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CAMP raises online profile to get kids (and their parents) back in stores
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The Future. Kid-focused retailer CAMP took a hard left turn into e-commerce territory last year and found great success, but now it plans to use that raised awareness to drive more visitors back to its brick-and-mortar locations. Having already hosted over 50,000 customers per month across its five stores back in 2019, CAMP believes it can convert online shoppers into physical loyalists… and if it succeeds it could make a strong case for using e-commerce mostly as a marketing tool.
Kids just wanna have fun
After surviving a temporary shift to digital partnerships, the retail-first “toy store meets indoor activity hub” CAMP is prepping a brick-and-mortar return… with a little online help.
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In 2020, CAMP shifted strategies to a B2B model, partnering with companies like Walmart and Apple on virtual events like summer camps and birthday parties.
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During that time, CAMP bolstered its online presence, and now plans on using it as a marketing tool to get people back in stores.
For example, the website is “populated with content around art, cooking and other activities that don’t necessarily link back to any purchasable products.”
Playing around
Bucking modern wisdom, CEO Ben Kaufman said that “e-commerce is very isolating and pretty boring; you search for something and you buy it [...] The level of digital stuff we’ve done is amazing, but we do think that the brick-and-mortar and the experiential is going to come back in a very big way, post-pandemic.” Ironically, Kaufman used to be the chief commerce officer and chief marketing officer at BuzzFeed.
But switching to a mostly online presence (at least for a time) definitely contributed to a huge upside; CAMP saw a 300% increase in revenue compared to 2019, and is projected to generate half of the company’s business this year.
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“Am I an agent yet?”
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CAA signs new trainee program
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The Future. Creative Artist Agency’s (CAA) new agent trainee program, dubbed CAA Elevate, puts the focus on data, analysis, inclusion, and a wider view of the representation businesses. The change shows that CAA believes that it needs to create a new agency culture in an evolving media landscape where film and TV, social media, and sports carry equal cultural weight and ambitious crossover talent.
“Mini MBA”
In Hollywood, even the agent trainee program is getting a reboot.
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CAA announced the creation of CAA Elevate — an training program that lasts up to three months that aims to give trainees a “360-degree overview” of the agency’s business.
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The program will be made up of 10-11 person cohorts that have a set “curriculum” that’s taught by CAA agents and execs.
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Other elements of the program include “inclusion training,” and a company-wide intranet that makes the entire application process transparent.
Motion Picture Group co-head Maha Dakhil said that the program is built to be a “holy grail for everybody across the board and has a more academic, business-minded approach as opposed to the old-school, ‘pay your dues’ approach.”
Such RANGE
While the focus on inclusion and transparency are expected, the real surprise is how the agency business is changing from building hyper-specific talent silos to encouraging full-on holistic media operations for top clients.
CAA has always been ahead of the curve when it came to that global cultural view, but the past couple of years brought the creation of firms like RANGE Media Partners that focus on building companies for clients, the crossover of sports stars to film careers, and the explosive rise of social media talent. With Elevate, CAA is acknowledging that the A-list business is evolving... so they need to evolve too by creating some agents that the marketplace needs.
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The marketing unicorn...doesn’t exist
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Look, we’re optimists. But that unicorn marketer who’s a legit expert at everything from content and SEO to email and paid social...doesn’t exist. Here’s what does exist — MarketerHire, an easy place to find (and hire) freelance pros in every marketing specialty.
What you’ll read next deserves a special call-out (and probably a cash prize): All MarketerHire freelancers go through a rigorous vetting process before they’re available for hire. It’s basically like an American Ninja Warrior obstacle course, but for marketing.
When you hire with MarketerHire, you’ll get hooked up with top experts on your terms. That means no long-term contracts or commitments required. You can also hire hourly, part-time, or full-time, which is awesome all-the-time.
Top brands like Netflix, Quip, Curology, and Allbirds trust MarketerHire to find them the best marketing talent because they’re legit. Join some of the dopest brands in the world in working with pre-vetted marketing experts.
Help me hire.
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Pact wants you to subscribe to social justice
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The Future. A new app called Pact is bringing the subscription economy to grassroots charity. Hoping to create consistent givers by reducing the friction between opening your wallet and donating, Pact’s success may show that the subscription economy is the best system for creating passive customers, no matter the industry.
The case for charity
Grassroots micro-donations aren’t just for Bernie presidential bids anymore.
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An app called Pact, which is run by a collective of six women in Brooklyn and Austin, chooses one nonprofit organization a month to highlight for donation.
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Subscribing users can choose a donation tier of $3, $5, $10, or $25 to support selected organizations.
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The donations are then delivered as one lump sum at the end of the month.
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At the end of each month, the company releases a newsletter that tells subscribers “how much was raised, where the money went, and how it’s being used by the selected organization.”
Pact has selected For the Gworls — a collective of black, trans women helping other black, trans women pay for rent and healthcare — as the highlighted charity this month.
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Highlights |
The best curated daily stories from around the web |
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Apple may get in the passenger seat with Hyundai
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Apple’s electric car project, Project Titan, appears to have found someone to hit the road with — Hyundai. The tech giant hasn’t formalized its deal with the South Korean carmaker quite yet, but insiders say a deal should be finalized soon. On the other hand, other sources say that other carmakers may still be in the running. But if the deal goes through, the cars will be built at Kia’s factory (Hyundai owns Kia) in Georgia, and will roll out in 2024.
Read More → businessinsider
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Users make bank scalping tickets to Clubhouse
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In a world where concerts are nonexistent, invites to audio-app Clubhouse have become the new hottest thing on the digital resale market. Still in beta, the app gives users a set number of invites to start with in order to grow the community… and users are deciding to make a little coin with them. Markets are popping up everywhere — eBay, Facebook, Craigslist, Reddit (of course) — and are going for up to $125 an invite.
Read More → highsnobiety
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Venmo wants to be the bank of the future
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Not content with simply being the platform to split the check at dinner parties, Venmo is moving into full bank-of-the-future territory with a slate of new features. During its Q4 earnings report, Paypal (Venmo’s parent company) said that the app will soon have shopping tools for users, have cryptocurrency capabilities, and budgeting and savings tools. Currently, Venmo hosts about 70 million accounts.
Read More → techcrunch
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Retailers scramble for an e-upgrade
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Brick and mortar is about to take an even bigger back seat when it comes to retail shopping. Accounting firm BDO found that 48% of retailers are going to undergo a “digital transformation” in order to focus on e-commerce. That makes sense considering the fact that global security firm ESET found that 70% of consumers are shopping online more because of COVID and 44% say they will continue doing so at the same pace.
Read More → businessinsider
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In 2020, governments ordered way too much user data from Amazon
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Amazon’s “transparency” report included a shocking revelation about how our personal data is handled: there was an 800% increase in law enforcement requests for user data during the second half of 2020 compared to the first half. Nearly 80% of those requests came from Western European countries such as Germany, Spain, Italy, the UK, and France.
Read More → inputmag
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