Angela Natividad's Live & Uncensored!

19 October 2011

(Not so) Strictly ballroom + the private label content evolution




Sosh, a new mobile brand owned by Orange, has released this gorgeous homage to dance, appropriately titled "Danse(s)", with help from photog/director James Bort.

The Bortstah on its roots:
I wanted to pay homage to dance, all forms of dance, like a piece of music played with multiple instruments. The idea was to reunite seven dancers and as many universes, countries, styles, ages and personalities.
The casting call happened September 19 via a number of socnets, including Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Amateur and professional dancers are included. Production happened in early October at Paris Beaux Arts.

This is one of many fresh inroads in premium social branding. (Consider. And also!)

Companies forming production partnerships with artists like Bort reminds me of when Target first partnered with high-end designers (like Todd Oldham!) for cheap/chic product lines that made private label consumption sexy. These kinds of collabos are de rigueur today: remember Sonia Rykiel's H&M collection?

Now in digital, brands are evolving past weak CGM-looking YouTube crap and taking advantage of that ever-present HD button, yielding material we want to pass around because they're beautiful, teach us something, make us laugh, or speak to one of our deep and diverse loves. To do this, they need guys like Bort, and they're making better use of the social space to source talent and spread their work. (I've seen "Danse(s)" at least 5 times in my Facebook feed over the past 2 days.)

Private label content is sexing up the same way private label merch did. It'll never replace the cinemas or an Arrested Development binge, but boy do they make those long lulls at work more bearable. And the fruits they bear for otherwise-unknown artists and directors are immense.

It's symbiosis!

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