Computerlove™

November 22nd, 2008

Steve Stoute, Advertising Hall of Achievement

“The Commissioner”

text via: Adweek

NEW YORK Steve Stoute, the 38-year-old CCO of Translation Consultation & Brand Imaging, launched in 2004, has been building brands since he was barely out of high school. But the former record executive -- who once managed artists such as Mary J. Blige and Nas -- still considers himself an advertising neophyte.

"I really am a novice," says Stoute, who despite his modest characterization has built a lucrative career connecting brands to the much sought-after hip-hop-inspired youth market. In fact, he's being honored by the American Advertising Federation in November with an induction into the organization's Advertising Hall of Achievement.

"It's something that took me by surprise," says Stoute of the honor. It shouldn't have. Stoute, who earlier this year launched Translation Advertising with Jay-Z -- as a division of Translation Consultation & Brand Imaging -- has leveraged the increasingly smitten relationship between Madison Avenue and the entertainment business into a lucrative career. His matchmaking efforts over the years have paired Jay-Z with Reebok, Justin Timberlake with McDonald's and Gwen Stefani with Hewlett-Packard.

Most recently, Stoute paired Wrigley's with artists including Chris Brown to help rebrand its chewing gum products. He commissioned the singer to revamp the brand's classic Doublemint jingle, which was released first as a four-minute single, "Forever." (The blogsphere subsequently lit up with fans angry they hadn't been told about the Wrigley's connection.) Wrigley's new campaign also includes revamped jingles for Big Red by Ne-Yo and for Juicy Fruit by Dancing With the Stars contestant and country singer Julianne Hough.

Brown's "Forever" was recently nominated for MTV Video Music Awards' Music Video of the Year. "It's incredible that an artist was nominated for a Video of the Year with a Wrigley's jingle," says Stoute.

With no formal business training, Stoute relies on instinct. He says he developed his insight into consumer behavior by watching people window-shop. "I've always paid attention to what people pick up and put down," says Stoute, whose client roster includes State Farm, Samsung and General Motors.

It was Peter Arnell, founder of the Arnell Group, who believed Stoute could give traditional advertising a nontraditional spin. In 2000, Stoute left the music business and became a partner at the agency. It was there he started working with Reebok, which he helped relaunch in 2003 with a new product line and an ad campaign with Jay-Z, whose S. Carter Collection by Rbk helped reconnect the brand with urban culture.

"The client results, selling product, means much more to me than awards and things of that nature," says Stoute. He credits his relationship with his Translation partners, Charles Wright, chief strategy officer, and John McBride, group strategy director, for his success. "They shape my vision tremendously," he says. "It all starts with strategy."

Currently, Stoute is working on a State Farm campaign with LeBron James and what he calls a "groundbreaking" effort for Samsung, which will debut during New York Fashion Week in September. It pairs the brand with Valentino and Conde Nast.

Celebrity endorsements, says Stoute, have changed since the time that smiling while holding the product and then receiving a check were the extent of the deal. Now, he says, "product endorsements are about product development and new-product creation all the way to a traditional endorsement model and everything in between."

And "selling out" today, he adds, means creating inauthentic relationships between pop culture and product. The most successful relationships, he says, come from brands and artists viewing themselves as true business partners. "Artists want to be more responsible for the final outcome," he says.

Pondering his November advertising honor, Stoute says, "The advertising business is saying, 'Steve, we're accepting you.' And I never knocked on the door. I just put out work. ... It makes me feel good. It makes me feel like we're building a strong agency here."

BIOGRAPHY

Education: Stoute, who grew up in Queens, New York, attended five colleges in two years, searching for "something that made sense," he says.

Career: At 19, Stoute began working in real estate and invested in the music business, putting artists like Kid 'N Play in the studio and on the road. He became a road manager, artist manager and A&R executive, and has worked with stars including Mariah Carey, Eminem, Jay-Z, Nas, Enrique Iglesias and U2. "In working with these artists, you learn a lot about branding, but in the record business we never called it branding," says Stoute. He worked at Sony Music and Interscope Records before partnering with Peter Arnell of The Arnell Group in 2000. In 2004 he launched Translation Consultation & Brand Imaging, which was acquired by Interpublic Group in 2007.

Extra curricular: This year, Stoute co-founded the Foundation for the Advancement of Women Now with Mary J. Blige.

November 21st, 2008

False / F.O.R.

EVERYTHING IS FALSE

FALLACY OF ROME is the conjoined brainchild of revered Grammy Award winning rapper Lupe Fiasco and Creative Supervillain Le Messie of the FALSE brand movement. A capsule collection embedded into Lupe Fiasco’s 2nd coming to his much sought after FALL OF ROME brand. The capsule collection contains hand-finished garments by the FALSE duo Le Messie & Amanda Scully.

Conceptualized around the “Hound of Hades” story-line that depicts the 3 minds involved in the birth of FALLACY OF ROME along with it’s possible journey into the depths of it’s future.

FALLACY OF ROME is a high-end capsule collection released internationally at only the best boutiques.

November 8th, 2008

Nas

photo by phil knott

November 6th, 2008

Format Magazine Issue #52

Format Mag has just released its 52nd issue. Fashion labels TorrelTorrel, Joystick Junkies, and Wollyhood; artists Pixeljam, Jonathan Mak, and Supakitch; the Top 10 Hip-Hop Video Games of all time; Chicago Street Shots and much more...

October 31st, 2008

No Heart

This is the portfolio of Vanessa Maynard . Multi-discipline and mixed media throughout.

October 29th, 2008

Brandonology

Bespoke, branding, merchandising and more. // link

October 6th, 2008

Myc Mystro

Myc Mystro is mashin out on some new projects. The best is yet to come...

September 29th, 2008

depthCORE XXXV - 'NOIR'

The depthCORE.com Collective are delighted to release their 35th exhibition, an entirely black & white body of work entitled 'NOIR'.

Consisting of over one hundred songs, photographs, illustrations and animations, 'NOIR' is a deep and immersive experience that is the result of an enthusiastic and considered response to an evocative theme from new and old artists alike. The months behind the scene spent creating the work that comprises this Chapter were some of the most artistically charged in their six year history; it is no stretch to say that this was an immensely enjoyable release to create. link

September 27th, 2008

Hillman Curtis

hillmancurtis, inc. is a film and web design firm in New York City. link

September 17th, 2008

Format Magazine Mascot, Clive

Format Magazine collaborated with Monster Factory to produce Clive, the Format mascot. Clive recently made his debut at the Five and Dime tradeshow in Toronto.

September 10th, 2008

Braided, SVMMR SLSTC / Rise of Futurecraft

Braided a photography series by SON, styling by Kita/Quita displayed in the new SVMMER SOLSTICE "THE RISE OF FUTURECRAFT". More of our series can be seen on Behance .

September 5th, 2008

Marc Ecko

A healthy and clean design for Marc Ecko new site.