Alright, people are checking in after the hurricane this week. We’re fine in Raleigh. The shop’s fine. We just got heavy rain unlike the Western part of the state. Shout out to the local churches, firefighters, and shelters for stepping up around Asheville. Based on Katrina in the 90s and what we’re hearing, the biggest requests are for: Bottled water Shelf stable food Fuel Physical Cash Chainsaws and people to cut up trees on properties, do repairs from flood damage Hope that helps. As always, going local tends to stretch dollars further because it goes to the actual people involved vs. 99% overhead. Food is definitely the big ask from pantries, etc. as they are getting cleaned out daily and...
What a breath of fresh air. There’s a print renaissance which is great for sales and marketing since it converts 20x for sales compared to speaking. 100% behind the big trend for September fashion week. This isn’t a new trend of course, George Orwell and other state propagandists 100+ years ago discussed their love of print vs. radio in WW II, but it’s nice to see print making a practical comeback as podcasting feels off lately. Not sure why. Totally loved all the smart magazines we’ve gotten September here at the shop. There’s also cute little flyers, coupons, newspapers, and zines you see downtown floating around. Definitely some new talent cropping up. It might be worth taking a second look...
Back when MMA sports became a thing, expected the same thing to take off for horses in Pineville or other race tracks. Unlike Europe in which most horses are tied to a particular country, American horse breeds are tied to particular states. In Eastern North Carolina, there’s a number of golf courses tied with horse breeding and they are likely to benefit from this advertising campaign. Morgan horses, the US breed, are known for multiple strengths, but everyone has their favorites. Put a mustang, quarterhorse, arab, and trotter together in a race. Who would win? Unknown. It would definitely drive fashion. You also have two main riding styles: European and Western. Obviously, the cynical point of doing something like this...
Well, the Highland Games are over for the summer and we’re sliding into North Carolina Ren Faire Season. The Carolina Renaissance Festival is probably the biggest. It’s certainly not the only one or 100. A chance to see some really lovely costumes and great acting on sets. Given Dior’s take on the Scottish Highlands, it would be interesting to see if that plays into fall. Keep expecting to see a meet-cute romantic comedy about an India-American immigrant meeting a local Scottish-American guy at a fall festival and bonding over beers, dancing, and food. Obviously, a straight 90s romcom doesn’t seem to be popular with Disney or large entertainment companies right now, but a small indy A24 company could probably shoot...
This weekend is the Duke Gardens Plant Sale. The gardens are beautiful and if you like bees or butterflies, it’s flower central. Weirdly there’s no real scifi films or books being released this fall season which gives us a chance to catch up on local flavors. Visit a few Ren Faires. Maybe a State Fair. Check out our tourist spots. If you’re in North Carolina, the most popular pollinator plant to grow is the Mountain Mint all up and down the Eastern Coast. This is a bit of a side marketing gimmick, but I thought that eventually we’ll see a trend of instead of farm to table restaurants, garden to bar around mint themes. Girls love butterflies and mixed drinks....