IWYS Interview - A one on one with Jason Sadler

Hello once again avid readers, t-shirt lovers, marketing and branding strategists and hapless browsers from all around the world. I'll skip the apologies for the chasm of time that has passed since the last blog and instead turn it to appreciation and thanks for Jason Sadler, the mastermind behind the marking tsunami that is iwearyourshirt.com who was kind enough to take some time out of his jam packed days to answer a few questions for me. From my work with LadyUmbrella ladies t-shirts I came across Jason and by this stage I'm sure most of you reading this right now also have. So, lets cut the chit chat and get down to the good good, lets peer insides Jason's marketing and branding brain a bit and get to know the him a bit better...

Rob - Jason, firstly let me just say thanks a million for agreeing to be interviewed by me - from seeing all your facebooking, tweeting, youtubing and flickring I know you're insanely busy so thank you..So, lets get things started - for those who haven't heard of you or the advertising tsunami that is iwearyourshirt.com would you care to enlighten us?

Jason - iwearyourshirt.com was 1 guy in 2009 who got paid to wear t-shirts and advertise those companies through social media (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Ustream.tv, Flickr and the iwearyourshirt.com of course). People bought days throughout the year at face value, starting on January 1 for $1 and increasing $1 per day until December 31 at $365. I sold out the entire 2009 calendar on August 10 and had plans in place to add a 2nd person wearing shirts in 2010 and double the price of the calendar. As of this interview there are only 74 days left for sale! [Ed. due to circumstances beyond our control there has been quite a delay since conducting this interview with Jason and its publication - there are now only 58 days left. We chastise ourselves daily for the delay, apologies]

Rob - So, would you consider yourself a model or an animate advertisement? And, do you enjoy your job? From the outside looking in it looks all rosey and awesome but you must have some serious deadlines to meet. How you do stay focused and organized with so many things going on? At iwearyourshirt.com are there any other staff or are you flying solo?

Jason - I think I'm an advertiser who's directly reaching a focused audience. I definitely enjoy what I do because at the end of the day it boils down to being myself, being social and wearing a t-shirt. It's been a crazy year and a ton of fun. I continue to meet new people/companies on a daily basis and new friends/followers. Staying focused comes with having a very supportive family and audience. Everyone keeps me in check but also helps me get creative when I need it. It was just me in 2009 and next year my buddy Evan White will be wearing shirts with me everyday from Los Angeles, California. [Ed. ..and who hasn't heard of Evan by now??]

Rob - From one of your tweets I saw that the good folks at ABC were talking about you and then checked your press page - over 60 listings ranging from the LA Times and NY Times to Yahoo! Japan and AOL.com - how did you achieve that? And which bit of publicity/press has been the most beneficial to you thus far? Any top tips on creating good press releases?

Jason - Press Releases are a waste of time. I've never created one and have tried to advise people against doing it. You build press for your company by creating interesting marketing campaigns and getting people involved with your brand. If you are working hard enough and smart enough, the press will come. I've been incredibly lucky to have the NY Times and The Guardian write about me very early on in the project. That initial press helped get people on board, but it was my continued effort and participation from my audience that landed the Reuters feature that turned into a story on the homepage of Yahoo.com & AOL.com and eventually a few major network evening news spots. I am very grateful for all of that press, but word of mouth continues to be the best sales force for iwearyourshirt.com. [Ed. - Note to self, scrap the press release plan]

Rob - You were recently in Jamaica which must be a nice perk of the job I'm sure. You engage in any water sports or when you're not wearing someones shirt what do you like to do to unwind? [Ed. - at time of interview it was recent, again apologies]

Jason - Yeah it was an awesome opportunity to go on the 5-day cruise to the Caribbean courtesy of http://www.MSCCruisesUSA.com. I do enjoy traveling, especially when it's to a tropical place. And to unwind I spend time in the gym, I play tennis and basketball and live at the beach. It's refreshing to step away from the Internet for an hour or two each today, especially with the amount of hours I am on my iPhone, laptop and on camera.

Rob - You're a marketing major - was it from your studies that you got the idea for iwearyourshirt.com or where did it come from? Or did you just see an opportunity and go for it? Most, if not all, of your job entails social media and being online - have you always had an affinity for computers?

Jason - Actually I was a Graphic Design major [Ed. - very hard to get good research staff these days]. From an early age I picked up design and constantly tried to teach myself new things and experiment with new technologies. College for me wasn't a learning experience in the sense of skill set, but more networking and learning how to interact with people. For as long as I can remember I've believed in the "it's all who you know, not what you know". It's interesting though, when the idea of iwearyourshirt.com came about I only had a couple hundred friends on Facebook, 0 followers on Twitter and had NEVER made a YouTube video or done a live video. I knew that I had the personality to put myself out there and dove in head first. [Ed. - I don't know what those of you who are reading this think but I think that is quite incredible, like a digital duck to wwwater]

Rob - Once you got the idea for iwearyourshirt.com how long did it take you to get it up and running? You've been wearing t-shirts since January 1st 2009 but surely there was lots of hard work before that? What key things did you do before you launched that you look back on and "ye, I'm so happy I did that" or "that really worked out well"?

Jason - I thought of the idea in September 2008 and bought the domain name. A website was up in mid October and the first day sold November 11. I spent a month and a half interacting with people on Twitter, Facebook and starting to put myself in the social media space. By the time January 1, 2009 rolled around I had 5 1/2 months sold and was well on my way. I think it was a combination of people I knew, a bit of luck and people thinking the idea was unique. I wouldn't change one thing because I wouldn't be in the position I am today. [Ed. - just wow, only four months to get the whole machine in gear, incredible]

Rob - What do you attribute your success to? As we said, you operate in the social media world and you're (obligatory Gary Vee reference - you've actually met him ye?) crushing it - any tips for success in social media? And I recall a post you made on t-shirtforums.com and now your on ABC and CBS - what is the coolest company or brand you've represented this year or top 3? Are your starting to feel a tad famous now or get recognised in places?

Jason - My success has come mostly from hard work and being myself. I have had some good bumps through using http://HelpAReporter.com and the advertising services there [Ed. - shall be checking them out]. That is the ONLY advertising service I believe in and it has been a big help in growing iwearyourshirt.com. As far as tips go, it's incredibly important to be yourself, to talk to people in your network and to focus on something. I've actually had a couple ideas I think are great and could make more money than iwearyourshirt.com, but this is the business I am working on now, it's doing well and I want to make sure I ride this wave while it's here. It definitely helps validate the idea when companies like Zappos.com, LifeLock.com, Bill Cosby, Wired Magazine and Gary Vaynerchuk had me wear shirts for them. But I don't neglect the "little guys" either, all the other companies I've worn shirts for are great and have their own unique story to tell. And I don't feel famous at all, nor do I really want to be famous. I want to continue to provide a unique value for people through t-shirt wearing and social media and make some decent money. [Ed. - well said..so, readers, which company that Jason has worn a shirt for do you think is the coolest? any memorable iwys vids you'd like to recount, leave a comment]


Rob - 2010 heralds the dawn of two timezone t-shirt wearing goodness - how is that looking so far for you? Any friend called Evan you'd care to mention? And beyond 2010 what are your plans - a global t-shirt wearing empire?

As I mentioned earlier, there are only 70+ [Ed. - 58] days left for sale in 2010. So people either REALLY love my buddy Evan or this t-shirt wearing thing has proved to work well. And I will continue to say that I think $730, the most expensive day in 2010, is a bargain for the content we are creating for a company and the size of audience that company is immediately exposed to. You couldn't get all the social media content created for the price we are asking and then who would you show it to? That's the big selling point to me. 2010 is 2 guys in shirts, 2011 will be more people in shirts and I eventually hope to get up to 50-100 people around the world wearing the same shirt in a day. Imagine 50 people all with 5,000 social media friends.... that's 250,000 people seeing your brand in 1 day. Wouldn't that be worth $1000 a day or more? [Ed. - I think it would be worth $1000 and think you have got a fantastic marketing formula here..Hehe, I nominate myself as Mr. GMT and am sure with the way things are going come 2011 there will be lots on the more iwys crew]

Rob - Ok so, we're nearly there...but, importantly, any random Jason Sadler facts that you don't want the world to know about? And you have an i wear your shirt wiki page - pretty cool...did you create that yourself or you do you have a super stalker out there?

Jason - Ha.. I have a wiki page??? I had no clue, where's the link? It's flattering when people take the time to do those things... I'm heading to Google right now.

Rob - Well, Jason, it has been a privilege, a pleasure and an honor to be able to ask you a few questions. You are somewhat a champion of the social media age and a pioneer for things to come. I wholeheartedly wish you a ton of success as you're a bonafide good guy and would like to give you this humble medium to address the masses - the stage is yours...

Jason - Thanks for having me and I encourage anyone to connect with me and chat with me on Facebook, Twitter or wherever else you can find me on the web. I answer every email that comes to me, as long as you aren't asking me if I want to partner with you and have you wear hats for a living.

And I encourage you all to connect with Jason (and Evan) too. They have recently kicked off the IWearYourShirt facebook fanpage so you can join them there for all sorts of fun and games.

I'd like to briefly throw my two cents into the IWYS mix. Personally, I think it is a phenomenal idea that has been executed immaculately by possibly the only guy who could do it so well. His success has led to others to jump on a similar bandwagon but I'd be surprised if you ever get to hear of any of them. Jason has created a company with solid foundations rooted in hardwork, honesty and giving value to the customer. He excels with customer service and, unlike so many others who preach, he actually cares about his customers and is passionate about giving them a good service. The fact that he enjoys it is obvious and I can only see IWYS going from strength to strength and I wish him all the best.

...and thats a wrap, no more gushing from me. Thanks once again to Jason and apologies for the tardiness in getting this interview up. So, readers, what do we think of IWYS? Will it be a flash in the pan or do you think, like me, that there is some longevity to the business? Have you come across any IWYS copy cats? What is your favourite IWYS clip? And the real clincher of a question, who do you prefer - Evan or Jason? (ye, I went there)..

I look forward to your comments and will endeavour to get blogging more regularly here again. Stay happy.

How to market your brand - 9 marketing tips and ideas

Marketing, branding, raising brand awareness - its not easy but it is essential to any new brand in any business, t-shirts or otherwise. I apologise for not posting anything in a while (I've been extra ordinarily busy with LadyUmbrella t-shirts and haven't been able to blog here). A few weeks ago John from J. Benjamin Clothing asked me about marketing and branding and the likes so here are my 9 marketing/branding tips - hope they are of some use.

1) Believe In Your Brand
Not so much as a tip I guess but if you don't believe in it then no one else will. As a result of this all subsequent marketing or branding efforts won't be given 100% commitment as you don't believe in them - or, that's how I roll anyway..100% belief will yield 100% conviction, determination and application - all vital traits for brand marketing. It will take time and effort to build your brand, be ready to sweat.

2)Consistency
In everything you do try have a common trend or a link between designs. In slogans, colour choice, logos and images try make it easy for people to recognize them as coming from one source, one brand. Further to using the above consistently use them constantly...anything that you "put out there" ensure that it has something that links it back to you, be it web address, logo, slogan, image, whatever - make sure that if people see it they recognize it and importantly associate it with your brand.

3) Suspense and Intrigue
Build up a bit of mystique or intrigue about your brand. Don't just show your cards from day one but gradually give nuggets of enticing info that arouses curiosity in whoever may view it. We, humans, are curious creatures and are generally drawn to things that we don't know about, that intrigue us, that leave us wondering a bit. For example, Smirnoff Vodka (oh, how we love it) ran a campaign for Smirnoff Mule which just featured a plush looking velvet stage curtain on billboards. WiMax also ran a suspense rousing campaign that honed it on their target market perfectly.

4) Catchy and Memorable
You want to make it easy for the viewer/reader to remember your brand. Use alliteration when writing slogans etc as this rattles around in our inner ear for a bit. Think of all successful brand names/slogans, they rattle around a bit. Prime example would be Coca Cola (um, with some Smirnoff = win). Another way to make things memorable is to make them shocking, get a response from whoever views it, motivate them into looking twice, taking a gasp or ideally, compel them to view your t-shirt designs. Also, the brain has 3 main sections which and a combination of food, sex and danger seem to spark a response from each region. I strongly suggest reading this blog which talks about the 3 regions of the brain and how to influence them - 11 Ways to Influence People Online and Make them Take Action.

5) Stickability
You want your brand to stick around don't you? to be able to persist? Try think big in every aspect of your branding or marketing and invest time in creating things that won't be instantly dated due to surroundings or other. Think of other avenues you can venture down in a bid to expand your brand - hats, scarves, boxer shorts?

6) Be Remarkable
As Seth Godin says be the purple cow, be a bit different, be something remarkable. Its not to dissimilar to being catchy but instead of going for the majority within a society be remarkable to a few who truly relate to your brand, get your brand and you could quite possibly be good buddies with. These people will help you find niches or possibly even create niches for you by getting all of their friends to like your brand. Brand zealots are a rare commodity and should be appreciated and thanked. Ultimately, you want to the purple cow to a few - watch this video.



7) Word of Mouth Marketing (WOMM)
Word of mouth marketing is getting people talking about you. Think of what you pass on to your friends? "oh, there is a deal here" or "I got this for free from..." or "you should see this brand, so cool" and 9 times out of 10 you'll act on it, or at least consider it more because it was told to you by a friend. Some stat I heard stated that there is an 89% conversion rate on word of mouth market versus 12% on standard marketing. So, use competitions and freebies to stimulate some chit chat amongst friends. Another key element of WOMM is managing customer expectations. Customers inherently have an expectation of what they are going to get based on price, what you've said and what they've heard from friends. If you meet their expectations you get a pass grade and nothing really happy. If you fall below what they expect then you will have more than likely lost a customer. If however you exceed their expectations they will talk about you, they'll be happy with the product they have received from you and will be compelled to talk about you. How do you try to exceed your customers expectations?

8) Persistence
Marketing and forming your brands identity and persona will take time. There is no overnight solution (not that I have discovered anyway although I'd love to find one) for building your brands reputation so be persistent. Never miss an opportunity to market your brand but don't overkill it. It goes back to my very first point really, you have to keep applying yourself and promoting and pushing your brand - if you don't do it no one else will..

9) Responsive
Ideally what you want is to get the WOMM machine revved up and in high gear. You then have to be responsive to what gets said. How can you use what is said to further your marketing campaign or branding efforts? What opportunities are to be had by getting in touch with people who mention your brand? What if someone says a negative thing about your brand? Be responsive and thank those who like your brand and give them something to talk about. When receiving negative comments deal with them quickly and in a nice manner - turn the negative into a positive.

And so, there it is, 9 marketing tips and ideas. I'm not a guru by any stretch of the imagination but the above are just some of the things I am aware of and try practice myself. Your thoughts on the above, what your marketing efforts consist of, or any tips/ideas/suggestions are warmly welcomed - knowledge is no burden.

Tweedle Dum Tweedle Dee Twitter and Tees - 10 Advantages of Twitter

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The humdrum debate about the value of Twitter to business seems to carry on and I would suggest mainly by those that don't use it either often enough or properly. Twitter gives an ideal free to platform to quickly engage your customers and to prospect for new ones.

In this post I'll outline what I deem to be 10 advantages of Twitter from my own usage of the LadyUmbrella t-shirts Twitter account.

1 - Twitter is free so that's one excuse not to use it ruled out.

2 - Twitter has millions upon millions of people using it - surely you want to talk to at least some of them?

3 - You can find people who may be interested in your product by finding similar brands on twitter and following those who follow them - targeting your market doesn't get any easier than that

4 - Twitter is another weapon in your online marketing arsenal, a quick and easy way to stay in touch with your customers, to be available and is key for your online presence. In fact, I find it odd if a company or brand doesn't have a twitter now..

5 - It's often said that Twitter is like "word of mouth on steroids", this is true. If a few people RT (re-tweet) your post which may contain a link to your site you can get a lot of traffic quickly and somewhat easily - how cool is that?

6 - You can build your brand image easily on Twitter. Get in touch with people who follow you, be real, talk about what you care about or what you're doing so that people can relate to you and start to build up trust in you.

7 - Google loves Twitter so if your user name or URL is www.twitter.com/yourcompany then even though your own homepage may not rank in google results (due to keyword competitiveness or other) there is a chance that your Twitter page might which may result in more traffic to your page that you would not not have gotten. Anything that helps the SERP effort is always a bonus.

8 - Twitter is fun, really...once you get "into it" and start to connect with people you'll find that you will make friends and business connections..be it suppliers, customers, bloggers, web designers - whatever, they are all on twitter waiting to be spoken to..if you don't speak to them someone else will!

9 - Twitter provides a useful and easy way to build relationships with potential customers and keep existing customers happy..

10 - Twitter can be a very quick way to get the word out about product offers, competitions or deals you have going..
From my own experience there are a heap of great t-shirt people on Twitter and it seems like there is a real community spirit evolving, connections being made and help and advice being freely distributed. I could go into a long list of great t-shirt peeps I've met on Twitter but I'll save that for a rainy day..I do encourage you to leave your Twitter name as a comment though and feel free to follow me follow me - why not like?

What are your views on twitter anyway? Think it is an unproductive waste of time or a gift from a 140 character deity? What are your twitter tips and don't do's?

Ultimately, you will get out of it what you put into it..you can't expect an instant result but as you create your online image, just by being yourself, you will slowly but surely see the rewards and (possibly/probably) have a good time doing so...

P.S. - I've added "Tweet this" links to all posts in this blog, I give you permission to go nuts tweeting :-)

The Dawn of Adquarius - Google AdSense Ads

The Dawn of Adquarius, the arrival of a new era for the T-Shirt Strategy blog. I have just started to run Google AdSense ads on this blog, not as means to make money (but that would be nice) but more as a bit of an experiment.

I'm considering utilizing Google ads and/or google AdSense ads for LadyUmbrella but before digging deep into my pocket I want to try ascertain click through rates one might expect - by having ads on this page I might be able to see what sort of click rates ads get and hopefully learn a thing or two about them. I will post updates on what I learn about Google Ads and AdSense as and when there I discover something.

From my own browsing experience I very rarely click on an ad however the PPC (pay per click) nature of them means that if no one clicks on your ad then you don't get charged so surely its win win? Even if they don't click on the ad they might still notice the ad and who knows what the subconscious might store - your company name or logo perhaps? This exposure, although limited, to the potential customer may "butter them up" and make them more receptive to any future marketing efforts embarked on by your company?

Any one currently using Google Ads or AdSense? What sort of click through rates do you get? and, more importantly, do Google Ads lead to a higher conversion rate for your business?

And one other thought that has been on my mind - do AdSense Ads or Google Ads on a blog (or website) have an impact on a potential customers "opinion" of the shop owner/blogger? Does it in someway devalue the content that is on a blog? Or, does having ads on your web shop "lose" you any potential customers?

I would love to hear your thoughts on it so please leave a comment with your musings. And, hehe, and if you happen to see an ad that interests you your click will get me a fraction of a slice of bread closer to a loaf.

Personally, I think the whole google ads/adsense topic is quite interesting, they are playing a big part in the shift in advertising (and dare I say it society) from old school TV/Radio/printed media etc to the online world of social media, on demand video/everything and (ultimately hehe) Gary Vaynerchuk - the Dawn of Adquarius is upon us. Let me know what you think..


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