I managed to pin down Jed to take part in our autumn / fall series of interviews for:
BOYS, BEAUTY AND BILLIONAIRES.
Tell us about you, who you are, what you do and what you love most about life?
I am the Founder and CEO of 818 Agency, a B2B content strategy Agency. We provide creative B2B editorial content marketing and customer acquisition for B2B trade events and conferences, fashion, e-commerce, and luxury real estate brands. We also run online B2B “magazines” for several clients.
Our goal is to create a “family” company that is world class at the thing we do.
My favorite thing is working with amazing, professional, like-minded people that I also enjoy spending time with. Likewise it’s about integrating the people in your life into the work you do, creating a community around your passion. I love tech, menswear, art, and architecture (but honestly who doesn’t?). I grew up in NYC in the late 70’s and 80’s in its art-culture-Fiorucci-Charivari-dangerous-neighborhood phase but also lived in Socal (South California) as a publisher/digital agency CEO at the onset of the 90’s indie/alt fashion, high-end street/surf movement (Stussy, Triple 5 Soul, Fresh Jive, post-Dogtown etc) so there is an interesting hybrid of influences there too. It’s definitely informed our “high-low” approach to making business content exciting and effective for our partners and clients. I have always enjoyed combining business objectives with the highest level of editorial/creative.
Jed’s team are responsible for running and managing the Fashion Marketing Group:
What is it you love most about your business today?
That large and small companies are understanding, and actually demanding to bring their story to life online in an authentic, high-quality, genuinely editorial way. Because direct selling no longer works, especially online and via social. I love working with all of these great, irreverent writers, editors, and visual creators on our team to create and manage a cohesive story – one that works creatively but also strategically, and from a lead generation perspective. The art-meets-commerce, the qualitative-meets-quantitative. We add technical, lead-generation bits to amazing creative, so that it works for everyone. The “content marketing” industry is also slated to be a $319B business in just a few years – that’s really exciting.
We’ve come back around to editorial integrity as being the most effective thing – which is an incredible development. Most “B2B’ content out there can be extremely dry, very, very “evergreen.” We aim to be an antidote to all of that by providing elegant, irreverent B2B editorial content with an actual voice. We all come from consumer publishing, journalism, tech, social etc, so we definitely apply consumer voice, principles, and tactics to the B2B content space. We’re a bunch of biz/tech nerds who just happen to love fashion, art and architecture.
If you ran a $billion business from NY how would you like to change the world you live in?
I would ensure that everyone would have access to a world-class, modern-contemporary education. Everyone. World peace is embedded in there somewhere. As is normal debate and discourse.
Pick a theme song for your life:
Boys are not known for buying beauty products; do you have a recommendation?
I think we’re all undercover with beauty products, but that’s definitely changing. For men, especially those in harsh climes, it’s all about the Feet and Face. Take care of both of these things and everything else falls into place after that, in every way.
Feet: Kiss My Face – Peppermint Foot Creme – inexpensive ($8), effective, an every day thing. Men tend to neglect their feet for some reason. Keep ’em dry, moisturized, powdered, groomed, and clean at all times. If you put on socks with damp feet you will pay very, very dearly.
Face: Kiehl’s Creme d’Elegance Repairateur ($50) – there is a reason an apothecarian empire was built on this product. It works.
The women’s beauty products market (and now the Men’s) has been trying to compel us to purchase at least 5 or 6 different types of lotions and potions just to stay ahead. No need. Keep it simple. Wash face. Dry face. Moisturize. Sleep. Wake up. Repeat. Eat Well.
Interviewed by Colin Gilchrist for Social Tailor.