Hey Serious stuff here!!!!



This is an excerpt from a column by a pinhead in Miami about the whole art & music culture that has developed around Scion. The whole article is long and not overly interesting but this part was pointed out to me on our Scion managers egroup and it really ____es me off.

The people behind the Scion project are well aware that there always will be products and consumers — and, of course, culture as well, which opens ample opportunities for marketers. Matt Heck, an art director at the West Wayne ad agency (which originally commissioned Neverstop for Scion), talks about the “personality” of the Scion brand and how “creativity and the arts are at its root.” But really, Scion is just a friggin’ automobile.

I have included this jerks email. I think we should deluge his mailbox defending the fact that Scion is more than a frigging car. I have also included my response to the post in my e group


Comments? E-mail omar@miamisunpost.com.

I guess I skimmed the article the other night looking for what
Kennedy said so I miss the statement about Scion being just a
frigging automobile. Now I am offended where does this pin head who
probably has never even ridden in a Scion(if he had he wouldn't have
made that statement) get off saying that? A guy with a brain the
size of a small cocoroach has the audacity to insult what has become
a big part of my work and my life. Scion is not a car it is a way
of life its a family that is always around its a idea that even in a
crowd I can stand out. Its the belief that what is seemingly a small
minorty wants and believes is important. Its proof that even a
small but vocal part of the culture can change how a international
corporation does business. And yes it is a line of cars but now that
I own and drive one I think I can honestly say my life is richer &
fuller having been introduced to Scion. Well I guess a loyal friend
is just some frigging person. The truth is that old Omar there is
just another FRIGGING HACK!! And thats my take on it

Your Thoughts

Scionturtle

 

It would be nice to see the whole article. I take it Mr. Omar wrote the article. Maybe he should attend a meet or two and see what the deal is..........

 

Your wish is my command

Video holographic images produced by Neverstop and Westway Advertising for Scion cars, displayed at Seven South Beach early Sunday morning. The images, projected onto an almost invisible screen as passersby peer through the window, are part of the automobile’s company’s “nontraditional” adverstising campaign. Photo by Mitchell Zachs/Magicalphotos.com

“We the people created the culture from the bottom up. [Now it’s] spoon-fed to us from the top down.” — Kalle Lasn, Adbusters

Branding? What branding? You won’t be hit over the head with marketing tools at a savvy Scion event. Photo by Tiffany Rainey



By Omar Sommereyns

Friday night, typical stuff: The Beach is bustling with the usual mix of gaudy machines glaringly moving along Washington Avenue, as the parade of strutting night-fiends marches on within the city’s neon glow. Sauced up, you stumble out of the Playwright Irish Pub and zigzag through the flashy crowd toward your car.

Usually, you’d hardly pay attention to all the window displays. You’ve gotta get home and you’ve seen it all before. But this time around, something grabs your attention. At 685 Washington, a surreal hologram projection shows lithe performances by various people “krumping” and “clowning” (an urban dance form that originated in South Central L.A. and was made popular by David LaChapelle’s documentary Rize). Inside the space, artwork saturates the walls and there’s a DJ booth. Another nightclub on the strip?

You look for some clues, more info on this alien venue. All you find on the windowpane is a minimal, pale frosting that reveals: “Sponsored by Scion.” You’ve seen them around, those odd boxcars, but hardly cared. Then, a bit of Google research the next day brings you to the www.whatmovesyoumiami.com Web site, which details a series of happenings through June 4 with visual art, film, music and DIY workshops, all appealing to a more sophisticated set of hip, culture-savvy youth.

All the events are free, and everything is financed by Scion, Toyota’s line of relatively affordable cars geared toward a younger, presumably more discriminating consumer. The company, which would not disclose to the SunPost how much it spent on the event, offers various customizing options to its buyer and has been broad-minded on marketing, hosting cultural events throughout the nation. Scion has meticulously created a brand that claims it supports youth culture. Locally, for instance, the company teamed up with the now-defunct Objex Artspace in Wynwood to showcase its artist-adorned car doors.

“Our customers are continually defining our brand,” says Michael Kennedy, Southeast Toyota Distributors manager for Scion operations. “Our street credibility is a combination of our products, our service and our events. We can never underestimate the intelligence of this emerging market. They can smell a fake from a mile away and they’re quick to tell the universe.

“The median age of the Scion driver is 30, the youngest of any car brand in the nation…We have learned that this audience is smart [and] has high expectations.”

Hence, for “What Moves You Miami” — taking place throughout the next two weekends — Scion has hired Neverstop, a “cutting-edge” boutique marketing agency based in Seattle, to create and produce just the right event for its target audience.

At last weekend’s opener, SunPost writers browsed the venue and schedule of events. Local and out-of-town hipsters, artists and curious passersby mingled and sipped free champagne, while listening to Juan Maclean on the decks. Artwork by Vulcan, Maya Hayuk, Inkheads, MOMO, Jamil GS, Pres Rodriquez and Vinnie Ray as well locals Carlos de Villasante and FriendsWithYou, adorn the walls. There are also a bunch of videos to see and several DJs and musicians have been booked to perform — from DJ Craze, Phoenecia, Otto Von Schirach and DJs Contra, Induce, Matt Cash and Manuvers to Kid Millionaire (aka Steve Aoki of indie label Dim Mak) and all-female rockers Pony Up.

At the same time, the event is presenting free cultural workshops spanning topics such as beat production, sticker- and stencil-making, sneaker customizing, video remixing, blogging and how to found your own record label.

The kicker here is that Neverstop call themselves “cultural engineers.” But what the hell is that? Are these people attempting to promote, sell or even define culture?

According to Nasir Rasheed, owner and creative director of Neverstop (whose diverse clients include Ikea, Nike and the CMJ Music Festival in New York), “What we try to create for our clients is a meaningful connection with their target demographic. We engineer strategies and programs that are culturally relevant and not so contrived.”

Adds Neverstop’s Greg Scott, “We’re a think tank. We’re basically hired to sit in a room and galvanize lifestyles.”

“What Moves You Miami” is spawned from a marketing technique called “temporary retail” — i.e., a pop-up store or venue (Neverstop previously built one in New York for Song airlines). Free art, music and culture workshops can’t really be a bad thing, but ultimately the paradox is that Scion, a major corporation, is a well-organized “merchant of cool,” so to speak, co-opting urban or youth culture (whatever you want to call it) to market its product.

One could question the authenticity of such events as cultural happenings. The Web site states, “This is about reaching your vision, challenging the norm, and supporting the notion of self-expression.” Yes, well, it’s also about marketing Scions. Some might call it cultural placement with guerrilla marketing since, as subtle as it may be, Scion’s goal is to make its target audience aware, if not intrigued, about its “cool” and “affordable” product. Note that, in the venue on Washington, there are hardly any logos or Scion brochures or freebies.

“Subtlety is the key here,” says Neverstop’s Rasheed. “We don’t want to bombard people with larger-than-life logos and messaging. Our target is a little savvier than the average person. We think it’s important to present branding in cool and interesting ways and not slap it on every piece of collateral we produce for a campaign or event. Branding is tastefully displayed on the windows, on the calendar of events and Web site. Our goal is to have the audience discover through the whole experience who is sponsoring the event and therefore create a positive brand association.”

In an age of information-overload, consumer culture has reached its apex. The international $500 billion advertising industry has become more and more adept at hiring young creatives willing to take the green, easy road instead of doggedly slaving away in less lucrative fields and there’s a “reality TV” show for every interest (even journalists!).

Kalle Lasn, a progressive visionary who founded the Vancouver-based, culture jamming movement and magazine AdBusters, warns that events and marketing ploys like Scion’s are part of a larger epidemic that has inevitably sprung from the ultra-chaotic muddle of messages that propagate throughout a consumer society.

“When we first started AdBusters, we were talking about how we the people created the culture from the bottom up — we created the cool,” he said, in a recent phone interview. “But, now a lot of it has become produced by ad agencies, corporations, TV stations, all spoon-fed to us from the top down…and often these occur with clandestine marketing events. I think everything goes down the drain from there, including the mental health of the people living within that culture.

“You really have to look at this as part of the whole picture — we are bombarded by thousands of marketing messages whether we like it or not, someone is always selling us something, there’s product placement in movies, even marketers going to pubs and posing as patrons to talk about a hot new product. With that Scion event – while of course there are some real cultural elements like the artwork — on the whole, the thing is bogus, simply a part of our inauthentic consumer culture. We really have to look at everything and at the extent to which we have allowed marketers and corporations to control our lives.”

“The artists involved in the event, however, aren’t too bothered by the fact that this is corporate-sponsored and even like taking advantage of the fact that these companies have money to dish out.

“The company is a company and art is art — they’re two different things,” points out Edec of Inkheads. “They’re just giving us help monetarily.”

Sam Borkson of FriendsWithYou says, “All major brands and high-tech corporations should do this. It’s one of the only ways for them to have a personable dialogue with [their] consumer. We've done some really amazing commissions for Volkswagen, Nike, MTV and many more. They pay us well, help us spread our message, and we help them look cute!”

Local artist Carlos de Villasante, who made face portraits on Scion car hoods for the show, says he’s happy that Scion did not interfere with the artwork or curation: “I was told to do whatever I wanted…Scion never tried to influence my imagery or put a logo on my work.”

The people behind the Scion project are well aware that there always will be products and consumers — and, of course, culture as well, which opens ample opportunities for marketers. Matt Heck, an art director at the West Wayne ad agency (which originally commissioned Neverstop for Scion), talks about the “personality” of the Scion brand and how “creativity and the arts are at its root.” But really, Scion is just a friggin’ automobile.

“We have been told that the car completely sells out anyway so even though the goal is to sell cars, it is done through positive brand association and not through 101 marketing,” assures Neverstop’s Rasheed. “Nobody is measuring the success of this project by how many cars are being sold. The goal is for our audience to walk away from the experience and say, ‘Wow, Scion sponsored this, how cool’ — bam, our job is done.”

Adbusters’ Lasn, on the other hand, urges consumers to become more lucid about what’s around them and encourages media activists to call bull____ and try to “reclaim their culture.” He emphasizes that there is a difference between culture being spread organically — by word of mouth, by those who create it — and being packaged by a corporation in order to attract a certain audience to its brand.

Yet, going back to the notion of authenticity, Scion’s Kennedy argues that, while there is sponsorship and an underlying goal to market the product, the viewer’s interaction with the art is still legitimate.

“To sustain our success we have to remain relevant,” he says. “Venues such as the Pop-Up Gallery in Miami are places where we learn how to better engage with owners and future customers. In the end, their connection to the brand is how we measure our success. And their passion [for the work in show] is a reflection of their authentic experience.”

 

It sounds like the Miami dude is torqued because someone from Seatle is trying to force LA culture on him. Sounds like East Coast bias. I wonder what "sneaker customizing" entails. I have been wearing Chuck's for 50 years and they never seem to go totally out of style. Thanks for the entire article!!

 

WOW this guys not affrad of geting a brick tho his window i take it-- jk but still whats his hobby i wanna email him dissing it

 

Umm what is the point of this post? I'm confused.

 

If you need to ask what is the point of this post. You have to ask yourself do I even understand what a Scion really is Re read my response and see if it becomes clearer

A scion should never be viewed as just a frigging car. It is so much more!!!

Scionturtle

 

amen!!!^^^