In the last of my very s-t-r-e-t-c-h-e-d-out posts (let’s call it maximising opportunity) on the Meet The Creators event held by Skins, South Africa’s leading niche retailer, these are my impressions.
Some trivial, some pseudo-profound, some about the state of niche.
+ Influencers are a headache for event organisers. But when some of them command the attention of almost one million followers, the show must go on… only when they arrive.
+ Social media has changed the world of perfume irrevocably, for better and for worse.
+ Niche is as much about commerce as it is about creativity.
+ While brands might be about niche and luxury, there’s nothing glamorous about putting in the hours, days, months and years to make a success of them.
+ Selling and living your brand is a full-time job. It takes immense self-confidence and patience to sell your brand for the umpteenth time.
+ Getting the balance between control freakery (ie, planning by researching the various brands and preparing questions) and spontaneity is a fine art that I’m yet to master.
+ It’s all about the extrait and increasingly the hair spray.
(*Apologies to Nick Cave.)
(**It’s taking me a long time to get going this year.)