Fountain of Yus - #015
Ramadan Kareem to all my brothers and sisters around the Dunya. Back with another issue of FOY, covering Sports & Ramadan, Telfar madness, Slawn's streamathon and Heinz dropping into Fortnite.
The world of Sport embraces Ramadan
As Muslims all over the world observe the holy month of Ramadan, brands look to communicate with the Ummah. Over the past few weeks, we’ve seen a host of campaigns from sports brands, embracing their Islamic audience.
Starting off with adidas, the Swedish arm of the brand created an amazing piece of content that highlights sports peoples' experiences while observing Ramadan. See the world doesn’t stop for Muslim people when Ramadan comes, but rather they adjust their lives to adequately accommodate this month of fasting whilst still going on about their daily lives. The adidas ad highlights this by spotlighting the many truths that Muslims experience during this month, with Muslims being accustomed to observing Ramadan in environments where they could be the only one, as well as being asked whether they’re tired or feeling weak, but a change of perspective helps one see that rather for Muslims, observing Ramadan is about practising your submission to your Creator, abstaining from your desires, earning good deeds and celebrating being able to witness this Holy month once again. “Stomach empty, but soul wealthy” this adidas ad truly depicts that this is more than just sports.
Across the Premier League, we’re seeing steady progress in the inclusivity of Muslim players and fans. Chelsea hosted an open iftar at the club’s stadium, meanwhile, the Premier League and EFL have announced that players will be allowed to break fast midgame. This is off the back of the previous season where clubs with Muslim players would agree on their own accord to pause matches to allow players to break their fast.
adidas TERREX also partnered with hiking community ‘Muslim Hikers’ to create a campaign promoting a more inclusive outdoors. The campaign also included a special prayer mat for Muslim hikers, making prayer easier by providing an outdoor-friendly mat.
While it's great to see sports brands and organisations put more effort to increase the inclusivity and visibility of their Islamic audience, it does beg the question of why to the marketing world, Muslims only seem to exist during the month of Ramadan. Brands need to find a way to communicate with the Muslim community outside of Ramadan as Muslims expect communication all year around and not just on significant moments on the marketing calendar.
Heinz drop into Fortnite to address Soil Health
The world’s most popular ketchup brand has once again used gaming to flex its sauce. Following its successful ‘Hidden Spots’ campaign with Call of Duty Warzone, where they created a map showcasing some of the best hiding spaces in the game to take a well-earned break and enjoy a snack, Heinz has now partnered with Fortnite for a dose of edutainment.
The partnership came in the form of a map that looks to teach gamers about soil health. Players will battle in a zone called ‘The Storm’ which shrinks 33% more than other playing fields in Fortnite, educating gamers on soil degradation through this. The map is layered with information that details the threats to soil health whilst providing some valuable learning.
Heinz is also using this activation as a means to share its commitment to adopting more sustainable practices, with its plan to produce ketchup from 100% sustainably grown tomatoes by 2025 and achieve net zero carbon emission by 2050 too.
Let’s be honest, conversations about climate change and preservation can be a little bit disengaging to most, mainly because of the scaremongering, the format it's delivered in and also the fact that often the way information is shared is not democratic enough to be digestible to the masses. However, by using gaming as a means to spread awareness, Heinz is showing the value of going where the audience is and speaking to them in a way they can easily understand, signalling the importance of edutainment as a way to spread knowledge
TelfarMania
Cult unisex New York-based fashion brand TELFAR has once again evolved their fan engagement. This time around asking their consumer base to determine the value of their latest collection by announcing a new pricing model.
The new live pricing model is designed to let the Telfar community determine the value of its products. How it works may be confusing initially but actually pretty smart once you get the hang of it. Collections will drop at wholesale price, with the price going up every second until it reaches full price. However, if the demand for the product increases then the price reduces, with the price the product sells out at becoming its price forever. For instance, a pair of grey sweatpants that originally sold for $320 sold for $80 and that will be the new price of the product going forth. Simply revolutionary.
This is a game changer because while Telfar is known as a high fashion brand, it's acting in a way that is anti-luxury, dismantling our perception of what luxury means. Part of the goal of this stunt is to put a spotlight on how broken the fashion industry’s traditional pricing model is. In the fashion world, brands usually charge more for their popular items however Telfar is doing the exact opposite, they are making their most popular products accessible to more, thus making its brand more inclusive to different class groups as opposed to just catering to one. As Telfar Clemens puts in his own words “I want people who want my clothes, and will look cool in it, to be able to get it,”
This is no surprise coming from Telfar, in fact, you could argue only Telfar could pull this off. The brand has built itself by putting its community at the centre of it. Their social channels are filled with UGC, consistently serving social proof of the brand’s cult status. Furthermore they also previously launched TelfarTV, a 24-hour live channel for its community where it shares the latest news from the brand but also fan-made content. So it only makes sense that a community-centred brand would not use pricing to gatekeep access to its beloved items.
What’s also smart about the live pricing model is it tells the brand team which products from the collection are most in demand, that way they know which products to increase the supply of. And of course, the larger the order, the cheaper it costs to manufacture.
Through the live pricing model, Telfar has successfully built a system where the bestselling products are the most affordable.
Slawn bats 1440 not out
Popular London-based Nigerian artist, Slawn, has once again returned with a new stunt.
Over the past year, Slawn has used a host of guerrilla marketing tactics, including a treasure hunt around central London for his artwork, as well as getting his fans to taunt staff at Saatchi gallery by asking them where his art is being exhibited knowing very well his work wasn’t there. All these stunts worked in his favour though as by the end of the year he had his work exhibited at Sotheby’s as part of an exhibition curated by Skepta and also became the first foreign-born artist to design a BRIT statue, amongst many other achievements.
Now Slawn is back again with another stunt, this time putting his body to the test. On the 20th of March Slawn challenged himself to spend 24 hours making artworks without eating nor drinking, a grand 1440 minutes. Livestreaming the whole occasion on Youtube, fans watched from their screens as they waited to see whether he’ll actually achieve it, as it is no mean feat. 24 hours later, Slawn achieved the challenge he set himself to do and made over 1200 artworks as a result.
We’re seeing popular internet figures test their limits for the sake of pulling off the unthinkable. In February, internet sensation Kai Cenat hosted a 30-Day 24/7 Twitch stream which saw him break the record for most subscribers on Twitch and set a new high of over 300000 subscribers. 30 days nonstop is insane but this doesn’t just happen, it takes a high level of preparation, in his documentary spotlighting the 30-Day streamathon, Kai shows how he prepared for it, with each day being programmed to serve a different dose of entertainment. Same goes for Slawn, when I saw him in the weekend building up to his streamathon, he mentioned that he hadn’t eaten since Friday in preparation for it. This goes to show that attracting attention doesn’t happen by chance and more level of thought goes into it than it seems.
Through these streamathons, creators are able to serve the unlimited access to them that their fans desire while fans also stick to their screens to see if their favourite creators achieve the challenge they set themselves to.
Yuseful Notes
MAXXED OUT: Gauchoworld partnered with END. to host a bag-making workshop with Mowalola's Head of Accessories Betty for Air Max Day.
Gorpcore: How arc’teryx rose to popularity.
Book for the bag: Rising London streetwear brand AELIZA host book swap in exchange for their new bags.
Bal D’Afrique: Byredo taps Gabriel Moses to create a film depicting the story behind this year’s Bal D’Afrique fragrance.
Renaissance Couture: Beyoncé teams up with Olivier Rousteing for a collection inspired by her latest album, ‘Renaissance’.
Get the badge in: Daniel Arsham collabs with Stone Island on a bespoke UNIMOG truck.
Tommy Aries: London streetwear brand Aries release a collab with Tommy Hilfiger.
Levi’s x Nigo: The pair unveil the launch of their third collaboration.
Kano Company: Legendary UK multi-hyphenate collabs with CP company.
Corteiz takes on the Big Apple.
Football and the 95s: The historic relationship between the famous sneaker and the beautiful game.
OVO FC: Drake’s OVO released a collaboration in partnership with Toronto FC to celebrate Lorenzo Insigne signing to the football club.
You Never Walk Alone: Converse unveils collaboration with Liverpool
AI Football Fever: A look at what famous directors take on football films would look like through AI.
Dare for more: Pepsi redesigns its logo.
The North Rave: North Face pays a nod to UK Rave culture with their latest NSE collection.
Goals for Girls: Girls United raise £6K from their annual football tournament. The money raised will go towards the creation of safe spaces for girls and young women in football.
Be my eyes: How ChatGPT is helping visually impaired people.
TikTok Fit: How filters made by the app are making exercise playful.
Edutainment: How knowledge is being spread in an engaging manner on TikTok.
Prompt play: Unity games unveil their own generative AI play.
FAB: unreal engine may have solved asset interoperability with a unified digital marketplace for creators.
What Would Yus Do?
Sharing upcoming experiences that I find interesting and you may potentially too.
Strike!: Gauchoworld’s Seun Areoye has launched ‘hook lane club’ a bowling community, running every Tuesday at Rowan’s from 8PM. Sign up here.
Checkmate: Creative collective Cielbleu have started a chess club at 100 Shoreditch, running every Tuesday from 7PM - late.
Samutaro x GANT: Popular Instagram curatorial page Samutaro is hosting a zine and archive exhibition in collaboration with GANT over the weekend at Dijonss.
Edges of Sign Language: Christine Sum Kim examines how sound operates in society. On at the Somerset House Studios on the 31st of March.
Untold Stories: Exhibition by Mehdi Ghadyanloo at the Almine Rech London. On until the 8th of April.
That’s all for now
Until next time,
Yus
"Stomach empty, but soul wealthy " 🙏🏿