JACLYN JOHNSON

Damir Doma top/ KAI-AAKMANN drop crotch / Sandals with tassels by Zara/ Spike Ring /Graduated Cuff

Season for suits + sunnies. Here are some of my favs:

Karen Walker orbit clear / Karen Walker Harvest Black/ Karen Walker Fluoros / marysia molokai/ bikes + stripes maillot / ondademar cassia

We all gram. We love it. Our generation is a visual one and these images provide inspiration, memories and so much more. Here are a few accounts I truly love and follow:

@RACHLETA /@AMERRYMISHAP / @SATURDAYTOSUNDAY/ @ONETRIPPASS / @ANDYSPADE / @JESUSSAUVAGE

The lovely team at Baggu sent me some goodies just in time for a road trip to Santa Barbara with my sister! We stayed at the beautiful Bacara (there spa is out of this world), hiked in the ellwood mesa (meadows on meadows), hit cielito (a must for any Mexican food fan), wine tours (Sanford is a must) and more!

The Baggu sailor stripe weekender was the perfect bag for the weekend trip and I absolutely love my wedge key chain (A great gift idea). Check out their site for tons of cute bags that are insanely well made and affordable to boot!

Is there anything better than spending time with some of your favorite people in the world (Geri + Jazzi) at a beautiful house on a sunny day? Don't think so. Thanks to Gap + Leaf.tv I got to do just that. As part of Gap's Styld.by campaign we got to dress up in some amazingly bright! spring pieces from the Gap Collection.

Be sure to check out the collection and see more styles here

As consumers, we’ve accepted the shopping bait that is Black Friday. What was once the turkey hangover, lazy post-Thanksgiving Friday is now the biggest shopping holiday of the year and we buy into it. Literally. For the first time ever, this year’s Black Friday sales topped $1 billion dollars, with online sales rising 22% from 2011. Black Friday’s millennial counterpart, Cyber Monday, also saw a notable sales increase of 30.3%. E-commerce is the millennial marketer’s exciting plaything. With the holiday shopping season officially in full-swing, we’re seeing how powerful retailers as well as brick and mortar stores are harnessing the power of mobile shopping, apps, and innovative e-commerce strategy to ring in the new year with profitable revenue.

Retailers and retail marketers are trying tons of new ways to secure that online shopping purchase. Apps are common for not only browsing store product, but enhancing the shopping experience as a whole. Consumers may shop via app dozens of times a day, as opposed to visiting retail establishments 2-3 times per week. According to PriceGrabber, 82% of consumers plan to use mobile apps to save money when purchasing holiday gifts this year. What’s more is the push for content, more specifically brand lifestyle content. Online luxury menswear retailer MR PORTER exemplifies this concept with the release of “The Tux” app, which offers sartorial advice from how to tie a bow tie, to party etiquette and concocting the perfect holiday cocktail. All of these content features relate back to the retailer’s pricey product, and how to entice buyers with the added lifestyle component. Additionally, retail giants such as Forever 21 and Victoria’s Secret have apps that engage consumers by means of games, custom photo filters, style boards, makeup tutorials, members-only contests, coupons, lookbooks, and barcode scanning for in-store shopping. Brands are emphasizing lifestyle content more and more as a means to enhance the shopping experience, while the silver lining of exclusivity makes shoppers feel elite and part of a privileged echelon.

While flash sales are not a new online shopping trend, more retailers are hopping on board. These quick fire discounts, an arena previously dominated by the likes of Gilt and Rue La La, are now being offered by Amazon and Neiman Marcus. We’re predicting an increase in flash sales,  as well as steep discounts on select items that draw customers in, while algorithms encourage shoppers to pair other non-discounted items with sale merchandise.

Another avenue not to be ignored is social shopping. Consumers are increasingly looking to social media for their friends’ validation on fashion, gadgets and more. While Twitter generated 0% of Black Friday revenue, Facebook is more promising. As of September, Facebook introduced Facebook Gifts, an extension of the social hub that allows users to buy products for their friends through desktop or mobile versions. Users can send gifts directly from  birthday reminders or from friends’ timelines. This customizable and social approach to giving gifts could definitely be a niche within the digital shopping experience that has yet to explode. There is also a big push to have consumers utilize their “digital wallet,” or use their mobile for payment. Google, PayPal and Starbucks are just a few corporations leading the mobile payment crusade, offering customers new incentives and deals to pay with their phone.

Overall, e-commerce is posing somewhat of a creative blank slate for marketers and business owners alike. This is an exciting time to be on the frontier of apps, technology, and strategy because the way we see it, digital shopping experiences are only going to get more elaborate from this point on. Content creation and curation is on the rise, and we see a range of brands, from Neiman Marcus to Forever 21, targeting stylish, tech savvy individuals as their ideal buyers because they interact with mobile devices in high volumes. Expect brands’ social media to be filled with gift guides, exclusive promos, more flash sales, contests, giveaways, and style posts all in the name of creating exclusivity and establishing an engaging relationship with buyers at this crucial sales time of year.

Amazon has announced the launch of brand pages called “Amazon Pages.” With a cover photo, newsfeed, and custom profile page, the set-up and capabilities are highly reminiscent of Facebook and the new feature is being heralded as such. Brands can post product or lifestyle content, and have analytics capabilities, shoppable widget ad-ons, and more.

We like that brands can create a customizable online destination directly linked to an e-commerce site – this seems a natural expansion of e-stores as brands and customers get more familiar with the idea of brand social media profiles. Amazon pages also seems like a good option because it lives within Amazon, an already successful e-commerce site itself, so there are lower barriers to buying both practically and mentally.

However, our question is where the social consumer fits into the equation? While individuals can create an Amazon Page, it looks like Amazon specifically tailors these pages for brands. Some of our questions include: whether you’ll have to be an Amazon Pages user to interact with brands, or whether there will be a social plugin for commenting on or subscribing to pages? How do brands make their pages known to consumers? Do you “follow” a brand on Amazon pages, or is the ability to sync Amazon pages and Facebook the only option for this?

Overall, we think socializing an e-commerce giant like Amazon is a great step, but there needs to be a way to host dialogue between brands and consumers locally on the page and network itself without involving a 3rd party for this type of social e-commerce to be a true success.

Everyone knows that Holidays fashion is about more than just sparkly NYE dresses and Black Friday/Cyber Mondays deals: it’s about the heartwarming and often artistic and gorgeous advertising campaigns designed to get you in the door for those holiday sales – hooray! As we’re T-minus 5 days from the official start of Christmas shopping season, we couldn’t help but notice that this holiday season, fashion brands have busted out their advertising big guns in some really creative ways! Here are some of our favorites. Happy Thanksgiving!

 

The Gap returns this Holiday season with a great campaign that does what The Gap does best: mixes sentimentality with engaging visuals and big celebrity names (doing ordinary people things). Their “Love Comes in Every Shade” campaign features celebrities locked in passionate kisses, familial appreciation, bright scarves, and even some puppy love. There’s a video featuring all the celebs + kinds of love as well as print ads that spotlight the kinds of love individually. The campaign has been getting some additional attention because of its inclusion of gay couples (sorry guys, Target did it first). But nonetheless, bravo – it took the Gap aesthetic, the holiday spirit, and the progressive post-election jubilance to its videos and glossies in a campaign that’s both culturally resonant and brand aligned.

 

 

 

 

One of two odd couples this Holiday ad season, the Barneys x Disney “Electric Holiday” campaign is downright adorable. This year, Barneys and Disney came together to meld Disney with high fashion fantasy. The mix is… enchanting. There’s been some backlash because in this kind of weird sequence Minnie turns into a tall + thin supermodel (which is maybe a bad example? The jury’s still out). But while Barneys and Disney might seem like opposite ends of the aesthetic spectrum, and admittedly the video is a little weird if you take a step back, their partnership highlights the aspects of both fashion and animated film that keep us coming back: the magic of imagination and possibility. Which is, incidentally, part of what the holidays are about, too.

 

 

Macy’s has a pretty long-winded explanation for their new Miracle on 34th St. inspired ads called “Another Miracle on 34th St.” which include a Macy’s ad campaign of yore and Justin Bieber. Mostly, we think the use of “comfort marketing” mixed with some awesome technology makes these ads which feature original Miracle on 34th St. footage superimposed on a new scene pretty stand-out. See the ads (featuring the likes of Donal Trump, Martha Stewart, and of course the Biebs) here, and prepare for your heartstrings for some tuggin’.

 

 

The only way we can bring up this cuh-rayzy new ad campaign which surprisingly did not get much press is by admitting that at least one of us watches Revenge. Yes, we can’t get enough of Hamptons couture and betrayal! Interestingly, during last weekend’s episode, we found ourselves begin to fast forward through the commercials only to stop and rewind back. We saw not only some of our favorite Revenge personalities but also this little logo which we have come to love and anxiously await for a few weeks now.

The Target x Neiman Marcus collaboration featuring special products from 50 Neiman Marcus caliber designers available at both superstores is downright gorgeous- but that is an analysis of a genius campaign for another day. For advertising, they commissioned some Revenge actors in a very high-quality 5-part mini-film in which they all receive mysterious presents (which happen to be the Target x Neiman Marcus products), which air in segments during commercial breaks right after the show cuts to commercial. The series is called “The Gift of Revenge,” and you can find more details here. While the culmination turns out to be a little underwhelming, the campaign is genius mostly because it is a great marriage of branding (black + red elegance is all up in the revenge logo) plus it capitalizes on the attention of a rapt fan base eager to attain the show’s chi-chi aesthetic. Like we said, you sort of think it’s part of the show, so the campaign automatically has a leg up because the show’s fans watching on DVR (a growing demographic) are more likely to actually watch the ad.

Overall, this season we’re seeing great use of collaborations and odd-coupling to increase demographics. We’re seeing creative + effective videos that are long enough to tell a story and short enough to keep attention. We’re seeing culturally relevant, in-the-know, and of the moment references that make the ads engaging and news-worthy. And mostly we’re seeing thoughtful attention to a brand’s look and feel reflected in every aspect of its advertising. Whether it’s the elegance of Revenge/Neiman Marcus x Target, or the fantasy of Disney Film and Barney Fashion, the fastidious devotion to branding this season capitalizes on the elements of the brand that allow us to to sentimentally align ourselves with that brand so much so that we choose to give the brand as gifts to those we love the most. And we think we’ll see a lot more smart advertising born from a brand’s core look + feel that blends a creative use of new technology with classic holiday nostalgia tactics. Happy Holidays, Happy shopping – it’s the most wonderful time of the year.

We are pleased to introduce our new client, Downtown LA Bicycles! This family-run bike store has become a must-stop shop for the local bike community looking for fixies, BMX, road bikes, mountain bikes and beach cruisers in the mere two years since its doors have been open. With a recently launched second Santa Monica location, their team, inventory and resources are vastly expanding.

(NO SUBJECT) is thrilled to be working with the Downtown LA Bicycles team to build their brand profile online through strategic social media & content campaigns, partnerships and more.

Follow along at:

Facebook // Twitter // Instagram // Tumblr

This coming Monday, we’re hosting an All Ladies Night at The Spare Room to benefit Keep A Breast with bowling, games, and prizes from BeachMint!

We’re so excited to get together with rad, successful gal pals for a night of old school games, bowling, schmoozing, and prizes. The night will include:

+Bowling League Tourney with teams from LA CANVAS, BEACHMINT, FOAM MAG and more!

+ A $20 (optional) donation at the door gets you a M.A.S.H. game and other old school games, a complimentary “Judy Blume” cocktail, a gift from Beachmint, photo booth pics, and that warm fuzzy feeling that you are doing something good to prevent BREAST CANCER!

+ The night gets rolling around 8pm.

+ You can RSVP to hello@thereisnosubject.com

+ Feel free to bring more awesome ladies such as yourself!

Create & Cultivate is just around the corner! The (NO SUBJECT) team is hittin’ the highway tomorrow and heading to Palm Springs for our two day creative bender chock-full of creative workshops and cocktails. We’ll be all over the social media scene with live updates + photos, so feel free to follow along!

Hashtag: #CreateCultivate

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Facebook has just announced a couple new features in what seems to be a further integration of e-commerce and social networking. Right now, select partner brands like Neiman Marcus can add “collections” to their pages. A collection is a like a shoppable photo album, where users can “want” “collect” or “like” a product. Users will have the ability to buy direct from the “Collection” with links to all products. Here’s what it looks like:

So what does this mean? Essentially, the “want” is a product and shopping-oriented “like” button. For one thing, it means that Facebook is trying to please it’s investors by launching monetization initiatives that investors somehow thought were promised to them at IPO (which Mark Zuckerberg denied).

MORE importantly, it is a new inlet into social shopping. With this initiative, people may more readily like brand pages as there is a greater utility with the shopping integration. They may also visit the brand pages more frequently to peruse new product “collections.” And, it makes sense for brand pages to further distinguish themselves from friend profiles, rather than try to sneakily blend in (which may not fool consumers).

On a business + marketing level, this new development has the power to instigate that elusive jump from the “like” to the buy, a jump which CMO’s are keen to demonstrate before they present increased investment into social media marketing to their CEO’s. The “want it” button is a good thing for digital marketers, and a good thing for consumers looking for the right products for them. For the casual social media user, it remains to be seen whether her day-to-day facebook experience will go from social networking to social shopping. But perhaps blurring that distinction is what the “want it” button is all about.

Join us downtown this Monday 10/15 for a special event we’re super excited about! We’ve curated the Cooper Presents series for our client Cooper Design Space, and first up is the Made in LA Celebration presented by Cooper Design Space & L.A. Canvas kicking off LA Fashion Market Week.

We’ll have food, drinks, music, fun, plus Made in LA installations curated by bloggers including Le Catch, The Denim Guy, The Smoking Nuns, Reyal Fashion, and Some Notes on Napkins. RSVP to cooper@thereisnosubject.com, and see below for all the details!

Hope to see you all there!

This past Tuesday we had a panel at Social Media Week L.A. and it was a huge success! The evening was filled with the perfect amount of drinks (read: beer + popcorn), mingling, and digital discussion. With our panelists’ range of agency experience – big, small, and in between – we had a lot to deliberate and drew some great conclusions (and prompted yet more questions) about the future of creative agencies and how to best serve our clients, and grow our own businesses. The best part? Our friends at HUGE livestreamed the entire talk just in case you missed it! Click on the photo below to see the whole discussion for yourself!

 

Enter for your chance to win a $500 Element Eden gift card by showing us what gets your creative juices flowing! Simply tweet us or post to Instagram using the hashtag #CreateCultivate for your chance to win.

And don’t forget to book your package today! Limited spots left.