What You Need to Know Today: March 15
Good afternoon, Early Risers!
Here’s what you need to know
TECH
Why the most exclusive club in Los Angeles has no line. “To gain entry into the most exclusive club in Los Angeles, there is no need to wear a trendy outfit or to slip the bouncer a Benjamin,” says Kristen Brown. “In fact, there isn’t even a line. Instead, admission requires the approval of a scrupulous jury of 1,500 women.”Inside L.A.’s most elite private Facebook group for ‘cool’ girls.
The First Lady won’t dab, but she will turnip. Mrs. Obama: “We always say, ‘Well, can we make it go viral?’” Lessons on social media from @MichelleObama.
How to successfully relaunch a YouTube channel. Anytime you’re rebranding, you’re taking a risk. Most people don’t like change — as you’ll see later in today’sDaily Brief — so changing your brand can upset your followers. This is something The Young Turks (TYT) had to deal with when they relaunched one of their YouTube channels. With the stakes high, here’s how TYT successfully rebranded.
CAREER
Solid career advice from Bernie Sanders’ DJ. Meet DJ Mel. He’s spun for the NFL Draft, at Obama’s Inauguration in 2013, and more recently for Obama at SXSW. Mel is in the Austin Music Awards Hall of Fame, and where most people can find him now, is on the campaign trail with Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders.The Kernel had an exclusive interview with DJ Mel — where they discussed politics and music. One question for Mel: What kind of advice can you give younger, aspiring DJs? Mel said: “People who are going into DJing with the hopes of blowing up or becoming a star — then, in a way, you’ve defeated the purpose of DJing to begin with. Just like with anything else it’s about learning: It’s learning about music, discovering yourself through music, learning the art of it. Learning about the people who came before you, doing right by the folks who book you.” Read the full interview.
The most successful people are all… a double threat (or more). “‘Why is it so hard to get an awesome job?’ A lot of people who ask this question tend to say stuff like: ‘This economy sucks for getting a job!’ or ‘College didn’t prepare me for the real world!’ or ‘My parents generation didn’t have it this hard!’…or blame someone else for their awful prospects. But they’re overlooking one important factor: themselves. Maybe, just maybe, they aren’t that valuable. That sounds super mean, but let’s break this down. The famous venture capitalist Marc Andreessen put out a fantastic guide for planning your career. The main concept is focusing on becoming at least a double-threat,” says Neville Medhora. The truth hurts.
LIFESTYLE
Why The Brother’s Grimsby was a flop. Last week, I shared with Daily Briefreaders another one of Sacha Baron Cohen’s clever marketing stunts for The Brother’s Grimsby. As it turns out, Cohen’s slick marketing couldn’t save the film. It flopped at the box office over the weekend, raking in a mere $3.5 million. So what happened? Two ideas: the first is simply that if your product sucks, it sucks. No marketing can save a lousy film once the reviews come out. The second is that most people don’t like surprises. The Purple Cow philosophy — to stand out — might work in most saturated marketplaces. But for movies that want to make money, it’s rare. This is why movie trailers are giving away more and more of the storyline, including plot twists and pivotal moments.
#NOWYOUKNOW
Meet the Billy Bean of Books
Andrew Rhomberg wants to be the Billy Beane of the book world, writes The New York Times. Rhomberg is the founder of Jellybooks, a reader analytics company based in London.
What kind of numbers is Rhomberg interested in? Age demographics, time spent on a page, highlights, when readers stop reading a book (Chapter 2, 3, etc.). What Netflix and Spotify are doing for movies and music, Jellybooks wants to do for books. The only problem is it could ruin authors. Read more.
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