Oren here! Heading into the holiday’s we’re staying busy, I’ve been discussing next year’s activewear trends, and Clayton has been pursuing excellent knits in Antwerp.

In this HYPER, I’m going to go behind the scenes on a photo shoot and campaign rollout I did last week with Garrett King and go from concepts to shots to design/application to show a big of the process.

Then we’ll talk about event marketing, and go into one of the most interesting content rollouts we’ve seen to end the year.

As always, thanks for reading.

Inside the Campaign

I thought it would be interesting to share a bit of the concepts and execution behind my latest brand shoot done with my friend Garrett King for Valuable Studios so you can see how we think and approach it from a creative and content perspective.

This is the process I typically go through on a shoot, whether for me or for another brand

Concept - What is the anchor idea behind the shoot? For this one, we we’re recreating heist film scenes, over-stylized/exaggerated to feel more like a game or fiction. We had 3 core ideas to drive the content to test (movie scenes, video game scenes, capturing on film)

Location - Where can we shoot? We capture preemptive photos and location info, light at the timing we’ll be at the location, for proper planning.

Accessories- What can we add to the shoot to make it stand out from a props perspective? In this case it was two vehicles, a Ferrari 355 Berlinetta and a G-Wagon.

Product plan - What products are we capturing and in what combination, what needs to get filled in? Then we assign the various looks for products we want to capture and break down by location and concept.

Applications - What design or post-processing are we applying? For this, we had a cinematic carousel style, and a game UI overlay we break down below.

Shotlist - What are all the angles, poses and ideas we want to make sure we capture? Put into a reference doc to checkoff and assigned to locations.

Tests - What are we going to do online? What is going into ads, what is organic, in what formats and sizes, and what are the results we want to evaluate?

Exercise - if you’re inclined, and have any shoots going on early next year for your brand, use the format above to review what you’re planning!

Inside the Application:

Beyond just having a concept for the shoot, we want concepts for our creative, to see what resonates on organic or what might increase interest in ads. In addition, give us some styles for worlds we might build out in the future in different angles and ways.

The first was to make storytelling film look, carousels and video, inspired in different ways by Cinema Monamour, Sarah Bah Bah and BK Coffee Shop - a combination of narrative, over the top presentation, and film caption look, but in 4:5 and with our unique narrative Cormac McCarthy-esque brand voice.

Link (with credits for all the people involved).

The second was to bring the content into a gaming world, playing into it’s over the top nature. The design team I work with at Darkroom put together design structure for game covers and in-game user interface that will go into carousels (and get overlayed for video eventually as well. This rollout happens next week.

Then as a community-building piece, we plan to release the user interface we finalize that people can use for their own overlays, to see if community content participation has any interest.

Garrett also captured film on his Contax, which we’ll test both versus digital images in carousels and in ads, and we’ve used to create some short form content like the below.

If you want to go in a bit deeper, we sat down with Garrett and went behind the scenes on shots he captured at the shoot and the lighting/techniques he used. Check it out below!

Then the actual product release is here.

Event Marketing

At the top of the brand conversation currently is what is real life events and community building looks like, as brands look to top markets and irl connection to step above the fray of constant online competition.

In this video I go through some of my favorite (and least favorite) brands events of the year, with some pro-tips on what to consider when your planning yours for the new year (and ideas on what events brands can try at various budget levels).

Podcast Rollout Strategy

The Technology Brothers (not to be confused with the prior quadre of Ashwinn, Jordan, Bimma and I formally known as the Brand Brothers) is one of (if not the) best podcast expansion and rollouts of recent memory. I am heavily inspired by what the Technology Brothers have done the last few months as we think about the opportunities of launching new content. Media should be fun, exciting, have an ecosystem of engagement beyond its core medium, feel like a TV rollout. This team has nailed it, and created a conversation around their podcast

Trailer launch (succession style)

“Response”clips that bring their podcast into a modern form of engagement on X

News ticker and design format

And their overall presentation and staging having a level of actual direction, from the clothes to the set, that immediately makes you feel like you’re watching something different.

The days of good short form clips (which mostly aren’t actually good) being how to promote a longer form podcast are dwindling. Thinking like this is standout.

Key questions for anyone rolling out longer form in the new year

• What is the actual rollout strategy

• What segments make this show shareable

• What is a unique strategy for promoting subsections on other social networks

• What is the creative direction, look and feel of the content that is unique

That’s all for this week, appreciate you reading.

Hyper Reports

Check out our market reports. We spend many hours researching markets, categories, and brands & products within the consumer space so you don’t have to.

• The guide to making great Merchandise — HERE — a guide to finding and producing your own merch

• Reports on Running, Golf, and Tennis — HERE — a guide to each sport, the market opportunities, and how to launch your own brand

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Oren & Clayton ❤️ you