The Secret to a Valuable Brand: Why You Should Stop Buying What Others Like

0:00This is the Gary Vee Audio Experience. How do you assign value? What is value? I saw you had Puma socks and my brain goes to those are 37 cent socks that he paid nine bucks for because it has four letters in the same order with the same logo and it means something. So, you know, for me, that's just how the entire world works. Well, Gary, it is such a pleasure to be here with you today here at Art Basel. Thank you so much for your time. Happy to be here. Thanks for having me. You know, I wanted to start off for those here at at Basel. Tell us about Vscope, you know, this event, and what you want people to walk away with here.

0:37You know, in general, when I do things with my companies, whether it's VaynerX, which is the holding company that has VaynerMedia and Vayner3, which are two of the more prominent people playing at V, or VFriends, which is my intellectual property NFT project. When we do things like Basel or, you know, and being all-star or super bowl or can or south by really what you're what i'm always thinking about is how do we reverse engineer uh a scenario an activation uh a collaboration or an event space or that creates serendipity conversation relationship building i think of it from a karma standpoint, I think a lot about intent.

1:25I think too many business people and companies, when they're activating things like this, are too transactional, right? Like, we're going to do this thing, and we're going to bring our clients, and we're going to get the money. And I just don't think like, I think humans can sense that. And so I kind of go completely the other way, which is like, how do we do something that brings so much value to anybody that comes, whether it's a a personality that's there to mingle with other brands. I mean, I go so extreme as inviting competitors to see if they can steal our clients. I get that crazy with it.

1:58So, you know, what do I think about? Like, what's the punchline? The punchline is how much karma can you put into the system during a time where a lot of people congregate to the same area. And turning to the concept of IP. You've been very vocal about that. How do you assign value? What is value when it comes to determining that perceived value from a consumer perspective of any particular piece of IP that you have, whether it's VFriends, whether it's this NBA All-Star? It's the only thing I think about. Like your Puma socks. Like literally I already, I saw, like when we were just, I saw you had Puma socks.

2:36And my brain goes to, those are 37 cent socks that he paid nine bucks for because it has four letters in the same order with the same logo and it means something. So, you know, for me, that's just how the entire world works. This is a bottle of water. This was free for a trillion years. And then somewhere about 50 years ago, someone's like, wait a minute, I'm going to sell something that is actually free. And if I can make the brand mean something, people will actually pay a lot of money for something to remind everybody. Water was free. And so I think it's the only thing. I think it's how monarchies or capitalism or democracy or communism or dictators work.

3:28I think it's how people parent. All I think about is IP. All I think about is comms and marketing and how things work. And then for me, specifically in the journey I'm on, my driver for building out my IP selfishly is about, oh, I think I can build a big business. Selflessly, I think about if I can create 300 characters in a Pokemon Sesame Street Marvel-like world where I can do what I've done for 15 years as Gary Vee and pushed kindness, patience, empathy. Well, that's been hard. You know, Gary Vee is a very specific human being who's gonna work for some people and is not gonna work for others.

4:16But this patient panda might be more effective of teaching people patience than me. And so for me, I'm really enjoying the building out of the intellectual property. And I wanna really leave a legacy. I'm very, very affected as I become more educated on how Jim Henson saw the world and what his Muppets, not only Sesame Street, but Fraggle, do you know Fraggle Rock's? Absolutely. So Fraggle Rock's brief, AKA when it was handed to the woman that started the process of deciding what Fraggle Rock was gonna be, the brief, like what are we trying to accomplish, was stop war. That's profound. And I'm very affected by that and I think a lot about that And so I think about IP as something that can really bring a lot of value to both the person that created it and to the people that are using it.

5:11For example, Stop War is very like up here. But Puma, I like that there's a brand called Puma that made a sock that like for you, it's a form of expression. Right. Like you're like all of us are dressed right now to communicate. Right. tattoos to communicate right that's a nintendo reference like that i'm i'm able to understand you more in a hyper second just by what ip you're communicating to me right now we're all walking brands a hundred percent you've said several times you know how does that translate to be friends and scalability and how you are taking this entire portfolio involved of of imagery nostalgia and assets to that next level?

6:01It creates a north star of like, I have a very good sense of what I'm up to. I desperately want the world to fall in love with Accountable Ant because I think accountability, if you fall in love with it before you're 18, will lead to less anxiety and depression. So it's very clear. Then to answer your question, then I start thinking about what brand, like why Forthright? I struggled with candor my whole life. I'm doing a very cool collaboration right now with a very cool brand, and it's the forthright flamingo. So cool, you could see vintage frames, and it's fucking rad, and it's fresh, and I'm gonna rock it, and you could see the V friends, and I've got glasses, Gary V, that's cool to me because I'm an entrepreneur.

6:40Fine, fine. But over time, it's like, it's the forthright flamingo. It's the forthright flamingo, and it's like, wait a minute, is being forthright a good thing? Oh, wow, it is, actually, if you keep it in balance and you deliver it with kindness. And so there are millions of people around the world like myself who have struggled with candor which has led to the things that have made them unhappy and if I can story tell through collaborations through you know sneaker deals and and glasses or more directly children's books um movies television streaming services toys with qr codes that let you watch a four minute video the coco melon execution of all youtube the the the Adult Swim, Rick and Morty execution of television, like Bart Simpson, and everything in between, Hello Kitty.

7:28Well then over time, for the back half of my life, the next 47 years of my life, I think I can leave a really meaningful impact. And so I think very vigorously about every collaboration, why, what, how, and which character is gonna be my serial. I think about probably once a week. once a week in my day-to-day navigation i will give three minutes to 40 minutes of meaningful time of like what's the one because i know it's going to work because i know how to sell stuff and i'm going to do that well and i'm going to sell cereal but i need to be very thoughtful of am i going to make that a very healthy clean cereal that may skew for 25 year old coastal like you know thinkers of food that way or am i going to make a sugar cereal that's just a little fun, a little escapism for nine-year-old.

8:21You got to capture that nostalgia. It's what resonates, right? It's what feels right. We've all grown up with these collectibles, the Pokemon cards, the Hot Wheels, right? And now we have this new technology, NFTs, right? But it's not really different. It's just in a new medium. And I think your point is keeping, getting rid of the labels to an extent, you know, but still maintaining that tastefulness is something that I feel that that you've integrated into everything that you're doing, what you just shared, of you want to extract that cultural feeling that a child, whether they're eight or 10 years old, feels comfortable with that they can point you and say, I like this, I don't know why, but I like it.

9:04Especially if that eight or 10 year old is like, I like this, I like this, I like this. Oh, wait a minute. This attribute of kindness is something I want to be about. Right? right for a 25 year old it might be you know it might be cooler like you for a kid it might be i'm interested in this i don't know why for a 40 year old it might be like i'm interested in this i don't know why to your point it's all that integration and so what i'm most excited about is even before i launched it i gave a lot of thought to i'm going to build a very big universe so i can play with this canvas forever and so i didn't draw mickey mouse and then like like and then And then later I built Pluto or Daisy Duck.

9:45From day one, there was 268 characters because I knew what I wanted to do, which is build a universe that will leave a positive impact in its execution of becoming pop culture. Hey everybody, I hope you're enjoying the podcast right now. Make sure you follow the podcast. That's why I'm interrupting. Let's keep going on this show, but follow the podcast. It'll make my mom super happy. How does fashion play into the Be Friends ecosystem and what you're continuing to build out over time? I mean, look, I'm like, this is a great answer to this question. First, the humbleness and joy I feel of doing a Hypebeast interview speaks to how fashion plays.

10:28Meaning, what does that mean? It means that fashion, like music and sport and religion and a couple of other things, is like one of the most foundational human experiences. I would argue that the singular reason I knew NFTs will play out long term is because fashion and art. 100%. We communicate through the things we buy. So fashion specifically has been probably the place I've been most aggressive. The brand is, V-Brand is 18 months old. Reebok, Starter, Kim Shui, right, Carrots, Vintage Frames. I mean, like, it's disproportionately ahead of almost everything, out of anything else I've done so far.

11:12I haven't done as many consumer packaged goods. I haven't done as much content. Fashion collaborations have been the thing that I've been running fastest with because on strategy I myself have such a large audience, 15 to 45, many of which like care about fashion and so and it's also been really fun personally to put on my collab partners i also feel that i want to be the best collaboration partner so to me whether it's starter or carrots or vintage frames i have a very large universe and the fact that i'm able to bring that relevance and that audience to them excites me the fact that i'm going to go downstairs right and have lines of people who are gonna come for the collaboration, but then they're gonna be like, wait a minute, I like those glasses better than even the V Friends glasses.

12:01That's good for vintage frames. That makes me happy. So fashion's a fun place, plus with fashion, and you know this, and definitely the readers of this publication know this, limited is good. And so you're able to do lots of little stuff. It's fun to do a buck 50 run of this or a thousand of that. And so it allows for almost like tapas instead of like a big meal. like it's not like you can do it quick and thoughtful but in six months something can be in market in a great way whereas when you're thinking about toys like i'm doing or i mean animation it's like a three-year fucking journey for me i'm like oh be a hundred you know like you know so like so i think uh that's another reason i gravitate towards it speed is an incredibly important thing to me and i love that through collaborations we can get into market within a six or nine month period.

12:53So with that, how do you define culture? We all use the word, we all throw it out there, but what does culture mean to you, Gary Vee? Culture for me, my brain goes to putting the word pop. Like every time it's like, this is culture, and then my brain goes pop culture, and then my brain goes popular culture, and what that means to me is people are interested in. you know i think the word slang today speaks a lot about urban culture speaks a lot about cool culture speaks a lot about being a hype beast actually a hype beast but i but i do think sometimes people miss the bigger macro so for example i'll give you a good example lately i've been thinking a lot about how i want to do things with v friends in fishing culture right like like the millions of people who wake up at 5 a.m.

13:49across the country and the world and go fishing and it is the most important thing to them and so like to me like do I want to get fishing boots and with one of my sea characters like that's a culture but I don't think we in a hype beast way think of when we say culture we don't think that we don't think hunting and fishing we think cool but for a lot of people hunting and fishing is the coolest and so like I remember thinking that video games were gonna be so much bigger than a lot of my friends saw. I just knew. I was like, this is not a thing that is just for kids. Because we were growing up with it.

14:24I'm like, why are we still playing this in college? And it's like even more important now than it was when we were nine. I'm like, this is big. This is a culture. So I think of it very macro. So that's how I define it. Well, it's getting to the why too, right? Always to the why. Always to the a reason for it and to that, how do you inject tastefulness in the partnerships and collaborations that you enter into or bring deep friends into? A, I'm not crippled by the concept of tastefulness because I know that it's everyone's subjective opinion. You know, and so one, the way I bring tastefulness is I'm not scared of it, where I think a lot of people are scared of it.

15:02They want it to be tasteful to taste makers. I'm not worried about that. I try to bring tastefulness to the table through intent. I want to make a great product. I want to make something that people really enjoy that they have it. I have no interest in anybody buying it if it's not something that brings them value. So I kind of bring a very strong intent-based energy. And then the tastefulness in the way we define it is like, I have a subjective creative opinion. I think something looks cool. I know that that means millions of others will I also know that that means millions of others won't think that's cool and that's fine and so I think a lot of people are crippled by tasteful and they become perfectionists and they become insecure and they become like crippled and they don't do shit you know to me as long as I have good intent and value my opinion while recognizing that that opinion doesn't mean anything to 70 % of the world in every subjective call I make, then that's great.

16:11That's fine. Let's talk Vintage Frames and the upcoming event today. What's most exciting to you about this and why so many people here? You know, I think the most exciting thing on the collaboration, like Vintage Frames, their DNA core, like what I really respect them is they come from the streets and hustle of garage sale, flea market like I do. So that connection was right off the top. The fact that he is still out there going to estate sales and buying seven glasses, I just can't resonate with that more. So that was one. Two, I wanted to go into eyewear and play with it. There's a lot of categories I'm gonna play in that I'm not a heavy user of.

16:55I don't wear glasses. is I don't tend to, like the number one thing most of my friends and family make fun of me for is I don't wear shades in the sun ever. So it wasn't like, oh, I need this for me. I'm like, I may not, but you guys do. And so that was exciting for me. I also spoke to and have spoken to tons of creative individuals in the fashion industry and really wanted to go on my intuition on who would be partners I wanted to work with. One of the things that's interesting about this, because I just spoke to this, this took the longest time. Why? Because on the vintage frame side, they wanted it right from their perspective.

17:40And what I liked was, you know, it's funny, my macro thesis of why I want to do a lot of stuff in fashion collabs is the speed. I liked when I started partnering with them where I could feel like, oh, wait a minute. They're like, no, no, we're scrapping that whole three months. I'm like, we are? I liked that I respected their creative process so much that I was comfortable that it took us six months or nine months later than I had in my ideology. The product came out great. The other most exciting part is any excuse I can have to meet up with people that want to go out of their way to say hello to me is something that's interesting to me.

18:20so I'll have my hardest core fans you know down there like there's absolutely a group of 10 to 50 individuals that make me feel like I'm the grateful dead or fish I'm like they're everywhere they're at everything and it's just like I don't even know how to express in words even though I'm a pretty solid communicator what it feels like when people will go out of their way to show up anywhere and everywhere you are publicly to you know get a few more minutes to say hello to ask a question to take their 19th selfie it's it's profoundly humbling and then equally because that's over here equally sending a text the last couple days to the 10 ,000 people that live within a 30 mile radius of this location which is actually roughly the numbers I have on my community text community the amount of people that replied of like this is gonna be the first time I'm ever gonna see you because I've not been able to travel I can't afford to go to vcon or go to the sports card convention in new jerry i just happen to live 20 minutes from here i can't wait to see you that is profoundly exciting for me so on those two extremes i get very excited which is why i tend to probably do a lot of public events uh and that is very exciting about this collaboration that was very important to me of like what we're talking through it's not just like we're going to sell this on dot com let's have an in-person uh partial this oh wait your your hq is miami oh wait basel is a big part of NFT culture.

19:41Oh, let's aim for doing something in December. And now here we are. Hey everybody, if you enjoyed this podcast, please go back and look at the prior episodes. They're loaded. I appreciate your attention. And thanks for being part of this journey. See you later.