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For those of you who are not on our mailing list or did not receive our digital Christmas card, you can find it here.  It is a great throw-back to test your memory about the best toys of the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s.  Good luck and remember to forward to your friends!

To all of our friends, thank you for another wonderful year.  We realize we work with some of the best brands in the world and the most wonderful people who own them.  We are thankful for your continued support and look forward to a profitable and productive 2009.

From all of us at Premier Studios, we wish you the best holiday season ever and many blessings for a wonderful new year, but most of all…

We wish you a very Merry Christmas!

The Premier Studios family.

Here’s a great way to think about the world we live in.  It just might help you put into perspective the contribution you are making (or not making).  If the world were a village of one hundred people…

Gender

• 50 would be female
• 50 would be male

Age

• 20 would be under age 14
• 66 would be between ages 15 and 64
• 14 would be 65 and older

Technology

• 17 would have internet access
• 34 would have cell service
• 1 would own a computer

Education

• 18 could not read or write
• 1 would have a college education

Economics

• 6 would own 60% of the wealth (all from the USA)
• 20 would consume 80% of the energy
• 1 would be dying of starvation
• 17 would be malnourished
• 15 would be overweight
• 25 would have no access to daily food or shelter
• 17 would have no clean, safe water to drink

Geography

• 61 would be Asians
• 12 would be Europeans
• 13 would be Africans
• 47 would be urban dwellers
• 53 would be rural dwellers

Religion

• 31 would be Christians
• 21 would be Muslims
• 14 would be Hindus
• 6 would be Buddhists
• 12 would believe in other religions
• 16 would not be aligned with a religion

Languages

• 17 would speak Chinese
• 8 would speak Hindustani
• 8 would speak English
• 7 would speak Spanish
• 4 would speak Arabic
• 4 would speak Russian
• 52 would speak other languages
• 1 would die this year
• 2 would be born this year

Source, University of Wisconsin, ‘100 People: A World Portrait’, www.100people.org 2006

It’s a great statement that comes from Seth Godin’s latest book, “Tribes: We Need You To Lead Us“.   A great read by the way (quick read at that).  He’s talking about the web of course.  We all agree that human’s have always been tribal and by most accounts will always be.  And while he spends most of the book breaking down several examples of the 10,000 hour rule and what it means to be truly an expert, his strongest point wasn’t so intentional.  “The web has eliminated the boundaries of tribes”.

ELIMINATING THE BOUNDARIES

For Affinity Brands, this is a significant realization.  For many brands it means greater access to further reaching markets.  It welcomes those consumers at the fringes and invites them to get on board, join in and participate.  It means brands gaining access to increased knowledge and broader user-experiences, whereby future products can be enhanced and improved based on what is learned from new tribe members.

What tribes do you belong to? 

How is the web eliminating the boundaries of access to your tribe? 

What are you doing to take advantage of it?

OPPORTUNITY

Think market-call (not boy band from the 90’s).  This appears to be the advice of most experts in the marketplace these days, recognizing that we are certainly at the bottom of this bungee economy.

DON’T HOLD YOUR BREATH, RIGHT?

Seldom (thankfully) do markets realign the relationship between authentic value correction and innovative business reinvention.  No doubt we are seeing both.  Affinity brands need to pay close attention to this cycle: it’s called opportunity.

We are seeing it everyday, where we identify clear opportunities for brands to take advantage of a ‘new way’ of doing business and reaching new customers.  The reality is that customers of affinity brands are reaching in return.  Take the real estate market for example.  Most experts are saying not until January, 2010 will the pendulum finally begin swinging the other direction.  That tells me that you will see significant authentic reinvention during this time.  It is where the old model of real estate will slowly transition to whatever the ‘new model’ is to be.  Who decides this?  Consumers will.  And those who pay close attention will know when and how to react.

SLOWLY, BUT SURELY

If you were practicing business in the early 90’s you witnessed a similar trend when Bush ‘41’ left office.  It was a similar time of economic slow-down, uncertainty, war, and significant technology advancements were underway.  So what did we learn?  Well, nothing in that moment.  We did recognized however that change was coming, and did it ever.  Think about how different the world looked between the years 1992 and 2002.  The internet became the new marketplace, the dot.bomb bubble came and went, the digital age came in like a lamb. Slowly but surely, markets fall overnight, but authentic reinvention happens slowly, but surely.