Dive summary:
- Russell Simmons, the founder of hip hop record label Def Jam and clothing line Phat Farm, has opened a new venture in advertising, Narrative, with long time business partner Tricia Stone-Clark.
- Narrative is a digital marketing, entertainment, and technology company that creates digital campaigns for brands rooted in social media, branded entertainment and celebrity-driven content, using techniques such as crowd-sourcing, gamification and rewards.
- The founding clients at Narrative are Sprint's Boost Mobile and GlobalGrind.com, a pop culture, entertainment and lifestyle website founded by Simmons in 2008.
From the article:
"Narrative will focus on the so-called new American mainstream, because in Mr. Simmons' view, American pop culture has changed to the point where urban culture is the mainstream, and urban is not just about African-American culture anymore. 'It's urban because it's integrated... I've been integrating since the Beastie Boys and Run DMC. ... I don't want it to be limited to 10% of the population, because nothing I ever did was, and I think our solutions will come across as that.'"
