Every month, Colossal shares a selection of opportunities for artists and designers, including open calls, grants, fellowships, and residencies. If you’d like to list an opportunity here, please get in touch at hello@colossal.art. You can also join our monthly Opportunities Newsletter.

ArtPrize Call for ArtistsFeatured
ArtPrize is an open art competition that takes place for 18 days from September 14 to October 1 in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and any artist working in any medium from anywhere in the world can participate. The competition will give out a total of $600,000 in awards and grants this year, including a $125,000 grand prize to one artist. Artist Grant applications are now open through June 16 at artprize.org.
Deadline: June 16, 2023.

$1,800 Innovate Grants for Art + PhotoFeatured
Innovate Grant awards two $1,800 grants each quarter to one visual artist and one photographer. In addition, six applicants will receive honorable mentions, be featured on the website, and join a growing community. International artists and photographers working in any medium are eligible.
Deadline: 11:59 p.m. PST on June 22, 2023.

Open Calls

Touchstone Gallery People and The Planet Open Call (International)
Visual artists working in any medium are invited to think about how humans interact with the earth and all of its inhabitants. Artists are encouraged to submit pieces that explore environmental and social issues, the climate crisis, natural materials and resources, Indigenous perspectives, changing landscapes, and connections to the land. Works must be original and completed within the past five years. There is a $35 application fee.
Deadline: June 4, 2023.

The Booooooom Art & Photo Book Award
In partnership with Artmobile, Booooooom is open to submissions for its Art & Photo Book Award, which will grant six artists the opportunity to publish a collection of work free of charge. Submissions should be finished projects as opposed to works-in-progress, and the award covers all production costs.
Deadline: 11:59 PST on June 5, 2023.

Passepartout Photo Prize (International)
The Passepartout Photo Prize aims to support the development of talented photographers from all over the world by offering cash prizes and the opportunity to exhibit in a gallery in Rome. Photos of any kind of artistic style, size, and technique (digital, film, and experimental processes) are accepted. One winner will receive 500 Euros, and there is a 25 Euro entry fee.
Deadline: June 6, 2023.

Prospect Art Open Call for Curators (Los Angeles)
Prospect Art is currently searching for a Los Angeles-based curator to contribute to its BROADCAST programming, which showcases media-based artists throughout the year. Curators at any stage of their careers are eligible, and the selected applicant will receive a $1,200 honorarium and compensation for writing a curatorial essay.
Deadline: 11:59 p.m. PT on June 10, 2023.

Vilcek Prizes for Creative Promise (U.S.)
The Vilcek Prizes support emerging to mid-career immigrant designers who have demonstrated exceptional achievements early in their careers. Three winners working in digital design, graphic design, product design, or social design will receive $50,000.
Deadline: 5 p.m. EDT on June 12, 2023.

Vilnius Academy of Arts, SODAS 2123, and the Lithuanian Interdisciplinary Artists’ Association Symposium (International)
This symposium is looking for contributors for the artistic and research-based gathering “Walking is Still Honest: About Being and Moving Together.” The call is open to artists, urban planners, art historians, cultural historians, philosophers, historians, sociologists, neuroscientists and other researchers who are interested in the act of walking, its various forms and cultural meanings, and the history, present and future of walking.
Deadline: June 15, 2023.

SaveArtSpace This Place Meant Open Call (International)
Curated by Sadaf Padder, This Place Meant is an open call for third-culture artists and descendants of mass displacement. Artists of all ages are eligible, and chosen projects will be displayed on a billboard in New York City. There is a $10 application fee.
Deadline: June 19, 2023.

CUE Open Call for Solo Exhibitions and Curatorial Projects (U.S.)
CUE’s annual open call provides emerging and underrepresented artists and curators the opportunity and necessary resources to realize an exhibition at CUE’s storefront gallery space on West 25th Street in Manhattan. Artists receive a $5,000 honorarium and curators $2,500, and there is a $10 application fee.
Deadline: 11:59 p.m. EDT on June 30, 2023.

Getty Images Creative Accelerator (International)
This program will choose 50 emerging photographers to participate in a one-year curriculum to learn all facets of creative and commercial content. Chosen artists receive $500.
Deadline: Midnight on June 30, 2023. 

Mophradat Orbitals Open Call (International)
This open call will take four curators and arts researchers to Dakar, Senegal. During the one-week guided research trip, the participants will meet and share experiences with peers from the art scenes they are visiting. Mophradat will provide flights, travel insurance, accommodation and per diems, and reimburse visa costs. Applicants must be from or living in the Arab world.
Deadline: July 10, 2023.

In Translation at Glen Arbor Arts Center (International)
Applications are being accepted for In Translation, the Glen Arbor Arts Center’s juried exhibition that runs from August 18 to October 26. In Translation explores this question: What is the role of the artist, the visual maker, in the 21st century? Visionary? Commentator? Taker of dictation? Aesthete? Four artists will receive awards ranging from $150 to $500. There is a $35 application fee.
Deadline: July 13, 2023.

USC-SJTU Institute of Cultural and Creative Industry Art Valley Program Open Call (International)
This open call will accept five international artists and scholars who use comprehensive media materials. From November 1 to December 15, selected artists will hold exhibitions with Shanghai organizations and receive RMB 10,000. Applicants can be at all career stages and working in drawing, painting, sculpture, photography, film, video, new media, installation, interdisciplinary, and architecture.
Deadline: July 14, 2023.

Art For Change Prize 2023 (International)
From M&C Saatchi Group and Saatchi Gallery, this year’s prize asks emerging artists to creatively respond to the theme of Regeneration. £20,000 will be split between six winners, who will exhibit their work at Saatchi Gallery in London.
Deadline: July 17, 2023.

Boynes Artist Award (International)
The 9th edition of the Boynes Artist Award will accept artists of all career stages. Winning artists have access to a $3,500 cash prize pool, $250 in art supplies, the creation of a professional artist website, publication, newsletter features, and long-term support and guidance. There is a $25 to $35 submission fee.
Deadline: July 30, 2023.

Grants

NYSCA/NYFA Artists with Disabilities Grant (New York)
The program will distribute $1,000 to visual, media, music, performing, literary, and multidisciplinary artists living in New York State with a disability who have experienced financial hardship due to COVID-19.
Deadline: 5 p.m. EDT on June 6, 2023.

Forman Arts Initiative and Philadelphia Foundation: Art Works (Philadelphia)
Art Works accepts applications from local cultural nonprofit or fiscally sponsored organizations with annual operating budgets between $250,000 and $5 million as well as individual artists with a commitment to incorporating community perspectives into their work. Individual artists will each receive $50,00 over two years. Organization awards will range from $75,000 to $150,000 over two years and can be used to support any aspect of an organization’s mission.
Deadline: June 16, 2023.

Laura Patricia Calle Grant (U.S.)
This $20,000 grant awards an artist or collective the opportunity to paint a mural in the Metro Atlanta region. The work should inform and promote awareness of social equality, feminism, immigrants’ rights, LGBTQIA+ rights, and cultural diversity.
Deadline: 11:59 p.m. on June 30, 2023.

RedLine Contemporary Art Center INSITE Fund (Denver Metro and Front Range)
The INSITE Fund awards grants of up to $10,000 to public-facing visual arts projects in Colorado that take place outside the studio, museum, art center, or traditional gallery setting.
Deadline: 11:59 p.m. on June 30, 2023.

CIRC Artist Grant (International)
The Circ Artist Grant provides two unrestricted $1,000 awards per grant cycle. Emerging, mid-career, and professional artists are eligible.
Deadline: June 30, 2023.

Prospect Art Open Call for Visual Artists (International)
Visual artists are eligible for the NEW WORK program, which offers a $1,000 project grant. There is a $10 application fee.
Deadline: July 3, 2023.

Illuminations Grant for Black Trans Women Visual Artists (U.S.)
Now in its fourth year, this annual $10,000 grant draws attention to early-career Black trans women visual artists, highlighting an existing body of work and providing critical support for their practice. The winning artist will complete a studio visit with our rotating panel of judges, and four distinguished finalists will receive $1,250 awards.
Deadline: July 12, 2023.

Adobe Creative Residency Community Fund (Ukraine or refugee)
Adobe’s Creative Residency Community Fund commissions visual artists to create company projects on a rolling basis. Awardees will receive between $500 and $5,000.
Deadline: Rolling.

Residencies, Fellowships, & More

ON::View Artist Residency Program, Fall 2023
Applications are now open for the On::View Artist Residency Program in Savannah, Georgia. The residency supports artists from across the globe, working in all media, for periods of one to three months. Selected artists gain access to a high-visibility studio space to complete a new project, continue an in-progress endeavor, or to conduct research exploring conceptual, material, performative, and social practices.
Deadline: June 1, 2023.

Headlands Center for the Arts Residencies (International)
The Headlands Center for the Arts is offering two residencies: The Chamberlain Award offers $10,000 to an artist working in social practice. The Chiaro Award offers $15,000 prize to a mid-career painter living in the United States and includes a private studio.
Deadline: June 5, 2023.

WORTHLESSSTUDIOS Artist in Residence (International)
Running from September to December, this residency is production-focused, supporting underserved sculptors and installation artists at pivotal moments in their careers. Five to six artists will receive $3,000 material stipends, $1,500 artist stipends, and shared studio space in Brooklyn.
Deadline: June 7, 2023.

New York Foundation for the Arts JGS Fellowship for Photography (New York)
This fellowship awards $7,000 to five New York State photography artists living and working outside New York City.
Deadline: 5 p.m. EDT on June 14, 2023.

Museum of Contemporary Art Georgia Working Artist Project (Atlanta)
This year-long fellowship offers three artists a solo exhibition, promotion, a studio apprentice, a full-color catalog, and a $15,000 stipend to create work over the course of the year. Applicants must both currently live in, and have studio space in the following counties: Cherokee, Clayton, Cobb, DeKalb, Douglas, Fayette, Forsyth, Fulton, Gwinnett, Henry, and Rockdale, and remain an Atlanta-based artist for the length of the grant period.
Deadline: June 14, 2023.

The Prairie Ronde Artist Residency (International)
Hosted by The Mill at Vicksburg, this residency offers artists from a range of disciplines a 5 to 7-week stay with the goal of engaging with The Mill and its surrounding 80 acres of property. Residents receive a $2,000 stipend, $500 travel grant, private housing, and an exhibition.
Deadline: June 15, 2023.

Stove Works Residency (International)
This residency invites eight artists to live and work for one to three months at a time in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Six of the studios are designed to accommodate artists who require significant space in their practice, while the remaining two accommodate non-object-based practices, i.e. writers, curators, and academics. There is a $20 to $30 application fee.
Deadline: 11:59 p.m. ET on June 15, 2023.

Springboard for the Arts Rural Regenerator Fellowship (Upper Midwest)
This fellowship is open to artists, makers, grassroots organizers, community development workers, public sector workers, and other rural change-makers. Fellows participate in two years of peer learning and receive an unrestricted $10,000 stipend. Applicants must live, work, or have a strong connection to a rural community in Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Iowa, Illinois, Kansas, Nebraska, and/or the Native Nations that share those geographies.
Deadline: June 20, 2023.

Niels Bohr Institute Arts & Science Residency (International)
The Strong team at the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen is a research group working on gravity, black holes, and gravitational waves. They are inviting proposals for artist residencies of up to three months that engage the science of the Strong group and create works that explore the field of black holes, gravitational waves, and the notion of time. Travel and accommodations are provided.
Deadline: July 1, 2023.

The Studios at MASS MoCA Residency (International)
Fully funded fellowships at MASS MoCA are available for two or four-week residencies. Selected artists receive private studio space, housing, access to workshops, and member benefits.
Deadline: July 8, 2023.

ICCI Art Valley Program (International)
The USC-SJTU Institute of Cultural and Creative of Shanghai Jiao Tong University is recruiting five international artists and scholars to participate in the ICCI ART VALLEY PROGRAM from November 1 to December 15. Visiting artists will hold exhibitions, lectures, workshops, and/or other public programs and will receive accommodations, airfare, and a stipend of at least 10,000 RMB.
Deadline: July 15, 2023.

Loghaven Artist Residency (International)
Loghaven invites artists working in architecture, dance, music composition, theater, visual arts, writing, and interdisciplinary practices to apply for residencies occurring in 2024 and 2025. Both emerging and established artists are eligible, and residents receive a living stipend of $850 per week in addition to travel and freight reimbursement. There is a $20 application fee.
Deadline: July 15, 2023.

The Farm Margaret River (International)
Open to all disciplines and individuals and collectives, this residency focuses on site-specific projects created during eight weeks at The Farm Margaret River in Australia. Chosen applicant(s) will receive lodging, studio space, and a $7,500 grant.
Deadline: August 1, 2023.

Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $5 per month. The article June 2023 Opportunities: Open Calls, Residencies, and Grants for Artists appeared first on Colossal.

This season of The Ultimate Fighter could be the biggest in the show’s history, as former UFC featherweight and lightweight champion Conor McGregor and No. 5-ranked lightweight contender Michael Chandler go head-to-head as coaches. 

AIR NATIONAL GUARD / TUF 31 BRANDED INTEGRATIONS AND ENTITLEMENTS 

Under the expanded partnership, Air National Guard will become the first-ever Official Fight Kit Partner of The Ultimate Fighter, entitling Air National Guard to place their branding on the TUF fight kits as worn by the athletes in competition, as well as on fight kit apparel worn by the athletes and their corner coaches. In addition, Air National Guard will have prominent branding in and around the TUF Octagon®, including featured displays on the state-of-the-art outer LED decking and on the UFC Fight Clocks, UFC’s innovative LED time-keeping system. 

The new agreement builds upon the relationship UFC and the Air National Guard originally formed in 2022. 

“We’re looking forward to continuing our partnership with the Air National Guard and highlighting their branding across our most valuable assets, our live events and must-see programming like The Ultimate Fighter,” said Grant Norris-Jones, UFC Senior Vice President of Global Partnerships. “UFC is a long-time supporter of the men and women of the U.S. military and reserve forces, and we’re proud to lend our platforms to help raise awareness for the incredible work they perform and the career opportunities they offer.” 

“We are thrilled to expand our partnership with UFC to bring awareness to the Air National Guard and the share the opportunities we have available to serve our country,” said Maj. Gen. Konata Crumbly, Air National Guard advisor to the Air Force Recruiting Service commander. “We share a mutual respect and commitment to excellence, and this partnership allows us to reach a broader audience and showcase the skills and abilities of our ANG Airmen.” 

ADDITIONAL BRANDED INTEGRATIONS AND ENTITLEMENTS 

In addition to its significant branded exposure on TUF 31, Air National Guard will receive enhanced broadcast features and commercial inventory within all UFC Pay-Per-Views, including the Presenting Sponsorship of one Keys to Victory segment during the main card of each Pay Per View. Air National Guard will also receive prominent placement on the canvass of UFC’s world-famous Octagon during all U.S.-based Pay Per Views and Fight Nights. Air National Guard will also activate during International Fight Week in July, the annual celebration of all things UFC, with a special presentation at UFC X, the popular Fan Expo. 

UFC and Air National Guard will also collaborate on a variety of custom and original content that will be distributed across UFC’s popular social media channels and digital platforms, showcasing UFC athletes participating in official visits to U.S. Air Force bases and interacting with members of the Air National Guard. 

In addition, the agreement provides for an annual Brand Ambassador fund that will offer significant paid marketing opportunities to participating UFC athletes. 

Episodes of TUF 31 will be available to stream on demand on ESPN+ every Tuesday at 11 p.m. ET, following the conclusion of their ESPN network debut at 10 p.m. ET. 

Over the past few years, companies have sprung up offering “micro-shares” in everything from commercial real estate to sports cars and fine art. For some buyers, fractional investment is a strategic money play. For most, however, it’s a taste of the high life.

For the more than 4,600 investors who bought $206 shares in the race horse Authentic—among them gold-medal skier Bode Miller and Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Walker Buehler—the purchase became the ultimate brag: They were co-owners of the thoroughbred that won the 2020 Kentucky Derby.

The company behind that deal, Experiential Squared, announced Thursday that it had raised $7 million in new capital to expand its MyRacehorse product with lead investor 1/ST Racing & Gaming and, eventually, to chase its ambitions beyond the racetrack.

Founder and CEO Michael Behrens declined to disclose Experiential Squared’s total value but says 1/ST will be “significant partners,” likening the raise to a Series A. The company has $50 million in total sales to date, and in the U.S. and Australia, the company’s two biggest markets, it says it operates profitably.

“I don’t need to use this money to subsidize operations or things of that nature,” Behrens tells Forbes. “So I’m going to spend most of the energy and the time working with 1/ST to really reimagine what fractional ownership can be.”

Behrens was the first in American horse racing to land a certification with the Securities and Exchange Commission to sell up to $75 million in securities through crowdfunding. With the approval, and the help of billionaire cofounder B. Wayne Hughes, Behrens built MyRacehorse into a platform offering securitized ownership shares in horses and the perks that come with it—access to the trainers and jockeys and a lottery system to award trips to the paddock or seats in the owner’s box—to more than 50,000 active owners.

Those fractional owners, for the most part, aren’t investing to get rich. Tim Derdenger, an associate professor of marketing and strategy at Carnegie Mellon, says that for people who buy micro-shares of horses—or shares of a fledgling golf or tennis pro’s future earnings—this is “play money.” The investment is risky, and the returns are relatively modest, but the feeling of being involved makes the experience worthwhile.

“This is a passion play,” Derdenger says. Investors may “have some embedded emotional connection to that sport, and this is a way for them to actually remain connected to that sport.”

Behrens agrees that most MyRacehorse users are in it for the “pride of the asset” rather than the payoff. A former chief marketing officer at online mattress brand Casper, he says the platform can be a great marketing tool both for the sport and for potential sponsors who want to reach its highly engaged audience. He says he’ll use the new capital to expand the platform’s content offerings around the ownership experience.

And he’s not stopping there. By early 2024, Behrens says, the company will have a presence in a sport other than horse racing, citing preliminary conversations he’s had with Nascar. Unlike the public ownership of the NFL’s Green Bay Packers, whose shares are mostly a novelty item, Experiential Squared would offer the benefits of true ownership that the company has tested in horse racing.

Derdenger is skeptical of this development. From an investment standpoint, a more mature asset such as a Nascar team is unlikely to provide as much upside, turning the platform into essentially a fan club for premium experiences.

“When you’re putting money where there isn’t a need, it’s less risky, but the return isn’t as great,” Derdenger says. “It’s almost this elite entry point into engaging these super-users, and I just don’t know how valuable that is.”

For other major sports, Experiential Squared’s current model—purchasing each horse through a line of credit and selling it individually to users through a securitized LLC—would simply not work because its current class of SEC regulation requires a controlling interest in each asset it offers, and the price tag for major sports franchises has risen into the billions.

Long term, Behrens says, part of the new capital will be used to build out and get regulatory approvals for a first-of-its-kind online marketplace so the company wouldn’t need to own the assets at all. Instead, the platform would offer a secure place for buyers and sellers across any sport to interact, pocketing a brokerage fee for each transaction.

“Obviously I love MyRacehorse, and I’m a fan of thoroughbred racing,” Behrens says. “What I’m more excited about is just democratizing ownership overall, in all types of asset classes.”

“I love spending hours in the art shop, feeling the surfaces of different paper and making connections with all information that I carry with me about the project,” says Lina Kusaite, whose meticulous botanical illustrations range from book pages to expansive wall murals. Mostly focusing on commissions for clients like publishers and hospitality venues, the Brussels-based artist has a knack for collaborating with other designers to determine the scale and scope of an installation or a series of drawings. “I always choose projects that speak to me (and) in one or other way resonate with my point of view, philosophy, and it challenges me,” she says.

Kusaite begins by hand-drawing on paper, focusing on the lines and textures of different materials like graphite and ink. “I choose paper and pencil or watercolors—or both—based on the research and information gathered in the beginning of the process,” she says. “I start testing different combination, colors, lines. After having enough tests on paper, I scan everything and transfer it into Photoshop, where I start playing with digital tools.” Sometimes, one initial drawing can produce hundreds of versions resulting from experiments with color and style, which often spawn new ideas and techniques for future projects.

“Coffee Plant”

Flora features heavily in Kusaite’s practice, forming a basis for commissions that can vary greatly. “Coffee Plant,” for example, straightforwardly depicts the life cycle of the coffee cherry, while the “Lotus Land” pieces, which accompany piano music inspired by the Hans Christian Andersen fairytale “The Marsh King’s Daughter,” required a bit more research. “I spend hours online and in the books, researching different materials that helps me to first learn about the subject, (whether) it be about just plant illustration or storytelling or both,” she says.

From handmade drawing to digital edits, Kusaite’s illustrations are often translated into other handcrafted materials like ceramic tiles or textiles, and she enjoys seeing the work return to an analog presentation. Recently, she designed an extensive wall mural for the Xitan Hotel. She says, “Most of my botanical drawings for the Xitan Hotel project started as hand-drawn, then it went through a digital process, and came out as a fully handmade, 21-meter-long lobby wall embodied into vitreous enamel, or also called porcelain enamel technique. Some works are embroidered by hand.”

Kusaite is currently preparing a large project for the Georgia World Congress Center and adjacent Signia by Hilton hotel in downtown Atlanta. She is also working on designs for the Tazama African Tarot deck and a children’s book scheduled for publication in 2025. Find more on Behance.

Detail of “Coffee Plant”

“Artemisia absinthium”

“Rosmarin”

“Lotus Land 2”

“Lavas Plant”

“Lotus”

“Artemesija Plant”

Wall design for Xitan Hotel

Xitan Hotel lobby installation

Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $5 per month. The article Looping Tendrils and Supple Petals Overflow From Lina Kusaite’s Ethereal Botanical Illustrations appeared first on Colossal.

Advertisement

Leveraging widely recognized but under-utilized events can help initiatives
that might otherwise get lost in a broad marketing blitz get a foothold.

By Kathleen Willcox 

It’s no secret that people love an excuse to open a bottle of the good stuff: New Year’s Eve, anniversaries, birthdays. And if they know that bottle gives back to causes close to their heart? They’re about 70% more likely to whip out their wallet, according to multiple studies.  

Many producers and retailers approach their end-of-year marketing plans like William the Conqueror approaching the Battle of Hastings, with a blitz of e-commerce campaigns and event activations — as if their entire bottom line depended on it. Which, in some ways, it does. New Year’s Eve is the biggest day of the year for alcohol stores, with an increase of 159% on December 31, according to marketing firm Womply. December overall, with its range of religious and secular holidays, is the biggest month of the year for alcohol sales, according to data from the Census Bureau.

But what about second-string holidays, such as Halloween? Sales aren’t up as dramatically, but they do rise. A survey of 15,000 California adults for BevMo revealed that 44% of respondents plan to spend $100 plus on alcohol for Halloween, and on Memorial Day in 2019, Americans spent close to $3 billion on alcohol in retail stores alone for the big day, Nielsen reports. 

To boost bottom lines, year-round, producers should be reaching out to their base — and beyond — with occasional, strategically planned offers and promotions. We reached out to producers to find out what types of activations and outreach work for them. Read on for a cheat sheet on year-round sales initiatives. 

Throw epic annual holiday parties 

Certain holidays call for parties. At Napa’s Bouchaine Vineyards, Halloween transforms the winery into an adults-only dance party.

“We definitely get a lot of our younger wine club members out for this, but it’s all ages,” says Bouchaine’s president and winemaker Chris Kajani. “DJ Sal Castaneta — yes, the KTVU weatherman — spins, and the night includes a costume contest, with everything fueled with fun wines and our favorite taco truck.”

Wine club members get a discounted entry at $40, while everyone else pays $60. Typically, about 120 people attend, and Kajani says many people who aren’t signed up for the wine club when they arrive, leave as members. (Club membership currently hovers around 1,500.)

The Booo-chaine Halloween Dance Party is, Kajani explains, a kind of calling card for everything the winery does. Its critically acclaimed premium wines (generally priced between $29-$150) are made with dead-serious intention, but are intended to be consumed with joy and a sense of fun. 

“Our wine club does everything from this dance party to blending seminars, falconry demos, Sensory Olympics and grape picking and stomping parties,” he says. “We also love chef-led pairing events. We take both our wine and our fun seriously at Bouchaine.”

The response speaks for itself, with consistent sell-out events that inevitably bring in a new batch of wine club recruits. 

Align brand with under-the-radar annual events

Sometimes the opportunity to link an annual event or holiday with a brand is as clear as day.

Quintessential Wines, a fine wine, marketing and sales company based in Napa, is always on the lookout for opportunities like this. This year on the Summer Solstice (June 21), Quintessential will launch its Tropical State of Mind Campaign for Tropical Moscato. 

“Summer Solstice is an overlooked holiday, and we want to take advantage of that,” says Louise Jordan, director of communications at Quintessential. “By associating Tropical Moscato with long summer days — on the longest day of the year — we hope to remain top of mind throughout the summer by bringing a tropical feel to summery celebrations.”

The winery is connecting with 10 influencers to promote the campaign, Jordan explains. 

“When selecting influencers to connect with Tropical, we utilize a multitude of factors,” Jordan says. “We evaluate their content so that it aligns with brand messaging, as well as general engagement on their feeds. For this campaign, we are targeting wine, cocktail and lifestyle influencers, both paid and organic.”

Paid influencers receive product and payment in exchange for promotions, whereas organic influencers work in exchange for a sample of the product — in this case, a bottle of Tropical Moscato along with a branded package with a pool floatie, cocktail shaker and cocktail recipes. 

The social media campaign will also include a sweepstakes and giveaway program at the brand’s handle @tropicalmoscato, in tandem with a program for retail stores (Tropical summer displays) and email blasts advertising a giveaway that includes a Tropical floatie, cocktail set and recipe book.

Leveraging widely recognized but under-utilized holidays also helps initiatives that might otherwise get lost in a broad marketing blitz get a foothold. 

Elevate the less-celebrated

There are a host of special days set aside to toast the people who shape and define our loves. Mother’s Day and Father’s Day are days that are (for good reason) relentlessly used as fodder for special sales. 

But there are dozens of other special days that could serve as serious — or silly — sales fodder. (Why not offer a special around Hammock Day or National Marshmallow Toasting Day?)  

“We are always coming up with creative ways to celebrate every holiday, and we find that having special limited-time product releases and family-friendly public events really work for our demographic,” says Wendy Camacho, chief of customer experience at Keel + Curley Winery in Plant City, Fla. “We release our limited-edition Watermelon Blush, Watermelon Cider and Watermelon Sour Ale in our tasting room on the Fourth of July weekend, and we get a huge response. We do similar seasonal releases all year long.”

Keel + Curley also offers tasting room specials for Teacher Appreciation Week and other weeks that celebrate essential, but less-appreciated workers, and have developed a cult following from those groups of workers as a result, Camacho says. 

“We love announcing our limited-time products on Instagram and Facebook, and they get everyone excited to shop online at midnight, or visit our tasting room on launch day,” Camacho adds. “Since creating these limited-releases and building buzz around the midnight sales time, we’ve consistently sold out of every release within a month.” 

Focus on unique releases around holidays with a heart

Targeting a very specific demographic and group in both a holiday and cause in one fell swoop is no easy task, but that is just what Crystal Head Vodka is doing. The ultra-premium vodka, created by actor Dan Akroyd and artist John Alexander, has always set itself apart, with its distinct skull vessel, and its production process which entails filtering the product through layers of Herkimer Diamonds. 

Crystal Head has also committed itself to supporting the LGBTQ+ community year-round, through partnerships with organizations like Boston Globe Sip the Rainbow and the Human Rights Campaign. The team is stepping it up in June for Pride Month, with a Paint With Pride release, explains Marketing Manager Daniella Vizzari. The limited-edition presentation will feature a colorful, paint-splattered design against a white bottle.

“It will be released globally in select markets,” Vizzari says. “We are working with content creators and bloggers on giveaways throughout the month, and we’ll also be participating in Pride celebrations across the United States, including in Hollywood, Philadelphia and more.”

The Crystal Head team is using the Pride month release to underline its commitment to “diversity, equality, art and expression,” Vizzari explains. “Art is empowerment, inspiring social change and fostering community. The bottle is a piece of artwork and collectible, and we hope it empowers members of the LGTBQ+ community and supporters.”

Previous Pride month releases have sold out, with many preserving the bottle and displaying it on bar shelves, or mantles at home — with Pride. 

Market around specific causes 

Some wineries have found that aligning themselves with a variety of universally appealing causes can simultaneously highlight a range of deserving nonprofits, but also lift their own sales and find new fans and allies that they might otherwise never discover. 

“Our annual charitable giving campaign, called Frank for a Cause, aims to support deserving charities across the nation,” says Napa’s Frank Family Vineyards founder Leslie Frank. “We often focus on causes that are important to the Frank Family team and to our club members, and we build our campaigns around current events to raise awareness and reach new audiences. From Breast Cancer Awareness Month to Arbor Day, our campaigns connect with consumers who hold these causes dear and let us build new relationships while supporting meaningful change.”

Since launching Frank for a Cause in 2018, the winery has raised more than $125,000 to support seven national nonprofits and numerous local organizations, including Feeding America and The Humane Society of the United States.

Last year’s K9 for Warriors campaign raised $25,000, and the campaign is being extended for 2023. For $85, recipients will get one bottle of 2019 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, a Frank Family bandanna and a matching Cabernet bottle dog toy; 20% of each package is donated to K9s for Warriors. A little back-of-the envelope map shows that 2022’s initiative sold around 1,470 bottles — a win for Frank Family and K9s for Warriors, which is the nation’s largest provider of service dogs for military veterans.   

“At Frank Family, we recognize the opportunity in pairing our wine releases and promotions with causes that have widespread need,” says Frank. “Through this approach, our customers are given the chance to support causes that resonate with them, while enjoying our wines at the same time.”

Can’t argue with the thinking behind that — or the results. 

__________________________________________________________________

Kathleen Willcox

Kathleen Willcox writes about wine, food and culture from her home in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. She is keenly interested in sustainability issues, and the business of making ethical drinks and food. Her work appears regularly in Wine Searcher, Wine Enthusiast, Liquor.com and many other publications. Kathleen also co-authored a book called Hudson Valley Wine: A History of Taste & Terroir, which was published in 2017. Follow her wine explorations on Instagram at @kathleenwillcox

Advertisement

The filmmaker Anton Corbijn’s documentary “Squaring the Circle (The Story of Hipgnosis)” tells the tale of the London design company devoted to crafting the perfect LP sleeve.

In early 1980, Aubrey Powell, the then-33-year-old co-founder of the pioneering British design company Hipgnosis, flew to Hawaii to photograph the cover for the British rock band 10cc’s “Look Hear?” album.

The shoot involved a specific sheep (only one was available on Oahu, at a university farm) seated on an old-timey psychiatrist’s couch (which had to be constructed by a Honolulu props company) on the island’s North Shore. The sheep, out of its element and skittish from the crashing waves, ruined the first day of the session, so a veterinarian was called in to tranquilize the animal for day two. Success.

The final cost of the sleeve design, including airfare and a sheep wrangler, came to £5,043 — about $26,000 in today’s money and a big sum for the time. (But then again, as Powell, known as Po, said in an interview, back then the music industry “was awash with money.”) In the end, at the behest of Hipgnosis’ other co-founder, Storm Thorgerson, the U.K. version of the LP jacket was dominated by the words “Are You Normal” in large capital letters. The photo of the sheep on the chaise longue was shrunk to about the size of a postage stamp.

In an interview, the 10cc singer and bassist Graham Gouldman admitted that though he’d had the album art explained to him in the past, he couldn’t recall what it meant. “But I know it’s a brilliant picture,” he said. As for all that pricey effort for such a tiny image? “It doesn’t matter, does it?” Gouldman said. “It’s art. So it’s got to be done.” He added, “And in Hipgnosis’ case, if you can get the record company to spend the money, then good for them.”

The Dutch filmmaker Anton Corbijn, the director of “Squaring the Circle (The Story of Hipgnosis),” a documentary on the design firm that opens in New York on June 7, had a slightly different take. “It’s just not normal to fly all the way to Hawaii to do that picture,” he said. “But it makes for a good story.”

“Squaring the Circle” is full of this and other good stories about the oft-absurd lengths the London-based Hipgnosis traveled in pursuit of the perfect LP sleeve in the era before Photoshop. Among the 415 album covers Hipgnosis made between 1968 and 1983 was Pink Floyd’s “Animals” (1977), for which a 40-foot inflatable pig was photographed floating between the chimneys of London’s Battersea Power Station. Unfortunately, the single cable affixed to the pig snapped, and up the balloon went — into the flight zone for Heathrow Airport.

“That was all very exciting, and rather alarming,” recalled the Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason, whose bandmate Roger Waters came up with the idea for the shoot, “because it was obvious that you could have a major disaster for an airline that happened to fly into the escaping pig.” No planes were harmed in the making of the LP cover, but in the end, Hipgnosis had to resort to a photo collage to achieve the desired effect.

The documentary — shot largely in high-contrast black and white by Corbijn, himself a rock photographer and video director known for his work with U2 and Depeche Mode — features new interviews with Powell, plus a number of high-profile former Hipgnosis clients, including all three surviving members of Pink Floyd (David Gilmour, Mason and Waters) and Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant and Jimmy Page. Paul McCartney, Peter Gabriel and Gouldman are also among the talking heads. Noel Gallagher, a fan, provides some modern-day context and comic relief.

Much of the film focuses on the close working relationship between Powell and Thorgerson, who came up together in the Cambridge, England, art scene of the 1960s, where they were friends with young members of Pink Floyd. (Peter Christopherson, a founding member of the British industrial band Throbbing Gristle who died in 2010, became a full partner in Hipgnosis in 1978.) The design studio would end up doing nearly all of Pink Floyd’s album covers, including “Atom Heart Mother” (1970), which was simply a photograph of a cow in a field, and, most famously, “The Dark Side of the Moon” (1973), with its iconic image of a triangular prism refracting light into a rainbow pattern. (Hipgnosis’ second-best-known cover also came out in 1973: Led Zeppelin’s “Houses of the Holy,” which features a group of naked children scaling basalt columns.)

The “Atom Heart Mother” jacket in particular represented a major departure from the style of the time, which Mason described as putting “a picture of the lovable moptops on the front.”

“We started making demands — which Pink Floyd totally backed us on — saying ‘No title, no name of the band on the cover,’” said Powell, now 76. “This was unheard-of in the world of marketing and record companies.” He described presenting the “Atom Heart Mother” artwork to the suits: “When you walked in there with long hair and earrings, showing them a picture of a cover of a cow, they would go apoplectic.”

It tended to be Thorgerson, by all accounts a stubborn genius, driving the record executives to apoplexy. “The greatest line about Storm was that ‘He’s a man who wouldn’t take yes for an answer,’” Mason said. “It was almost inevitable that whatever was done, particularly by the record company, would involve Storm having to shout at them.”

Thorgerson, who died in 2013, could be confrontational with the musicians as well. “He didn’t care if it was Paul McCartney or Roger Waters, he would express himself quite vehemently,” Powell said. “And often I would have to go around fighting the fires to maintain some kind of credibility. At the end of the day, it kind of worked because I managed to persuade the artists that it was the idea that was important. Forget about Storm’s personality.”

Corbijn said that, ultimately, the documentary was a “story of love and loss.” Hipgnosis came to an end at the dawn of a new era, in which music videos ruled and compact discs, with their significantly smaller artistic canvases, became the dominant mode of distribution. (Of course, today most people see album art in miniature on their phones.) Thorgerson and Powell, who were moving over to filmmaking, had a falling out over money and didn’t speak for 12 years after that. “It was like the end of a marriage,” Powell said. The two reunited after Thorgerson fell ill; he died of cancer at the age of 69.

In more recent years, Powell said, he’s been heartened to see that Hipgnosis’ album covers have broken “that barrier to be taken seriously as fine art.” He added, “A lot of thought went into those pictures. We didn’t take photographs of the band and slap it on the front with their names big and the title in big white letters. This was work that was taken extremely seriously. And I hope that comes over in the film.”

Powell pointed to Hipgnosis’ cover of Led Zeppelin’s final studio album, “In Through the Out Door” from 1979, which involved lovingly recreating an actual New Orleans juke joint in a studio in London. He indicated that making the album’s visuals (which, after all that work, came wrapped in a brown paper bag) likely cost more than it did for the band to record the music itself.

“You know,” Powell said with a laugh, “that sums up the period of time.”

Sometimes radical right culture wars, all on their own, just slip from absurd outrage to self-parody. Perhaps the most famous moment was in 1999 when Moral Majority Founder Jerry Falwell proclaimed the purple preschool Teletubby, Tinky Winky, was gay.

Tennessee’s U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn in mid-May had her own Tinky Winky moment when she teamed with Texas Sen. Ted Cruz—rarely a good idea on any matter. The pair of Republican Senators wrote to Brendan Whitworth, Chief Executive Officer of Anheuser-Busch and chair of the Beer Institute, about Bud Light’s dealings with transgender actress and social media personality Dylan Mulvaney.

Blackburn and Cruz declared that Mulvaney’s online content “clearly presents a faux, pre-pubescent girl persona that is created and presented to specifically appeal to young viewers.”  This, they claim, conflicts with beer industry self-regulation against marketing to underage persons. 

One has to marvel at all the staff work that must have gone into the five-page, single-spaced letter, notably its deep dive into Mulvaney’s online works, social media audience demographics and beer marketing guidelines. The letter’s opening vaguely warns of congressional oversight, and ends with a laundry list of documents, some real and some perhaps imagined, that Blackburn and Cruz demanded to be provided to them.

The letter went so far as to compare the Mulvaney endorsement arrangement to the “Joe Camel” cigarette advertisements. Among the many differences, of course, is that Dylan Mulvaney is a real person—an actress, comedian, and social media personality, one known for detailing, starting in early 2022, her male-to-female gender transition. The letter, just for bad measure, five times uses “he” or “him” in reference to Mulvaney.

Any casual reader of this letter, however, might wonder how this endorsement arrangement is any different from any beer-endorsing cis-gendered athlete whose social media footprint, activities, promotions, and video game presence all have significant crossover appeal to underage persons. There isn’t any difference.

Blackburn and Cruz appear just to be extending the shelf life of the trans-slamming foolishness that started with Nashville musician and operator of an eponymous honky tonk, Kid Rock, shooting at cans of Bud Light but ends with more nonsense on congressional letterhead.

The letter closes with Cruz and Blackburn signatures, over the identification of him as ranking member of the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation; and for her as the ranking member of the Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety, and Data Security. They likely will stay as the ranking minority members of these committees if they persist in this thinly-veiled prejudice and hate.

If Blackburn and Cruz truly want to look at the marketing of dangerous products to children, perhaps they could join President Joe Biden’s call upon the Federal Trade Commission to examine gun manufacturer marketing to children, including the use of social media influencers. Their work could start with the JR-15, a recently introduced kids’ version of the AR-15 rifle.

Instead, as gun violence rages and Congress careens toward a self-inflicted and economy-wrecking default, Tennessee’s senior U.S. Senator has wasted our time with culture war trash. Blackburn and Cruz give us a contrived “clutch the pearls, think of the children” charade.  Fortunately, we have available to us the current Children’s Defense Fund Action Council legislator ratings, tracking more than 900 congressional bills.

Blackburn and Tennessee’s other Republican U. S. Senator, Bill Hagerty, both got a grade of D (as did Ted Cruz, by the way.) Tennessee’s sole Democratic congressman, U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen from Memphis, received an A. Tennessee Reps. John Rose, Andy Ogles, and Mark Green received a grade of C, often with little legislative action helping or harming children.  Reps. Tim Burchett, Chuck Fleischmann, and David Kustoff apparently have done more harm than good, scoring a D. The records of Reps. Diana Harshbarger and Scott DesJarlais were so distressing regarding children that each received a failing grade.

Children face real threats such as underfunded schools, gun violence in schools, excess reliance on standard testing, food insecurity, and inadequate social mobility resources.  They do not need to be props or excuses in Marsha Blackburn legislative performance art.

Blackburn Cruz

The Rockford area is full of things to do this weekend. Here are 20 ideas to keep you busy | Rock River Current

The Gist

• SEO is a continuous process, not a one-time project. To be effective, SEO needs to be treated as a long-term, ongoing process rather than a series of independent, short-term projects. It requires regular attention and management due to constantly changing factors such as Google’s algorithm, your website’s content, and your competition.
• Quality content is crucial for SEO: Providing well-written, purposeful content is at the heart of any successful SEO strategy.
• Choosing the right SEO partner can enhance results: Working closely with an SEO agency or expert over a sustained period can lead to better results. As the SEO team becomes more familiar with your content and keywords, they can more effectively optimize your site.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a fundamental aspect of website management that is critical to build brand awareness and generate leads. If people can’t find your website content, then much of the efforts made around creating an excellent site and impactful content are effectively wasted.

Despite SEO’s importance, many digital marketing and web teams remain surprisingly unaware of SEO basics. For many, it still remains something of a dark art and a mysterious practice that requires deep expertise with constantly shifting requirements.

Due to a lack of internal skills as well as resourcing and budgetary constraints, many teams choose to rely on external expertise for SEO. This is often a sensible approach, especially as there are some SEO practices which can be quite specialist, but it can lead to some issues:

• SEO efforts and improvement tend to come in short, independent bursts based around engaging specialists on an ad hoc basis, rather than providing an ongoing and continuous SEO process.
• There are a lot of self-proclaimed SEO experts, but it can be hard for digital marketing teams to ascertain whether the advice and action they are receiving is successful or not.
• There is no transfer of skills to the digital marketing team in terms of awareness and knowledge of SEO practices.

The combination of these trends can lead to SEO that is less effective than it should be, and does not deliver the kind of long-term, continuous improvement in SEO that digital teams are looking for and that delivers tangible results.

Why Is Sustainable SEO Critical?

To get the best results it’s important to take a more sustainable and less short-term approach to SEO. Let’s look at some of the reasons for this.

Effective SEO Is a Moving Target

SEO doesn’t stay still. Improvements made that might be effective today may not necessarily still be effective in the future. Changes can happen across a number of different criteria that will impact SEO, including the way Google constructs its algorithm, changes to your own website or the content that feeds it, or even changes to your CMS. New keywords also come along and other websites can start to outperform you. For all these reasons and more, SEO is effectively a moving target that needs ongoing attention and management.

Related Article: State of SEO: Google Search Algorithm Updates for Q2 2023

SEO Is a Process Not a Project

Successful SEO is hard to achieve if you take a short-term view. Hiring an SEO consultant every so often isn’t going to cut it. It’s much more about delivering an ongoing process that continues to add new content that is optimized for SEO and builds on success.

The core of successful SEO is implementing everyday processes and practices that are part of the way you manage a website and its content, rather than activating a series of separate projects.

Content Is King

Providing well-written content that has a purpose is still at the center of any successful SEO strategy. Content can’t also only be about SEO — it has to appeal to your audiences to make them want to visit and then return to your site.

Any approach to SEO also needs to have an accompanying content strategy that defines your medium- to long-term goals for content and ensures it has value.

Related Article: Google Helpful Content Update Improves Customer Experience and SEO Strategy

Keeping Your Eyes on Your Data, With the Right Tools and Research

Successful SEO by its very nature is data-driven and therefore has a dependency on ensuring there are the right tools for reporting and keyword research. In particular, it’s important that your analytics package (for example Google Analytics) is configured in a way that aligns with your SEO goals and processes.

The SEO and analytics tools landscape is wide; having the right tools in place is an important component in establishing a more sustainable approach to SEO and utilizing your data to the fullest.

Picking the Right Partner and Sticking With Them

We believe SEO works best in a partnership. One thing we’ve found is that when an SEO agency or expert works together closely with a client over a sustained period of time, the SEO team gets to better know the types of content and specialist keywords that are going to resonate with a segmented audience.

At the same time, the marketing team will gain a better understanding of SEO practices, particularly if they are beginners and less experienced, but also potentially even if they have advanced knowledge. This can influence the way content is written and reviewed, so it is already partly SEO-optimized before being worked upon by an SEO agency.

Ultimately when the SEO team knows a target audience, and the marketing team knows more about SEO, it can better align content management practices with the SEO process, which ultimately leads to better SEO performance.

Learn how you can join our contributor community.