Partnering with brand is a necessity in today’s landscape of media and entertainment. When used correctly, the right brand can be an amazing vehicle to elevate your career to new levels, as countless artists have proven. Just like an investment portfolio, a successful brand partnership is diverse but sticks to what is natural and authentic to the person. As the manager and brand curator of entertainment icon Snoop Dogg, I’ve had a first hand look at the most effective brand building strategies for high profile talent. Over the years, I have had numerous people ask me how I do it, or what’s the secret sauce. There are a few ingredients, but there really is no secret.

Keep it real.

From the start, Snoop has been able to stand out and utilize his brand well because he is real and true to who he is. Being inauthentic to yourself is an easy way to destroy a brand quickly.

We have collaborated with countless brands, such as Beyond Meat, Dunkin’, Tostitos, Adidas, Klarna, and many more. But the idea behind it all is that Snoop will never change who he is. If you are a brand looking to hire him, you must know what type of person you are getting in advance, and cannot expect to change him.

Snoop is someone who partners with brands that he actually believes in, and understands the message behind the company. This is part of the reason why we decided to collaborate with plant-based meat company, Beyond Meat. Snoop has an excellent grasp on the health and environmental benefits that Beyond brings to the world. As Beyond has partnered with him, we have not only seen his personal brand prosper, but their entire business rapidly grow as well. He became an investor and active ambassador in the company, and appeared in a major campaign for the promotion of his new Beyond Meat sausage sandwich in collaboration with Dunkin’ Donuts. In January, the announcement of Snoop’s D-O Double G sandwich at Dunkin’ attributed to the major rise of Beyond (BYND) and Dunkin’s (DNKN) stock, with Beyond jumping as high as 18% the day after the launch. On February 5th, Dunkin’ released a clothing line in collaboration with Snoop and Beyond, selling shirts, bomber jackets, pants all based around the campaign’s color scheme and overall D-O Double G theme. The brand of Snoop Dogg truly has immense power and influence on so many people in the world in all types of industries.

Teamwork makes the dream work.

In order to let a brand flourish, you need a strategy and plan of attack but it’s also about letting Snoop be Snoop at all times. People want to see him be himself without any extra gimmicks or charades because that is when he is at his best. His longtime friendship with Martha Stewart has been a smashing hit because neither of them attempt to be something they are not. Tostitos recently launched their extremely successful “Good apart, Better Together” Super Bowl campaign, promoting their Tostitos strips and Creamy Avocado salsa products. The commercial showed how incredible Martha and Snoop’s brands are together, rather than apart. They both know their strengths and compliment each other so well without even having to try. Collaborating with other talent can sometimes bring so much more to the table. Nonetheless, Snoop has such an excellent and engaging personality on his own, which benefits him in all facets of life, in both personal and business.

Remember your roots.

No matter who you are, it is important to never forget where you came from and to give back to your community in any capacity you can. In 2005, Snoop founded The Snoop Youth Football League, a youth football league for inner-city children in California to have the opportunity to participate in football and cheer. Every year, children in the SYFL learn incredible family values and travel to new communities they might not have ever seen, all through the incredible sport of football. Using your platform to create change in communities is an outstanding way to grow a brand, but more importantly to leave a lasting impression on the world. Through the SYFL, the hit Netflix show, “Coach Snoop”, was created, showing even more of the world the kind of change and good a person with a platform like his can bring. He has also been able to become a major partner with EA Sports Madden NFL, and even appeared as a playable character in the latest version of the video game.

Although Snoop has already done so much in his career, there is always much more to come. Relationships are key in this business, as many familiar faces become your colleagues or partners down the line. Keeping these connections and providing them value as well is always vital to one’s brand. A successful brand is always possible no matter what, as long as it is real and comes from the heart.

Have a question? Please contact me at nick@cashmereagency.com.

Follow me on Twitter and Instagram @nickyads.

Facebook plans to steal your face.

Let’s suspend disbelief for just a moment. Imagine that I were to walk into a business meeting with an incredible mask on, dressed as someone else. The company I am meeting with then does business with me, based on the assumption that the character, whose likeness I have taken on, is in support of this business deal. Wouldn’t this transaction be considered fraud?

Now lets expand on this concept. Imagine if a mobile application were to launch that allowed users to superimpose, or layer images of other people’s faces onto their own. The application would enable users to portray the likeness of celebrities in videos that could then be uploaded to social media and have the potential to go viral. If a company like this were to exist and was bought by one of the biggest media corporations on the planet, wouldn’t that be considered fraudulent to some degree as well?

MSQRD is a mobile application available on iPhone and Android that allows users to do just that, and they were recently acquired by Facebook for a favorable sum of money. Within the library of MSQRD talent, a user will find the likeness of President Barack Obama, Leonardo DiCarprio, Robert Downey Jr. and Snoop Dogg to name a few.

Now I cannot speak on behalf of Barack, Leo or Robert, but I can on behalf of Snoop. I have worked with Snoop for nearly a decade at Stampede Management and the Cashmere Agency, helping to oversee Snoop’s branding and endorsement deals, social media endeavors and even his recent technology investments. I would be the first person that would be involved in a deal of this nature with an application that is interested in licensing his likeness. This never happened.

I will admit that nowhere in the application does MSQRD name the talent that they have appropriated and they have made some minor tweaks to their likeness. However, they have included signature traits and characteristics that have made it easy enough for consumers to connect the dots. For example, in the case of the Leo image they use an Oscar award to accentuate the story; with Snoop they use a hat and glasses that he is often spotted in, and Obama is just a blatant rip off.

If any consumer were to run a quick hashtag search of #SNOOP on Instagram they would immediately notice several dozen of these MSQRD generated video images of Snoop layered over multiple Instagram accounts.

Facebook is an incredible company, and my team has been fortunate enough to collaborate with them many times over the years. There are several people in our office focused on maintaining Snoop and other artists’ presence on the platform. However this recent acquisition is really troubling to me. Did they not do any due diligence in to the actual rights involved in this acquisition? Did they even inquire as to whether or not MSQRD had any rights to the likeness of the celebrities, or IP included in the application? Did they not think that artists, or their management, would take issue with this? Or did they just not care? Perhaps they deem themselves so powerful that they can assume that at the end of the day, they will be able to control the outcome of any issue that stands in their way.

The reason that I really find this troubling is that part of Facebook’s early rise was based on high profile celebrities embracing and supporting their technology. Celebrities helped build this traffic by driving their audience to engage with them on this platform. Rather than minimizing these people’s impact on their audience they should reward them. They are built on the shoulders of many giants.

However, it seems this practice has become commonplace in this day in age, where a key group of influential individuals help to build a platform, only to be shut out from being rewarded once the platform reaches critical mass.

It appears that in today’s viral economy a product’s popularity is now much more important than its integrity. In the high speed race to acquisition all rules are now out the window — if one can achieve critical mass, gaining an audience by seemingly any means, then regulations no longer apply. Unfortunately, I believe this sets a terrible precedent and allows a company like Facebook to set their own rules. Will this ultimately end with Facebook allowing anyone’s likeness to be usurped or will they put guidelines in place to protect their users? Only time will tell, but I do believe that as an industry leader Facebook has a responsibility to set higher standards when it comes to both protecting the rights of individuals (see: Zuckerberg’s endorsement of Tim Cook / Apple’s stance against the FBI) and policing IP (see: ongoing issues of Freebooting), whether you're a content creator or celebrity. Without this type of integrity, Facebook could be setting a dangerous precedent for the future of intellectual property.

See the video below for a little thank you from Mark Zuckerberg. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcEWJ3pFOuE

My father’s name was Cyrus Bialik Adler, better known as “Cy.” He was named after the Persian King, Cyrus the Great, who was revered for being good to the Jews. He passed away on October 21, 2015.

Cy was a 6-foot tall, 250-pound powerhouse. He resembled an aging Marlon Brando with a touch of Albert Einstein, and spoke in a low and chalky voice. He had a heavy Brooklyn accent reminiscent of a character from the 1970’s television series Barney Miller. He was well read and had a love for everything Shakespeare. He could find the perfect line from the poet’s cannon to express almost any situation. His favorite personal quote was “fuck you . . . and the two horses that you rode in on”. I think that he added the second horse for good measure. Ironically, I traced this quote back to a scene from Raging Bull.

Cy built a successful career as a New York City attorney. He was a litigator at his core and would never back down from a fight. He loved to yell and wave his hands, and a courthouse was the perfect platform for his legal performances. I saw him on several occasions with his forehead pressed up against his adversary. Win or lose, he always had a great story to tell.

He also represented some intense characters. My personal favorite was a group of Russians from Coney Island. These men could bring out the fear of god in some of the toughest rappers who I work with today. There was one charming Ukrainian in particular who threatened to throw me out of an 11th story window in Manhattan if I didn’t “get Cy on the phone”. I’ll save the details of that story for another chapter, but these are just a few of the many memorable clients who walked through my father’s door.

Cy was also an entrepreneur and had a great eye for real estate. He had business ventures that included pizza parlors, fine dining restaurants and movie theaters. He had businesses in states such as Maine and Florida but his principal focus was in Woodstock, NY. Woodstock was where he settled with his wife Nancy and they started their family. It is where my sister and I were raised and it is where he was the happiest. He bought several properties in the town and established a thriving business. The local theater, “The Tinker Street Cinema”, which he took over in the mid 1970’s was his pride and joy. As a huge film buff, the theater allowed him and my mother to curate cutting-edge independent films for the town. He referred to “Woody”, “Pedro”, “Spike” and “Quentin” as if they were his personal friends.

Cy adored Woodstock and made it his mission to help the town adapt to modern changes, and he had to fight many local boards to help usher in a new generation of younger entrepreneurs. He also established a local law office and helped many in the community deal with small and big issues. The long time residents all remember him, some fondly, some not, but I know that they all respected him.

Cy loved his family. He didn’t dote and wasn’t tender, he was a straight shooter and did not hold back if he didn’t approve of something. He was a protector and if someone or something threatened the family there would be hell to pay. As a child I feared him, but as I got older he eventually let his guard down and we were able to build a great relationship. He even became a bit more sentimental as he crossed into his latter years.

I am much different than my father; my edges are slightly softer but I still try and emulate him. I don’t have the same instinct to jump in a scuffle, but because of him I won’t run away either. He helped mold me into the man, father and professional I’ve become today. I loved him deeply and still aspire to impress him.

The most important lesson that his actions in life taught me was that no matter how hard it looks, no matter how many people stand in your way, no matter how rough the path ahead looks: stay the course. If you know in your heart that you are right and have the passion to succeed, then do it. If you need to tell someone “go fuck yourself”, then do it. You may hurt some feelings and break a few things along the way, but ultimately people will understand your mission and follow you in the end. This was how Cy lived everyday. He fought hard until the bitter end and I now understand him more clearly than ever before. I was lucky enough to be with him as he held on to his last breath, and even in that moment he wouldn’t give up the fight.

I guess sometimes its good to be that bull in a China Shop.

This week the top paid charts in the app store were dominated by applications that allow users to block ads. Most notably was Peace, which quickly removed itself from the Appstore citing post launch ethical issues. However the top two spots were quickly replaced with by Crystal and Purify Blocker.

These products install directly into Safari to block advertisements and user tracking, and they also claim to help reduce data consumption and improve battery life.

Applications such as these have created a growing buzz in the tech news this week, as many experts claimed that they could be the demise of mobile advertising and serve as a major set back for brands looking to capture the millennial consumer.

At the exact time these conversations were happening, a new event called The GE Appfronts was being held in New York City. While this event had no direct connection to the launch of the ad blocking applications, it was a clear response to what has inspired these products.

It’s no secret that mobile marketing up to this point has been the dregs of corporate advertising. Pop-ups and banner ads are the lowest level of creative adaption and have become a flat out nuisance. Mobile consumers have trained their eye to outright ignore them. As a result, ad blockers have become an obvious next step in the life cycle of mobile consumption.

Marketers and brands have long been looking at this phenomenon, looking to develop creative solutions that can enhance mobile applications as well as the consumer experience. The first annual Appfronts brought to life this kind of creative thinking. It was a project headlined by GE, and produced by The Cashmere Agency, a Los Angeles based creative agency.

The objective of The Appfronts was to take note from the Upfronts and Newfronts and create a new forum where the world biggest brands could experience in person new offerings from products that are engaging massive audiences through non-traditional media platforms. Although the primary focus was on mobile applications, there were also platforms built for drones, television and of course the web.

The event drew a crowd of both global and niche brands, including The Home Depot, Johnson & Johnson, L’Oreal and Pepsi Co., as well as industrial brands like CSX and The Gas Company. The line up of of presenting Apps was equally as impressive which included representatives from Slack, Robinhood, Medium, Giphy, Genius, Barkbox, Shots, Wattpad, Mic, Flirtey, Poncho and Timehop. Each of the presenters were given between 3 and 5 minutes to showcase their products to the audience, and highlight specific features that companies could evaluate to market towards their target consumer.

GE was the perfect brand to launch The Appfronts because of their targeted focus on innovation. They are a company with a global reach and partnerships with clients that are market leaders in nearly every industry.

The event fostered a new kind of dialogue and helped to facilitate a number of new deals that the industry will see roll out between the end of this year and late 2016. This was the room that brought in the next evolution of creative marketing that is changing the landscape for todays digital consumer.