(Special Invitation. Hostess with the Mostess, Leah, of Married to the Mob)

Last week, I was let in on a secret VIP night that Nike held for the street queen of New York City, Leah, of the clothing line, Married to the Mob (MOB). It was an invitation-only gathering of NYC’s coolest ladies who drank champagne and customized the sickest pair of sneakers. Very clever gathering for everyone. I brought the vinyl, Nike gave me the tables, and refreshingly enough, I was lucky enough to play an old school hip hop set to a room of women who appreciated the classics with respect. Lots of head-bopping and mouse-clicking and sneaker-making happening on Mercer street that night.

(Tabatha McGurr, MOB Blogger Extraordinaire)

PLAYLIST for MOB Night

Hip Hop Junkies – Nice’n'Smooth
Dwyck – Gangstarr
Voices Inside My Head – The Police
What Goes Around – Brand Nubians
Think About It – Lyn Collins
You Be Illin’ – Run DMC
Strawberry Letter – Brothers Johnson (Special Request by Tabatha)
Children’s Story – Slick Rick
Bucktown – Smif-n-Wessun
Passin’ Me By – Pharcyde

(Josh Porter of Nike. Leah of MOB)

Get customized at NIKE.com.

Married to the Mob and read MOB blog.

All Photos by Kevin Tachman.

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Lots has been said about Barack being “down” with the Internet. Sure, his email blasts are formulaic, but I still somehow felt special when my blackberry vibrated on election night with a note reading “We did it! I’m about to speak at Grant Park now”. It was those similar small notes that kept me in the game, made my ADD brain focus on important issues, and suckered me to give whatever little crappy donations I could. Even while I was out of the country — no matter what corner of the globe I was on — I was ALWAYS connected. For that, I’m grateful.

(Barack’s Announcement of Biden Pick was Texted to Supporters First)

It’s almost like coming out of a bad relationship with a flaky meanie ex-boyfriend. Then finally, one day you meet a new guy who slowly starts to train you that not everyone is that bad… that some people are consistent… and can be trusted. I’d say millions of Americans feel the same way in the sense that this guy got under our skin slowly, challenged our cynicism, and has spent his campaigning months earning our trust slowly.

But back to the role of the Internet —- This was the first year that the internet BEAT THE NETWORKS at announcing the presidency.

“Obama Wins the Presidency,” wrote Slate.com at 9:27pm. One minute after, The Page website declared “The Networks Won’t Tell You, but The Page Will: Barack Obama Will Be the 44th President of the United States.” Then 90 minutes passed and the networks began to announce it one by one. CBS and other TV competitors didn’t officially call the race until 11 p.m (until Barack’s electoral total surpassed 270). It’s understandable considering the 2004 “fake-out” when it was called wrong on the TV networks. But it’s official. The general process of announcing instant news on broadcast is a wrap! The TV process proved to be slower and lagging.

Right after the victory, Barack started a blog. The First announcement? The introduction of Rahm Emanuel, his new Chief of Staff. Did you know Rahm happens to be the brother of Endeavor’s Ari Emanuel (the real life agent played by Jeremy Piven on Entourage). How about that he has a Facebook page? Can it get any more surreal?

There’s a charming episode of Charlie Rose with all 3 successful Emanuel brothers — go to iTunes and download the show.

(Emanuel Rahm’s Facebook Group Page)

This is all old news. Let’s deal with the present issue at hand… Barack’s title of “First Tech President”.

It seems not only does he “get it” with online strategies… but it goes much deeper…. he’s also the man that will be championing Internet freedom and innovation. Obama has shared his third major element of his digital approach: Transparency. “We will put government data online in universally accessible formats.” This was the exact mantra Google mentioned earlier in the year.

The term is called “Net Neutrality”… and there’s a growing movement of companies and government folks who are championing this freedom of information. Obama vowed to defend net neutrality and deliver broadband Internet access to everyone in the country. Instead of “no child left behind”, one newspaper called it “no child left unconnected”.

Political debate regarding network neutrality focuses on whether companies operating lines handling Internet traffic should be allowed to charge for higher speeds or capacities instead of treating all users equally.

Here’s the politics behind freeing Internet for all:

Service providers contend that charging for priority on the Internet will promote investment in networks and let them better manage congestion caused by tremendous amounts of digital data traveling online. Internet firms, including Google, argue that service providers are making a money grab that would stifle online innovation and economic growth. Obama agreed that having “the Internet divided up to the highest bidders” would shut out startups and discourage innovation.

(“We have to assure free and full exchange of information, and that starts with an open Internet,” Obama said during an on-stage chat with Google chief executive Eric Schmidt.)

While speaking with “Googlers,” Obama said his priorities in the White House would include developing clean energy and using technology such as electronic medical records to help achieve universal health care. Obama also promised to put more government information online so people could track, and comment on federal contracts and legislation.

Case in point: 2 weeks ago, Barack announced his weekly Presidential address on YouTube. Why not? YouTube was probably the reason he won the campaign. He uploaded over 1800 videos that have been viewed over 110 million times total. The new Presidential addresses are aiming to — for the fist time in American history — create tight communication between public and president. Now, there’s no more networks in the way skewing the story for sensationalism or ratings or ad revenue. No more “big media” agendas in this case. The videos are being compared to the internet version of Franklin Roosevelt’s famous “fireside chats” between 1933 and 1944 – except you’re not stuck seeing them at 7pm. Your president will now be at your fingertips “in-demand” style any hour of the day.

Another major breakthrough: Barack plans to appoint the nation’s first Chief Technical Officer to make certain we incorporate technology into every decision we make.

Obama says: “I will take a back seat to no one in my commitment to network neutrality. Because once providers start to privilege some applications or websites over others, then the smaller voices get squeezed out and we all lose.”

Amen.

(Our government has a face now!!!! Yay!)

In the next few weeks, senior members of the transition team, various policy experts, and choices for the Cabinet (among others) will record videos for his website, Change.Gov. There is a blog on the site too. Each of the weekly videos will run roughly 4 minutes.

Stay tuned from your desks…
J

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I think most of my office was not even around when this SNL video came out — but oh god, it’s one of the most famous. A reminder of how hilarious old school Eddie Murphy was…
J

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A Night of Rx Art and Mercer snacks
by Melissa Bent

(Proenza Schouler’s Jack McCullough and Opening Ceremony’s Carol Lim)

Tuesday night the art world came out in support of Rxart to raise money for original artwork in hospitals and healthcare facilities.

The list of donated works was very long and was filled glamour. Jack was one of the hosts of the evening affair which had lots of drinks and snacks galore! Carol from Opening Ceremony was in an amazing black dress. Nate Lowman’s piece (the bikini lady) is behind them.

(Derek Blasberg, friend, and Starworks’ Lyle Maltz)

Derek was sporting a festive new hat that he was quick to point out came from Burberry. Wear it in good health, Derek! Lyle looks on and stepped aside when Derek and I got into it.

Amy lead the group to the Mercer where many pizza’s were ordered after the party.

(Amy and friend)

I caught shutterbug Sandra with her camera behind her back and saw her last night at a divine little celebration for Phillipe Vergne’s new directorship of Dia at Hiro.

It was a cold but cozy evening…
-Melissa

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It’s official. Honeyshed has launched.

If you haven’t heard of it yet here’s the pitch… pure and simple… It’s QVC-meets-MTV-generation. Very ambitious idea but an interesting mash-up of concept, demographic, and technology. Founder and chairman is David Droga. His pedigree includes being Worldwide Chief Creative Officer of the Publicis network, Executive Creative Director of Saatchi & Saatchi London, and Regional Creative Director of Saatchi & Saatchi Asia. Mr Droga is heavyweight champion of Ad awards with a track record of getting over 50 lions (the most awarded creative at the Cannes International Advertising Festival).

(Comme des Garcons wallet, $185)

Flash forward to 2006. David gets bit by the DIY bug after years of building visions for other major corporations. He finally opens his own banner called Droga5 in New York. Droga5 was the agency responsible for the famous guerilla video of Marc Ecko (of Ecko clothing) where he tagged President Bush’s Air Force One jet with the words “Still Free”. The clip was anonymously dropped on 20 websites. Then 24 hours later, it was the most viewed and discussed video on 3500 + websites (see original video here). It turns out, the whole video was a brilliant hoax that furiously traveled the internet. After the prank, it got even MORE media! Every major network and over 100 major newspapers covered the graffiti scam — it even got the attention of the White House and the Pentagon. Online analytics counted 23 million unique visits in the first 2 weeks only — with a total combined print+press audience of 115 million. Media dollars spent on broadcast and print? ZERO. Truly a victory and recordbreaker for viral video marketing. Conclusion is David is the only person to win “Agency of the Year “ in four separate countries.

Back to Honeyshed, his new baby. It’s Home Shopping Network with a street sensibility. The shopping cart instead is called “Stash”. We asked David a few questions about the big launch last week.

(European Inspired Lingerie, Carol Malonv Bras, $40-45)

Jauretsi: Who came up with this idea of an edgier QVC? Any interesting tales about the birth process of doing something so different?

David Droga: HoneyShed was the brainchild of a collection of industry friends in 2005. It was Patrick Milling-Smith (co-founder of Smuggler), Brian Beletic (director at Smuggler), Jae Goodman (currently at CAA), and me (pre-Droga5). We decided that the time had come for a more playful digital shopping site … a place where like-minded brands could come together and be transparent about their sell.

We wanted to make online shopping fun, silly, informative, and social… a site that could act as the pre-commerce to everyone else’s e-commerce sites. We also wanted a destination that allowed brands to have spontaneous and authentic conversations with their consumer. The objective was never to be creators of entertainment but rather curators of desirable brands. We then pitched the idea to Maurice Levy (CEO of the Publicis Groupe), who agreed to back this exciting venture. In late 2006, a joint venture was created between the Publicis Groupe + Droga5 + Smuggler.

(MPC-4000 player, the drum machine used by Kanye West and Dr. Dre, $2,299.00)

What is the role of Droga in relation with this channel?

Based out of LA and NY, HoneyShed is its very own ecosystem. With its own P&L, offices and staff, (CEO, CFO, production staff, sales teams and creative department). But while Droga5 and HoneyShed are completely separate entities, they do share the common element that I’m the Chairman of both. I was instrumental in putting the together the team that built and designed Honeyshed which includes the amazing Brian Beletic and Kim Howitt (formerly of Viacom). Together they established the Honeyshed look, attitude, and feel. Honeyshed is not a traditional creative department. It is a pool of young freelance directors, producers, researchers, writers, and editors. It is worth noting that almost all of them are actually within our desired demographic. This allows for greater versatility, spontaneity and an ability to collaborate more. Turn-around time for creation is weeks not months. Droga5 has been working closely with Digitas to handle all the advertising and marketing for the Honeyshed launch.

(Disney Couture, Tinkerbell Bamboo Hoop Earrings, $92)

How did the opening weekend go?

We’ve come out of the box strong. The site was in really good shape for the launch and we’ve made some further tweaks to make it run faster and better to smooth out a couple of small bugs (can’t launch without a couple of bugs). The audience is building quickly, and people are staying on the site and looking at multiple channels and videos. We’ve gotten a lot of good positive feedback and reaction, and a few blasts in the blogosphere, but HoneyShed really seems to be engaging people and getting them talking! We’re not for everyone, but our target audience is responding very positively. Bottom line: “opening weekend” has more than met our expectations!

(The doPi Karaoke System that plays through your iPod, $44.95)

Where do you see Honeyshed going in the next 5 years in terms of e-commerce?

Honeyshed should always be evolving. By collaborating with a myriad of creative and listening to feedback we aim to be a nimble site. Staying relevant is only possible if we have the freedom to react and innovate appropriately. Obviously we have no desire to be one dimensional. At the moment Honeyshed is deliberately silly, fun and casual, however in the future we may want to include more expertise for appropriate categories and more boutique UCG. As e-commerce continues to grow on the web, Honeyshed will be poised to continue to deliver an evolving home shopping experience to our audience. Through partnerships and enhanced functionality, we will make transactions easier while keeping them secure, and we will also continue to offer great products, appealing to our target, at good prices. Our discussions with MSN Live Search, for example, are designed to deliver enhanced value and low prices to people who shop on Honeyshed.

(Alexander McQueen’s collaboration with Puma, $250)

We will also evolve a recommendation functionality that will deliver product recommendations based on past purchase behavior and submitted profile information. And we will continue to deliver product information that drives e-commerce in a way that only Honeyshed can! In short, we will deliver on our goals of offering excellent variety of products, including trend-setting cutting edge products (at good values) through secure and convenient/easy functionality. We will also continue to enhance our ability to deliver shopping as a social experience, with opportunities to share and showcase products that pique our shoppers’ interest — also to show off, if they like, what they buy!

To experience the digital shopping experience for yourself, go to Honeyshed.com.

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