Stop Advertising, Start Building.
This is the talk I gave at the recent PSFK CXi Conference in New York. It’s about how brands need to become builders.
When I was a kid all I wanted to do was make films, music or DJ. It was 1990, it was as Bobby Gillespie from Primal Scream says, ‘ Sexy, Druggy and Underground’.
Now kids want to build tech. They would rather be on the front cover of Fast Co for building a company than being in a band. Building a company like GIPHY (a company built at betaworks) is about the coolest thing you can do.
Brands know this. But they don’t do anything about it. At least nothing beyond cursory innovation sessions. ‘Thursdays from 2–4 is ‘Innovation Time!’
If brands were smart they would know that becoming builders is the best way to market themselves. I’ll show you a few examples and explain why.
The poster child for this movement is, no surprises, Elon Musk. He went from being an undateable PayPal nerd to going to the Met Gala with Grimes. He doesn’t just build stuff. He builds big stuff. It’s very public. He builds machines that dig big holes. His solar factory is not just a factory it’s a GIGA Factory. He builds fucking space ships. But the key is he builds in the open.
The meatpacking Tesla showroom opened on the corner by betaworks Studios. At the same time the new Apple store opened on the corner from my house in Brooklyn. From day one the Tesla sign was up there, you could see everything. There is intent. It says, ‘We are building, watch us. Come with us’. Apple had been building the Flatbush store for two years. Only on the day it was opened did they unveil the sign. That is what author Henry Timms would say is Old Power thinking Versus New Power thinking.
The kids can small a fake builder a mile off.
Being open and authentic is everything. Trust is at an all time low. The kids can small a fake builder a mile off. You can’t just flip the switch and say, ‘We’re a builder brand’. You have to be in it for the long term. And it has to be real.
Patagonia has from day one been a builder brand. They build community but they are also incredibly open about the way they manufacture their products. They will repair any Patagonia product, however destroyed it is, for free, no questions asked. It’s that old adage about principles not being principles until they cost you money. Are you still a builder even when it costs you money?
But here’s the magic. If you are a genuine builder it allows you to do other stuff that will make you money. If you have what I call builder bucks in the bank, then you have the respect of this new audience. Allowing you to do more pushy things.
So, when Tesla put a car in space, they pull off an amazing advertising stunt — but most people say, fair enough, they built the rocket that put it up there. Ford could have paid Space X to put a car in the same rocket but it wouldn’t have worked cos they don’t have any builder bucks in the bank.
And if you have spent your entire life building clothes for the outdoors and a community that protects the outdoors you can replace your homepage with an advertising stunt about Donald Trump. Noah, the super cool brand from ex Supreme Creative Director, replaced their homepage with a similar graphic saying ‘Patagonia is suing the President’. So another clothing brand is advertising your clothing brand. Sure, other outdoor companies could have done this — but people would have seen through it.
So builder bucks allow you to do marketing. But even the building itself is often better than any advertising campaign.
Does anyone know what AFOL means? If you do, congrats you are a massive nerd. (One person in the audience put their hand up). AFOLs are Adult Fans of Lego. In 2003 Lego posted it’s biggest loss ever. Theme parks and watches were not working. There had always been AFOLs but the company ignored these builders. The new CEO embraced this community — they were the brands’ super-participants. Kids are the regular participants and outnumber AFOLs vastly but they are not as passionate. LEGO built structures and new products like the Architecture range — (org structures and actual structures!) to harness the AFOL community’s ideas.
This community ended up both developing and promoting the most successful piece of marketing LEGO have ever done. Content and ideas they had built, made it into the movie. The LEGO movie made $500m. Pause. The marketing for LEGO made $500m.
On a smaller scale. The only thing I know about Harry’s Razors is that they bought their own building to build their own blades. This deal got a ton of PR and has helped people think that Harry’s blades are top quality. Apparently Gillette blades are still the highest quality, actually followed by Dollar Shave Club and then Harry’s. But Harry’s buying a building in Germany leapfrogs them in new consumers minds. It just seems better than a big corp brand like Gillette who have never built anything. Of course, Gillette has built a ton of stuff — it’s just that no one knows about it. They are still talking about Roger Federer.
And lastly, Dominos. Here is some stuff they have built. A Robot delivery van, a ‘domicopter’ drone — back in 2013. Pretty early and certainly laughed at back then but now, sure. Lots of tech, all the different ways you can order through stuff they have built. Voice, Chat Bot, Slack, App etc. Is every single thing best in class? no — not even close — but the point is they are out there building and who knows what will catch on? Their customers love them for doing it.
Forget about Cannes Lions, you need a chart that goes up and to the right.
And to prove that. Below is a Domino’s chart that goes up and to the right. A lot of people ask me about moving from advertising to the start up world. The big difference is you need a chart like this. Forget about Cannes Lions, you need a chart that goes up and to the right. Since dominos started being a builder their stock has beaten Amazon, Google, Apple and Facebook — with only Netflix beating them. Great article on Product Habit’s about this here.
But it’s not easy to become an authentic builder. It’s messy and unpredictable.
Which is why we have built betaworks Studios — a club for builders. Betaworks has built companies like GIPHY, TweetDeck, Bitly, Dots, Digg and more. We were the first investors in Tumblr and other classic builder companies like Kickstarter. We have acted unofficially as a meeting space for builders. But now we are making it official. In the press we get called ‘The Soho House for Nerds ‘— which I’m ok with, because I came up with that line.
Our thesis is that if you want to understand technology the best way is to build. If you want to figure out Voice, build an Alexa skill. If you want to figure out podcasting, make a podcast. You get the idea. We have only been open 10 days but so far the response has been great. We have held wonderful sessions on Regulating Facebook, Building Experiences in the Age of Instagram and Designing for Blockchain.
If you’d like to see the space for yourself, drop me a line, james@betaworks.com. I’ll show you how this new space can turn you, or your brand, into a builder.
Thanks to Piers and the whole PSFK team for putting on such a great event.
