Cool is Critical
COOL IS CRITICAL…It is a fan magnet for any company, well, trying to create fans instead of merely users.You can’t fake it. Its in your company ( and personal ) DNA, or its not. For a new brand, it can make or break ya and it’s a good thing to fully intend to help cool MAKE you. Some of the legacy media players often cant compete in the cool game—cool is not in their DNA. In fact, they’ll tend to acquire cool brands, and rapidly de-cool them, and when they try to re-cool, its by over reliance on focus group and business science rather than instinct, soul or passion. The key of course is to BALANCE SCIENCE WITH EMOTION. A huge cool killer is average. Average anything is just not cool. Average is often acceptable but it’s never cool. Here’s a short cool/uncool list — based on how we intend for FANS to view us…the PERCEPTION from the listener/viewer:
(The definition of cool changes by target, but here are a few thought starters for a fan based company)
COOL: Underground….street level…experimental
UNCOOL: Big, old, corporate and arrogant
COOL: Eye span ranging from Black & White…to cinematic, psychedelic and cerebral
UNCOOL: Slick and “agency” safe. Soul less
COOL: A rainbow of V/O voices. Ethnic and beyond
UNCOOL: Vanilla ( characterless) Standard issue broadcast voices or Mousy lightweight millennials in an attempt to sound ‘relatable’
COOL: Fresh simple Names
UNCOOL: Another Zimboo, Bimboo, Boogle, Loogie, Voobu, etc…
COOL: Fueled by passion
UNCOOL: Fueled by merger
COOL: Designed for Main Street
UNCOOL: Designed for Wall Street
COOL: Just doing it…letting the product paint the picture
UNCOOL: Bullshit slogans geared to trick you. Your cable company or local tv news may say “we’re in it for you”– which just perpetuates the bullshit
COOL: Emerging street powered intellectual culture celebrating enlightenment
UNCOOL: Cheesy junk culture celebrating nothing beyond what’s fashionable at the moment
COOL: Making fun of Awards Shows
UNCOOL: Awards Shows
COOL: Real retro
UNCOOL: Fake retro
COOL: Timeless artists from all genres
UNCOOL: Disposable pop artists
COOL: Dives
UNCOOL: Franchises
COOL: intelligence that is world changing
UNCOOL: disposable and dumb down
COOL: Timeless Talent
UNCOOL: This weeks’ Celebrity with questionable talent
COOL: Talking like normal people
UNCOOL: Ping me, Ideate, — talking in corporate code to sound impressive; or news-speak to sound authoritative. You know the drill
COOL: calling out or noticeably ignoring celebrities with bad behavior
UNCOOL: Celebrating or OVER reporting celebrities with bad behavior
COOL: Exposing junk culture ( pop cultures evil cousin) without a wink
UNCOOL: Pretending junk culture is important
COOL: Eccentricity
UNCOOL: Self importance
COOL: Media Rebels
UNCOOL: Media Conformers
COOL: unlimited sound— from jazz to punk
UNCOOL: Cheesy “production music”
COOL: Content that delivers chills and cerebral laughs
UNCOOL: Content that delivers eye rolls
COOL: People who are rich because they’re smart
UNCOOL: People who are smart because they’re rich
COOL: Common sense
UNCOOL: PC where it’s not really required
…..and this arguable list goes on and on….