My Favorite Collector’s Item – Kidrobot’s Use of Digital

The extent of my collector’s items consists of some stickers on a notebook from third grade. I’ve never been a collector despite growing up with my brother who was an avid baseball (more specifically Phillies) gear collector. Collecting things never really interested me.

Over Thanksgiving break, I was walking down the street in NYC with a friend and a specific store caught my eye. Not knowing what the store sold, I walked in to see a world of collector’s items. Needless to say, my sticker Trapper Keeper ways and I did not fit in.

But as I walked around I realized that Kidrobot was the coolest and most effectively branded store I have seen in quite some time.

Kidrobot, according to their Web site, is “the world’s premier designer and retailer of limited edition art toys and apparel. Kidrobot merges urban street trends, fashion, and pop art to produce limited edition, collectible toys and apparel. Kidrobot products feature unique collaborations with top international artists with backgrounds as diverse as graffiti, fine art, fashion, industrial design, graphic design, illustration, and music.”

Their collector’s items run from $6 to $20,000!

But Kidrobot is more than just a collector’s store. I was so enthralled with the store that I decided to check it out online (um, duh). Twenty minutes later I had looked at Kidrobot’s Flickr page, their six blogs for each of their different locations (although they mainly just post pictures of the items), discussion board, events, videos and how-to guides.

Branding and building a business is about telling a story. Entering the Kidrobot store, I got a taste of the story. The sleek white walls, the bright clothing sold and the eclectic items made me believe in the story. I wanted to spend time looking at the items and learning more about the company. I wanted to be a part of the story.

When a company, such as Kidrobot, uses social media to engage consumers and attract new ones, anyone can become a collector, or any type of consumer for that matter. Even a Trapper Keeper lover like me.

*Photo from Kidrobot’s Flickr photostream

-Carla

My Relationship with Social Media

Twitter. Facebook. LinkedIn. MySpace.

So many sites, so little time. What’s a girl to do? 

With a full-time job and graduate school application deadlines closing in on me, I can’t help but notice that the social media sites I enjoy spending my time on are taking a backseat (like last-row-in-an-18-passenger-van backseat). My tweets are few and far between and my Facebook activity has flatlined. I’m struggling to keep my blog posts fresh, interesting and frequent. 

The immediacy of social media can be intimidating – once I type a 140-character tweet, it’s out there for good, or as long as it takes to find the delete option.

It’s hard to keep up and it can be wearing. Because just like most good things in life, social media requires commitment. Just like a job, just like a relationship. And commitment isn’t for everyone, and relationships aren’t easy. 

The flip-side being that the trends in social media are forever-changing, so things don’t get as stale as the daily grind can. As social media continues to gain more and more traction, information will become more accessible and the sheer mass of it all will make navigation all the more difficult. 

As corporations find more ways to use social media and embed it in society, it’s obvious that my relationship with social media is only just beginning…

-Rachel