Cameras, lights, Spiderman, fur…. it is only part of the attractions that have made the last, very positive, confusion in O4. About what was happening we have talked with Anna-Maria Wiśniewska, the organizer.
O4: You are the creator of the socialme.pl brand. It sounds very “social media like”!
A.M: Perfect! Because that’s how I wanted it to sound. The first connotation is the most important.
O4: Okay, so what is socialme?
A.M: It is a place where people from the Internet industry – eg. ones active in social media, IT, graphic designers, bloggers – can find gadgets that allow them to express themselves and what they’re doing. In a nutshell: we are a shop with designer prints where you can get t-shirts, mugs, bags, magnets, and much more.
O4: And how did you come up with the idea of the store? We know that you already have a business…
A.M: Yes, I have an agency that builds an image in social media. And it was actually very easy to link. The reasons for starting a shop were (and still are) two: first – I have missed a physical product that you can sell on a large scale, and those are not trainings, e-books, VOD; second – some time ago I wanted to buy a T-shirt with interesting text about my business and… there was nothing. Maybe I wasn’t searching hard enough? I do not know, but it was enough for me to decide that I want to start a store.
O4: Have you been looking for a long time for a name?
A.M: Not long, but intensively (laughs). I still somewhere have a piece of paper on which I wrote the whole pyramid of connotations – a very helpful technique, but in the end I came up with the idea of the name differently. I typed into a domains search engine the combination of the words “social media”. And – bam! – socialme.pl was available. It is really simple and catchy.
O4: You work in marketing, so the promotional campaign for sure was made very “professionally” 😉
A.M: Yes, so I immediately started working on it, because I knew that there was nothing to wait for. I came up with an idea for a clip on the pattern that was created by CupSell for their fullprint T-shirts, did the script, people of good will came… and we did a commercial – here in O4. All of it took me about a week, maybe two. I am very grateful for the opportunity to use the space – it gave it a great effect.
O4: How did you arrange all this in such a short time?
A.M: I do work fast and I’m doing what I can to reach my goal. Besides, I have some great business friends around. This clip made a debt of gratitude, because everything was done pro bono and more for fun, but the end result is still fantastic.
O4: Well, yes, “magical” transformation, blazing fires, special effects…
A.M: Exactly (laughs)! Video was supposed to be on the verge of kitsch and it worked very well.
O4: Upcoming plans for the brand?
A.M: I care, of course, on reaching as many people interested in what we do It can not, however, happen at the expense of the core business, that I run. Therefore, in small steps, but incessantly, I will introduce improvements. Now I began to draw graphics. They are lopsided, but let it be that this is my style (laughs). I am in the course of collaboration talks with designers from the social media industry to diversify product range.
socialme.pl t-shirts were sent to the industry influencers – eg. Michael Sadowski recently published a gift that I’ve sent him. Likewise Monika Czaplicka and Krzysiek Gonciarz and Kasia Mecinski. Soon, on the socialme.pl fanpage, I will publish an article about it.
O4: In that case, congratulations and good luck in the development of the brand!
A.M: Thank you!