MOMOKO MASHUPS » everyone's talking about it

A Revolution in The Process

Janice Momoko Chow — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 05:28:20 +0000

An insightful film comparing social media and internet activity around the world. Social media activity has proliferated with 126 million blogs on the web. Facebook has 350 million users and logs in at 260 billion page views per month. Plus, there are 84% more women than men on social networks. The best part (at 2:51) shows the Launch Dates of Social Media Networks, showing an evolution of what we’ve adopted (and abandoned) from 1995 to 2010.

With the recent news that Facebook has overtaken Google as the entry point to the web, there is no doubt that Facebook is a valuable platform to reach billions of people and future customers. Product searches are great, but often leads to Google generated web ads.

Today people experience brands in multiple ways, including built networks that allow for a closer interaction with the brand. It’s how users are trusting peer to peer recommendations or an active brand profile as opposed to a one-click search that is important. The marketing needs to be brand led, and have the capacity to take on different forms in order for the brand to be best brought to life.

[via Paul Worthington]

Quoi de Neuf? Twitter in France

Janice Momoko Chow — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 16:45:30 +0000

Twitter’s translation project has been making its way to Europe. Earlier this month it launched in Spain, and today it officially launched in France with a blog and a post penned in French. Imagine learning and studying the language while abroad in France, Canada, and various French territories. It’s one leap forward in globalizing communications.

By Lauren Luke: Self-Made Digital Strategy

Janice Momoko Chow — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 19:25:17 +0000

It’s interesting to see a luxury cosmetic company finally break into a more tech-savvy audience and create a digital strategy behind the brand. This might be a reaction to the efforts of the self-made make-up artist, Lauren Luke, who has Youtube channel of online make-up tutorials with an average of 56 million viewers and 260,000 subscribers.

In early 2009–with the IP expertise of Anomaly–Sephora partnered with Luke to create By Lauren Luke, a proprietary signature line of cosmetics. Since the launch, she has become an online sensation with loyal fans and shoppers. Luke doesn’t offer marketed luxury cosmetics, but she does offer candid makeup advice from all the natural skill or imperfections of a real woman.

For The Fashionably Clueless

Janice Momoko Chow — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 06:37:05 +0000

I was having a conversation with a digital strategist at one of the most awesome digital agencies in New York about interactive fashion communities and websites and StyleCaster came to mind. I have been an active user on Style.com for nearly a decade. Creating a mock website on CSS/HTML sealed the deal with my intimate relationship with the very first fashion 1.0 site. Then came The Fashion Spot, a.k.a. TFS where I would gather over fashion tips and interact with fellow users. No other fashion magazine site or blog has been able to personalize these features.

So what is StyleCaster? Their mantra is “personal style experience uniquely tailored to your fashion DNA”. They describe themselves as the Web’s first truly personalized, integrated fashion channel, where you receive all news on fashion, beauty, breaking news, celebrity, shopping, and community just for you. It’s really an innovative way to receive news about fashion and join an interactive fashion community, aside from blogs and magazine websites. It’s the first venture into fashion web 3.0.

How did they come about? Stylecaster officially launched in February 2009. Last week July 1st, StyleCaster raised $4 million in Series A round of financing from investor Dan Gilbert, QuickenLoans.

Who is StyleCaster? There’s really no one person who is the face of StyleCaster, unless you’ve seen the prelaunch video of Jessica Joffe. It’s called “Transformations” and it’s a montage of Joffe getting up and ready for work, and walking through the streets of SoHo. StyleCaster is twofold: it’s a community and an authority.

You can even get weather and outfit forecasts on the StyleCaster App for the iPhone. “The StyleCaster Daily Look’s application delivers you three fully styled outfits based on your local weather. You can click on the outfit to learn more about it and the style influencers who created it.” What I get from this app is the relevant utility of it. I don’t think women seek to recreate the exact looks they offer, but they can get an idea or two about what to pair with and the local weather forecast. Also, the StyleCaster App features a range of styles to choose from and find its origins. So, when women are just out and about, they can use of the StyleCaster App and find out where to buy the featured item and any local sample sales. It really serves the essence of a mobile app.

StyleCaster App on Facebook

photo credits: StyleCaster

Jil Sander-Glo: Designs at Uniqlo

Janice Momoko Chow — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 03:27:07 +0000

Since living in Tokyo for two years and now in NYC, I have become a huge fan of Uniqlo. Minimalist designs meet fun colors and any urban wallet can afford. Now the queen of minimalism has signed on to become head of design at the Japanese megachain. “Some of you [have known] me since I have been engaged in fashion but I’m not interested in the past. Let us talk today about the future,” Jil Sander, clad in a black knee-length coat, said. “I’m here in Tokyo for something completely different. The challenge for me is to establish a premium quality in a democratically-priced range.” Taken from Spring 2005 Jil Sander, could we be seeing more of this? We’ll have to find out.

Grit Glamourous

Janice Momoko Chow — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 08:00:17 +0000

If you’re a wanderer like me, you know that walking in Downtown LA is a little twisty. It’s posh and pretty in some places, while grimy and dirty with a touch of street characters in others. Strolling down Frank Gehry’s Walt Disney Concert Hall, I walk down Grand Avenue to MOCA, an area so nicely perched on a hill. Dare to venture down from Bunker Hill, like say going to the Mike & Chris sample sale like I did during lunch a few weeks ago, and you find yourself on Broadway. It’s like Roppongi in Tokyo, a completely different place. You soon begin to hear Gloria Estefan on karaoke, stores spill out into the sidewalks, Prado (Prada!) handbats, a gazillion of electronics are for sale, and three amigos share shots of tequila over tire-size ashtray under the lazy noon sun. As the avenues advance 7^th, 8^th and 9^th, I reach the famed Orpheum Theater where LA once had a roaring opera scene, has long lost its glamour to grit, beside a fruit stand.

In the Greenwich Village, “Sarah Jessica Parker is bemoaning the loss of a city that many say she has helped push out. As trendy bars and boutiques take over Manhattan’s corner bodegas and laundermats, the famously stiletto-heeled “Sex and the City” star laments the loss of grit for glamour in New York.” But what fun would it be without our favorite glamour girls strutting their stuff all over Manhattan? Fantasy it was, the movie is everything I love about NYC. Word of advice, don’t blink when watching the movie. The styles changed so quickly, one blink and you’ll miss Carrie styled to perfection. I saw a Nina Ricci tutu, Dries van Noten dresses, Peter Som chemisiers, Balenciaga platform sandals…me likes! (Can anyone tell me who makes the white rosette zipper jacket and satin shift Carrie wears in the last scene? I’d love to know!)

Grit glamourous, as I call it, became a photo shoot competition for America’s Next Top Model. Yes, it’s a guilty pleasure indeed, and recently I found out by boyfriend watches it with his best buddy roomie all the time! Shhh…! Tyra put a spotlight on homeless youth and the girls posed for a photo shoot with real homeless youth. The shoot was awk-ward and entertaining at the same time. So wrong! Imagine what the real homeless people were thinking? I walk by homeless in Downtown all the time and I think they’d rather eat a nice big lunch, not be in a photo shoot with these model hopefuls. In this twisted fashion world, somehow living on the streets involves personal stylists and perfectly tilted rag doll-style ski caps!

SJP laments what was once the City’s grit’s past, but I think the true lost is lamenting over a Downtown LA’s glamourous past!