blurry image and they’re like “Zoom. Enhance, zoom again!” And they’ve magically upped the resolution? Damali’s modus is like that- she has to try and ID the item she wants before she runs out of Enhances.

That’s so funny I love it.

Blood color: Teal

Tealbloods are relentless idealists, and Damali takes that to almost ridiculous extremes. She’s someone who wants to believe in even the slightest possibilities, and she makes others believe them through sheer force of personality. To her, to simply GIVE UP on something because the evidence isn’t there is wrong. It’s out there, we just haven’t found it yet.

Symbol and meaning: Fitting.

LIBNIUS, THE CERTAIN

Trolltag: [GA] gnomicAuthentic

Both words in her tag relate to The Truth in different ways, “gnomic” in a more moral or religious sense, and “Authentic” in a more social or material way.

Quirk: YOU WON’T BELIEVE THESE REAL PICTURES OF THE HIGHLAND NECKBEAST! Damali likes trying to grab attention by starting her dialogues off with a title that relates to what she’s about to say. If she drops it, you know she’s serious.

CONVERSATIONAL CLICKBAIT…. I Love it….

Special Abilities (if any): Besides a camera, wilderness knowledge, and a willingness to ignore anything that doesn’t conform to her worldview, nope! She’s your average high-midblood.

Ancestor: The Geometer [Ferrei Genisa, The Witch of Hope]

The Geometer was a visionary at the side of a powerful Noble who wanted more power than she knew what to do with. The Geometer was her closest companion (some even say her beloved), the one who sharpened her plans with strategy and mathematics, who manipulated the battlefield and the castle storeroom with equal ruthless efficacy. She made one fatal error however- designing a weapon that could not be contained. In her hubris, she turned it on her enemies, but it also turned on herself, annihilating her carefully made plans in mere moments.

Damali tries to pretend none of that ever happened, really! World domination isn’t really her thing, and she inwardly feels bad when she finds evidence of the destruction her Ancestor caused. She sometimes wonders how many cryptids are out there that her Ancestor created…

I love this… I wonder if part of her interest in cryptids Could be her wanting to like, provide restitution to any that her Ancestor made? Maybe not even consciously, but y’know.

Lusus: Damali’s pine marten lusus has been by her side since she was a wriggler, and there’s nobody better she’d want by her side on her adventures! The two have dug out a kind of den for themselves, deep in the wilderness. It gives Damali the kind of hands on access to her subject material that she craves so much.

Interests: Cryptid Hunting, Photo Manipulation, Photography and Filmography, A Good Ghost Story, Folktales, Wilderness Survival Tips, Fun Clickbait Articles

Because of the recommendation I added I’m… not sure there’s really many additional necessary interests. Maybe like, Self Dependency? It’s always good to stash up money to transfer into resources for long RESEARCH TRIPS… Though she usually ends up having to scrounge supplies together anyways because of the nature of pyramid schemes.

Appearance: Damali’s a practical kind of gal, so most of her shoes are boots and most of her jackets are plastic and waterproof. Her hair is a bit wild, but she tries to keep it tucked behind her ears and under fishing hats so it’s not always in her face. But those curls always end up directly in her eyes at the worst times! If only she could remember where all her hair ties went.

Personality: Damali’s always been a big dreamer. When a vision gets into her head, there’s no stopping her. She’ll hold onto whatever her thought is until she’s made it a reality or it’s killed her. So far, she’s survived everything the world’s thrown at her. She often gets ragey at people online who dismiss her research as chasing fairy tales. For her, they’re as real as the air she breathes and the earth she walks on. She’s gone to the ends of the earth to prove herself right, and she’ll do it again in a heartbeat if it means not having to admit defeat. She’s a master at making excuses, and she’s often charming enough that people don’t get on her case too much. She’s got a bad habit of taking everything at face value and not fact checking, so she has a lot of spacey beliefs about the world and how it works. She’s been swindled more times than she’ll ever admit.

I… adore her.

Title: Mage [¿¿] of Hope

Active Classes That Remain: Maid, Mage

Passive Classes That Remain: Sylph, Rogue

Damali is a classic Hope player, even if she’s a bit over the moon about it. For Hope players, belief IS reality much of the time. Hope is about widening horizons, expanding options, and having the choice to pick what you desire. Damali’s obsession with cryptids comes from wanting to have options, wanting to know that other things are out there, still waiting to be discovered. She wants a brighter, bigger and wider world to call her own.

I feel like she is a Mage because she’s a shepherd; she wants to tell and guide people towards the world she just KNOWS is real, but everyone says just isn’t so. She can’t really PROVE or EXPLAIN it, but she KNOWS it’s out there. She tries! She writes clickbait to draw attention and sometimes just… makes things up, but she’s no Seer. The Mage Knows and Guides through Action, not through Teaching.

I think this is definitely really fitting for her. Her inverse is also Heir of Rage with this which means she passively changes the restrictions. Those rules and limiters that exist in a logical reality? She just eschews them, places them wherever she pleases. Can a dinosaur live for millions of years in a tiny lake? It’s possible in her world, now.

Land: The Land of Cold and Marble

Damali shudders as she steps out into her Land. The ground is polished to the point where she can see her own reflection in the stone. There isn’t a tree for miles in this blue moonlit wasteland. The wind blows cold and hard with no resistance, and Damali is instantly miserable. Braving the cold alone was never something she thought she’d ever have to do. And yet, here she is.

Statues of gods long forgotten lie still and alone, unmourned and uncared for. She sits at the feet of them and feels a power still within them. Perhaps these were the gods of this land, before their people perished in this endless cold. Maybe, if someone believed in them just a bit, they’d come back, and thaw this planet back out once more…

L o v e

Dream Planet: Prospit

You don’t get more flexible and emotional than someone willing to ignore reality because it doesn’t jive with her. Damali’s all about going with her gut, doing what feels right.

Design:

Hat: Look at this fun wavy fishing hat that gave me so much trouble but here it is. It’s here.

Hair: A big messy disaster. But it’s definitely theoretically tucked behind her ears.

Face: Obviously the eyes are the same, but I added a pop of eyeshadow as a joke about how many pyramid schemes revolve around makeup. I also gave her a wider and more genuine smile.

Top: Black shirt with a mildly transparent and shiny teal rain hoodie over top.

Pants: Edited from fan-troll’s sprite sheet, because it’s just a good template for the kinda Cryptid Huntin’ aesthetic.

I love herrrrr

-CD

#persephoneanmystery #damali genisa #damali #genisa #tealblood #review #redesign #cd review #submission

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bestcoffeespan · 3 years

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TOP 15 BEST COLD BREW COFFEE MAKERS 2021

A Hot cup of coffee isn't enough when temperatures soar within the height of summer. Cold coffee may be a refreshing alternative and incredibly easy to form if you've got the proper kitchen appliance . Cold coffee or Cold Brew is becoming fashionable, and therefore the truth is that it's a very interesting thanks to prepare a really rich coffee. Surely, you've got seen it in many coffee shops. and that they have charged you dough for your cup of coffee when actually , it's a really cheap method of brewing coffee reception . does one want to understand the simplest cold brew kitchen appliance in 2021?

Contents hide

The best kitchen appliance to form cold coffee.

The best cold brew coffee makers

1.Takeya Cold kitchen appliance

2.The OXO Brew Compact Cold Brew kitchen appliance

3.HyperChiller by Maxi-Matic HC2 Patented instant Coffee

4.Primula Burke Deluxe Cold Brew ice coffee Maker

5.Primula Pace Cold Brew ice coffee Maker

6.KitchenAid Cold Brew kitchen appliance

7.Cold Brew kitchen appliance 34oz

8.Hario Mizudashi Cold Brew Coffee Pot

9.Cuisinart DCB-10 Automatic Cold Brew Coffeemaker

10.Cold Brew kitchen appliance By Coffee Bear

11.Toddy’s cold coffee system

12.Yama Glass Pour Over kitchen appliance

13.Royal Brew Nitro Cold Brew kitchen appliance

14.BTäT- Cold Brew kitchen appliance

15.Bodum Bean Cold Brew kitchen appliance

THE BEST kitchen appliance to form COLD COFFEE.

Isn’t cold brewing an equivalent as iced coffee? No! Although both are often loved equally, they're not an equivalent in ingredients or makeup in the least . We liked an honest cup of ice coffee the maximum amount as a chilly beer. But we also know that there are significant differences between these two coffee drinks. Let’s meet today the simplest cold brew kitchen appliance to form cold coffee.

WHAT ALLOWS COLD COFFEE TO BE MADE?

Cold brewing refers to the tactic of brewing coffee that involves steeping coarse beans in cold water or temperature water. Many deep “L” lovers prefer cold brewing for its robust flavor, and a few coffee fans even argue that the cold brew method is that the best thanks to bring out the innermost flavor of the beans. During the cold brewing process, the beans are never placed in predicament , and therefore the process usually takes about 12 to 24 hours. However, coffee makers allow you to try to to it in less time.

ISN’T THAT ICED COFFEE?

Unlike cold brew coffee, ice coffee is brewed hot and served over ice. This difference creates a particular flavor profile that a lot of find preferable to regular hot or ice coffee .

Also, while cold can be served over ice, it's not an equivalent as ice coffee , which involves pouring hot coffee over ice. And let’s be honest, hot coffee that has been chilled to be poured over ice turns rancid/bitter quicker and easier thanks to the natural process .

Not only do many deep L lovers prefer cold coffee over ice coffee due to the flavour profiles, but many also prefer cold coffee because it stays fresher longer. With a batch of cold coffee, you'll store it within the refrigerator and sip it for every week . As for other notable features of cold brew, another popular reasons why many enjoy it are the low acidity, high caffeine content, also as extraordinary health benefits.

WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN COLD COFFEE AND ICED COFFEE?

Well, they need nothing to try to to , especially with the flavour that you simply are getting to get in your coffee. With ice coffee , you'll get a more watery coffee since you've got to pour ice into it. this is often good for removing the summer heat, but not for the flavour of your coffee.

ICED COFFEE IS ANY COLD COFFEE WITH ICE ADDED.

THE 17 BEST COFFEE MAKER UNDER 100 $ MACHINES IN 2021

Cold coffee describes how of creating coffee. The coffee is formed with cold water from the start , and therefore the process takes about 24 hours. It never gets hot.

Cold coffee is produced from coffee exposed to cold water or at temperature for a couple of hours. So you'll get a spectacular coffee flavor. this technique offers the additional advantage of creating coffee that's less acidic (good news for coffee lovers with delicate stomachs).

Preparing Cold Brew is extremely simple: basically, you'll need to leave the coffee brewing for a couple of hours during a specific kitchen appliance for it.

HOW TO CHOOSE the simplest COLD BREW kitchen appliance to form COLD COFFEE

There are several models of Cold Brew coffee makers. Some are easier to use than others (now we'll tell you a few few).

SIZE?

HOW MUCH ROOM does one HAVE IN YOUR KITCHEN OR YOUR FRIDGE?

Surely in coffee shops, you've got seen very elaborate coffee makers. Many coffee makers brew concentrated coffee, so don’t trust their size. The 1-liter models are the simplest for capacity.

Look for them to be easy to wash .

Many of those coffee makers use reusable filters. Keep that in mind.

They can be made from more or less costly materials like glass or ceramic.

These coffee makers use coarse ground coffee, so you've got to possess an honest grinder

THE BEST COLD BREW COFFEE MAKERS

PREPARATION METHOD COMPARISON: HOW SHOULD YOU MAKE YOUR COFFEE AT HOME?

There is a chilly kitchen appliance out there that's made for everybody . Unfortunately, checking out the right one are often somewhat overwhelming. That’s why we’ve looked everywhere, and here are our picks for a few of the simplest cold coffee makers on the market.

1.TAKEYA COLD kitchen appliance

Looking for something simple to start out manufacturing with?

The Takeya Cold Coffee Makerakeya is a simple to use and clean cold brewing machine which will produce one among the foremost robust and rich cold beers. So you'll buy. made up of BPA-free material, the Takeya has an airtight lid and a non-slip silicone handle that's strong and sturdy . So it'll last you an extended time if properly cared for.

I can make about 4-5 servings of cold, smooth coffee, and use a fine mesh filter to make sure no dregs slip into the finished beverage. It comes in two different sizes, 1 or 2 quarts, but is compact enough to suit in any size refrigerator.

Besides, the Takeya is super light, which makes it easy to maneuver and handle. because it is just made in construction. The Takeya Cold kitchen appliance is additionally more portable than another cold brewing coffee makers.

PROS:

• Less acid

• Smooth taste

• Serve hot or cold

• Airtight lid

• Side storage

• Non Slip Grip

• Durable pitcher body

• BPA Free

• Dishwasher safe

CONS:

Japanese design

2.THE OXO BREW COMPACT COLD BREW kitchen appliance

If The idea of creating coffee during a pot doesn't suit you, the OXO compact cold brew kitchen appliance are often useful. The OXO Good Grips is meant for greater flexibility and experimentation for the more adventurous home baristas.

This machine brews low acid coffee that concentrates to organize cold or hot coffee. it's a compact size cold brew kitchen appliance that takes up less space on countertops and even in refrigerators.

Therefore, it's a lid that keeps the kitchen appliance covered. So this lid protects this machine while brewing.

Although this design differs from many of the opposite models we've shown you, it's even as easy to use. Features a borosilicate glass carafe with clearly marked measurements, also as a fresh stopper, an ultra-fine reusable chrome steel mesh filter, and 10 paper filters.

HOW TO START AN ONLINE SPECIALTY COFFEE SHOP SUCCESSFULLY

All components lend themselves to easy disassembly, making cleaning easy. the foremost important thing to observe out for on this model is leaks thanks to a faulty or worn filter.

PROS:

• Automatic coffee

• Better brewing

• Neat nesting

• The ultra-fine

• A silicone seal to stay the concentrate fresh

CONS:

Non-removal chrome steel

3.HYPERCHILLER BY MAXI-MATIC HC2 PATENTED INSTANT COFFEE

HyperChiller HC2 kitchen appliance improved V2 product that's an easy device. So it prepares perfect ice coffee in one minute. you'll reuse ice tea , wine, spirits, alcohol, juice, etc. Its design uses regular water to relax . All parts of the hyper chiller are dishwasher safe thanks to no chemicals or gels. Your coffee will chill within 60 seconds if you brew it within the hyper chiller.

You can rapidly chill your fresh coffee with zero duration. If you follow the three steps, you'll save your money. First, you would like to brew. Then you'll chill your coffee. Finally, you'll pour it. you'll get return money within fortnight by making ice coffee with a hyper chiller reception . it's perfect for chilling all of your favorite beverages quite coffee.

You can use this machine for many full-size single-cup brewers. So it's easy to use with other traditional brew methods. As a result, it works with all kinds of coffee makers.

PROS:

• Reusable for ice tea

• Beverage cooler

• Ready in one minute

• Fit for all kinds of coffee makers

• Save money

CONS:

• More than coffee

• No chemicals

4.PRIMULA BURKE DELUXE COLD BREW ice coffee MAKER

Primula Burke Deluxe Cold Brew ice coffee Maker brews your delicious cold brew coffee reception . you'll enjoy smooth tea and infused beverages. it's a top quality that keeps your beverage fresh for days.

You can also use it easily. So anyone can brew, store, and serve coffee beat one. you'll make your coffee reception following the four easy steps.

THERE ARE FOUR EASY STEPS:

• 1) Add dregs to brew filter

• 2) Pour cold water over the coffee in it

• 3) Brew within the refrigerator overnight

• 4) Serve and luxuriate in your coffee

This machine features a safe borosilicate glass with a durable protective holder and a cushty grip handle. So it keeps your coffee and beverage fresh for days due to its design with lid seals.

It features a fine mesh filter that keeps ground out of your coffee and also has a non-slip silicone base that helps you to guard your coffee glass from any accidental slips.

PROS:

• Better Brewing

• Easy to use

• Innovative Design

• Perfect compact size

• Endless possibilities

• Effortless cleanup

• Save your money

• Comfort Grip Handle,

• Durable Glass Carafe,

• Removable Mesh Filter,

• Perfect 6 Cup Size,

• Dishwasher Safe,

• 1.6 Qt

• Blue color

CONS:

Coldwater just for 24 hours

5.PRIMULA PACE COLD BREW ice coffee MAKER

Primula Pace Cold Brew ice coffee Maker has accompany an innovative design that's made from extra-tough borosilicate glass the Pace fits in most fridge doors. This machine provides you a smooth drip-free pour. it'll keep your cold coffee for up to 2 weeks because it's lid seals.

A fine mesh filter adds a replacement dimension in its design that helps to stay grounds out of your coffee. This kitchen appliance features a non-slip silicone base that protects the glass from accidental slips.

You will get endless possibilities from this machine. So you'll use your favorite dregs or tea then base your brew time on the specified strength for your favorite coffee. It produces less acidic than other traditional coffee makers. So coffee makers enjoy it while taking their coffee.

It is the pace that has dishwashers safe making pack up a breeze. Besides, it includes a removable brew filter. This removable filter with a removable button can empty used ground without effort.

PROS:

• Easy to use

• Durable glass pitcher

• Airtight lid

• Dishwasher safe

• Perfect 6 cup size

• 1.6 QT

• Save your money

• Easy to wash

CONS:

1 pound of weight

6.KITCHENAID COLD BREW kitchen appliance

KitchenAid Cold Brew kitchen appliance brews smooth, rich full-bodied flavor coffee for you with a streamlined design that appears beautiful. it's a streamlined design with glass and chrome steel components in it. So it preserves the taste of your coffee. you'll use it for straightforward use and cleaning.

KitchenAid Cold Brew kitchen appliance is straightforward portability because it's a carrying handle with on tap. This tap with chrome steel dispenses your coffee from your refrigerator.

You can keep it in anywhere for any refrigerator or kitchen counter for its small footprint.

Reusable chrome steel steppers assist you to organize your beverage counting on your own choice.

It is easy to form up to 14 servings that you simply can mix 2 oz of coffee concentrating with every 6 oz of your favorite milk, water, or ice. you'll structure to twenty-eight oz of coffee with KitchenAid Cold Brew kitchen appliance . So it stays fresh within the fridge for up to 2 weeks.

PROS:

• Easy to use, pour, and clean.

• Smooth, Rich Full-Bodied Flavor

• Streamlined Design

• Always on Tap

• Reusable chrome steel Steeper

• Small Footprint

• 14 Servings

CONS:

28 ounce

7.COLD BREW kitchen appliance 34OZ

Cold Brew kitchen appliance 34oz has accompany a double layer chrome steel . This machine is lightweight. It makes 5 servings of ice coffee . This kitchen appliance produces ⅔ less acidic but traditional hot coffee. So it's a richer taste. you'll get a robust handle with this machine to carry to form coffee making. So you'll pack up safely and simply for a glass pitcher. you furthermore may get this machine with an airtight lid that keeps your coffee tasting fresh for up to 2 weeks.

It has various functions with custom-made hand-blown high borosilicate glass pot thickness. So it's getting to reach the very best level under this technique . Cold Brew kitchen appliance brews fully extract coarse grinds delicious. This machine has accompany a fine mesh chrome steel filter that creates your coffee a smooth cold brew coffee. you'll move it easily.

This machine is suitable for all types of refrigerator doors. Besides it locks the coffee fresh for up to 2 weeks. Its design may be a unique double structure airtight lid.

There are three structures.

stainless steel ring with rubber seals for fixing filters and smooth pouring of water.

stainless steel cover, also with a rubber seal, double closed lock fresh 8 inches full height

4- inches bottom diameter and suitable for storage in most refrigerators.

YOU CAN FOLLOW ONLY FOUR STEPS IN MAKING YOUR COFFEE WITH THIS MACHINE.

• Step1-Add coffee

• Step2-Add water

• Step3-Brew

• Step4-Create your favorite cup of joy.

PROSE:

• Hand-Blown Glass Pitcher,

• Stainless Steel Filter Removable,

• for ice coffee & Cold Brew Tea.

• Airtight Lid

• Dishwasher Safe

• Easy-To-use

• Clean-up

• Free shopping Experience

• A Lifetime Warranty

• Smother and sweeter taste

• Saves you tons of times

CONS:

Access handle safer

8.HARIO MIZUDASHI COLD BREW COFFEE POT

Hario Mizudashi Cold Brew Coffee Pot can make over 4 cups of coffee. You don’t need replacement filters for laundry and reusing. Besides, it's made from high-quality heatproof glass. Though this machine is dishwasher safe, you'll control your coffee pouring. So it's a slender spout for slow and steady.

Hario kitchen appliance brews your coffee. Though it's a really simple kitchen appliance , it can brew better than subsequent . you'll need to do about 80/2.8 oz of your favorite coffee grinds. Then you'll top it off with water. So you'll place it in your refrigerator overnight.

PROS:

• No replacement filters

• 100 ml

• Black color

• Dishwasher safe

• Heat Proof glass

CONS:

Nothing found

9.CUISINART DCB-10 AUTOMATIC COLD BREW COFFEEMAKER

Don’t have the patience to attend 12-24 hours for a chilly beer? Then this Cuisinart automatic might be the brewery for you. The DCB-10 can prepare 7 cups of coffee in only 25-45 minutes.

Although the flavour of the coffee you get from this machine isn't as developed as that of a more traditional method, the saving of quite 11 hours makes it well worthwhile . the quantity of your time this machine takes depends on the strength of the brew you decide on . The mild takes 25 minutes, the medium 35, and therefore the heavy 45.

This machine brews coffee by stirring the water and grounds until enough flavor has been extracted for your taste. So, an indicator light comes on, a lever is pulled, and voila! Coffee is served.

The main drawback of this machine is that there's an opportunity of accumulation within the removable tank. However, all removable parts are dishwasher safe, and therefore the machine features a 3-year limited warranty. Therefore, this could not be a serious problem.

10.COLD BREW kitchen appliance BY COFFEE BEAR

The Coffee Bear gets its bragging rights for its simple use and consistency. This model features measurement lines to assist even cold beer beginners. Plus, once you discover you’re crafting a sweet spot, they’ll assist you get exactly what you would like , whenever .

Additionally, you'll store up to the 1300ml (44oz) capacity borosilicate glass carafe that feels heavy. Besides you'll get extra features durable and 30% larger than typical 1000ml cold coffee brewers about fortnight during this kitchen appliance . it's also suitable for decent and cold drinks. So albeit you get uninterested in cold beer (unlikely though), you'll always mix things up. Once ordered, the merchandise package includes a free cold brew recipe Ebook. It also includes a removable BPA free no-slip base that adds extra grip. So it protects the glass from accidental bumps and shields your kitchen counter from coffee spills. Although it's not necessary to use paper filters with this product, if you would like to bring out the fresh, clean taste of cold beer, we recommend that you simply purchase some large commercial-size filters to match this coffeemaker.

For the foremost part, lovers of the deep L are usually quite satisfied with this coffee bear. However, there are some complaints that the handle is faulty and therefore the plastic cover is cracked. So make certain to thoroughly inspect yours when it arrives.

PROS:

• Protective No-Slip Base

• Easy to wash

• Reusable Mesh Filter

• Dishwasher Safe

• Iced Coffee

• Tea Brewer

• Less Acidic

• Richer

• Smoother

• Free Ebook

CONS:

The handle with plastic

11.TODDY’S COLD COFFEE SYSTEM

Most users who don't fit well with the Filtron choose this model from Toddy. Similar in functionality though not in design, this model includes a beer container with a handle, a glass mug with a lid, 2 reusable filters, 1 rubber stopper, an instruction set, and a recipe guide. it's also a machine that's easy to use and offers a number of the simplest

Cold coffee generally features a lower acid content; however, Toddy boasts a powerful 67% less acid in concentrated coffee using its ground coffee beans. you'll make about 1.5 liters at a time, and it'll last in your fridge for two weeks. Speaking of low maintenance!

When using this product, like most cold brewing methods, make certain to grind it coarsely to stop it from becoming gritty. Also, make certain to take care of and replace your Toddy filter regularly.

PROS:

• Staycation Edition

• 2 extra felt filters

• A bonus stopper

• BPA-free system

• 20-pack of paper filter bags

CONS:

Only white color

12.YAMA GLASS POUR OVER kitchen appliance

If you've got a much bigger budget or want to feature a touch of intrigue to your countertop, this Yama Kyoto style is for you. one among the foremost recognized cold coffee makers on the market, the Yama is a perfect choice for those looking to bring out the complex and subtle notes of single-origin beans or other specialty beans.

It can prepare 4 cup coffee that's perfect for private use and features a versatile design that's perfect for brewing coffee and tea.

With the high price comes a really sweet upgrade to your normal cold brewer. the planning allows you to urge your beverage of choice in about 3-4 hours, rather than the 16 or 24 hours required by most other models.

The Yama integrates quality craftsmanship right down to the materials used for the system. It features non-porous borosilicate glass, which suggests it'll last you longer and you won’t need to worry about mold (which may be a problem with plastic options). Additionally, the mid-century style tower is formed from real wood and complements almost any aesthetic. Even the permanent filter is formed of premium ceramic.

Aside from the prohibitive price, the sole downside is that the size. This kitchen appliance features a smaller capacity than a number of the cheaper options on the list, at a few liter.

PROS:

• Easy to use design

• 4 cup capacity

• Reusable filter

• Versatile design

CONS:

Only personal use

13.ROYAL BREW NITRO COLD BREW kitchen appliance

Unlike the YAMA, the Royal Brew Nitro Cold Brew kitchen appliance is ultra-easy to use and one among the foremost affordable options on the market. But don’t let the worth fool you; this kitchen appliance packs a punch.

This product includes a metal scoop, a collapsible funnel, and a removable soil filter, making it easy to use and clean. The plastic components are BPA free and therefore the glass is durable borosilicate glass.

The Royal’s jug features a respectable 2-liter capacity (roughly), and with proper care, it should be durable enough to last you a short time . Just confirm you don’t rinse it with predicament immediately after taking it out of the fridge.

Even if you've got a drag with this product, cafe royale brew nitro cold brew kitchen appliance customer service is understood for its responsiveness. So you ought to be ready to solve it during a jiffy.

PROS:

• Nitro brew

• Great taste

• Compatibility

• Lifetime warranty

• Keg Kit System

• Matte Flat Black 64 oz

CONS:

Nothing found

14.BTÄT- COLD BREW kitchen appliance

BTäT- Cold Brew kitchen appliance makes delicious cold brew coffee and tea reception . It can make 2.0 Quart of perfect cold brew coffee or ice tea . This machine with 100% airtight lid that keeps your coffee fresh for 2 weeks. It shows down oxidation and its design for an extended time lasting thanks to BPA Free silicone sealing design.

You can clean this machine easily and obtain a removable chrome steel filter that helps you rust free, easy to wash , and removable. it's made from Extra thick Borosilicate glass. Besides, it's a dishwasher safe kitchen appliance .

This BTäT- Cold Brew kitchen appliance with a flawless design for fitting in most refrigerators doors. you'll clean it effortlessly thanks to the wide opening

Why does one like BTäT- Cold Brew Coffee Maker?

BTäT- Cold Brew kitchen appliance has some special features like an airtight, easy excess handle that helps you to suit within your fridge door.

PROS:

• Iced kitchen appliance ,

• 2 Liter (2 Quart, 64 oz),

• Iced spoon ,

• Cold Brew Maker,

• Tea Pitcher,

• Coffee Accessories,

• Iced Tea Pitcher,

• Cold Brew System,

• Cold Brew Pitcher

CONS:

Not found

15.BODUM BEAN COLD BREW kitchen appliance

Bodum Bean Cold Brew kitchen appliance keeps your coffee hot or cold with an innovative locking system. This machine includes two lids. they're fridge overnight, and plunger. you'll make more flavor without waste. Don’t need paper filters.

This machine can make many presses. it's accompany more design, more size, more features sort of a double glass wall.

You can make the best-iced coffee with this machine. it's an easy and fabulous kitchen appliance . Two lids kitchen appliance machines can depress the dregs within the morning.

You will get the 1. 5 L bean iced coffee maker with plastic, silicone, and chrome steel .

PROS:

• No paper filters required

• Innovative locking lid system

• Including two lids

• Press

• Plastic

• 1.5 Liter

• 51 Ounce

• Black

Cons:

No cons

To read also-THE 17 BEST kitchen appliance UNDER 100 $ MACHINES IN 2021

WHY does one LIKE COLD BREWING?

Cold brewing produces 70% less acidic than hot brewing. It also features a richer taste. you'll prepare your perfect cup of joy with an endless sort of beverages.

WHY CHOOSE a chilly BEER?

There are many reasons why people choose cold brew coffee over other sorts of coffee. From taste, brewing preferences, to health benefits, these are a number of the foremost prominent reasons why cold brewing is so highly regarded by the coffee community

ACIDITY

One of the most important differences between your regular cup of coffee and cold beer is acidity. Normally, when coffee is formed with predicament , certain oils are released from the dregs once they are heated.

However, for cold brewing, the coffee never comes in touch with heat, therefore the extraction of those acidic oils is minimized. The presence of acidic oils is what creates a bitter taste in some brewed coffees, and it also results in higher acidity, which makes it a touch harder for those with sensitive stomachs.

As a result, you'll get a way lighter and smoother cup. Low acidity also means people that suffer from acid reflux or who have sensitive stomachs can enjoy this sort of coffee easily .

CAFFEINE

Due to the long soaking required for cold brewing, the concentrate produced features a much higher coffee-to-water ratio than regular brews. However, despite the increased concentration, cold beer generally doesn't taste overwhelmingly strong. this is often also the results of the shortage of warmth and therefore the subsequent release of oil. Therefore, you ought to find yourself with a palatable drink that contains a robust caffeine hit.

However, cold beer is usually diluted with the standard suspects (milk, cream, water, etc.). This leads to a less concentrated drink. Besides, there are a few of other factors that affect the strength of your coffee, including the coffee beans and therefore the steeping time.

HEALTH BENEFITS

The cold brew offers many benefits to those that regularly engage in physical activities. Since cold beer features a lot of caffeine besides, the rise in caffeine also means cold can help burn fat post-workout by increasing energy expenditure or after-burn effect.

In addition to boosting energy, cold coffee also features a high amount of antioxidants and chemicals that fight free radicals. If you would like to understand all the advantages of cold preparation, you'll consult our other article on the topic here.

THINGS to think about BEFORE BUYING

Before putting your money where your mouth is, there are a couple of important things to think about before officially choosing your ideal cold brew kitchen appliance . Here are a number of the foremost important features to consider:

GRINDER

With the cold drink, you’re getting to need a fresh supply of ground coffee. However, you'll got to confirm that your coffee is coarsely ground in order that the flavors within the can be extracted properly.

When we say fresh, we mean the extent of freshness of its grind. this is often because cold brew coffee tends to taste more subtle and weak than regular coffee. Therefore, having a fresh grind will help make sure that you get the foremost flavor possible from your beans of choice.

Also, the grind must be coarse to assist extraction. Because most of the brewing takes an extended soaking process, you'll recover results if the water can get into more grains. this is often easier with a coarser grind.

SIZE

As always, size matters quite you think that . Not only does one need to confirm that the footprint of your brewery can fit on your countertop, but you furthermore may need to check its height. If the right coffee pot is just too tall to suit on your refrigerator shelf, it won’t does one much good.

STYLE

The two main sorts of cold brewing systems are called dip and slow drip. Most of the models we’ve mentioned fall under the dip style, which incorporates two sub-categories: pot and bucket. These involve soaking the dregs in water for about 16 hours. Then it's simply filtered and drunk.

Pot coffee makers tend to be a touch slower and need the finished mix to be poured through a filter. This process leads to a more tea-like taste and feel. On the opposite hand, bucket-style mechanisms generally involve a toggle or switch that's interacted with to permit the infusion to empty through a filter and into a jug below. The result tends to be slightly richer and more robust.

Generally speaking, dip breweries tend to go away more sediment within the drink than drip breweries. However, employing a paper filter or filtering multiple times can remedy this problem. It also tends to assist bring out the richer, more chocolatey notes.

In contrast, a cold, slow coffee maker will tend to supply a lighter mouthfeel and taste. These models help bring out citrus and other sweeter flavors.

EASY TO USE

If this is often your first rodeo, you’d be more happy investing in one among the better to use models, just like the Gator, Filtron, or Toddy Brewer. search for easy assembly/disassembly, maintenance requirements, and clear volume markings for measurements.

However, if you've got good experience with manual brewing methods or maybe specifically cold brewing systems, other options could be within your reach.

MATERIALS / CONSTRUCTION

In the same way, you furthermore may got to confirm your cold brew kitchen appliance is straightforward to carry , clean, and more. the foremost important features which will influence the convenience of use of your cold brewer are the materials from which it's made and therefore the accessories incorporated into it.

For example, if your cold brew kitchen appliance features a glass carafe, it's going to have a sleek design, but it's a better risk of cracking and breaking. On the opposite hand, if your kitchen appliance has parts that are made from chrome steel , it'll help protect it from any accidental breakage.

Another important cosmetic feature you'll search for during a kitchen appliance is that the presence of excellent grips in order that it's not only easy to use but also to carry .

Do n\t forget the check -THE 15 BEST PERCOLATORS IN 2021 FOR THE KITCHEN

WHAT ABOUT THE FRENCH PRESS?

Many coffee fans argue that there's a brewing method that creates one among the simplest cold brews with the smallest amount amount of hassle. instead of buying a fanatical kitchen appliance , many coffee addicts simply prefer to brew cold during a French press.

You can get the complete breakdown of that process here, but we’ve included a number of the fundamentals below. If you don’t have a French press, we recommend that you simply provides it a try. aside from that, you'll need your favorite beans, a grinder (unless you want to use a pre-grinder), water, and a spoon.

Simply add cold water to your fresh, coarse beans with a ratio of 1 part coffee to 7 parts water. Slowly and thoroughly stir the mixture. Then, put the press in your refrigerator and let it sit for quite 12 hours

Finally, do a full 30-second dip, as usual, with the French press. If you've got trouble with grit from French press coffee, you'll pour the coffee through a paper filter to urge a touch closer to the classic mouthfeel of cold beer.

THE BOTTOM LINE ON COLD BREWING

So if you’re trying to find a brew method which will offer you a crisp, low-acid, and energizing cup of coffee, a chilly brew kitchen appliance could be for you.

So remember, when trying to find the simplest kitchen appliance to form cold coffee, any of the above models will make an excellent cup of coffee for you. However, make certain to think about what proportion space you've got available, what sort of kitchen appliance suits your tastes, and the way much experience in alternative coffee brewing you've got .

With a product from this list, your favorite coffee, a touch water, and a touch patience, you'll enjoy the sunshine delight of a chilly coffee.

BEST COLD BREW COFFEE MAKERS – ANALYSIS AND BUYING GUIDE – 2020

A hot cup of coffee isn't enough when temperatures soar within the height of summer. Cold coffee is an incredibly easy and refreshing alternative to form if you've got the proper kitchen appliance . The infusion is concentrated, so it contains more caffeine than normal coffee, and therefore the taste is more bitter, because of the long extraction process. Making your cold beer reception is straightforward and cheaper than stopping at the local cafe . And when properly sealed, one jug of concentrate lasts up to 2 weeks. Lastly, cold beer doesn’t lose its flavor as quickly as hot coffee.

But cold beer is quite a matter of adding ice cubes to your morning cup of coffee. you only won’t get an equivalent results. The coffee isn't concentrated enough and therefore the melted ice dilutes it even more. Cold brewing involves steeping the dregs for an extended period to get a robust coffee concentrate. The concentrate can then be diluted with ice or milk without losing the flavour .

If you’re trying to find a kitchen appliance to form cold coffee, this shopping guide will get you within the right direction. And your best choices will assist you make a good easier decision.

KEY CONSIDERATIONS

Most cold brew machines appear as if a jug with a filter inside for steeping in dregs or loose tea. Before setting a model for your kitchen, consider the following:

SIZE

Coffee makers for creating cold coffee vary in size, but a liter is that the commonest . you'll also find larger containers, which are great for serving a crowd or storing the drink to be used during the week. Remember, because the concentrate is so strong, you don’t need much for one serving. If you decide for a bigger model, consider the quantity of land required to store the container inside your refrigerator.

WEATHER

You’re probably excited to start out drinking those refreshing iced coffees, but confine mind that cold beer requires an extended soaking period. a minimum of 24 hours they're going to provide you with a strong and attractive concentrated coffee. It takes a touch of designing , but once you’ve prepared your concentrate, it are often used throughout the week if stored properly.

SUPPLIES

For a real cold DIY experience, you'll got to grind whole coffee beans, and for this, you'll need a coffee mill . A grinder may be a useful accessory for a coffee lover to stay available . Grinding the beans as required allows for a fresher cup of coffee.

FEATURES OF THE COLD BREW kitchen appliance

MATERIAL:

You will find glass or plastic coffee makers to organize cold coffee. Both are solid options, although plastic is more durable because it won’t break as easily if accidentally dropped. no matter the fabric you select , it should be thick. trying to find a plastic model but worried about chemicals seeping into your beer? choose one made up of BPA-free plastic.

FILTER:

There are two main filter options available: mesh and paper. the foremost common mesh filters are made from durable plastic or chrome steel . The mesh must be fine enough to stop sediment from seeping into the concentrate while allowing the dregs to take in completely. Paper filters are easier to wash , but you … will need to continually buy new filters.

MAINTENANCE:

Read the manufacturer’s guidelines carefully. albeit a specific model is dishwasher safe, you'll not be ready to put all the parts within the dishwasher. A dishwasher-safe kitchen appliance will make your life easier within the end of the day .

SPOUT:

Take an in depth check out the spout of the models you're considering. It should allow the liquid to pour out easily but it should be airtight when the lid is on. a decent seal keeps the concentrate fresh for extended . DESIGN:

There are many various sorts of cold brew makers, from modern chrome steel containers designed to suit within the fridge to elegant pitchers perfect for serving guests.

AUTOMATIC:

If you're not curious about making cold concentrated coffee manually, you'll buy an automatic machine. Many also double as regular coffee makers. However, automatic models are extremely expensive.

COLD BREW kitchen appliance PRICES

CHEAP

Inexpensive models that cost $ 20 or less include plain jugs, often plastic, capable of holding a minimum of one liter of concentrated beer. Expect to seek out basic no-frills designs during this price range. you'll also find low-cost, portable, single-use models.

MEDIUM RANGE

At a price of between $ 20 and $ 50, you'll find larger capacity coffee makers to organize cold coffee, made with higher quality materials and with more elegant designs.

EXPENSIVE

Premium options that cost $ 50 or more include chrome steel models, select brand names, large capacity jugs, self-operating devices, and one-of-a-kind specialty models.

TIPS

Here are some tips to assist you create the simplest possible cup of cold coffee:

Grind the beans.

Choose good quality coffee beans that are medium or dark roast. Grind the beans before soaking for a far better tasting cold drink.

ADD THE FILTER MOTIFS.

Measure the right ratio of coffee and water. Your cold brew kitchen appliance should accompany instructions for achieving the right coffee to water ratio.

ADD WATER.

Different water temperatures make coffee taste different. Experiment to seek out what fits your taste buds. Maximum coffee companies recommend the ratio coffee and water 8.1:7.1.

Soak the bottom for a minimum of 24 hours.

Remove the filter and empty the ground .

ENJOYMENT

The resulting concentrate are going to be very strong. If you don’t want to feature dairy, you'll dilute the concoction with cold water or ice cubes.

OTHER PRODUCTS WE CONSIDER

There are countless cold brew coffee makers available on the market, and it had been difficult to narrow down our top choices. we might wish to mention some notable runners-up. The Asobu Coldbrew Portable Insulated kitchen appliance may be a single-use portable model that's insulated and leak proof. It’s the right option to enjoy a chilly beer on the go.

The Kolob Cold Brew kitchen appliance is an ultra-simple Mason jar model with an airtight lid. We love its minimalist design for budget coffee drinkers.

For large amounts of concentrate, try the KitchenAid Cold Brew Maker. Its durable and attractive chrome steel construction looks great and features a convenient spot so you'll help yourself without having to get rid of the unit from the refrigerator.

Lastly, for the user trying to find a premium cold brew option, the Ninja SharkNinja kitchen appliance may be a multi-tasking machine that brews hot and cold coffee. It’s the last word choice for the coffee connoisseur or someone who loves cold brew concentrate but doesn’t want to spend time brewing it.

BE PATIENT to form YOUR TASTY COFFEE

You must twiddling my thumbs if you would like to form an honest taste of ice coffee . you recognize that cold brew coffee doesn’t depend upon predicament but time. you'll not prepare your delicious coffee without time.

FAQ

Q. am i able to USE MY COLD BREW kitchen appliance FOR SOMETHING aside from COFFEE?

A. in fact it's . The filter in your kitchen appliance is perhaps compatible with loose leaf tea. However, you'll need to adjust the steeping time to stop the tea concentrate from tasting bitter. Wash your filter thoroughly between uses to avoid any transfer of flavors.

Q. HOW FINELY DO I even have TO GRIND MY COFFEE BEANS TO USE THEM during a COLD BREWER?

A. Cold beer requires a rough grind. Allows flavor extraction without allowing sediment to seep into the water through the filter. If you notice residue on rock bottom of your cold stein or mug, you'll be grinding the beans too fine, otherwise you could have poor quality or faulty filters on your hands.

Q. WILL IT MAKE A DIFFERENCE IF I BUY GROUND COFFEE rather than BEANS?

A. Ground coffee should be used immediately after opening the package because it loses freshness quickly. the flavour of cold beer will taste better if it's made with freshly ground beans.

Q. IS THERE MORE CAFFEINE IN COLD COFFEE?

A. Yes. The resulting drink is concentrated, so it's more caffeine.

Q.HOW are you able to BREW HOT COFFEE WITH AN ice coffee MAKER?

A.Yes, it's possible. are you able to completely prepare your hot coffee with an ice coffee maker?

#COFFEE MAKERS #COLD BREW #BEST COLD BREW COFFEE MAKERS

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aion-rsa · 3 years

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Is Virtual Photography the Next Great Artform?

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2020 saw the release of highly-anticipated games like The Last of Us Part II, Death Stranding on PC, Ghost of Tsushima, and Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales. What do all of these games have in common? Stellar in-game photo modes that allow a growing online community of virtual photographers to capture the beauty and complexity of these game worlds.

Fans have been taking screenshots of their favorite games for almost as long as they’ve been playing them. Photo modes themselves have existed at least as far back as 1999’s Metal Gear Solid: Integral, which featured a bare bones “photoshoot mode” as bonus content. And even back when most games didn’t have in-game photo modes, the most avid photographers created their own camera mods on PC or used third-party software like NVIDIA’s Ansel camera tool.

Photo modes have only grown more sophisticated since then, and a new generation of virtual photographers have honed their craft and are sharing their unique perspectives on social media to thousands of followers. You can now find dedicated virtual photography communities, hashtags, and aggregators on social media platforms as well as online magazines dedicated to the craft and even an app called Captis that’s pitching itself as the social home for the medium.

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“I think the biggest benefit [of a photo mode] comes from having the ability to capture precious in-game moments that one can also share with others. It works as a sort of connection between the game world and the real world,” says Hiroaki Yoshiike, a lead level designer at Kojima Productions who worked on the stellar photo mode for Death Stranding, a game full of moody, detail-rich environments that serve as a particular paradise for photographers who love to capture stunning landscapes.

In fact, from the moment Kojima Productions decided to integrate a photo mode for the PC release, its main goal was to provide a user-friendly camera tool that also provided advanced features for more seasoned photographers. Yoshiike’s team worked alongside the Lighting and Cinematics teams on iterations of the mode.

“We created a prototype, but they told us it was too basic,” says Yoshiike of testing an early version of the photo mode with members of the team. “So we went back and started adding more features, adjusting until we arrived at the specs that you see in-game today. One part we got caught up on was figuring out how to provide the right tools for making pictures better, from lighting adjustments to stylized filters.”

These tools are very important to virtual photographers, who aren’t just taking pictures of “what looks cool” but are considering elements of real-world photography like composition, framing, and the rule of thirds. They’re thinking about depth of field, lighting, and filters. Virtual photographers take their craft seriously, and there’s a sense that their community of followers — many of which aren’t gamers at all — are doing so as well, following handles for the photographs themselves and not just because they’re fans of the subjects being captured. Could this mean that virtual photography is on the rise as the next great artform?

We talked to a group of photographers about their process, what they look for in a photo mode, and why they think virtual photography is becoming more popular.

Sindy JB

Sindy JB has photographed many games, but her haunting shots of Death Stranding on PC are among her best as they capture the phases of a long, Odyssean journey through a post-apocalyptic America. Shots of photorealistic mountainscapes and war-torn cities have earned her almost 20,000 followers across Twitter and Instagram, where she posts under the handle @mesopatmian_meow.

“Landscape pictures are probably my favorite subject to capture,” Sindy says of her technique. “I almost never plan my shots. I wait for the right place and moment. I don’t use filters a lot because I like my pictures to look as natural as possible.”

Rockstar’s award-winning Old West action game Red Dead Redemption 2 was the game that originally got her into virtual photography, and she’s gotten to know many photo modes since then. There are a few things she looks for when picking up a game’s camera component.

“The most important thing for me is the camera movements. Without free camera control it’s very hard for us to take the pictures we want to take. Some games restrict the camera with an orbital control only in their photo mode and it’s just terrible. I know I speak for many virtual photographers when I say it’s by far the most disappointing thing to see in a photo mode.”

Sindy’s following has grown quickly since her debut in 2018, and she posits that a lot of that has to do with the game makers themselves.

“I think there are many factors that led to the increased popularity of virtual photography, the first being the support we are getting from the game developers these days on social media sites. We often get likes, retweets, and comments from them, and it’s very encouraging.”

Berduu

Petri Levälahti, who goes by Berduu on Twitter, is one of the most popular virtual photographers in the community with over 40,000 followers. In fact, Levälahti has turned virtual photography into a career. He works as a Screen Capture Artist for Swedish game studio EA DICE, best known for the Battlefield and Star Wars Battlefront games.

Interestingly enough, the Battlefield 4 pictures taken by virtual photography legend Jim2point0 are what first enticed Levälahti to get involved with the community.

“Jim and other members of the screenshot community showed me the ropes. This was back when there really were no photo modes in games, outside of a few racing titles, so all the free cameras were created by fans. Most of the actually good game cameras are still created by fans, by people like Frans Bouma, for example.”

Levälahti does it all — portraits, landscapes, action shots. He needs to be multifaceted and have a keen eye for what will catch the viewer’s attention, a key element of his day job. At DICE, he takes marketing screenshots as well as the images you see on their games’ menus and loading screens.

“I get a request for a specific screenshot, let’s say an Action Shot in place X, with focus on Game Feature Y,” Levälahti says of his normal day-to-day at DICE. “Then I start to look for a good location or two and play around with ideas. I’ll do a handful of iterations before settling on one or two, consult an art director for notes, get approvals, do final captures, and ship it.”

Levälahti loves to shoot other games outside of DICE, too. Standouts include stylish portraits of characters from Control and Cyberpunk 2077 you could easily imagine as magazine covers. How does he do it?

“I always check that my shots work at small size — that there’s a clear subject, and that the shot is easy to read and you can tell what’s going on. I [also] check that my shots work at large size — are there ugly textures or assets shown too close and thus causing eyesore? Does the character’s leg clip through the floor, is there anything ruining the immersion? Awkward poses, non-existent shadows, aliasing? Always look for good light! Shadows and light make or break your shot.”

Soulsurrender

Soulsurrender, who also works as a freelance graphic designer and photographer in Sweden, got into virtual photography thanks to the seminal fantasy RPG The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, a game often celebrated for its beautiful vistas, lively settings, and cavernous depths.

“Mods made the game pretty and I just wanted to capture that. I didn’t really call it virtual photography or share any of my shots back then. That came much later, after realizing there was a whole amazing community out there.”

Soulsurrender has captured many subjects, including those within the worlds of Fallout 4, Mad Max, and Cyberpunk 2077, and she has a real eye for finding the majesty in dystopian settings. Her awe-inspiring shots of Mad Max’s endless deserts don’t even look like they��re from a video game despite the fact that she took up virtual photography after growing bored with shooting her real-world surroundings.

“I’m currently on a break after getting kind of burned out, getting frustrated with gear, and living in a small town of which nothing feels left to explore and shoot. Which naturally led me to find other ways to express my creativity: I started shooting virtual worlds instead, where the possibilities are nearly endless.”

Soulsurrender mainly likes to shoot vast landscapes, characters standing far off in the distance, colorful skies as backdrops. She says her approach to virtual photography is the same as in real-life: “go explore and find something interesting.”

Voldsby

“I’ve been a hobby photographer for a few years, so when I discovered that there was this feature where you can literally just stop the whole game to take pictures, that was when I became addicted to it.”

Danish photographer Voldsby has made a name for herself in the community with her portraits of The Last of Us Part II’s main characters. On her Twitter page, you’ll find pictures of Ellie and Abby, their faces half shrouded in thick shadow, as if to hide something in their expressions, while one eye looks straight at the camera. The gaze is so piercing it might make you cower.

“I like to really get close to my subjects and make them feel like they’re looking into the camera, [that] they’re aware that I’m taking the picture,” Voldsby says. “I know it sounds silly because it’s a video game, but it makes the photo come alive.”

Why has she spent so much time photographing TLOU2 specifically? Well, first off, she loves the series, but it also has a lot to do with the game’s incredible lighting. So much of the game takes place in creepy, enclosed areas like hallways and underground tunnels, and Voldsby finds it particularly exciting when she discovers “beautiful little light beams just sitting there in a window” to light her shots.

After Voldsby takes a picture, it goes through a “rigorous procedure” before she shares it online. She transfers the picture over as a PNG to a USB drive (pro tip: never use PlayStation’s Share function to upload your high quality photographs) and then she touches it up a little on Adobe Lightroom, mostly to add a bit more lighting or shadow to make sure things are popping. But when it comes to capturing the picture itself, Voldsby prefers a simple photo mode.

“It’s all about simplicity. Less is more, you know? I don’t really need any of those fancy features that a lot of photo modes have,” Voldsby says. “It’s just like real photography. Buying an expensive camera with loads of features doesn’t automatically make you a good photographer.”

Kayne

Kayne, whose Instagram handle @firstpersonshutter boasts almost 20,000 followers, dreamed of traveling the world as a freelance photographer for outlets like National Geographic, but soon found that he couldn’t afford it due to the cost of lenses and other equipment necessary for the job. But that hasn’t stopped him from practicing his craft in the video game world.

His favorite games to photograph are Insomniac’s Spider-Man series, and it’s easy to see why. Kayne can get a lot out of the high-flying web-swinging mechanics in the game as well as Spidey’s superheroic poses and myriad suits.

“In Spider-Man‘s case, arranging Spider-Man to where he’s looking at something that’s well-lit puts those reflections in the eye lenses so that you can actually get all those details on the face masks,” Kayne explains.

With photo mode, Kayne has found a new way to think about photography, and hopes that other artists will start to think of virtual photography as an artform, too. Will we one day see one of the pictures in this article hanging in a museum?

“I am very hopeful that it takes off into something bigger. And I feel like we’re on the ground floor.”

The post Is Virtual Photography the Next Great Artform? appeared first on Den of Geek.

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jackfallows · 7 years

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What’s a Cryptogram Puzzle Post? An Autobiographical Essay on Comics, Symbolism, Magic & Game Mechanics

Back in March this year, I began probably my most ambitious self-publishing project to date – Cryptogram Puzzle Post. The main barrier I’ve faced in terms of marketing so far is that it isn’t easily summed up in a sentence but this is also what I find most infectious about it from a creative perspective. For now, I’ve been describing it as ‘a monthly bundle of interlinking puzzles, codes, spells and illusions inspired by witchcraft and alchemy’. If you want to know more about what that looks like in real terms or how you can support it, there’s lots of information over on the website.

But I wanted to get into the guts of it here because although it may seem as though it’s sprung out of left field, it’s actually been a natural, even inevitable, distillation of all the things I find fascinating in life. And I want to define the links and interplay between those things because deconstructing everything is also a favourite pastime of mine, and kind of the umbrella under which the whole project could be placed.

So let’s start with comics - the love of my life and the medium and community that has served as the well from which I’ve drawn the majority of my craft. First off, let me just say that I think the comics industry is as problematic as any other kind of mass media industry. For starters, it’s unfairly pigeon-holed when represented in more mainstream media like television, so that our cultural understanding still tends to follow two very tired assumptions; either they’re about superheroes and therefore for straight, white, twenty-something men with poor social skills, or they’re sub-literature designed to bridge the gap into ‘proper’ literature for young people (and as such are silly and should be ‘grown out of’ by a certain age). I think these stereotypes exist for a reason but of course, I don’t subscribe to either of them and it’s been very encouraging within my lifetime to observe a significant shift in not only attitudes towards comics but also a diversification of their content, audiences and creators.

However, in no way is this to say that the industry isn’t still rife with abuse, misogyny, bigotry, and fascism in certain pockets; from Frank Miller’s steady decline into a paranoid right-wing fantasist to the endless list of creators who have been called out for sexually aggressive and/or abusive behaviour to little or no repercussions; not to mention the almost weekly onslaught of covers objectifying women’s bodies so barely-acknowledged at this point that it’s almost become its own tradition. And the list goes on, of course. In other words, there have been countless reasons to bow out of comics over the years, and where that urge has avoided me then at the very least I’ve felt a tangible level of trepidation when meeting people for the first time and telling them I’m a cartoonist, or work in a comic shop, or collect comics.

But the thing that keeps me coming back is the medium itself, the mechanics, the symbolism, the process, the untapped potential and the infinite possibilities not yet explored (impeded, even, by the cultural assumptions discussed above). People like Scott McCloud, Lynda Barry and Chris Ware have explored these ideas in ways far smarter than I could or would presume to here, so if you want a more thorough exploration than the one I’m about to offer, I recommend seeking out their work, writing, interviews and talks on the subject. But here’s how I think a life in comics has given way to this project, and why I think fans of comics have responded supportively to it so far:

Comics are a language of symbols. When a cartoonist draws a character, object or background, they’re rarely trying to recreate the way we engage with those things in real life, and if they’re the kind of cartoonist I get excited about, they’re also not trying to recreate the way we engage with those things in any other medium either. That’s why ‘wide-screen’ comics, photorealistic artwork and other such tropes tend to turn me off – trying to force Hollywood in there where it simply isn’t needed, overlooking the tools at your disposal, borrowing too heavily from more socially accepted mediums, following the money etc. all just leave a weird taste in my mouth. On the other hand, the cartoonists I admire concern themselves with trying to distil characters, objects and backgrounds into a form that will convey the idea or feeling they wish to communicate most efficiently. This is why when I run comic book workshops, the first thing I try to establish with participants is that being a skilled illustrator is not a prerequisite for making a successful comic book.

If it was possible to just smash that idea, we would not only kill part of an unhelpful culture surrounding comics that sees it being graded unfairly against other mediums in what we perceive as its “ballpark” – i.e. in terms of what TV shows or illustrations have that they don’t (slick production values or soundtracks for example), but we also see something like the recent groundswell in indie comics publishing where suddenly hundreds of unique voices are not only speaking loudly, they’re being heard for the first time and are being the first things heard by a new generation of fans.

The comic artists I most enjoy have an understanding of clarity, flow and immediacy, and they can bend those skills to fit a multitude of purposes, art styles, lengths and formats. From a creative perspective, that immediacy is also one of the most soul-crushing aspects of the medium as a creator too; often the hours of tedious monotony and forwards planning and experimentation is concerned with subtraction – it’s about streamlining the work to a point where the images and text become so consistent to the reader that they almost go actively unnoticed, only registering on a subliminal level. The potential hours that can be put into creating a panel may very well be to achieve the aim that it is only ‘read’ for a fraction of a second between other panels. Conversely, drawings and compositions can be utilised to make you linger, they can offer modes of engagement that are intrinsically linked to the story, or that act as a set-up for a contrasting pay-off later on. They are a medium; a language of symbols that it is discouraging to see so many people learn only to the extent you might learn the conversational basics of a foreign language at school. There’s a lot to be said beyond asking the time and ordering drinks.

And this habit of reducing things into symbols is manifest in so much of human endeavour for as far back as we are able to catalogue and observe; whether it’s the language systems we’ve developed to communicate with each other, the records we’ve kept as cave paintings, hieroglyphs, tapestries and books, the short-hands we use in our study of chemistry, mathematics, engineering and so on, down to the instant-recognisability we aspire to with logos and branding. And this last arena is a true testament to the power of symbolism, as it has given way to one of the most competitive industries on the planet. Capitalist and consumer culture relies on our almost primal relationship with symbols in order to thrive – what is McDonalds without the golden arches? What is Coca Cola without swirly white lettering against a red background? Symbols permeate everything we do, from the red, amber and green lights on our roads to the WiFi symbol stuck to the coffee shop window.

But our understanding of these symbols is a learned one; there is often no inherent link between the signifier and the thing it signifies, except a common (but not necessary) visual clue. Even words themselves are meaningless sounds and shapes until we actively build those connections between them and our lived experiences; which is to say there is nothing inherent in the word ‘orange’ that has anything to do with the fruit or the colour; if I wanted to (and I don’t) I could teach my child when he’s born that ‘orange’ is the word we use for chairs and he could go on reclining on oranges without any confusion about what that word meant on his part. In other words, a symbol out of context is devoid of content. And the meaning of symbols is not fixed or immune to personal, cultural or historical forces either.

So where does witchcraft and alchemy come in? Well that part is probably less surprising to people who know me or my work but there were slightly more considered reasons than pure aesthetic preference (although it’s still not certain which reasons had most bearing on the decision). I’ve been fascinated with witchcraft for a long time but have only properly started researching over the last year or two. To begin with, I was gearing up to make a long-form comic about a present-day coven that would act as a vehicle to explore the survival and recovery of abused people and their associated mental health issues.

The more documented history I’ve devoured, the more distinctly I recognise an evil that has survived the ages, as rampant now as ever before but appearing very differently – namely, man’s hatred of (powerful) women. Not only that but I recognise a culture of deafening silence surrounding abuse and/or the mistreatment of people suffering with mental health difficulties. There is so much parallel to be drawn between the dangerous and hysterical witch-hunts carried out by hateful, bigoted and above all terrified men in Salem during the 1690’s and their counterparts on Twitter, 2017. But I’m not about to draw those parallels because, like with the mechanics of comic books, far more qualified and interesting people have already taken the time to do this for us. As a survivor, a queer and a person who suffers from mental health issues, there is enough in there for me to identify somewhat with that history while also being so foreign to it that there is always more to learn.

This is especially true where actual practiced magic is concerned, as opposed to baseless prosecutions against hated women who weren’t witches. For example, actual witches frequently used (and still use) symbolism in their craft, science and medicine. Alchemy was considered magic until science caught up and now we shorten ‘alchemist’ to ‘chemist’ when we pop into Boots for our prescription. These were people breaking ground based on experimentation and intuition, understanding the flow and symmetry in the world and using that to redirect things when they got out of whack. Lots of it probably didn’t work, or worked as a placebo, lots of it did but not yet very efficiently, lots was deliberate superstition but all was carried out with conviction that there was more beyond what we can currently name and observe in the world, and there is good reason to explore it.

As part of my own recovery process over the last year or so I’ve gotten into meditation again and although there’s a bit of a gross cult surrounding ‘mindfulness’ at the moment, a lot of the basic ideas in there are ones I can get behind. Being in open, green spaces and just spending a bit of time taking things in and giving my attention to them does great things for my brain, and its encouraged by mindfulness – slowing down enough to be present and observe. I think the reason this works for me is because, subconsciously or otherwise, I begin to recognise the balance of things, not unlike a witch in a meditative state (or ‘trance’ or ‘possession’ as it was often misdiagnosed). Nature has its affairs in order – it knows roughly where the earth is on its axis and orbit around the sun, there are cycles of give and take on each level that allow everything its fair chance; again, I probably can’t tell you as much about this as David Attenborough but it does make perfect sense to me. If you have suffered trauma or live with mental health issues, you are used to being dominated by the fear of everything that is out of your control and the universe can really throw you a bone by convincing you there are some cogs in the machine still turning as intended, a few basic rules that all things must follow and a way to pretty accurately predict possible outcomes.

Which brings me nicely to games. I’ve had a lifelong relationship with tabletop games that is as passionate as it is strange to lots of people. My favourite thing about buying a new game is unboxing it, looking at all the pieces and above all else reading the rules; I like to play the game too, of course, but only to see the rules come to life. I’m not competitive, I’m not a very good strategist and I’m more likely to try and create a game when I’m bored than I am to play one I already own. A good rule system has the same effect on my brain as observing nature in action. I find the symmetry and the variables and the interplay between theme, aesthetics and interactivity completely spellbinding. Games are a rich and diverse medium, that allows creators to build worlds, tell stories and engage the ‘readers’ of that story in a way unlike any other. I have had gaming sessions where just as effectively as any novel or comic or movie, the mechanics have been able to immerse me in fully-realised fantasy universes, make clear and nuanced political points or elicit strong emotive responses.

In short, I’ve been spoiled, and as such there are two things within this medium that I think it’s wasteful to overlook. Firstly, a tabletop game is a kind of ritual and whether it’s played alone, with friends, partners or strangers there are people present and the ritual cannot be completed without them. Factoring human beings and all their associated quirks and abstractions into your game mechanics is a way to instantly give ownership and investment to players and to potentially increase the replayability of the game itself to an infinite degree. Like a coven of witches chanting in a circle, if one of them disengages because they have nothing to do or nothing of bearing to observe until it’s their turn again, the spell can quickly be broken and the ritual made a failure. People should be at the centre of the game play, rather than being the robots procedurally facilitating it.

Secondly, there should always be an element of choice for any action a player carries out; even if there is only one obvious choice in terms of achieving a given goal, the ability to wilfully sabotage that goal for no reason other than exercising the right should be built in; even if the choices given involve rolling dice and leaving the outcome in the hands of fate; even if the choices given are all stinkers and none of them appeal. Players should be given agency otherwise they cease to be players at all. We need the freedom to explore and learn through action if we hope to fully understand the universe created by the game designer. What kind of witch would create a spell for something that will happen inevitably anyway? The worlds we build in games should have balance and symmetry but should in no way be prescriptive or unable to be influenced by the players, otherwise the magic will die.

These considerations become interesting when transposing them onto puzzles, of course. With a puzzle, the experience you attempt to create for the gamer is one of unravelling a mystery with a single, concrete answer. So player choice lies in how to interpret the symbolism on each page and building in red herrings, or dichotomies, or even multiple paths to reach the same conclusion. And human-centred play lies in recognising the format of the game play; it’s printed onto paper and will be picked up and handled, it’s usually a solitary experience and therefore will slow down and speed up, placing more importance on maintaining a consistent atmosphere and making the puzzles reflective of the story and vice versa. In essence, I’m trying to provide the tools necessary to carry out a ritual that will transport you to and engage you in a fictional world. And like many of the comics and games that I enjoy, this wouldn’t be possible without tapping into that primal relationship we have with symbolism or that naturally meditative state we achieve when attempting to find the balance and order in the world around us (be it fictional or otherwise).

I don’t think I would class Cryptogram Puzzle Post as magic or comics or even as a game in the strictest sense but it definitely couldn’t exist without everything those mediums have taught me. And I’m excited to find out how much more there is to learn.

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thedanny522 · 4 years

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Originally wrote this for my blog, thought I'd repost it here (minus the links etc). Just my frustration with the make money online niche (and breaking into it... ethically). TLDR: I explain how to make money selling courses in an ironic, satirical way.I’m a struggling, bitter, internet marketing amateur and I’ve just about had it with all this guru malarkey. If you don’t want to read a rant then feel free to do a 360 and walk away.Someone recommended I check out a certain YouTuber who has videos titled with things like, “How I make $250,000 in passive income every month!” and “Learning THIS secret made me a millionaire!”I hate the Make Money Online niche so much.I hate it because I feel like I know all the tricks and yet they keep working on me.I know how to create funnels, do copywriting, create content and blah blah blah and yet I still watch this retarded value-less clickbait garbage.But after watching a portion of this last video I finally realized what these internet marketers do.Step 1: Make money selling a course about literally anythingThis is the first step in becoming an internet marketing guru.I would even argue that this is the hardest part and where most people get stuck because it essentially the would-be guru to figure out all the steps on their own.The steps are:Make a course about something you know aboutCreate a funnelDrive traffic with paid adsProfitCompleting these steps will give the guru credibility that they know what they’re talking about.Not only do they know how to do each step, but they’ll have actual PROOF that they know what they’re talking about when it comes time for the next step.Step 2: Sell ANOTHER course that teaches people how to sell coursesThe next step is for the marketer to take what they’ve learned, package it into 6 modules of 10-15 videos each, and sell it as a course.They then repeat the entire process above, but this time they use the proof of their sales, marketing material, and appropriate screenshots in their funnel.Make a course about how to make money selling coursesCreate a funnelDrive traffic with paid adsProfitIt’s at this point that the marketer has the ability to create additional social media web properties to market their products.They can start a blog, Facebook group, YouTube channel or whatever to give out little clickbait tidbits that teach people how to make money selling courses.Theoretically, they could do these things for step 1 as well. And frequently they do, offered as bonuses for signing up.Step 3: Sell ANOTHER course that teaches people how to make money selling courses on how to make moneyThis is perhaps the most “meta” of all the steps.Once the marketer has successfully completed steps 1 and 2, they then have the credibility to complete the third step.Only someone who has completed the first two steps can proceed to the third step.The third step is the most interesting and an excellent way to tell the true gurus apart from the posers.While it’s common at all three levels to see upsells and downsells, it’s at this level that we most frequently see the big money maker of them all: private consulting and/or mentoring groups.All the rage these days, mentoring is an excellent niche in and of itself. Instead of simply selling a course, you’re also selling your time as an expert to future would-be gurus.For the low low price of $997, aspiring gurus can get you on the phone for an hour a week where you will:teach them how to drive MASSIVE traffic to their funnel FOR FREE!give them the #1 SECRET of TRIPLING your revenue in under 30 days!show them an elite HACK for convincing influencers to partner with you!teach them how to get your clients to become RABID FANS!give them access to THE EXACT SAME ad copy used by top marketers!take them BY THE HAND and work together until they are READY TO DRIVE TRAFFIC!And don’t even get me started on the bonuses..Step 4: Create endless amounts of vague content that rehashes the same basic information over and over againWhat kills me about this formula is that I see it so MANY TIMES across SO MANY DIFFERENT MARKETERS that it makes me want to vomit.Not because it’s transparent, manipulative, and bordering on unethical.But because I want SO DESPERATELY to be able to do it and make a killing like they are.I watch these gurus’ videos, read their “articles,” skim their “value adding” Facebook drivel in hopes that I’ll get some sort of actionable tip instead of different versions of the same old garbage.You know what I’m talking about. Classics such as:Guys it’s all about one thing: ADDING VALUE.Figure out what problem your customer needs to solve, then offer a solution.Show your customers how their lives will be better after purchasing your product.Underpromise and overdeliver!This kind of thing makes me want to kick my dog.Does this ACTUALLY work on people?Sadly, it does. The amount of comments I see on this kind of garbage that are like,“Wow, you’re such an inspiration! So happy you finally made a million dollars, you deserve it!”“This was a great story. I especially like the part where you talked about how successful you were.”“Hope you’re taking notes guys, so much value here.”Please kill me.The worst part is that I hate myself for falling for it over and over again.I mean, to be fair I’m not really “falling for it.”These strategies all work. They’re all effective. And if you, me, or anyone else actually puts them into practice then they’ll probably get the same result.If you ask me, all the hate these gurus get is – get ready for it – UNFOUNDED.That may seem contradictory based my apparently unbridled rage against unethical internet marketers. But I don’t think my reasons for anger are much different than anyone else’s:We simply haven’t been able to sell the dream as successfully as the gurus have.(And yes, we’ve tried.)Step 5: Add complexity to cause insecurity (conveniently solved by purchasing another course)We bought the $7 ebook, the $47 course, the $67 upsell.We read your sales letters, watched your YouTube videos, signed up for your mailing lists. We devoured your lead magnets.And not just once – multiple times.Not only that, we might have even learned the requisite skills necessary to tie it all together.We learned copywriting so we could create sales letters of our own.We taught ourselves Photoshop (I personally prefer GIMP) so we could make our 3D book covers.We paid for MONTHS upon MONTHS of ClickFunnels – maybe even spent hundreds more on their never-ending list of info products.Maybe we even did the One Funnel Away Challenge… more than once.We created lead magnets, landing pages, full blown courses – all of it, everything.And yet, despite all this, we STILL haven’t been able to tie it together into anything profitable.The YouTube channel, the blog, Instagram account.. it’s all over the place. No semblance of order.What’s the famous quote?“Speak to everyone and nobody will listen.”To be fair, at this point I think it’s safe to admit that I’m just talking about myself here. I know it.How do I know? Because most people who fail DON’T fail because they did a lot of work and it just HAPPENED to be the wrong type of work.Most people fail because they don’t do anything at all.They sit on their butts, research all day, and then at the end of the day tell themselves that they’ll start FIRST THING TOMORROW.Yeah right.Me? I have the opposite problem.I’d rather write a 3000 word blog post and cry about my problems than think about how best to tie together the massive amount of content I’ve created in the past year.I want to make a full time living from this. I want to live the dream, you know?I want to be Tai Lopez. I want to be Tony Robbins. I want people to call ME a douchebag phony guru after seeing me talk about how I bought my new Lamborghini with knawledge.I want it. Fame, fortune, glory, money, women, power.. all of it.Anyone who says they don’t want those things really just gave up on acquiring them and is denying their desire. Classic sour grapes.They’ve decided they couldn’t have it, or that it would take too much work, and now they’ve convinced themselves that they never wanted those things anyway.That’s where we’re different. I still believe that it’s possible.And more importantly, I feel like I’m close.I have all the skills.I know how to write sales letters.I can use ClickFunnels.I can write a 100 email drip sequence that will make your pee pee hard every time.I can grow social media accounts.I can get clients with Paigham Bot.I can sell over the phone, face to face, even through email.I can do it all baby.I just.. I don’t know.. what is my problem?Maybe I don’t have one. Maybe it’s all in my head.Step 6: Tell people the reason they’re failing is because they’re not taking actionDidn’t we already go over the strategy in the beginning? Why wouldn’t it be the same for you?Make a courseCreate a funnelDrive traffic with paid adsProfitIt’s the same for everyone. For every niche on the planet.You’re only limited by your creativity.(…and the amount you can spend on paid ads before you turn a profit. But we’ll get to that in a second.)Not only that, but I actually know HOW to do everything I need to do to make it happen in ALL of those steps.“Creating a funnel” isn’t a singular activity – it involves like 100 different skills that I learned on my own because I didn’t have a dollar to pay overpriced freelancers.So what’s the missing piece? I’ll tell you: paid ads.When you’re at Step 1, there is no substitute for paid ads.You don’t just need people to sell to, you need the RIGHT people. The right age, gender, geographical location, income level, interests — they all need to be targeted.Everything I’ve seen points to using Facebook ads as the primary method new internet marketers get their first batch of traffic.Sure, once you get an audience and a little clout, you’ll get some organic traffic (and maybe even some customers) from there. But even then, there’s no guarantee that those people will buy from you. It’s not necessarily “buyer traffic.”You need to find people that are ACTIVELY LOOKING FOR what you’re selling.Your Facebook friends probably don’t care about your offer, even if it is in an evergreen niche like making money online or getting ripped.The secret to making money with ANY of this stuff is nailing down a reliable source of targeted traffic, showing them ads and funnels that convert, and cranking the dial until you get sick of watching your bank account go up.There does seem to be one alternative. In his book Traffic Secrets, Russel Brunson calls this “Finding your Dream 100.”The idea here is that you make a list of the 100 most influential people in your industry and contact them with a gimmick like a physical card with a video screen as a way to stand out from the crowd.It’s clever, gotta give him that.But does it work?Probably.Have I tried it?No.Step 7: Talk about how easy the process is and how anyone who still hasn’t figured it out is an idiotAnd THAT’S what kills me – I know it probably works, I just haven’t tried it because I don’t have the $500 for actual cards to send out.Also probably some impostor syndrome in there – after all, why would famous influencers want to collaborate with lil old me?Sure, I’m awesome, talented, hard working, handsome, charming, modest, and an authority on fitness.But.. but…But what?But nothing. I just haven’t tried it. I need to try it. I need to get the friggin $500 together, make the list and just send out the info.Everything else is ready, or COULD BE ready in a couple of weeks if I put my mind to it.But because I think to myself, Oh well I can’t afford the physical gimmick cards to send out, that means the whole process is worthless and a waste of time. I should just wait until I have the money to spend on it, THEN I can do it. But even then it probably won’t work.Replace “physical gimmick cards” with “Facebook ads” or “ClickFunnels account” or “autoresponder” or “contact form submitter” and it’s clear what’s happening:I’m letting a lack of funds prevent me from accessing the resourcefulness required to achieve success.Put more esoterically, I’m letting an attitude of scarcity preserve my fear of success.Anyway, who cares about all those dumb avocado toast excuses? The bottom line is that if MONEY is the problem, then all I need is to get some money together and pay for all the stuff I can’t pay for currently.You know what they say: if your problem can be solved with money, then you don’t have a problem.I heard that years ago. Even then, broke as I was, I knew it was true.I started out writing this article ready to crucify these internet marketing gurus, how they’re awful people who deserve awful things. But after typing this all out I realized that it was really my fault all along.I know what I need to do.Make a course. Create a funnel. Drive traffic with paid ads.Profit.The path is clear.I have all the skills. I have the sizzle AND the steak. All I need is money to make it happen.So now the question becomes… how do I make some money? via /r/Affiliatemarketing

#affiliatemarketing #reddit #internetmarketing

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cameronwjones · 5 years

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35 Bold Examples of Guerrilla Marketing

See how leading brands are using guerrilla marketing campaigns to make a big splash without busting their wallet. Featuring examples from Samsung, Spotify, Tesla and other top organizations.

Guerrilla marketing campaigns (not to be confused with gorilla marketing campaigns) are one of the more unique event types. They’re basically a cost-effective strategy solution that, when executed correctly, ensures that buzz is generated while your team remains profitable. By capturing the public's attention at little to no cost, your company can create the word of mouth marketing and user-generated content it needs to succeed.

Often budget-friendly, countless guerrilla marketing examples from a variety of sectors show us that any business can be creative and effective while often not breaking the bank. Some of the latest event marketing stats show that 75% of content marketers believe live events are the most effective part of any marketing strategy. These examples of effective live guerrilla marketing events will inspire some of your own.

A little warning: guerrilla marketing looks easy. However, it takes creativity and skill to be effective.

As some of the guerrilla marketing examples below reveal, a plan can go awry if not fully considered before implementing. Which is why having an event marketing plan in place ahead of time will pay off in the long run. Before we dive into the examples, here are some reasons why you might want to include guerrilla marketing into your next big campaign.

Why You Should Invest in Guerrilla Marketing

Investing in guerrilla marketing says that your business is ready to capture the public’s attention in creative ways. With their attention, your brand becomes the distinct entity you want to be in the marketplace. Your company is more recognizable and becomes that much more likely to be the first choice that comes into a consumer’s mind.

Plus, you can easily use these guerrilla marketing do’s and don’ts to inform your b2b event marketing ideas.

Check out this list of 35 guerrilla marketing ideas to get a better sense of effective, and not so effective, ways your company could do the same.

35 Bold Examples of Guerrilla Marketing

1. Spotify’s Cosmic Playlists

Source: Spotify

Spotify has used its music streaming platform to drum up attention for its brand on a number of occasions throughout the year. Some have become yearly fixtures, like its year-end wrap up for each user, or Discover Weekly, which finds tailored tracks based on users' listening preferences.

In January 2019, the company offered its latest guerrilla content: playlists based on horoscopes. Spotify teamed up with astrologer Chani Nicholas to create the Cosmic Playlists for U.S. listeners. The playlists are determined by Nicholas' astrological readings to represent each sign's theme at that moment.

Like most of the streaming services efforts, the playlists were picked up extensively by the media. This kind of digital event marketing might even spark some viral campaigns of your own.

Main Takeaway: The strategy doesn't have to be innovative every time. Feel free to use and modify your past success for a similar effect this time around.

2. Domino’s Paving for Pizza

Source: Domino’s

Nobody likes to get their pizza delivered with the ingredients sliding all over the place and the cheese stuck to the roof of the box. All too often, however, that is exactly the case. In 2018, Domino's pinpointed the source of the problem - and it wasn't bad driving.

Instead, the pizza brand placed the blame on America's infrastructure and its copious amounts of potholes in the street. And thus, the Paving for Pizza campaign began.

Main Takeaway: Nothing earns the public’s admiration like fixing an everyday problem.

3. CalTex Becomes CahillTex

Source: Caltex Australia

The 2018 World Cup provided numerous brands with opportunities to flex its guerrilla marketing muscles. This happened at many sites around the host country, Russia, but extended across the globe as well.

Australian gas company Caltex Australia got in the mix by honoring one of the nation's most beloved footballers, Tim Cahill. From May through June of 2018, five locations across the country rebranded to become CahillTex. While fun and cheeky, blowback did occur when some alleged that the re-brand was the reason for the 38-year-old being selected for the World Cup team despite his declining performance on the field.

Main Takeaway: Re-brands can be fun but they run the risk of public blowback for even the slightest miscalculations. Proceed with caution.

4. Carlsberg's Beer Caviar

Source: Carlsberg

Another bit of genius World Cup marketing came from Danish beer brand Carlsberg. As a sponsor of the Danish national team, the brewer wanted to give its fans a taste of Russia with a special twist.

Instead of offering up the traditional caviar, Carlsberg made its own. Danish football fans seemed to love the beer-maker’s version. The effort received considerable press and earned Carlsberg the distinction of being the world's first ever beer caviar.

Main Takeaway: Find ways to align what your brand can create with major events. Bring them together in ways that help boost your event ROI.

5. IHOP Becomes IHOb

Source: LA Times

To promote its burgers, pancake restaurant IHOP teased and briefly became the International House of Burgers, or IHOb. The move certainly gained heaps of attention for the restaurant.

However, much of it came in the form of endless social media memes and public press. IHOP, or IHOb’s, social media team was seemingly prepared for the scores of criticism. They had all the the answers ready, complete with where Bs and Ps should be. By July, the brand was back to its original name.

Main Takeaway: Changing your name can get the public’s attention. Be sure it is for the right reasons.

6. Hereditary's Creepy Dolls

Source: Xpress Magazine

Horror movie marketing has always been crucial to getting films seen beyond the typical horror movie goer. One of, if not the largest, horror movie in recent years was Hereditary.

Online buzz was generated for the film thanks to a clever and creepy stunt pulled on attendees of one midnight screening. The day after seeing the film, fans found creepy dolls outside their hotel doors. Between the film and this clever bit of guerrilla marketing, the film earned $13 million at the box office its first weekend.

Main Takeaway: Don’t be afraid to be scary. Sometimes, it’s the most on-brand your tactics can be.

7. GoldToe Dresses New York City in Undershirts and Underwear

Source: ALT TERRAIN

To celebrate the launch of its newest shirts and underwear in 2010, the GoldToe decked out famous New York City statues in t-shirts and underwear. The event took place during New York Fashion Week, but that did not relegate the bit of guerrilla marketing to the Fashion District. Instead, the most eye catching of examples came when the famous Wall Street Bull was wrapped in a hilariously oversized pair of tighty whities.

Main Takeaway: Don’t be afraid to be funny - especially when it playfully changes the perception of relatable icons and images.

8. Chipotle's Burrito Baby Shower

Source: Fox 40

Over the past few years, Chipotle went from being an up and coming fast casual dining brand to a chain that had lost the public's trust due to a large health scare. The brand had been in need of any positive press it could get.

In the spring of 2018, an opportunity was literally born in one of its parking lots when Adrianna Alvarez pulled over with her husband in a Chipotle parking lot to give birth. To mark the occasion, Chipotle invited the happy parents, 911 dispatchers, and all their families to celebrate. They gifted baby Jaden a swaddle that looked like a tortilla.

Main Takeaway: When a gift opportunity arises, capitalize on it by adding your own bit of good news to the occasion.

9. Fiji Water’s Fiji Girl at the Oscars

Source: Jen Yamato / Los Angeles Times

One of the most iconic bits of guerrilla marketing in recent history occurred at the Golden Globes awards. While the red carpet is usually all about Hollywood's who's who, the talk of this year’s event was model Kelleth Cuthbert aka #FijiGirl. By standing in the background with a blue dress and tray of Fiji Water, the brand and the model stole the evening. Cuthbert's photobombing skills led to countless memes and free publicity for the water company.

Main Takeaway: It all boils down to creative positioning. Whether a person or an initiative, the placement of the event is crucial.

10. Floating Barge Billboards in New York

Source: Ballyhoo Media

Ballyhoo Media found success with floating barges doubling as billboards back in Miami. The 60-foot double-sided barges could serve as additional advertising real estate as space on land becomes more difficult (and pricey) to find.

In October, signs began showing up in Manhattan and Brooklyn waterways. The floating ads featured promos for everything from TV shows to travel to the airport. After months of complaints from citizens and the press, the city pointed out that the marketing endeavor was illegal and the stunt was shuttered.

Main Takeaway: Sometimes what works in one market won’t work in another. Analyze the laws and public sentiment before launching any plans.

11. AMD Cuts Into Intel’s 40th Anniversary

Source: Weborus

They say a 40th birthday is a milestone in a person's life. Businesses also celebrate this milestone. Just like some advantageous friends or family, other businesses can also make the day about themselves.

To mark its 40th milestone, Intel planned to give away 8,086 copies of its limited edition 6-core-i7-8086k computers. To drastically undercut the occasion, AMD offered to give 40 of those winners its own 16-core Ryzen Threadripper 1950x to Intel prize winners. To counter the move, Intel took to Twitter to call out AMD and suggest it may have just wanted to win an Intel itself.

Main Takeaway: Don’t be afraid to take away another brand’s thunder. Leveraging occasions for your success is key in garnering attention.

12. Payless Goes High End as Palessi

Source: Payless Shoes

The affordable, low-cost shoe store threw Los Angeles shoppers for a loop last year when it had the launch party for a new luxury shoe brand, Palessi, created by a fake Italian designer Bruno Palessi. The swanky shop had all the trappings of a high-end store, including angel statues, sleek shoe displays and even a mini-runway. Needless to say, plenty of shoppers were willing to drop hundreds of dollars for the fake shoe line.

The stunt garnered the brand heaps of attention in the press. However, it did not save the business - Payless recently announced that it will be shutting down all its locations.

Main Takeaway: Asking people to change their perception can be fun. But it may not actually lead to increased sales.

13. Tesla's “$0 Budget”

Source: SpaceX

While many find Tesla founder Elon Musk’s antics frustrating, plenty of them have resulted in heaps of press for little to no money.

The Tesla marketing above cost quite a bit of money. However, guerrilla marketing is commonly used by the brand. This includes when Tesla gave its patents away for free. Additionally, the brand is known for going viral thanks to humorous videos of its new technology, like when Tesla fans made videos of themselves using the car's autopilot function. In all, the brand knows how to get attention.

Main Takeaway: Guerrilla marketing doesn’t have to be a solo event. It can be a series of acts that establish the brand as a consistent guerrilla marketer.

14. The Nun's YouTube Controversy

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

Hereditary was not the only horror film to cash in with a bit of help from guerrilla marketing. The Nun was aided by YouTube in 2018, causing the film earn over $380 million in U.S. box office revenue. The original plan was for the film to air an unskippable ad on numerous YouTube videos. After playing for some time, the public began discussing how frightening the spot was.

In turn, YouTube banned the ad for violating policies concerning what it deems violent and shocking content - and the buzz was created.

Main Takeaway: Sometimes getting banned is the best publicity possible.

15. Homie Real Estate's Electoral Bid

Source: Homie for Senate

An election loophole in Arizona gave Utah real estate company Homie the publicity it was seeking in Fall 2018. Deciding that digital ads on major platforms weren't enough, the company began running ads that bared a striking resemblance to political signs that commonly adorned yards and windows. The sign text even included the URL HomieForSenate.com. Soon enough, the company had struck a deal with Arizona to never pull the stunt again.

Main Takeaway: Venturing into politics can be risky, but it can pay off. Scrutinize your plan thoroughly before executing.

16. Author's Surprise Window Ads

Ask forgiveness, not permission! Great to see a unique approach to advertising, reminds me of the fun we’ve had with our airlines. Congratulations on the book @samconniff #bemorepirate pic.twitter.com/ZLLnLpWLV1

— Richard Branson (@richardbranson) May 3, 2018

Source: Twitter

Be More Pirate: Or How to Take On the World and Win author Sam Conniff Allende lived up to the title of his first published book when advertising it. Allende pasted hot pink eight meter ads along the first floor windows of Penguin Random House's London offices. The thing is, Penguin hadn't approved the ads. The author and a team snuck in as contractors to do the deed. As of December 2018, the book is available in eight countries including the U.S.

Main Takeaway: Live up to your brand. Authenticity is one of the most valued assets you can have.

17. Samsung's Appel Giveaway

Source: Samsung

If Samsung gave out free Galaxy S9 phones to the entire Apple community it'd surely go broke. But if it hands out a few hundred Galaxy S9s to the entire population of the Dutch hamlet Appel, it has a clever bit of marketing on its hands. The stunt is charming and shows that many of Appel's community may now be part of Samsung's community as well.

Main Takeaway: Find clever ways to leverage your competition to your advantage. You could win over a few hundred customers in a small Dutch village!

18. Sixt's Sixth Ave Takeover

Source: YouTube/Sixt

To gain more of New York City's rental car market, Sixt continued its history of clever marketing by turning Manhattan's Sixth Avenue into Sixt Avenue. In a span of five minutes, the brand was able to put up signs and even orchestrate a 10-car parade. Sixt also got drone footage in downtown Manhattan to add to its appeal.

Main Takeaway: Cheeky branding can work. Mix it with sleek footage and you will have a good bit of marketing on your hands.

19. Burger King's Influencer Stunt

some things from 2010 are worth revisiting—like your old tweets. and funnel cake fries. get them now for a limited time.

— Burger King (@BurgerKing) January 24, 2019

Source: Twitter/Burger King

Burger King recently relied on influencers to market the return of its funnel cake fries. The treat last appeared on menus in 2010. To generate buzz, BK's Twitter account began liking tweets from influencers and verified accounts from 2010. Popular influencer Casey Neistat claimed he and others were exploited in the stunt, to which the fast food chain attempted to apologize.

Main Takeaway: Consider your participants when guerrilla marketing. A negative reaction will sour all your other hard work.

20. Twentieth Century Fox's Mystery Spies

Source: Media in Canada

To drum up buzz for Jennifer Lawrence's 2018 film Red Sparrow, Twentieth Century Fox Canada teamed up with two companies, Zenith Media and Eat It Up Media, to shake up the Toronto streets. Twenty models dressed as Lawrence's Russian spy character to hand out business cards with the film’s showtimes. The movie took in over $151 million in box office sales.

Main Takeaway: Be bold and recognizable when seeking attention. Adding intrigue doesn’t hurt either.

21. Aphex Twin's Unexpected Logos

View this post on Instagram

When did these Aphex Twin 3D graphics appear on the wall at Elephant and Castle tube? Not noticed them before. Something new coming from him?

A post shared by Nico De Ceglia (@nicodeceglia) on Jul 28, 2018 at 4:28pm PDT

Source: Instagram

Popular electronic music artist Aphex Twin's logo and artwork was found around London, Turin, Hollywood and New York City in the summer of 2018. Adorning billboards and other heavy foot traffic locations, the ads promoted the artist's latest EP, Collapse. For a 2014 release, the artist flew a blimp over London and New York City with his logo.

Main Takeaway: Use your iconic logo when you can. It could become a tradition in your marketing that fans expect.

22. Mous' Viral Video

Source: YouTube/Mous

Protective cell phone case Mous gave Apple fans minor heart attacks while promoting its brand. In 2018, the company sent a rep to buy a $999 iPhone X. They they invited people in London and Hong Kong to throw it on the sidewalk. But don’t worry - the phone was protected thanks to Mous' Airoshock case. This became one of many videos in a series promoting the protection the case offers.

Main Takeaway: Turn a consumer’s worst nightmare into a fun experiential marketing campaign. Prove your product is the protector of their worst case scenarios.

23. Lidl's Billboard Sabotage

Source: The Drum

U.K. retailer Lidl took a swipe at its rivals while positioning itself as the low cost alternative in its sector. The company used billboards adorned with familiar imagery from the competition while overlaying a Lidl ad showing the same product at a cheaper rate at its stores. To make the campaign that much more effective, ads were placed near rival locations.

Main Takeaway: Leveraging branding from your rivals can generate attention for your company. Strategic placement will drum up much more conversation.

24. Circles.Life's Get Rich Quick Scheme

View this post on Instagram

So.. something interesting happened today! Saw a huge crowd outside H&M Somerset for this vending machine so i decide to kpo & pay $3 for $50!! What can i say, im $47 richer now HAHAHAHA! Go ahead & try it urself tomorrow from 5pm-8pm! Don’t say i bojio! #3dollarballer #3dollarballers #uxm

A post shared by Hafiz Aziz (@hafizazizzz) on Feb 27, 2018 at 2:47am PST

Source: Instagram

Data provider Circles.Life got Singapore talking with a vending machine stunt in early 2018. Across the country, vending machines dispensed $50 in exchange for $3. The exchange came with a flier with a QR code and the hashtag #3dollarballer. The campaign was to promote the online telco provider's on demand, unlimited data plan. Numerous social media posts followed while police had to come in to monitor the situation.

Main Takeaway: Money always gets people’s attention. Just be sure to avoid a major commotion.

25. Wendy’s Twitter Rap Battle with Wing Stop

Be there. Done that. Bring something fresh... not frozen. 😉 https://t.co/xi81olVFgP

— Wingstop 🍗 (@wingstop) October 2, 2017

Source: Twitter/Wingstop

Wendy's earns high marks for its ability to engage with young audiences on social media. In the fall of 2017, the brand engaged in a tweet rap battle against fellow fast food restaurant Wingstop. The $0 stunt generated buzz for both brands while avoiding the outcome Burger King and others have fallen into.

Main Takeaway: Have a capable social media manager on your team. Their ability to connect with younger audiences is invaluable.

26. Childish Gambino's “Feels Like Summer” Ice Cream Pop Up

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can’t be unlucky when you’ve got a free chocolate ice cream cone in hand! thanks, @childishgambino. 😘🍦🍫 #fridaythe13th #unionsquarenyc #summertimemagic #gambinogirlforever #swipeleft

A post shared by BMSR (@skepticalface) on Jul 13, 2018 at 9:55am PDT

Source: Instagram

Who can beat free ice cream on a hot summer day? To promote his 2018 summer-themed EP, Childish Gambino stationed ice cream trucks in New York City, LA and London to dispense free ice cream and a loop of the two songs. The event generated long lines for free ice cream and photo ops with summertime themed grass props.

Main Takeaway: Strategically align your efforts. Make your seasonal offering help those looking for relief from the elements.

27. Vitamin Water's Bogus Movies

Source: YouTube/Vitamin Water

Coca-Cola decided that the best way to market Vitamin Water was by doing exactly the opposite. A series of ads popped up in the summer of 2018 marketing anything but the drink. The ads were heavily featured on Rotten Tomatoes, including a full-page ad for a Pomeranian-themed movie "financed" by Vitamin Water.

Main Takeaway: Sometimes going off brand is best for business. Just be sure to loop back to your actual company at some point.

28. Bird's Guerrilla Business Practices

Source: KMIZ/Fox 22

Scooter ride sharing companies caused quite a stir over the past year or so. They include Bird, who operated in cities like Columbia, Missouri without an proper license. Many accused the brand of skirting laws while others believe it engaged in similar tactics as Uber. The move earned Bird buzz in the city, appearing in the news and local outlets. However, its impact on public perception was uncertain.

Main Takeaway: Flirting with breaking the law can be a dangerous play. Executed correctly and it can be a hit. On the other hand, it could severely damage your brand.

29. Deadpool's Tinder Account

Source: Imgur

Both Deadpool movies have relied on a series of hilarious guerrilla marketing stunts. They include turning bars into the anti-hero's favorite bars from the films as well as popping up in covers of other films. But the most iconic one may be the Tinder profile setup for the crime fighter. All the efforts have helped push the film to become one of the most successful hero franchises in recent years.

Main Takeaway: Be funny, be bold and don’t be afraid to lean into your humor.

30. PETA's Shocking Posters

Source: Julius Sandor

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has often used guerrilla marketing tactics to get its message out. Its campaigns for ethical animal treatment focused on the brand Canada Goose in the winter of 2018. The group launched an "anti-marketing" campaign in Downtown Toronto to dissuade people for the brand due to its treatment of coyotes and geese. The campaign continues with other groups involved as well.

Main Takeaway: Foul language and harsh imagery can jar audiences which is what some campaigns need to be noticed.

31. Anytime Fitness's Purple Bikes

Source: Jonathan Carroll

Warners Bay, Australia found itself with a bit of a local mystery in the fall of 2017 when purple bikes began appearing across town. Eventually, after some guessing, a local fitness chain owned up to the marketing. Anytime Fitness claimed that it was a reminder for folks to get active this spring.

Main Takeaway: A friendly reminder to keep healthy may resonate more with a quirky twist to the message.

32. Subway's Subliminal Sandwiches

Source: Subway

Subway sandwiches used guerrilla and subconscious marketing to suggest its food to passersby in the summer of 2018. The chain's "SUBliminal messaging" launched a three-day campaign in Chicago where images of footlong subs were projected onto buildings and on streets with chalk art. The brand has used similar tactics like these in years to generate buzz after its brand began declining a few years back.

Main Takeaway: Sometimes making your audience pause to wonder what they saw is the name of the game.

33. Solange's BlackPlanet Revival

Source: BlackPlanet

BlackPlanet was once a bustling online community. Like many social media platforms, it eventually ceded its popularity as its audience moved on. However, the site received a significant boost thanks to an artistic video page by artist Solange. The videos have piqued fan interest as rumors of new music began to swirl.

Main Takeaway: Be unconventional. Sometimes going back to popular methods can generate buzz a current popular outlet couldn’t offer.

34. A&E Supply Co.'s Logo Graffiti

Source: Yelp

Brooklyn restaurant A&E Supply Co. caused a stir in winter 2017 with its local marketing. After a series of financial setbacks, guerrilla marketing was all it had left. So they began tagging Park Slope and Gowanus neighborhood sidewalks with temporary chalk logos. Some in the neighborhoods weren't thrilled and consider the acts vandalism. The location was rebranded later that year.

Main Takeaway: Changing your name might actually help your business. But no matter what you do, remember to gauge public opinion ahead of time.

35. Bud Light UK's Free Beer Handout

Source: Wiki Commons

Bud Light UK came under fire in the winter of 2017 after it was caught giving out beer to the homeless. While the campaign focused on giving out free beer to any legal adult, the campaign caught significant flack for dispensing alcohol to people often associated with drinking related health problems. The operation was quickly shut down as public sentiment split on the issue.

Main Takeaway: Consider your demographic before going through with any campaign. A friendly gesture can go awry thanks to a bad image.

Wrapping Up: Gearing Up For Guerrilla Marketing

Consider your options and remember that countless possibilities exist. From the uncommon to the conventional, every campaign is different and could lead to success for your brand. Do not limit your company to one set of tactics. Explore every option you have.

from Cameron Jones Updates https://blog.bizzabo.com/guerrilla-marketing-examples

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nelsonemarketing-blog · 6 years

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Facebook Marketing: A Comprehensive Overview for Beginners

Facebook is big. As the biggest social network in the world, it has greater than 1.23 billion active individuals, 62% of which log in daily.

Think about this:

Facebook went from being unidentified a little over a years back to billions of people using it today. Has there ever been a success like Facebook?

And possibly extra importantly, with that said energy, do you think there will be anything that will stop it? Will it go from billions of energetic customers to millions or even thousands over the following decade?

Possibly not. Facebook is below to stay.

And with such a huge customer base, disregarding Facebook really isn't really a choice for the majority of marketing experts. You can wager your perfect market is utilizing Facebook virtually everyday. The concern is: how do you target all those individuals with your marketing?

The good news is that the Facebook marketing system permits you to no in and also define the sort of individuals you're searching for. You can target by area, demographics, and interests.

In this overview, I'll reveal you the fundamentals of ways to utilize Facebook to your advantage. The overview is targeted at the novice who wants an introduction into marketing their service on the globe's biggest social media.

Who's On Facebook?

Facebook might have started as a social media for college students, however, now, virtually every person with a net link is using it. The minimal age demand is 13, and also there is reason to think it is being utilized by all various other age.

Facebook does not publicly release data on their most preferred age group, yet a study by Church bench showed that social networking is most prominent with the 18-29 age group. Its appeal reduces with age. It is least popular with those 65 and also older.

I can ensure you that, whatever age group you're targeting, there will certainly be more than enough of those individuals on Facebook.

Just How Can You Market on Facebook?

Facebook has 3 tools (pages, advertisements, and also teams) that can be made use of by anybody. Each of these choices has its very own purpose, as well as they could be integrated for higher reach.

Pages

Facebook web pages are similar to accounts, but also for services, companies, and also somebodies. Individuals could "Like" a web page, which means they'll instantly receive updates from that web page in their information feed. Individuals also have the choice to "Like" a page but not follow it. (Customers also can comply with some profiles.).

While profiles call for a shared partnership between pals, pages could be liked by any individual, without a demand for the page designer to approve a follower. They likewise don't have a constraint on the variety of friends/fans they can have (unlike accounts, which are limited to 5,000 friends).

Benefits: Pages are free-and-easy to set up.

Negative aspects: It can be difficult to get a foothold and also build a follower base with a web page.

Advertisements.

Facebook provides an amazing targeted marketing system. You can develop advertisements targeted at details geographical locations, ages, education degrees, as well as the types of devices used for surfing. Facebook also lets individuals close ads they do not such as and "Like" a web page right underneath an ad:.

Benefits: Ads have effective targeting criteria.

Disadvantages: Ads could obtain costly, depending upon your objectives.

Groups.

Facebook groups are similar to discussion forums, but with additional functions that web pages as well as accounts have (like a wall surface). You could produce groups associated with your sector or product offerings as a way to reach out to potential consumers.

Advantages: Groups are cost-free as well as have high degrees of interaction.

Negative aspects: Groups could be very time consuming.

How you can Market with Pages.

Facebook web pages are the simplest, easiest way to get started marketing with Facebook. They're free, reasonably very easy to establish (a minimum of in their fundamental forms), and extremely versatile. There's not much of a drawback, either.

Regrettably, many business do not utilize them to their full potential; or worse, utilize them terribly. These guidelines will assist you avoid making those mistakes.

Profile Picture as well as Cover Photo.

Your account photo need to be your logo. Basic as that.

The cover picture is a various tale. It's actually up to you to decide what to place here. Some make use of photos of staff members, while others make use of elegant artwork and also put their get in touch with details in the cover photo. Select a photo that will enhance your web page and attract the eye of your visitors.

" Around" Section.

The "Around" section is plainly put right listed below your company logo. This is your chance to inform any individual involving your page what your service does.

Make certain you place excellent info here, telling people what you're firm does, why you're different, as well as various other fascinating details. If you can, put in the time to write it specifically for your Facebook target market. You can replicate the message from the "About" page of your internet site or blog site, if you remain in a pinch. Be sure to fill out all of your information under "Standard Details.".

Simply keep in mind to maintain it friendly as well as informal. A laid-back tone typically works ideal on Facebook. Here are a couple of examples:.

HubSpot tells us what they do and offers a get in touch with approach:.

WP Engine shares just what they do and also the number of clients they have, which assists establish integrity:.

You additionally may wish to place your hours of operation in the About section.

Tabs.

Tabs are the little squares that sit to the right of your Concerning section. Below are ESPN's tabs:.

Facebook allows you to consume to 10 application tabs, understood to Facebook admins as the "Favorites" section. Pictures as well as Likes are called for tabs. You may relocate the Sort tab wherever you desire, yet Photos needs to remain as the initial. Your top tabs are set to a limit of 4.

Think about exactly what the priorities are for your visitors. If you're a physical store, you might wish to make a tab for area. If you host webinars, maybe you could make use of the Events tab to allow people subscribe and join your webinars. Social media has to do with engagement, so the even more (and also the extra carefully) you obtain your fans to engage with you, the far better marketing professional you will certainly be.

Blog Post Useful Details to Your Wall.

Just what you post to your wall surface will appear in the news feeds of everybody who has actually "Liked" your page, just as it does when you upload something to your individual account.

So, make certain just what you're publishing works to your followers. Do not upload endless updates concerning the exact same thing, as well as do not upload too many updates, clogging the information feeds of your fans.

Right here are some ideas for the examples you could intend to upload to your wall:.

Links to articles associated with your firm or your sector.

Links to your article.

Voucher codes for followers to reduce your products.

New product news.

Links to online tools your fans may locate useful.

Again, make sure that your messages are useful. Likewise, do not post more than a couple of times each day unless there's a special occasion going on.

Ask Your Fans Concerns.

Obtaining your fans included with your page is an excellent way to influence commitment.

Asking concerns in your updates gets people entailed, however by themselves terms. Just what you ask depends mainly on your item and also your niche, but asking open-ended inquiries typically gathers the very best reactions. Asking point of views on a new product idea or task can be a good way to persuade your followers that your firm respects what they desire. Getting more engagement on a message could additionally help you arrive of the Facebook Information Feed.

Do not Spam.

Spam is among the quickest means to lose followers. If you do nothing however send marketing blurbs regarding your business, without ever adding anything of value, then you're mosting likely to have a tough time getting as well as keeping fans.

Prior to you send any kind of upgrade, ask on your own if it truthfully includes worth to the conversation. If not, do not send it.

Research Your Statistics and also Results.

Facebook provides some truly fantastic analytics for web pages. Take notice of them. If you see a large rise in fans (or a decline off), take a look at just what you have actually published just recently and see if you could figure out a factor for the pattern. After that, article more of that type of web content (or less, if you're shedding followers).

Targeted Advertising.

Due to the fact that it gathers a lot demographic details concerning its users, Facebook has among the very best targeted advertising programs online. You can target individuals based on virtually anything you might locate in their accounts, as well as track your success with each sector.

Advertisements could be run on a per-impression or per-click basis. Facebook reveals you exactly what quotes are for ads just like your own, so you recognize if your proposal is in line with others in your sector. You also could establish daily limitations so there's no risk of blowing your budget.

Types of Facebook Ads.

There are a number of advertisement subtypes you can choose from.

You could create advertisements that route to your Facebook web page, or to a website out Facebook. You can create ads to advertise a Facebook event, full with an RSVP web link. You could produce advertisements for mobile application installs and also application interaction.

Users Can Conceal Your Ad.

Facebook used to supply the choice to "Like" any kind of advertisement on Facebook. Not any longer. Individuals could "Like" an ad (if it's that type) or hide the ad. Upon shutting an ad, Facebook asks the customer to define why they didn't like it.

It's important info, offering insight into why your advertisements might not be doing quite possibly.

Effective Targeting Options.

As already discussed, Facebook has a few of the most powerful targeting tools of any on the internet advertising and marketing program.

You could target by basically anything on a user's profile. You may start with the place, if that's important. You can specify either city, postal code, area, or state. This works particularly well for local services. From there, you can choose fundamental demographics, including partnership standing, age, workplace, education and learning (including major and years of participation), birthday celebration, as well as much more.

You can target ads to people who have actually lately relocated. So, if you possess a gym in Scottsdale as well as wish to locate all the individuals that recently relocated to the location, you can target your ads and advertisement copy to those individuals.

You additionally could target individuals based on their interests. State, for instance, you have an item that's targeted at baseball followers. You can get in baseball in the Passions area.

Or, possibly you've created a publication and you're sure that individuals who such as an additional particular publication will like yours. Enter the book's title under Rate of interests, as well as you'll especially target those individuals.

You even could target an exclusive checklist of individuals. If you have a listing of email addresses of individuals that you want to target, you can use Facebook's advertisements supervisor to target just those individuals. So, if you run a SaaS service and have 200 individuals on your "possibility list," you could utilize their email addresses to target them with advertisements in Facebook.

Customize Your Ads.

The various other large benefit to tightly-targeted advertisements is that you can create various ads for various market groups. Better-targeted ads are mosting likely to amass better results.

If you're targeting baseball followers, you could create private ads for various popular teams. You can have one advertisement specifically aimed at Red Sox followers, one at Yankees fans, as well as one more at Cubs fans, then have actually those advertisements revealed only to individuals that have actually indicated in their Passions that they are followers of those groups.

Or, let's say you have actually targeted individuals based on their love of a particular book. You can point out that publication in the advertisement itself to earn it more likely to catch their attention. Produce various advertisements for various books, and after that target appropriately.

Conclusion.

Facebook isn't really just effective. It's versatile. Regardless of what sort of business you run, it has enough various advertising options that you could customize your advertising efforts to fit your firm, your spending plan, and your time restraints.

Yes, it can take some time to obtain to understand every one of its attributes, however it deserves it. Facebook still is growing at a quick speed, and each day it ends up being an extra indispensable part of social networks advertising.

It's likewise essential to strike while the iron is hot. For the minute, companies that are savvy about Facebook advertising still enjoy an early-adopter advantage. Once again traditional online marketers start transitioning into the room, competitors will certainly enhance, marketing rates will rise, and also individuals will certainly come to be much pickier.

If Facebook is not an existing component of your advertising campaign, it ought to be. Allot a long time to tinker about, begin a few examination campaigns, as well as see what happens. Like anything, it takes technique to get good at it.

#Facebook #Marketing #Social Media Marketing

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junker-town · 7 years

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The NFL is being devoured by its own economic model

This is a very boring, simple explanation as to why the NFL’s ratings are declining. It is not an opportunity for you to shoehorn in your feelings about Colin Kaepernick protesting the game. No one really cares about your feelings about Colin Kaepernick’s protest, because if you are the kind of person who gets really offended about Colin Kaepernick, then your feelings in 2017 are the most boring and predictable thing about you, and telling on you in a deeply unflattering light.

The simpler and also boring systemic problem with the NFL that might actually explain something is its success, and how that success made the ownership class in the NFL fat, lazy, and locked into a business model they have no real reason or incentive to change, even with falling TV ratings.

The absence of real risk of failure is a start. Stakeholders in the NFL cannot lose—at least not under the league’s current structure. Owners split money from the league’s massive TV deals and other media revenue streams. That stream is so dependable, so huge, and so guaranteed that it’s done what large, intractable pools of cash have done since the invention of markets. It has altered and distorted the very thing that created it, and broken the basic exchange between consumer and seller that made the NFL successful in the first place.

It’s a form of laziness, and a special kind different from the standard laziness in the NFL. Laziness bred from prosperity isn’t a new problem for NFL ownership and management. For every old-school Rooney or Mara or Hunt family intent on making at least an honest show of competing, producing a good product, and paying at least paltry attention to the demands of the consumer, there has been a Culverhouse or a Smith, owners who ran their franchises with the least possible effort and expenditure. The slumlords of the NFL took their rent, often without providing anything close to a finished building.

Note: This may be literally true of the 1970s and 1980s Buccaneers, whose stadium sort of looked like concrete that never set exactly right, so they just went with it and said, “yeah, it’s supposed to be shaped like a melted frisbee.” What you call a mistake, the 1970s called architecture.

That approach towards maximizing your dollar with the bare minimum of effort became more sophisticated over time. As the league’s revenues boomed, they became something less like points of civic pride run as passion projects by the locally wealthy, and something more like attractive investment properties with a promising rate of return for billionaires — particularly those billionaires who entered the NFL as strangers to the league, but as intimate familiars of a corporate culture dependent on squeezing every profitable dollar, and trimming every wasteful one from the budget.

For instance: The legend of Dan Snyder tells a story of someone who was “passionate” about the Washington franchise on a personal level. It sometimes leaves out his ruthless economizing of the franchise, a focus on the bottom line interrupted periodically by splashing free agent signings to keep fans semi-interested in the team. That he moved them to the worst stadium in the league, charged for everything short of oxygen, and rolled out a consistently mediocre product didn’t matter: His great gift as an NFL owner, after nearly 20 years, has turned out to be a deep understanding of knowing exactly how little actual quality he could slip into the product without breaking the customer’s dependence completely.*

*Side note: Dan Snyder would be an amazing MDMA dealer.

Photo by Patrick McDermott/Getty Images

That level of sophisticated coasting in the name of profitability became a laudable thing for owners. Jerry Jones, in particular, emphasized profitability and value for the league, leaning hard on new television contracts, stadium deals, corporate tie-ins, and whatever else he could grab in order to boost the value of the Cowboys to its limit. The momentum for moving the Raiders — one of the league’s oldest recognizable brands, with one of its most insanely loyal fanbases — from Oakland to Las Vegas came largely from Jones, and mostly for the holy grail of profitability. Jones is the crowning example of the NFL’s gargantuan gains in the financial weight room: Since buying the Cowboys for $140 million in 1989, Jones has grown the value of the franchise to $4.2 billion. The team makes a publicly declared $227 million a year.

The NFL was able to do this because, at a certain point, wealth outstrips the power of the assets that created it. In 2017, the league split over $7.8 billion between teams. The money and the success the league enjoyed became so huge that they attained their own gravity, and became separate from the main product that built the league in the first place: professional football.

That separation of the product from the wealth it creates should be familiar to any American consumer. A large company takes control of an entire economy, becomes so large it cannot fail, and thus has no real incentive to do anything but seek rent on that endless, belching pipeline of cash. The product produced generally does not improve, and often without the pressure of competition doesn’t have to improve at all. It might even get worse, or at least watch things like customer service and satisfaction take nosedives.

It’s not exactly a monopoly, but it’s also not-not exactly a monopoly, either.

The value in that kind of behavior doesn’t come from the product. That flatlined in terms of utility a long, long time ago. (The Patriots remain unusual for not only trying, but trying intelligently to produce a good product.) An NFL owner no longer needs that to continue to boost the value of the franchise using anything that happens on the field. Value comes from getting a new stadium someone else paid for, moving the franchise to a more valuable piece of real estate and doubling the value of the franchise overnight. Value comes from leveraging and re-leveraging your existing assets, not by creating anything new.

If you see an NFL franchise as just another asset to be maximized and squeezed for every dime, being good at football — i.e. producing a good product — doesn’t matter. It’s not even rational to put effort towards anything but “value creation,” i.e. shuffling around pieces of the franchise until they sit in the most profitable positions. The Rams doubled their value overnight by leaving St. Louis and moving to L.A. They are a miserable football team run by a despised owner playing in an empty stadium, but the Rams could care less. The fourth most valuable team in the NFL sucks by design, and shines bright enough on the balance sheet to eliminate any real concerns about how bad the product is on the field.

Photo by Jeff Gross/Getty Images

The Rams, the 49ers, and the Washington team are all in the top 10 most valuable NFL franchises. There are other reasons for that besides their efficient disinterest in making a good on-field product — the real estate and cost of doing business in expensive places like L.A., the Bay Area, and D.C. being a huge one — but the lesson for anyone acquiring an NFL team as an asset is pretty clear. Strip the place to the frame, gorge on TV money, and only do the bare minimum to keep people interested.

That distancing of the product — and its overall quality as an experience — from revenue makes for a dysfunctional exchange between the consumer and the producer.

What does that mean, exactly? It means that because the Rams don’t have to worry about quality, they can slog into the Coliseum, wait for a new stadium to be built, and bill themselves as a content company while playing in front of hundreds of bored fans. It means that being good, for a lot of teams, is an accident, or a periodic spasm to regain fan interest spaced between long troughs of minimal effort.

*The NFL is you at work! Congrats, you too could be America’s most successful sports enterprise.

This explains why the NFL now functions less like an open market business, and more like a cartel. (Not a cartel exactly, economics pedants, but cartel-ish.)

A cartel really doesn’t care what you want. It knows what you need, and has it. All behaviors from that point forward only protect the cartel and its control of supply and delivery. There will be no innovation, no new ideas not in service of that maintenance of revenue streams, and no serious competition between cartel members. In fact, they’ll all cut the quality of the product wherever possible to take home the most possible cash.

The NFL isn’t alone in this in sports, and not even in football, either. The disease of guaranteed revenue has bitten college football, too. Texas, the most profitable athletic program in the nation, is a prime example of the strange incentives huge profits can create within a sports franchise. The more money the program makes, the less consistent or important the quality of the product has been to the priorities of those at the top running the cash machine.

But as the most popular sport in America — and one that pools profits — it is the most visible, and most visibly prone to this leveling by the demands of the spreadsheet. Even a distancing by slight degrees, like turning your basic exchange from one of fans opting into an experience into one of a television product given to captive subscribers, is enough to change how ownership behaves.

There is a structural reason live audiences aren’t even necessary anymore: Ticket sales make up such a shrinking percentage of team revenue that the Rams and 49ers might as well play on sound stages, if you think they don’t already. The distance between the sport and the mammoth business it built will only grow, and in that space will be those who loved the NFL, but now watch the condensed version of the NFL on RedZone, and those who make it begrudgingly while looking to the next successful investment opportunity.

That next something might be something like eSports, which the owner of the Patriots just dropped $20 million on via investment in an Overwatch league. When will we know eSports made it? When there are commercial breaks after load screens, fights over gaming arenas being paid for with public money, and a class of owner looking for nothing more than the next grandiose and guaranteed font of cash. eSports is lucky, for the moment: Kraft seems to enjoy making a quality product. It’s when the Haslams and Stan Kroenke show up that gamers should panic.

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siliconwebx · 5 years

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Marketing to Millennials: What You Need to Know to Close the Sale

Despite the perception that millennials are young, bratty and self-centered, they cover a broad range of age groups, personality traits and interests. Millennial birth years aren’t defined, ranging from 1977 to 2000 depending on who you ask. That means they make up 25% of the population, and that marketing to millennials isn’t as clear-cut as you may think.

Young millennials are in college; older millennials are parents of college students. They’re do-gooders and adventurous travelers, creators and intentional decision-makers. They’re tech-savvy, creative and purpose-driven.

Most importantly, at least for our purposes, they’re buyers, and they’re also influencing other buyers.

Before we continue, two quick things to understand about this article:

1. I didn’t include stats about marketing to millennials. There are a bazillion* millennial-related articles and studies with hard numbers. Since they’re so easy to find on your own, I opted to leave them out.

*not an actual stat

2. While I briefly mention social media, I’ve skipped the obvious, “Here’s why your brand should be on social media” speech. It’s 2019 and I trust you get it.

Here’s what you need to know to market to millennials:

Brands need to entertain millennials.

Millennials may be buying, but they’re not impulse buyers. Even if you sell physical products, it’s more important to sell an experience and to make that experience something they have to have right now. In our article about four psychological tricks to boost conversions, we discuss how brands can play up FOMO (fear of missing out).

In this Instagram post, Pura Vida shows photos of its gorgeous offices, appealing to potential employees in the comment. This immediately makes the grass look greener on their side of the fence…or beach.

Here’s another great example: I recently had lunch at a restaurant where reps from Don Julio were promoting their tequila. They offered me a refreshing, full-sized hibiscus margarita for free, no pressure to order another one after. I got a literal taste of what a balmy afternoon could be like at that restaurant, and I’ve already decided I’ll be going back specifically for that drink.

One of the most obvious examples of how much millennials love to explore even if it doesn’t lead to a purchase is Pinterest. Users add endless aspirational images and items to their virtual bucket lists, vision boards and wish lists. Your job is to figure out how to convert those customers so they go a step beyond collecting your Pins. We have a few articles about adding Pinterest to your marketing to millennials strategy:

All You Need to Know About Pinterest Buyable Pins

How To Drive Massive Referral Traffic From Pinterest

Growing Your Blog’s Reach with Pinterest Group Boards

You can also create polls for your website or social media to interact with your audience, like BuzzFeed News does with their fake news quiz on Instagram:

P.S. We have an article about how to create fun polls on WordPress.

Millennials want to be brand participants, not just spectators.

Sharing content from your audience shows your appreciation for them and support for how they use your products or services in their lives. It also provides brand content that you don’t have to spend time creating.

When I ran social media marketing for a boutique guitar company, I had to find a way to stretch their teeny budget. I noticed that a lot of people were posting photos and videos of themselves using the guitars, so I created a successful Instagram account entirely populated with UGC (user-generated content). People loved it, and the branded hashtags I created grew more popular each month.

You don’t have to go all-out like I did; UGC can be cleverly sprinkled into your marketing campaigns instead of overtaking them. Photography-focused Instagram accounts do this frequently by holding themed challenges.

You can also use crowdsourcing to come up with new product or marketing ideas. For example, LEGO lets you submit a product idea through their website, and you can also vote on other submitted ideas. Some of the submissions are turned into actual toys.

Here’s the best part about getting your audience involved: you’ll know early on if there’s a market for the new product or service you plan on rolling out.

Brands have to create authentic, intriguing content.

Great content is a must-have for inbound marketing. Content creation is its own, huge topic that I encourage you to explore more, but here are four tips that’ll get you started:

One word: help. Help your customers use your product, help your subscribers get more out of your newsletter content, etc. Help them. Beauty brands excel at this:

Source: YouTube

Don’t create an SEO-rich article for SEO purposes alone. Your SEO should align with your authority and experience. It has to be valuable along with being optimized. Finding expert-level content is the next best thing to getting a personal recommendation; think of yourself as a mentor to your customers.

Your CTAs should reflect where the customer is in the journey. For example, don’t put “Buy Now” on an article that’s targeted to potential subscribers – “Learn More” is less intimidating.

“Write how you speak” isn’t the best advice. This is business, not a lax conversation. Think of how you’d explain something to a pal (hint: jargon-free), but then polish it up.

We’ve written more about this topic in the past – check out our article about defining quality content and delivering it to your audience, or this one about refreshing your WordPress content.

Millennials want to use, not own.

Millennials may prefer to access something (borrow, lease, rent) rather than own it. This is why subscription services like Spotify are so popular. This is an interesting trend, because millennials earn less and save more than generations before them – and subscription services can cost more over time, which makes them an odd choice for financially-careful millennials.

For example, if you listen to the same 50 songs on Spotify, it would cost less to purchase each song from iTunes than to pay $9.99 each month for a Spotify subscription. However, the value is in not having to own the music, store it or decide what to do with it when you’re sick of those songs.

Millennials strongly grasp the concept of declining value (and foresee trends shifting in the near future), which is why paying now even if you won’t own later is attractive. Case in point: I spent far too many months researching which fitness watch to buy. I ultimately went with a FitBit Charge 2, but if I’d had the option to rent it or if I knew I could trade it in when they came out with a new model, I would’ve moved forward with the purchase much sooner.

Here’s what you can do, whether your brand lends itself to renting or you only offer the option to buy: incorporate financial guidance into your marketing. Furthermore, frame that guidance to promote financial security, self-reliance and long-lasting value. Rent the Runway nailed it with this pop-up, but you can create long-form content, too.

Millennials feel a responsibility to provide feedback.

I’m going to focus on positive feedback and how you can harness it to build social proof, but since negative feedback is a given, this article talks about how to handle customer complaints.

Positive feedback is free publicity for your brand, especially if it’s recent – new reviews from the past 1-3 months are better than older reviews. There are a number of ways to use social proof to increase conversions. Here are four of them:

1. Show real-time stats of how many people are viewing a page, making purchases or subscribe to a newsletter. On our website, we have the number of our users at the top of the homepage.

2. Leverage social proof – referrals are much more credible than ads. Put together a case study of an actual client and use real numbers. Take positive reviews that customers leave on Facebook, Google, TripAdvisor, Yelp, etc., then display them on your product or service pages. Slack has an entire page dedicated to testimonials, including successful user stories and quotes from customers.

Bonus Tip: This landing page from Grammarly also displays the logos of the media outlets that have given the company love.

3. Mark items as best sellers or list additional products as, “Other customers bought…” At first, this looks like a basic cross-sell tactic. What it’s actually doing, though, is proving to your audience that other people have already moved forward with their purchase.

4. Create an affiliate marketing or brand advocate program. You can turn your biggest fans and loyal customers into a dispersed sales team.

Brands have to stand for something.

Millennials are tuned in to societal issues, with eco-friendliness and health as two of their top priorities. Moreover, millennials are happy to spend more money if it means supporting a brand that supports a cause. The bottom line is that you have to stand for something.

Here’s where it gets tricky: the cause(s) you choose have to stay true to your brand while also appealing to your audience. Don’t pick just any charity to support; put some thought into it.

My favorite example of this is BoxLunch and their Get Some Give Back initiative, which provides a meal to someone in need for every $10 spent. BoxLunch sells unique pop culture clothing and gifts, with bright colors and cartoon characters kids would love. You only have to spend $10 to have that meal donated, and being surrounded by so much fun makes me think of all the families that don’t even have that much to spare. Without fail, I make a purchase every time.

Wrapping Up

Defining your audience as “millennials” isn’t enough – millennials are a huge group! By starting with strategies that are specifically targeted to millennials, though, you can try different ones until you land on the ones that work. Many of these techniques have crossover appeal, too. For example, you can entertain audiences as you get them involved in the product-choosing process. Further defining your audience to discover their specific characteristics and values will guide your custom “marketing to millennials” process.

In the spirit of finding your own marketing to millennials path, check out this article about embracing the motto “you do you” to grow your business.

The post Marketing to Millennials: What You Need to Know to Close the Sale appeared first on Elegant Themes Blog.

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cameronwjones · 5 years

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35 Bold Examples of Guerilla Marketing

See how leading brands are using guerilla marketing campaigns to make a big splash without busting their wallet. Featuring examples from Samsung, Spotify, Tesla and other leading brands.

Guerilla marketing campaigns are one of the more unique event types. They’re basically a cost-effective strategy solution that, when executed correctly, ensures that buzz is generated while your team remains profitable. By capturing the public's attention at little to no cost, your company can create the word of mouth marketing and user-generated content it needs to succeed.

Often budget-friendly, countless guerilla marketing examples from a variety of sectors show us that any business can be creative and effective while often not breaking the bank. Some of the latest event marketing stats show that 75% of content marketers believe live events are the most effective part of any marketing strategy. These examples of effective live guerilla marketing events will inspire some of your own.

A little warning: guerilla marketing looks easy. However, it takes creativity and skill to be effective.

As some of the guerilla marketing examples below reveal, a plan can go awry if not fully considered before implementing. Which is why having an event marketing plan in place ahead of time will pay off in the long run. Before we dive into the examples, here are some reasons why you might want to include guerilla marketing into your next big campaign.

Why You Should Invest in Guerilla Marketing

Investing in guerilla marketing says that your business is ready to capture the public’s attention in creative ways. With their attention, your brand becomes the distinct entity you want to be in the marketplace. Your company is more recognizable and becomes that much more likely to be the first choice that comes into a consumer’s mind.

Plus, you can easily use these guerilla marketing do’s and don’ts to inform your b2b event marketing ideas.

Check out this list of 35 guerilla marketing ideas to get a better sense of effective, and not so effective, ways your company could do the same.

35 Bold Examples of Guerilla Marketing

1. Spotify’s Cosmic Playlists

Source: Spotify

In January 2019, the company offered its latest guerilla content: playlists based on horoscopes. Spotify teamed up with astrologer Chani Nicholas to create the Cosmic Playlists for U.S. listeners. The playlists are determined by Nicholas' astrological readings to represent each sign's theme at that moment.

Like most of the streaming services efforts, the playlists were picked up extensively by the media. This kind of digital event marketing might even spark some viral campaigns of your own.

Main Takeaway: The strategy doesn't have to be innovative every time. Feel free to use and modify your past success for a similar effect this time around.

2. Domino’s Paving for Pizza

Source: Domino’s

Instead, the pizza brand placed the blame on America's infrastructure and its copious amounts of potholes in the street. And thus, the Paving for Pizza campaign began.

Main Takeaway: Nothing earns the public’s admiration like fixing an everyday problem.

3. CalTex Becomes CahillTex

Source: Caltex Australia

The 2018 World Cup provided numerous brands with opportunities to flex its guerilla marketing muscles. This happened at many sites around the host country, Russia, but extended across the globe as well.

Main Takeaway: Re-brands can be fun but they run the risk of public blowback for even the slightest miscalculations. Proceed with caution.

4. Carlsberg's Beer Caviar

Source: Carlsberg

Another bit of genius World Cup marketing came from Danish beer brand Carlsberg. As a sponsor of the Danish national team, the brewer wanted to give its fans a taste of Russia with a special twist.

Main Takeaway: Find ways to align what your brand can create with major events. Bring them together in ways that help boost your event ROI.

5. IHOP Becomes IHOb

Source: LA Times

To promote its burgers, pancake restaurant IHOP teased and briefly became the International House of Burgers, or IHOb. The move certainly gained heaps of attention for the restaurant.

Main Takeaway: Changing your name can get the public’s attention. Be sure it is for the right reasons.

6. Hereditary's Creepy Dolls

Source: Xpress Magazine

Horror movie marketing has always been crucial to getting films seen beyond the typical horror movie goer. One of, if not the largest, horror movie in recent years was Hereditary.

Online buzz was generated for the film thanks to a clever and creepy stunt pulled on attendees of one midnight screening. The day after seeing the film, fans found creepy dolls outside their hotel doors. Between the film and this clever bit of guerilla marketing, the film earned $13 million at the box office its first weekend.

Main Takeaway: Don’t be afraid to be scary. Sometimes, it’s the most on-brand your tactics can be.

7. GoldToe Dresses New York City in Undershirts and Underwear

Source: ALT TERRAIN

To celebrate the launch of its newest shirts and underwear in 2010, the GoldToe decked out famous New York City statues in t-shirts and underwear. The event took place during New York Fashion Week, but that did not relegate the bit of guerilla marketing to the Fashion District. Instead, the most eye catching of examples came when the famous Wall Street Bull was wrapped in a hilariously oversized pair of tighty whities.

Main Takeaway: Don’t be afraid to be funny - especially when it playfully changes the perception of relatable icons and images.

8. Chipotle's Burrito Baby Shower

Source: Fox 40

Main Takeaway: When a gift opportunity arises, capitalize on it by adding your own bit of good news to the occasion.

9. Fiji Water’s Fiji Girl at the Oscars

Source: Jen Yamato / Los Angeles Times

One of the most iconic bits of guerilla marketing in recent history occurred at the Golden Globes awards. While the red carpet is usually all about Hollywood's who's who, the talk of this year’s event was model Kelleth Cuthbert aka #FijiGirl. By standing in the background with a blue dress and tray of Fiji Water, the brand and the model stole the evening. Cuthbert's photobombing skills led to countless memes and free publicity for the water company.

Main Takeaway: It all boils down to creative positioning. Whether a person or an initiative, the placement of the event is crucial.

10. Floating Barge Billboards in New York

Source: Ballyhoo Media

Main Takeaway: Sometimes what works in one market won’t work in another. Analyze the laws and public sentiment before launching any plans.

11. AMD Cuts Into Intel’s 40th Anniversary

Source: Weborus

Main Takeaway: Don’t be afraid to take away another brand’s thunder. Leveraging occasions for your success is key in garnering attention.

12. Payless Goes High End as Palessi

Source: Payless Shoes

The stunt garnered the brand heaps of attention in the press. However, it did not save the business - Payless recently announced that it will be shutting down all its locations.

Main Takeaway: Asking people to change their perception can be fun. But it may not actually lead to increased sales.

13. Tesla's “$0 Budget”

Source: SpaceX

While many find Tesla founder Elon Musk’s antics frustrating, plenty of them have resulted in heaps of press for little to no money.

The Tesla marketing above cost quite a bit of money. However, guerilla marketing is commonly used by the brand. This includes when Tesla gave its patents away for free. Additionally, the brand is known for going viral thanks to humorous videos of its new technology, like when Tesla fans made videos of themselves using the car's autopilot function. In all, the brand knows how to get attention.

Main Takeaway: Guerilla marketing doesn’t have to be a solo event. It can be a series of acts that establish the brand as a consistent guerilla marketer.

14. The Nun's YouTube Controversy

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

Hereditary was not the only horror film to cash in with a bit of help from guerilla marketing. The Nun was aided by YouTube in 2018, causing the film earn over $380 million in U.S. box office revenue. The original plan was for the film to air an unskippable ad on numerous YouTube videos. After playing for some time, the public began discussing how frightening the spot was.

In turn, YouTube banned the ad for violating policies concerning what it deems violent and shocking content - and the buzz was created.

Main Takeaway: Sometimes getting banned is the best publicity possible.

15. Homie Real Estate's Electoral Bid

Source: Homie for Senate

Main Takeaway: Venturing into politics can be risky, but it can pay off. Scrutinize your plan thoroughly before executing.

16. Author's Surprise Window Ads

— Richard Branson (@richardbranson) May 3, 2018

Source: Twitter

Main Takeaway: Live up to your brand. Authenticity is one of the most valued assets you can have.

17. Samsung's Appel Giveaway

Source: Samsung

Main Takeaway: Find clever ways to leverage your competition to your advantage. You could win over a few hundred customers in a small Dutch village!

18. Sixt's Sixth Ave Takeover

Source: YouTube/Sixt

Main Takeaway: Cheeky branding can work. Mix it with sleek footage and you will have a good bit of marketing on your hands.

19. Burger King's Influencer Stunt

some things from 2010 are worth revisiting—like your old tweets. and funnel cake fries. get them now for a limited time.

— Burger King (@BurgerKing) January 24, 2019

Source: Twitter/Burger King

Main Takeaway: Consider your participants when guerilla marketing. A negative reaction will sour all your other hard work.

20. Twentieth Century Fox's Mystery Spies

Source: Media in Canada

Main Takeaway: Be bold and recognizable when seeking attention. Adding intrigue doesn’t hurt either.

21. Aphex Twin's Unexpected Logos

View this post on Instagram

When did these Aphex Twin 3D graphics appear on the wall at Elephant and Castle tube? Not noticed them before. Something new coming from him?

A post shared by Nico De Ceglia (@nicodeceglia) on Jul 28, 2018 at 4:28pm PDT

Source: Instagram

Main Takeaway: Use your iconic logo when you can. It could become a tradition in your marketing that fans expect.

22. Mous' Viral Video

Source: YouTube/Mous

Main Takeaway: Turn a consumer’s worst nightmare into a fun experiential marketing campaign. Prove your product is the protector of their worst case scenarios.

23. Lidl's Billboard Sabotage

Source: The Drum

Main Takeaway: Leveraging branding from your rivals can generate attention for your company. Strategic placement will drum up much more conversation.

24. Circles.Life's Get Rich Quick Scheme

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Hafiz Aziz (@hafizazizzz) on Feb 27, 2018 at 2:47am PST

Source: Instagram

Main Takeaway: Money always gets people’s attention. Just be sure to avoid a major commotion.

25. Wendy’s Twitter Rap Battle with Wing Stop

Be there. Done that. Bring something fresh... not frozen. 😉 https://t.co/xi81olVFgP

— Wingstop 🍗 (@wingstop) October 2, 2017

Source: Twitter/Wingstop

Main Takeaway: Have a capable social media manager on your team. Their ability to connect with younger audiences is invaluable.

26. Childish Gambino's “Feels Like Summer” Ice Cream Pop Up

View this post on Instagram

can’t be unlucky when you’ve got a free chocolate ice cream cone in hand! thanks, @childishgambino. 😘🍦🍫 #fridaythe13th #unionsquarenyc #summertimemagic #gambinogirlforever #swipeleft

A post shared by BMSR (@skepticalface) on Jul 13, 2018 at 9:55am PDT

Source: Instagram

Main Takeaway: Strategically align your efforts. Make your seasonal offering help those looking for relief from the elements.

27. Vitamin Water's Bogus Movies

Source: YouTube/Vitamin Water

Main Takeaway: Sometimes going off brand is best for business. Just be sure to loop back to your actual company at some point.

28. Bird's Guerilla Business Practices

Source: KMIZ/Fox 22

Main Takeaway: Flirting with breaking the law can be a dangerous play. Executed correctly and it can be a hit. On the other hand, it could severely damage your brand.

29. Deadpool's Tinder Account

Source: Imgur

Both Deadpool movies have relied on a series of hilarious guerilla marketing stunts. They include turning bars into the anti-hero's favorite bars from the films as well as popping up in covers of other films. But the most iconic one may be the Tinder profile setup for the crime fighter. All the efforts have helped push the film to become one of the most successful hero franchises in recent years.

Main Takeaway: Be funny, be bold and don’t be afraid to lean into your humor.

30. PETA's Shocking Posters

Source: Julius Sandor

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has often used guerilla marketing tactics to get its message out. Its campaigns for ethical animal treatment focused on the brand Canada Goose in the winter of 2018. The group launched an "anti-marketing" campaign in Downtown Toronto to dissuade people for the brand due to its treatment of coyotes and geese. The campaign continues with other groups involved as well.

Main Takeaway: Foul language and harsh imagery can jar audiences which is what some campaigns need to be noticed.

31. Anytime Fitness's Purple Bikes

Source: Jonathan Carroll

Main Takeaway: A friendly reminder to keep healthy may resonate more with a quirky twist to the message.

32. Subway's Subliminal Sandwiches

Source: Subway

Subway sandwiches used guerilla and subconscious marketing to suggest its food to passersby in the summer of 2018. The chain's "SUBliminal messaging" launched a three-day campaign in Chicago where images of footlong subs were projected onto buildings and on streets with chalk art. The brand has used similar tactics like these in years to generate buzz after its brand began declining a few years back.

Main Takeaway: Sometimes making your audience pause to wonder what they saw is the name of the game.

33. Solange's BlackPlanet Revival

Source: BlackPlanet

Main Takeaway: Be unconventional. Sometimes going back to popular methods can generate buzz a current popular outlet couldn’t offer.

34. A&E Supply Co.'s Logo Graffiti

Source: Yelp

Brooklyn restaurant A&E Supply Co. caused a stir in winter 2017 with its local marketing. After a series of financial setbacks, guerilla marketing was all it had left. So they began tagging Park Slope and Gowanus neighborhood sidewalks with temporary chalk logos. Some in the neighborhoods weren't thrilled and consider the acts vandalism. The location was rebranded later that year.

Main Takeaway: Changing your name might actually help your business. But no matter what you do, remember to gauge public opinion ahead of time.

35. Bud Light UK's Free Beer Handout

Source: Wiki Commons

Main Takeaway: Consider your demographic before going through with any campaign. A friendly gesture can go awry thanks to a bad image.

Wrapping Up: Gearing Up For Guerilla Marketing

from Cameron Jones Updates https://blog.bizzabo.com/guerilla-marketing-examples

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