Dispatches from Dreamland: Very Vice

Vice is a global brand aptly described as the Time Warner of the streets, delivering content to an audience that is hungry for authentic experience.

Beginning as a humble print publication in Canada two decades ago, it has since evolved to become a global network delivering content across multiple platforms for an audience that has also become their biggest ambassadors – a prime demo of 18-34 year olds seeking meaningful engagement in their lives.

Ryan Duffy, who looks after all of Vice's digital properties, meets with shots' Acting US Editor Simon Wakelin in the piece below, to discuss how the international media company continues to engage audiences worldwide through an ecosystem of digital channels.

“We began as a print magazine two decades ago,” explains Ryan Duffy who handles the company’s digital properties. “It has since become an international multi-media company with 34 offices communicating to global youth in every medium imaginable. Digital video is the hub, but we also create experiential print, DVD, film and more.”

Conjuring conversation

Meeting with Duffy in LA after a Movie Marketing Breakfast in Culver City, he’s excited to be opening a new office in Santa Monica – and equally jazzed about a Vice audience that is bigger and better than ever.

“Our audience demo gets talked about a lot, especially in advertising,” he continues. “It’s a demographic of 18-34 year olds that are really hard to reach. They have been marketed to for so long that in order to create meaningful engagement it’s imperative to cut through the clutter.”

Duffy exemplifies Vice protocol by outlining one of their latest ventures, “The 3:07 Project” to promote the horror film “The Conjuring.” Four short films were commissioned from up-and-coming horror directors, each inspired by 3:07 AM – the devil's hour, the most haunted time of the day:

“The project generated cultural conversations around the film by taking real events and running with it,” Duffy explains. “This drove people to engage with the film, an authentic base that we were able to reach and convert into ticket sales. This was an earned audience not a group of people who were advertised to.”

Behind the brand

Duffy believes that if you can get through to an audience in this way they will become your biggest brand ambassadors:

“They live on social and are very vocal about the things that they like,” he continues. “If you can give this crowd some ammo, hand them information like this they will become your best advocates.”

Duffy notes how the 18-34 demographic has huge spending power, but it is also an audience where information is available at the touch of a button:

“The audience today consumes what they want, when they want watching whatever they want,” he says. “It’s an on-demand generation. The key is extending a content universe around a brand because it is an asset waiting to be spread wide. The more content you create, the more assets you have, and so more reason to communicate with them.”

Demonstrating to the demographic

While Duffy admits the greater the volume of content, the greater the communication and engagement, he also underlines that story is at the heart of Vice:

“Vice has been storytelling for 20 years,” he outlines. “Its in our DNA, so as we’ve partnered with brands we have discovered that the best approach is simple – that there can be no greater asset than creating great content. It has been at the core of our most successful projects.”

Asked of the main ingredients in the Vice media pie, Duffy answers that, “Honesty and authenticity are imperative. It’s no great revelation to tell you that, but creating a real emotional connection with an audience of brand ambassadors will always win the day.

“They need something real to chew on. Remember who we are talking to. They have this bullshit crystal ball – the second someone is lying to them or advertising in a deceitful way they know exactly what’s going on. They are not looking for advertising, they are looking for engagement, for something more.”

Identifying value

Duffy again emphasises the importance of sharable assets through storytelling, through high frequency content-led marketing efforts that deliver more value to consumers:

“No one has gone to a website, then left saying, Jesus, I really wish I’d got served another 300 x 250 banner ad,” he quips. “Give people what they want, use ad and marketing dollars to make great content and communicate in ways they enjoy rather than slapping them over the head with stuff like display banners.”

When asked what it is that keeps the brand fresh, Duffy says Vice troops on the front line are the perfect litmus test for new ideas:

“The great thing is that we are staffed by the people we talk to, which is why I feel Vice works so well,” he answers. “I am the elder statesman at 31, so the sniff test is to walk around the office asking 20-somethings if they would watch or give a shit about a particular concept or idea.”

As for the future of the company, Duffy says to look out for Season 2 of Vice on HBO as well as upcoming new premium digital channels – Including VICE News, a new channel created in partnership with Google.