Excellent! Grateful for your thought leadership in AI companions.
Curious to hear the process you and the Spuddie team used to land on the 3D minimalist aesthetic (akin to Kakao friends) instead of say flat 2d (i.e. Pusheen) or pixel art.
Emma, thank you for thoughtfully explaining the importance and history of branding and IP.
I would like to also add that simply having a brand, IP, or character isn't sufficient. It's the memorable stories that resonate with people which lead to good outcomes. Gary Vee famously says it takes 10+ years to build brands. As you mentioned, in today's world, everyone can code, and similarly, everyone can create a brand or character using AI. However, AI has yet to achieve the creativity needed to tell unique stories. It may get there, but hopefully, the authenticity of the human touch will always shine through. I'm curious about your thoughts on how brands will stand out in the future?
As a technologist who transitioned to the fashion and beauty industries five years ago, I quickly realized the huge gap between what scientists and engineers think will sell and what actually will sell. I learned the importance of communication and storytelling and made it my mission to fill these gaps. Gaming has done a great job telling memorable stories with tech, and some in social media have too, but most brands are still missing out on these great mediums that can be used for truly memorable and engaging storytelling.
Looking forward to your insights and future articles!
Yes, character brands are typically built with 3 elements: character, story and world. I reference Gudetama as an example of story in the piece:
'I’ve identified 4 key things that successful character IP brands do. Build out their Story. One of our favorites is Gudetama a lazy apathetic anthropomorphized egg which a lot of us can resonate with.'
I disagree that AI has yet to achieve the creativity needed to tell unique stories. There are a number of different companies doing great work around this. For example Neon Wild creates unique and beautiful kids stories and worlds. https://www.neonwild.com/#introducing
Well this is the million dollar question. We are already seeing how difficult it is to start and maintain a fashion brand today with instagram or tiktok shopping, stripe and shopify making it easier than ever to set up a store. Consistently delivering quality products that consumers like. Having unique branding: Starface is a great example of a Gen Z brand that pioneered the adorkable trend. It stood out from the crowd with clashing colors. Y2k stylized buttons and display boxes. No filters on photos. Taking something shameful (pimples) and celebrating it. Here's a great article on it here: https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2021-01-24/the-gen-z-brand-aesthetic-is-both-disruptive-and-adorkable
Obviously here i talk about here characters. Line the messaging app used Line Friends to built trust and attract people to the messaging platform.
So there are many ways :) its very product dependent. For us at Spuddie we are heavily leaning into character IP.
Excellent! Grateful for your thought leadership in AI companions.
Curious to hear the process you and the Spuddie team used to land on the 3D minimalist aesthetic (akin to Kakao friends) instead of say flat 2d (i.e. Pusheen) or pixel art.
Emma, thank you for thoughtfully explaining the importance and history of branding and IP.
I would like to also add that simply having a brand, IP, or character isn't sufficient. It's the memorable stories that resonate with people which lead to good outcomes. Gary Vee famously says it takes 10+ years to build brands. As you mentioned, in today's world, everyone can code, and similarly, everyone can create a brand or character using AI. However, AI has yet to achieve the creativity needed to tell unique stories. It may get there, but hopefully, the authenticity of the human touch will always shine through. I'm curious about your thoughts on how brands will stand out in the future?
As a technologist who transitioned to the fashion and beauty industries five years ago, I quickly realized the huge gap between what scientists and engineers think will sell and what actually will sell. I learned the importance of communication and storytelling and made it my mission to fill these gaps. Gaming has done a great job telling memorable stories with tech, and some in social media have too, but most brands are still missing out on these great mediums that can be used for truly memorable and engaging storytelling.
Looking forward to your insights and future articles!
Yes, character brands are typically built with 3 elements: character, story and world. I reference Gudetama as an example of story in the piece:
'I’ve identified 4 key things that successful character IP brands do. Build out their Story. One of our favorites is Gudetama a lazy apathetic anthropomorphized egg which a lot of us can resonate with.'
I disagree that AI has yet to achieve the creativity needed to tell unique stories. There are a number of different companies doing great work around this. For example Neon Wild creates unique and beautiful kids stories and worlds. https://www.neonwild.com/#introducing
Well this is the million dollar question. We are already seeing how difficult it is to start and maintain a fashion brand today with instagram or tiktok shopping, stripe and shopify making it easier than ever to set up a store. Consistently delivering quality products that consumers like. Having unique branding: Starface is a great example of a Gen Z brand that pioneered the adorkable trend. It stood out from the crowd with clashing colors. Y2k stylized buttons and display boxes. No filters on photos. Taking something shameful (pimples) and celebrating it. Here's a great article on it here: https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2021-01-24/the-gen-z-brand-aesthetic-is-both-disruptive-and-adorkable
Obviously here i talk about here characters. Line the messaging app used Line Friends to built trust and attract people to the messaging platform.
So there are many ways :) its very product dependent. For us at Spuddie we are heavily leaning into character IP.