CONTENT NOW @ SCOOPR MEDIA

Grant Spanier is an inspiring content creator and entrepreneur out of Minneapolis, Minnesota. He writes for Advertising Week, is the creative director of Greenroom Magazine and runs LESS Co., a small creative studio in St. Paul. His accomplishments combined with his go-getter attitude make him a Content Creator We Love! For more on Grant, check him out on his new podcast, 10,000 Hours, or on his website. 

    Tell me a little about yourself and your background.

Currently, I’m based in Minneapolis. I call myself a writer, designer and entrepreneur. I’m involved in a lot of different projects. I run a creative studio, called LESS Co. We do a lot of branding and identity, design work, as well as a lot of video commercial story telling work. I am also the creative director at Green Room magazine which is something we kick started in September. I’m involved in a handful of other organizations like TedxHennepinAve. We’re setting up a Tedx this summer. I also volunteer with a lot of organizations.

    You did the “Sethternship” with Seth Godin. What was that like?

Seth has been a long time personal hero of mine. I’ve read all of his books and am a big fan. The internship was a two week project at his office in New York at the end of July and early August this past summer and I continued to work on the project for a couple months after. It was a phenomenal opportunity, definitely one of the best experiences of my life. It has opened a ton of doors and connected me with some great friends and people I continue to collaborate with today.

    What did you create together at the internship?

What we were doing was trying to create a platform to respond to the education problem that Seth saw, which is that there’s accessed information through MOOC’s (Massive Open Online Courses) but they only have a 2% completion rate. Technically, anyone can go take a Stanford course online, but no one finishes it. The idea was that learning happens together; you need a group and to be able to collaborate in person. We tried to create a platform for people to organize and for us to disseminate classes from thought leaders like Seth, Ken Robinson, or Chris Guillebeau, that sort of TED style content. We worked really, really hard on creating that platform and building it from the ground up during those two weeks and continued to afterwards. We ended up running into a lot of issues on the development side of things and Seth then posed the question, “Are we in the technology business or are we in the education business? What are we really trying to do here?” We decided to scrap it and go with an easier to use, email style dissemination. Regardless, it was a phenomenal experience and I learned a lot from it.

    What kind of content do you create as the host of the new podcast, 10,000 HOURS?

That was actually born during the Seth project. I’d been looking to start a new project and I connected and became close with a guy named Josh Long. Josh has a podcast called Happy Monday, which he does with Sarah Parmenter. He inspired me to start something in the same space and he gave me a lot of guidance. It’s called 10,000 HOURS and is loosely based on the Malcolm Gladwell theory that it takes 10,000 hours to be a master at anything. The show is really based on conversations with people who are putting in their time and trying to become experts and trying to grow. It’s about craft and creativity and the journey. We launched in January and we’re doing 1 episode per week, every Friday. So far, it’s been a really great project.

      How have you seen user generated content affect your job(s)?

There have been a couple of apps that I’ve worked with where user generated content has been a component of a campaign. I really do think it’s a powerful thing. It’s really powerful when you can find an authentic intersection between a brand and a user or a customer and then give them tools or inspiration and enable them to create things.

    What would your advice be to Scoopr Brand Ambassadors?

Always be creating. I think you get better over time. Even with something as simple as Instagram, just be intentional about a caption or about the way you see the world. That’s a way of practicing and honing a skill. Photography is just capturing a moment so you can constantly be doing that. I think it’s being in that ‘turned on’ mindset of being a creator.  As a creator, I am always looking for an opportunity for a story, an angle, or an image that appeals to my eye. Having that posture to the world and not being too precious or perfect about the content is useful in creating.

Arestia Rosenberg is the Senior Content Producer at Hill Holliday and a co creator of Boston Content, the city’s largest community group for content marketers, producers, strategists, and enthusiasts. Arestia has a background in major motion pictures and television development and production, and was able to continue this passion by producing online films and other digital content for Hill Holliday. For more on Arestia, check out her website.

    Tell me about yourself and your experience with content creation.

My background is in film and television development and production. I used to work on different movies and TV shows. The content I was creating at that point consisted of things like behind-the-scenes DVD content on some feature films.

 Now, I’m the Senior Content Producer at Hill Holliday. I’m responsible for the creation and execution of a variety of content, mostly our video. I knew I wanted to do this before I could name what “this” was. I was involved and interested in the startup community in Boston and I knew I wanted to continue working in media, but I wanted to build something while continuing to tell stories. I wanted it to be in a forward thinking, new media, and digital way. I had a friend who informed me Hill Holliday was looking for a producer and while I didn’t think advertising was what I’d be interested in, I met with the team here. I instantly connected with people running the department and fell in love with the idea of creating things that consumers were choosing to spend time with and being a part of working in this emerging media and building a team.

    Between your past with major motion pictures, television, and your present with Hill Holliday, what have you created that you’re most proud of?

There are a lot of things that I’m really proud of, it’s hard to pick one. I have had such an opportunity to create things that I love and that I think are beautiful and tell a great story while making a difference in peoples lives. Being able to do that on a daily basis for our clients is something I’m really proud of.

Specifically, the most recent thing I’m proud of is content for One Fund Boston. We interviewed survivors from the Boston Marathon bombings and included stories, and worked with the One Fund to include donor stories and survivor stories in a variety of formats that people can explore on the One Fund website. I’m really proud of that work and think it’s beautiful and I think what it does is important.

    What was it like to have a film at SXSW this year?

It was a great experience. In the past, we’ve created many films for clients and we’ve had other films go to festivals, which has been a fun part of the job because I still consider myself a filmmaker. It’s something I love doing. We did this particular film last spring for a client, and on a whim decided to submit it to some festivals and it got into SXSW to premiere. That was really exciting because it is a prestigious festival; only 14 short documentaries were selected. It was a pretty awesome moment for us.

    Tell me a little more about Boston Content and why you decided to co create it.

Boston Content came out of a relationship with my co founder, Jay Acunzo. A friend had introduced us and said, “You both do the content thing, you should talk.” I found that relationship to be very valuable. It was someone I could talk to outside of my own team about content. While I’m more focused on the kind and quality of content, and the story and the aesthetics of content, he’s a true content marketer and a numbers guy.  Together it was a really nice relationship. We both brought things to the table that the other benefitted from. We thought, “This has been very valuable to each of us, and there’s no space for other people to connect on this topic, why don’t we start something?” So we started Boston Content.

We knew we didn’t just want it to be for networking, but for people to also be able to learn and grow and seek opportunities through that community. All of our events have some sort of a learning or idea exchange component. It’s been really great to see people get excited about it and to create valuable relationships. We’ve grown quickly and have over 450 members now. It’s astounding.

    What would your advice be to Scoopr Ambassadors who are trying to separate their content from the rest?

Madeleine "Fia" Matsson is an Art Director, designer, illustrator and painter, originally from Sweden. She has a Fine Arts background and studied Digital Media at Hyper Island in Stockholm. She has been working in NYC ever since. Fia's creativity and originality is the perfect inspiration for our Scoopr Brand Ambassadors.

Tell me a little about your background. What brought you from Sweden to NYC?

While I was born in Sweden, I grew up outside of Boston and went to art school in Montreal where I studied primarily painting and drawing. In 2008, I made my way back to my roots and to my studio out in the woods of Sweden. When I moved to Stockholm I discovered Hyper Island where I studied Digital Media for two years. Hyper Island is a really amazing community and network where the motto is “learning by failing.” Once you accept failure there is nothing standing in the way of success.

After various internships, including one with a circus and another in Buenos Aires, I ended up in NYC. Freelancing as an art director and designer within advertisement gave me the freedom to make artwork all the time, but then Foursquare picked me up to be their conceptual designer on their sales team, about a year ago and I have been happily bound to them ever since. I still make time to paint evenings and weekends. Now I need to work on showing at more galleries around the city.

    What have you created that you’re most proud of?

The first thing that comes to mind is when I was in Stockholm, right before I left for NYC, I put together an exhibition at an old theater space. It's a huge, beautiful building where the second floor is dedicated to artwork. Being in charge of the content, curation, sponsorship, marketing, and management of it all was a lot of work for one person in a short period of time but I pulled it off with over 200 guests all happily tipsy and buzzed up on red bull. The show was about perspectives and I had one interactive painting that was attached to a board so you could spin it and see it from every angle. The video explains it all.

    I see you have a fondness of vultures. How did this come about?

I first discovered them while at a bird showing in Austria. I found them to be so majestic and beautiful while alien like dinosaurs. Yet society depicts them as being evil and disgusting. They are an incredibly necessary part of our ecosystem being natures dumpster divers. For me, they are a symbol of anti-consumerism, making use of what others have left behind.

Their wingspan can be up to 9 feet long so imagine that as they soar above us in the Grand Canyon for miles on end without even flapping their wings. I envy that kind of freedom and like to think about them when I live here like an ant and forget to look up at the buildings framing my existence at the moment.

What would your advice be to the Scoopr Brand Ambassors?

Don't be afraid to put yourself out there and do things differently. Take it as a creative challenge even if you don't feel the strongest connection to the brand. That being said, if you want to make it meaningful, there has to be an artistic element to it and a personal touch, otherwise it probably won’t be interesting. I think the beauty of this app is that people are rewarded for their creativity but be aware of which and why you are promoting a certain brand. Aesthetics and meaning are the strongest combination for powerful content.

Faris Yakob is a strategist, writer, public speaker, creative director and the founder of GeniusSteals, a planning and innovation consultancy. He has been named one of the top 50 creatives in the world by the Clios and his blog, Talent Imitates, Genius Steals, has been nominated as one of top ten ad blogs to follow by Campaign and Mashable. 

Tell me a little about your background.

  I've worked in advertising for almost 15 years. Before that I had been in management consulting and I wrote briefly for Maxim Magazine. My last few gigs have been working at agencies in and around digital. I was the global head of digital at Naked Communications, then the Chief Digital Officer at McCann Erickson New York. Then, as Chief Innovation Officer of MDC, I co-founded a creative technology agency called Spies&Assassins.

About a year ago I began a consultancy for innovation, strategy and ideas called Genius Steals based on the evolving thinking I’ve been doing in public for the last ten years or so.

I guess that would be the other part to it. I’ve been writing, and speaking, publishing, and thinking about how the advertising industry and technology have been co-evolving for a long time.

      Explain the name of your self-founded company, “Genius Steals” and your award winning blog, “Talent Imitates, Genius Steals.”

  Originality is a myth. Ideas are new combinations. 

Once you’re aware of that framework, the best way to get to ideas is to have the broadest, most interesting and most relevant set of inspiration brought to the problem at the right time. Genius Steals is not about copying. Copying is morally bankrupt. It’s about building on brilliant stuff that’s come before and not starting from scratch every time.

      What do you think it is about yourself that keeps these brands and agencies coming back to you for strategy and ideas?

  I worked in a bunch of different agencies and with a variety of brands and we now work with both brands and agencies. 

I hope that what my partner and I bring is objective advice and non-obvious sets of ideas and inspirations to solve problems. I hope that we are respectful and pleasant. I’ve always been very keen on the simple principle in life, in work and in social media: One should be nice, or one should leave. 

I find that being nice is ideally helping people to solve their problems as though they were your own - you consider the primary issue without making your own bottom line more important than theirs. That's a good way to be a partner, either within an agency or as a consultant.

      You have created an overwhelming amount of content; Everything from books, & lessons, & keynote speeches to your blog. What have you created that you’re most proud of?

  I’m proud of the fact that I’ve been blogging for nearly a decade. The consistency is something that has been hard to maintain. Many generations of bloggers have come and gone since then.

There’s still a conceptual bias in me, despite the emergence of digital, to having a book published by a publisher. The book I co-wrote, the Digital State, I am proud of. The book that will hopefully be coming out afterwards that will be my own, I'm also proud of, so far. 

Starting the company Genius Steals was something that I found challenging and frightening because I’d only ever been an employee so I’m very proud at having done that with my partner.

      What would your advice be to the Scoopr Brand Ambassadors who are trying to separate their content for brands from the rest?

Internalizing the brief, strategy, the meaning and needs of the client and then providing a non-obvious creative solution. 

You want to find something that’s both appropriate which fits, but that is the least obvious thing that fits. That, in my mind, is what constitutes the most creative.

We’d like to introduce you to John Greene- a filmmaker and photographer out of Rhode Island whose work ethic and professional eye made him a CEO before reaching 24 years old. His determination, along with his passion for both music and film, landed him the perfect opportunity. His self founded company, Greene Films, has successfully created music videos for a variety of artists. Somehow, he found the time to pick up several other talents along the way.

  Tell me about yourself & how you got into the film industry.

I was born and raised in Warwick, Rhode Island. As a kid, I started as a sponsored Aggressive rollerblader. I would tour the country for competitions and different rollerblading events. Eventually I just wanted to pick up a camera because I’d see other kids filming the competitions. I was always interested in being able to film things in my life. I got a cheap camera for my birthday that year and started filming my friends and me rollerblading and funny home videos around the house. I ended up getting injured rollerblading; I had done a lot of damage to my arm after breaking it multiple times. I started realizing rollerblading wasn’t going to be something I could do for the rest of my life. It just wasn’t in the cards. Really, it was a blessing in disguise because I was getting better at making videos and was able to start taking the camera work more seriously.

With that, I started creating rollerblading DVDs and built a name by traveling and filming rollerbladers all over the east coast. Those videos were sold at several skate shops online. From there, I started to have friends in the local music scene reach out to me for music videos. I didn’t know I wanted to do it at first, it started as something to do just for fun. After a few, I realized I really enjoyed it. I was always very into music, so being able to produce and direct music videos was the best of both worlds for me.

Once I started creating music videos, I never looked back. Music videos turned into artwork and graphic design and photography for the artists. From there, I started branching out in addition to the musicians and rollerbladers. My girlfriend, Holly Dalton, does makeup for fashion magazines so she was able to start introducing me to her network. I was able to meet designers and get my foot in the door. I started to do editorials for fashion magazines and runways. That’s where I am today. I’m in between the fashion industry, film, music videos, wedding photography, other photography and graphic design.

     What are you working on right now?

One of my biggest current projects has just been working on Greene Films Studio, also known as “The Greene Room.” We found a space in Pawtucket, Rhode Island about three months ago and we’ve been completely renovating it in that time. We’ve been painting, refurnishing, getting all new equipment, etc. We knew it was going to be time consuming, but it has turned into a much more difficult project than we expected! It’s the most rewarding project, though, because I’ve been professionally doing film for 5-7 years now so to finally get to a point where we have 5 employees and have a studio space… it’s a dream come true.

An actual video project I’m working on, though, is for a hip-hop artist out of New York who goes by the name of Amir Obè (previously Phreshy Duzit). He is about to drop a new album and we just shot a music video for him. The name of the track is "JayZ Kanye Esco" and it should be released this month. It was the first video we shot at our new studio. Phreshy Duzit has always been an artist I’ve enjoyed working with, I’ve done about three videos for him already. It’s really relevant to me because his videos have always broken down doors to other projects for us. By working with him, we’re always able to put out something we’re proud of that represents our company well. It always leads to catching bigger fish.

I’m also doing a project called the SEED Runway with the people who run Style Week Northeast, which is held at the Providence Biltmore each year. SEED is a program where they set up the northeast’s best designers with students in school for fashion. It’s a non-profit program with the purpose of linking fashion students with people already in the industry. They needed someone to come in and make a video to properly portray the program so they asked me. In today’s technology crazed world, having a visual to go along with any product is much more effective. Everyone has such short attention spans that having pictures or a Youtube video to click and play makes it much easier to get the message across. We’re in the process of planning that video now; I’m excited to drop that one. It should come out right before the next Style Week starts up in August.

     At 24 yrs old, you’re a CEO and founder of your own business and have accomplished so much. What have you created that you are the most proud of?

As far as videos, I’d say Phreshy Duzit’s “American Love.” The reason I’m most proud of that is because I was given the most creative freedom that I’ve ever been given. The musician and his management contacted me with the song and asked for a video. They said I could go whichever direction I saw fit. They wanted a short film for the song and didn’t want the artist to appear in it at all.

What I came up with for “American Love” was a story about a young couple with two very strong personalities in a bit of a poisonous relationship. There’s a lot of fighting and then drugs get thrown into the mix. By the end of the video, the girl commits suicide and her boyfriend walks in and finds her. It ends on a very dark note. The reason it was such a big deal to me was that after trusting me to deliver a big video for them, Phreshy Duzit’s management was really blown away by it. To me, the happiness of the client determines how successful the project was. That project opened up a lot of other doors for me.

In photography, I have another favorite project. I did a photo shoot titled, “Up in Smoke.” It began as a passion project. It was a collaboration shoot with makeup artist and stylist, Holly Dalton. When she showed me the inspiration for it, I was really excited to get involved. Our model was created into a Day of the Dead/ sugar skull inspired character with a handmade custom costume from Holly to match the airbrushed decorative skull as her face.   

One of the cool things about that shoot was that it was I did it in all natural lighting. That’s a pretty big deal. As any photographer would know, lighting in photography is everything. A lot of time photographers at least use a reflector. We were in some creepy woods with dead vegetation, and the strong imagery just carried the photo shoot. The lighting worked out perfectly. It was very organic.

Giuseppina Magazine published the series from that shoot in their magazine. They ended up giving us a six-page spread in their Halloween Edition Vol. 3. That was my first publication and photography job that I was really proud of. Then, the professional airbrush makeup company Holly used, Temptu later picked up the images to display across their homepage and website during October, just this past year.

     I see you call yourself a “Visual Villain.” What does that mean?

I’m glad you asked! When I came into the film industry, I started to feel that there was a lot more businessmen than artists. With film being such an artistic field, I didn’t find myself connecting with a lot of the people I was meeting because they seemed to be in it for the money, not so much the art. I discussed this issue a lot on social media and received a lot of good feedback. I started to see myself as “the bad guy of the film industry.” I’m someone who isn’t afraid to speak his mind or say when he doesn’t like something. A lot of people play it safe; everyone supports everyone and hopes it comes back to them. I’m a firm believer that if the art you’re making is strong enough, the viewer will connect to it and feel the need to share that work on their own. The “Visual Villain” is my alter ego because I don’t play it safe.

    What would your advice be to Scoopr Brand Ambassadors?

I’m big on following your passion and whatever vision you’re having. If something raises an emotion out of you, it’s usually worth digging into. Inspiration hits me anywhere. I could be in my car, drive by a telephone pole that looks a certain way and has certain lighting, and I’ll pull over and snap a few pictures on my phone and revisit them later and try to edit them.

It’s not about the equipment; it’s about how you use your tools. People think they need the newest technology to be able to put out something of quality. It’s more about the vision. Concentrate more on your vision and what your feelings are when you’re trying to take a photo. You never want to create something trying to please others. You want to create something because it was an idea in your head that didn’t exist in the world yet. That’s all art is in my opinion. 

Hannah Huke is the marketing guru behind The Briar Group, a Boston company consisting of 11 local restaurants and the events they hold (Boston Event Solutions). As Marketing Director, Hannah has plenty on her plate with each restaurant and their individual marketing needs. Scoopr Media was fortunate enough to hear more about her day to day, the content she creates and the success she has found in digital marketing.

  Briefly tell me about yourself.

I manage the marketing for the Brair Group, which includes 11 restaurants throughout Boston. We also have an event planning company called Boston Event Solutions. I have an MBA in Marketing from Northeastern University. While at was at Northeastern I did my co-op with Healthworks Fitness Centers for Women in Boston, which is an upscale chain of women’s only fitness centers. I was the marketing Director with them from 2008 til 2010. I was a bartender for about seven years and a server before that. I have a very extensive history with the restaurant industry.

    What does your role as marketing director consist of? I imagine it’s different with each restaurant of the Briar Group.

Yes, it definitely is. We, like other marketers today, are really into creating a lot of content. Depending on the restaurant, we do a lot with social media and email marketing and video. We just opened our newest restaurants, Gather and Brew, so marketing is very involved in the development of those, such as design, logo, branding, etc. We do very little traditional advertising; we instead do a lot online. We’re also responsible for the graphic design. We do all the point of sale pieces in the restaurant as well as the menu design. Pretty much anything you can think of that’s marketing related, we do in-house.

  In your time with Brair Group, what are you most proud of?

Gather – it was the first restaurant in which I had a direct role in opening. The opening involved establishing the concept, choosing design elements with Hacin + Associates (the architects), assisting with the menu design and logo creation, as well as creating the social media voice. It’s been open for five months, and has been well received in the market.

    What are some challenges you come across in your position?

Marketing is changing so quickly so we’re just trying to keep up with everything. If a company comes out with something, we need to stay up to date on that. We always need to know, “What’s the next thing going to be?”

Also, we rely on the managers a lot and they’re of course busy in the restaurants so it’s tough to catch them as they’re putting out their own fires. That’s a big challenge, as well.

    It looks like the Brair Group did a lot for the community after the Boston Bombings almost a year ago. What was it like to be able to help the community after and during such a terrible time?

As tragic as the events were, it was nice to see how it brought people together. We had a lot of staff step up and come forward right afterwards. They all wanted to help. We were able to do what we’re best at and help people at the same time. Putting on events and helping people was a natural fit for us. It was great to give the staff the opportunity to do that as well.

  The biggest event we did was Salute for our Heroes at M.J. O’Conners. It was a fundraiser that we held following the tragic events to benefit those in law enforcement. We had Gaelic Pipe and Drums perform, tons of silent auction items and were joined by Carlos Arredondo, all to raise money for the 100 Club of Massachusetts, which serves those that serve us in law enforcement. It was really a great event.

     The users of Scoopr, or ‘Brand Ambassadors’ as we call them, use their creativity & judgment to capture brand moments. In your experience, what do you feel consumers respond to, in terms of content?

This week we are featuring a fun and creative content wiz, Jessica Engle! As a content manager at 360i, Jessica is responsible for some of the incredible digital and social content we all see, specifically for Subway. On her own time, Jessica has captured the attention of over 4,000 followers with her personal Instagram featuring her very own white converses in her every day life. She also has began illustrating stories for her self created dragon, Orwell, all "just for fun." Jessica inspires Scoopr with her heart filled & energized content!

Briefly tell us about yourself.

I grew up overseas. My dad is a diplomat so I grew up in seven different countries, mostly in Africa. I moved to the states when I was 16 which was culturally shocking.

Social media wasn’t a thing when I was in college. I got on Facebook right after I graduated from undergrad in 2006. Twitter was the big thing when I was in grad school. I wasn’t anticipating a career in social media, I was thinking I’d be an art director. But then I moved to New York City and got involved in the Uniform Project. A girl, Sheena Matheiken, pledged to wear the same little black dress for 365 days and every day she would accessorize it differently; there was a great social angle. It was a fundraiser for education in India. I ended up running all of the communication for that. Sometimes, once the media picks up a project, all it takes is one story for everyone to want to cover you. It was very cool, I was fresh out of college so it gave me an inside look of how to create successful, repetitive content to tell a story. I think one key component to creating successful content is repetition.We crave repetition. It works best if we know what we’re going to get from a brand or person but there’s still a surprising twist. That’s a formula that has always worked for me.  I’ve been working at advertising agencies ever since, doing all sorts of social and content strategies.

What does your role as a Senior Content Manager @ 360i consist of? 

I’m basically the person who tells the story. I need to figure out whether or not our content is telling the right brand story. Then I work with Community & Insight to figure out whether it’s resonating. And if its not, how do we get it to work better for us?

We’re a major sponsor of SXSW so I’m going to Austin this week to do on the ground live tweeting. It’s my job to capture any content for the future and listen to what people are saying online.

360i is a great place to be socially because they were the first company to do a lot of things. My role is great because the definition of content in general is ever changing, which is why I love it.

What Scoopr Media is doing is very smart because I’ve noticed that the key to good content is that it’s relatable and it resonates and it comes across as authentic. A lot of brands now want lifestyle content and it sounds like Scoopr is giving a great means to capturing that.

  Your Instagram (@whitecons) is fascinating. What’s the deal with the white converses? How did this begin?

I wanted a vehicle to look at NYC in a different way. So many things pass you by. White Cons was the perfect excuse to get me out of my comfort zone and look at the world from the perspective of a shoe. And sort of give me a visual journal. 

I’ve been wearing Converses now for a very long time. They’re kind of my shoe. I have several pairs and I can remember specific things that have happened in my life wearing each pair. I’m a very visual person. I never really knew what I was doing on twitter. I’ll say, “I just thought of a witty sentence, I’ll tweet it.” And that’s it. So I was excited about Instagram.

I’m a big believer in doing one creative thing every day, then after you do it 100 times you say, “What else am I going to do here?” and you end up pushing the envelope even further.

What happens if there’s a perfect photo opp… but you’re not wearing the converses?

I try to wear them as much as possible! If I’m not wearing them then it’s not meant to be. I’m wearing them now. I try to wear them more than half the week. It has simplified my style choices a lot! 

  Up to this point, you have a variety of experience and have created A LOT of content. Of everything you’ve created or brought to life, what are you most proud of?

I think Orwell the Dragon would be the closest to my heart. I went to Art School for my undergrad and have always loved illustration. Orwell began as just a little dragon that I used to doodle all the time.

Then I was doing freelance work, which was letting me travel a lot. This was great because my parents had just moved to Ethiopia. My dad was directing the Peace Corps over there. I lived there when I was five, so I have pictures in my mind but no substantial memories. I thought this would be the perfect opportunity for me to go over there for a few months. I didn’t know what I was going to do, but I knew I wanted a project. It was Christmas time so I decided to write a little Christmas book about Orwell the Dragon and create an Instagram for him. It was a lot of fun.

Orwell was also the hardest to put out there because when you do that on your own, you’re opening yourself to critique. When you’re doing content for a brand, you should be passionate but you should be ready for someone to kill your work at any time. So when you put something out there that you thought up and created, it’s scary because, what if people don’t like it? The children’s publishing world is a beast. I had to say, “I don’t really care what happens, I’m doing this for myself. And I’ll be happy.” When I think of my life when I’m older, I hope I’m in a little cottage in the countryside with cats, illustrating children’s books.

The users of Scoopr Brand Ambassadors use their creativity & judgment to capture brand moments through pictures and upload them for rewards. As an expert, what would your advice be to these content creators?

My best advice is to find a style, develop it and stick with it. Content can be a 140-character tweet, an Instagram photo, or a really great Facebook post. Whatever. I would say whether they’re doing it consciously or not, the people I enjoy following have a defined point of view. This is not only in tone and subject matter, but in look and feel as well. There’s continuity there. Putting yourself in a box or setting some boundaries is one of the best ways to be very creative.

Scoopr Media was very fortunate to have the chance to pick the brain of Ken Hamm, the SVP, ECD and EP at The Studio @ iCrossing. His experience speaks volumes, ranging from writing & directing award-winning feature films to developing The Studio at iCrossing from the ground up. On top of his professional success, he has pushed his way into the world of photography with his “All the Lonely People NYC” series of street photography. Ken Hamm is a content creating inspiration! See for yourself at www.Kenhammphoto.com and on his Instagram, @Allthelonelypeoplenyc.

  Briefly tell me about yourself.

I’m originally from Boston and then went to school at Allegheny in Pennsylvania. I developed a passion for feature filmmaking and made a short film in college. Then, bright eyed and bushy tailed, I moved to New York City 20 years ago to be a big famous feature film writer/producer/director. My first attempt was an impressive tanking. It was an amazing experience though. I mortgaged my life to make this Indie film, it took me two and a half years to finish it and in the end, HBO in Hungary bought it for about 1,400 bucks. (I’m huge in Budapest, I can’t even go there anymore.) In the end, I was physically, emotionally, spiritually, and financially bankrupt, literally. The learning curve was just straight up.

Then I made my living as a script doctor for a few years. The dot com era happened, and I started to write copy for different websites. One thing led to another, someone introduced me to a man by the name of Bob Greenburg who had an agency called R/GA. They had good design, good interaction, but what they weren’t really good at was telling brand stories. He liked that I came from a writing background and was a film writer and that I understood the web. So about nine years ago, he asked me to build a copywriting group, the first one in digital. I was really transforming that company from a tech and design shop into a full on agency. For all of my failures in feature film, it was like a 180 in advertising. I was at the top of my game.

After building the copywriting department, I wanted to get back in film so I started building what is now the Digital Studio at R/GA. I was writer/director for branded content. Then I left advertising to direct commercials on my own, I had a few successful pieces. I directed commercials for a while and then began directing television documentaries and fell in love with the process. I did about 20 or 30 shows for Discovery Channel, Science Channel, NBC news and CBS news.

Then Pat Stern became the new Chief Creative Officer here at iCrossing and asked me to come in a build a digital studio. I said, “As long as we can build and resolve a production model built on assets and built around social spaces.” So for the last couple years I’ve been building this different kind of production model. We’re asset focused. We’re certainly execution minded, but asset focused. We try to build asset libraries so our clients and our social groups can leverage those assets for extended periods of time and social engagements. iCrossing is strong at finding people and data, that’s what their roots are. The Studio was intended to tell brands stories. If you have an audience and you have a message, where the nexus of that meets is in material, like photographs, copy, video etc. I’ve learned to build a real proficiency in this.

    Of everything you’ve created or brought to life, what are you most proud of?

I would say the film. I’m also very proud of this model here at iCrossing (building a content model in a space that’s highly competitive is a challenging thing), and my photography. But I think that failure of a feature was amazing. The learning curve was straight up and it made me the creative person I am today, which is pretty fearless. I think surviving the experience with that feature, I can walk into any room now, advertising wise, and be able to recognize the problem really fast and call it out in a way that everyone can understand it. The art of recognition is the art of success. If you identify what the problem & solution is, it makes things a lot more fun and a lot easier.

    Speaking of your photography, tell me more about All The Lonely People NYC. Has NYC street photography been a passion of yours for long?

I came up as a writer and picked up photography 5-6 years ago so I could have a better dialogue with cinematographers and I’ve realized what a joy it is to take lonely walks and catch people doing candid things. Creating “All the Lonely People” and developing an audience around it along with developing a publishing calendar was a surprising source of pride. I’ve really enjoyed the dialogue.

In my photography, I can be as intentional as I want. And with social now, you have such amazing tools to reach people and to have a direct dialogue with them. When I made the feature in 1997, it took six months before I could even see my negatives because I had to raise the money to get it processed. In took another year before we could get into a feature film market where six people saw it. Then I couldn’t even get it on DVD yet. I couldn’t get it to anyone, anywhere.

Now, I think the democratization of distribution for content makers is a profound paradigm shift, and it’s instantaneous. I make things that make me happy and within minutes, I have processed them to my liking, put them out to my liking, and developed a connection with my audience. That didn’t exist eight years ago. Being able to advertise and promote your own content… It’s an amazing age for people that make stuff. 

    At Scoopr Media, we value “that genuine moment” someone has with a brand & we want those moments captured. Tell me about the moments you experience walking the streets of NYC that tell you, “Ken, you’ve got to capture this!”

It’s the same approach I have for my marketing and advertising work, and that is to know yourself. Who are you? What do you want to say? Who do you want to say it to? This all determines how you say it. I started this photo project as counter point to how structured & dictated most my professional life is. I’ve made it a completely intuitive process. Especially with a camera, I find that I can just listen to that hint of an inner voice that says point and press the button. I’ve published over a thousand photographs in the last four months, but I’ve shot over 80,000 photographs. I’ve just made a choice that this was going to be an absolutely intuitive process. I could in some ways close my eyes knowing when it’s time to shoot. I find that when I look at these photographs and the ones that speak to me, there’s always some little thing in the photograph that I didn’t see with my conscious mind that I think my intuition saw.

    The users of Scoopr, or 'Brand Ambassadors' as we call them, use their creativity & judgment to capture brand moments. As an expert in the field, what would your advice be to these content creators?