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Title:

Selling Subculture Without Selling Out

Your vote:
Yes No
Organizer:
Molly Crabapple, Dr. Sketchy's Anti-Art School
Description:
The online audience is increasingly fractured into passionate niches. Companies seek to infiltrate subcultures, and alt.tastemakers covet financial backing. But interactions between “the underground” and “The Man” have been marked with more distrust than respect. This panel will teach marketers have to work with subcultural tastemakers, and indie cool kids how to make money without selling out.
Questions
Answered:
  1. What are sub-cultural audiences?
  2. Why should a company reach out to them?
  3. How do traditional marketing techniques fail when dealing with indie and alternative audiences?
  4. How can a company overcome anti-corporate opinions amongst members of a subculture?
  5. How can your company identify respected tastemakers in a subculture you're not a member of?
  6. When should you give members of your target subculture the freedom to redefine your brand?
  7. When and why have companies become objects of ridicule amongst the subcultures they’re trying to woo?
  8. How can a subcultural tastemaker work with a company without losing credibility?
  9. How can companies and tastemakers learn to speak each other's languages?
  10. Why is internal bureaucracy the enemy of an effective subcultural marketing effort?
Level:
Advanced
Category:
Branding / Marketing / Publicity
Type:
Panel
Event:
Interactive 2010
Nichelle Stephens
on 17/8/09
Molly adeptly walks the tightrope of mainstream and alternative while maintaining her integrity and creating art and events that surprise, amuse and inspire.
kim boekbinder
on 17/8/09
What a fantastic idea!
Melissa Dowell
on 17/8/09
Best panel idea ever.
John Adams
on 17/8/09
Go Molly. I Hope Hot Topic attends this. :P
Dave Gray
on 17/8/09
This looks like a great panel
Casey Bell-Blasdale
on 17/8/09
Fascinating. I am utterly enthralled in just how this panel will pan out. ~Rin
Aerinity Ser
on 17/8/09
Interesting, I'll be quite looking forward to this panel.
Jeff Newelt
on 17/8/09
There's no one more qualifed to lead a panel like this. Molly exemplifies one who can market herself extraordinarily without losing an iota of street cred.
Katelan Foisy
on 20/8/09
Molly is an amazing businesswoman and would be an asset to SXSW 2010. This is one of the best panel ideas I have come across. Anyone interested in promoting themselves and their businesses should take a few tips from Molly.
Judy McGuire
on 20/8/09
Great idea—can't wait to check it out!
Erica Pardee
on 20/8/09
Excellent idea!
Molly Crabapple
on 20/8/09
Confirmed participants include:

Jeff Newelt: Comics Editor for HEEB and publicist for Paul Pope, DJ Spooky, Act-i-vate, Eclectic Method, and other djs, musicians, artists and comics gods. Jeff is a former publicist for Samsung

Gala Darling: Gala is a fashion and lifestyle blogger who runs the insanely popular iCING. Gala deftly navigates working with major brands while maintaining your integrity. See more of her work at www.galadarling.com
Molly Crabapple
on 20/8/09
Confirmed participants include:

Jeff Newelt: Comics Editor for HEEB and publicist for Paul Pope, DJ Spooky, Act-i-vate, Eclectic Method, and other djs, musicians, artists and comics gods. Jeff is a former publicist for Samsung

Gala Darling: Gala is a fashion and lifestyle blogger who runs the insanely popular iCING. Gala deftly navigates working with major brands while maintaining your integrity. See more of her work at www.galadarling.com
Jonathon Townley
on 20/8/09
Anyone interested in crafting a genuine experience on the web and off should follow Molly Crabapple's footsteps. Her talent, generosity and sheer moxie have endeared her to fans and fellow artists alike. Consider her artwork on its own, and that's certainly a mark in her favor, but aggregate that with the following and you've really got the makings of a great panel:

Dr. Sketchy's grew out of her need to polish her skills, and to help others in their pursuit of art. She created her own model for life-drawing sessions and then in turn gave away what could have been a valuable franchise.

She uses social networking *and* good old fashioned rubbing elbows to get out her message, and to promote the work of kindred artists. In short (too late) it's not about selling Molly, as much as it is creating a genuine 'user experience' where outcomes go unmediated and unpressured.

A panel led by Molly and her peers would really put me over the fence about attending SXSW. Now, hopefully, some marketers will be willing to see more than a market in a specific subculture or ethnic group.
Craig Bower
on 20/8/09
Excellent idea...Molly has certainly proven herself as an individual who can speak on this topic from successful experience. Would love to hear her insights.
Raymond Smith
on 20/8/09
Yeah1 All that stuff is true!
steve Savitz
on 20/8/09
if molly can't ace this topic, no one can.
Twanna A. Hines
on 20/8/09
Very few people understand branding, marketing and publicity better than Molly. Seriously, she's got this stuff nailed! Before I met her in person, we already had a gazillion friends in common because she knows everyone in New York. But, she's more than a local brand. (Hell, even if she was only well-known "locally," that would still be an accomplishment in the city where our "local" paper is the New York Times.)

Molly expanded the Dr. Sketchy brand to far reaches of the globe and -- judging her momentum -- it looks like she's only getting started and there's much more to come. I would sooooo be delighted to go to this panel and hear her & the other panelists insights :)
Maire Irwin
on 20/8/09
This is the best idea ever, hands down, and should be a necessity.
Jim Lomako
on 20/8/09
HONESTY ALERT. The title is inaccurate. IT IS about selling out A more honest title would be "How to trick unsophisticated disaffected consumers into buying into corporate marketing while making them think they are different than the other chumps." It's not a new concept. It has worked great for Apple Computers as well as many other greed driven exploiters.
Catherine Remick
on 21/8/09
Love the topic! I wanted to incorporate something like this for my thesis in grad school.
Douchey McDouchebag
on 21/8/09
Jim Lomako. Good luck with that indignation.
Keep it up. No really.
You'll be doing us all a favor. Because the end result of that kind of thinking is barrel-down-throat thumb-on-trigger or fat fuck in mother's dark basement. Either way, far from us.

And Dr. Sketchy titties are way better than any corporate mammary.
Steve Cleff
on 22/8/09
I'd love to see this panel
Ron Perazza
on 22/8/09
Molly is a wonderfully talented person and, with Dr. Sketchy's, a successful entrepreneur to boot. This panel is definitely worth seeing.
Dan Goldman
on 22/8/09
Great topic for artists aiming to bend the media to their will; Molly's name is bandied around town as a young impresaria for a reason. When it comes to branding oneself, there's nary a hostess more qualified than she. This would be an excellent addition to this year's panel schedule... and you know she'll pack the house.
Liz Panelo
on 24/8/09
I continue to be envious of Molly's intellect and achievements. I agree with (most) everyone here, Molly's Dr. Sketchy movement is worldwide yet it doesn't have that filmy "franchise" feel. No one else can speak about maintaining artistic integrity like she can.
Eduardo Janiszewski
on 24/8/09
Molly Crabapple is absolutely perfect for this panel, I do business for the last 15 years at least and never expected to be so amazed before, what Molly did is very impressive, she knows perfectly how to brand herself and all the questions from this panel fits with her.

She's a great business woman, has lot of integrity, she's a great artist, and made a way of doing business with alternative audiences that's very special and effective, otherwise she couldn't have more than 90 branches over the world. She's a success.

She's definitely a 'must' to be on this panel.

Best Regards,

Eduardo S. Janiszewski.
Former Dinamex CEO and Email Marketing Campaign Group board director
Tim Shey
on 25/8/09
Love it. Big fan of Molly's and this would be a really fresh addition to SXSW.
Molly Crabapple
on 25/8/09
Exciting new addition to the panel! I just confirmed Richard Nash, legendary publisher of Soft Skull books (2001-2008), as a panelist.
Rachel Haywire
on 27/8/09
With so many alternative artists looking to make a living in this digital world I can think of no one more qualified to speak on this subject than Molly.
Ms Heart
on 27/8/09
Honestly, there isn't anyone more deserving to speak on this panel than Molly. She has managed to do what very few have done before and gone completely global with it!
Lisa Vandever
on 28/8/09
I was once taking a seminar on understanding my (apparently stand-offish) relationship to money and when it came time for the class to yell out terms they associated with money, my addition was "sell-out!" Most folks looked at me baffled, but a few of the artsy folks gave me a knowing nod.

Great topic, looking forward to it!
Games Online
on 3/11/09
Excellent idea!
blu ray ripper
on 13/11/09
Sounds like it will be a very interactive panel... like the style.
blu ray ripper
on 13/11/09
Sounds like it will be a very interactive panel... like the style.
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