Gary Vaynerchuk Q&A with Loïc Le Meur at LeWeb'13 [Full Video]

one of the Great Moments uh of L web uh that had uh stopped for a year uh because Gary could not make it is Gary Vayner shark that doesn't need much introduction and doesn't need any preparation from me because he's going to drive everything I'm just going to take uh questions from the room and have fun with him so Gary are you here okay can you join me welcome Gary thank you it's been uh what a year you missed one year only right um maybe two we missed you hello Paris good to see you great job by the way so you have not slept for two days yes sorry was that there's a deeper answer to that yes I did not sleep for two days we'll get we have mics ready so whenever you want to switch to uh an interaction with the room uh we can do that okay you want to talk about your uh latest news you have a book I do I released a book uh two weeks ago called jab jab right hook um it's my take on what's going on in the world of Storytelling specifically the platforms where more and more are spending our times which is social networks on mobile devices so what I tried to write is a howto book as a followup to my why books crush it and thank you economy and so I wrote a book that has 80 case studies um where I break down Brands entrepreneurs apps that do a good job on Facebook Twitter Tumblr Pinterest Instagram Snapchat mine um and ones that don't do as good of a job because I think I think Snapchat yeah well Snapchat on Snapchat oh absolutely I think right now Snapchat is one of the most successful marketing tools for me personally with my brand because I think the biggest thing that people are misunderstanding about Snapchat you like one of us no thank you okay Lu the thing that everybody's misunderstanding with Snapchat in this room in our space right now is that everybody worries about WID right like everybody cares about Topline numbers Impressions follow followers people care about dumb [ __ ] data right they care about the wrong thing they're caring about especially when they're fake especially what fake like fake I mean like of how many millions of followers do you have uh that are Bots or things of that nature or don't care it doesn't matter how many you have it matters how many care right I mean I went through this in the mid 90s right this is history repeating itself because I remember you telling me about how important it was to build your following of course completely realize how full of [ __ ] you were at the time no no I met you deep in the 2000s so let's not [ __ ] what what I talked about was building a fan base that actually cared right so I went through this in the mid90s when in correct that's what you exactly said he the numbers and because not because I'm so smart but because this is my second Rodeo right in 1996 when I was building wine library. com I was trying to build as many email subscribers as possible I started buying ads on email list luxury do the if the founders of luxury. com are watching right now [ __ ] you let me explain yes please in 1996 context here in 1996 I bought luxury. com an ad on their email list CU they had 2 million emails I thought it was going to be incredible I mean I didn't sleep the night before I had Wine Library ready I was going to pack every order this was going to change my business 2 million emails this is crazy when they send that email at noon I'm going to be ready here comes all these wine orders luxury. com it's going to be the best kind of customers and then it's you know 30 minutes after the email goes out and I have like one order and I'm like oh it probably didn't go out and I emailed them and they're like we sent it and I was like [ __ ] and literally at that point I understood that it wasn't width it was depth right and so by 1998 I cared about open rates and click-through ratio and things that actually mattered and so as Twitter came along and as people in this space started I started getting out there I wasn't worried about building my Twitter following Topline I was worried about people actually caring veiniacs people that watched because at the end of the day that's what matters what Snapchat is doing everybody is very simple it's not about how many Impressions you get it's how much attention you get the one thing everybody in this room is Tied by no matter what you do in this room if you're a journalist B2B conferences sell wine b2c startup app developer I don't care what anybody in this room does or watching at home on live stream the number one thing we all have to do is tell our story to somebody along the path of them making a decision before you tell your story you have to have somebody's attention and what Snapchat does is it gives you the attention I've not been able to make something trend on Twitter for 4 years once famous people actually started coming on my days were over right trending right now le web is number one Twitter Trend no I'm talking me I don't give a [ __ ] about you me I was unable to make anything TR you know back in ' 08 07 N I can make things Trend with a tweet blah blah the first time I've been able to make something Trend in the last 3 years was this August when I sent a Snapchat to 4,000 people how can you send hustle it took me 49 minutes to select every person by hand not this [ __ ] update product they have that's called stories that suck [ __ ] yeah no one uses that they like people to use that the single reason I thought Snapchat should at least consider to sell their company for $3 billion was cuz how shitty their update was the last time around makes me question if there's any real product people there I mean I love the company I fully believe that they've figured something out I believe the attention matters I love it but that last update was [ __ ] so they lost a billion in valuation well no I mean it just scared me right I've been so bullish on it I've been putting my ass on the line about this is a very important platform and they've let me down a little bit but I hope evidence team figure it out Gary so most most people here in the room who has used Snapchat in the room yeah you got caught admit right now that you got caught you didn't expect that many h to go up admit it look in the camera and say you were wrong where is he I was wrong that was the wrong one let's clap that up he that you've never seen before first time that's inate I screwed up many times on this stage but let's talk about it for a second it's about attention and so I took a picture of myself holding up a bottle of wine with a hashtag and after those 5,000 people in 2 seconds a ton of them posted that picture on Twitter with that hashtag and I was able to make Trend and what it taught me was the lesson I learned in '96 about open rates and conversion which is it doesn't matter how many I with my million followers here or my 2 million on Google+ or this that and the other thing the 5,000 on Snapchat are real and more importantly are paying attention are really focused on it and I think in general everybody in this space when I mean the space I mean this whole Tech thing that we're all a part of if you're smart enough to be in this room or watching right now we need to start caring a lot more about the depth of our relationships our customers our opportunities and not the width because it the same looks like you have a few fans over there I like this corner you like some um us to um it's um most brands just care about the audience right they buy they stealed by how many visitors well brands have listen in so let me most of you don't know who I am I run a social media creative and strategy shop now called Vayner media uh where that's for plug right what's that that's for plug I'm sorry you asked me about a plug that we should put on the oh no no I mean this is wrong I'm just you know vayer media is tell me about your business my business right now so I have the wine business that some of you know wine library. com that runs itself um and then I spend all my time now on Vayner media which is a social media strategy and creative shop so we produce content so you monetized your knowledge basically in to helping it started with me we're now 300 people we've gone from 20 to 300 in the last 24 months so I've been operating right I've been head down building another business um and now it's much more analytical and there's other people with brains and we have a real organization and so you consult for Brands is that your model no that sounds like an agency no we are an agency we're very unattractive no VC thinks I'm cool it's very unattractive there's no big multiple on the eida but we make a fuckload of money it's weird um you mean profit yes right with no funding it's a strange New Concept it's called profit Gary that will not take you to $4 billion in valuation V right listen I'm not going to sell for 40 billion but more importantly I'm grooming Talent I'm building an actual business my brother AJ is my partner he got out of college it was very important to me that he learned how to run a p& l and not raise money so we built a practical business what thank you know what I [ __ ] love Paris you guys are clapping at the right [ __ ] um so we built this company we do strategy and creative what I mean by that is when we land a new client like we just did with Mountain Dew or Dov Dove soap or you know these big Brands I work with GE we walk in and we actually ask them what do you want to accomplish like what is your business objective and what we then do is decide which platforms that we think are the most lucrative to convert that but let's face it the most brands are totally boring online right absolutely boring and most people and Brands and comp like everybody sucks right like 99% of the [ __ ] that's in stream now is garbage because marketing sucks and all they want is to promote their crap absolutely and but not only marketing people like you know most people suck because they just want to promote their stuff and that's how do we fix that you have if I'm a sucky Brown I am a um o i don't want to piss off anyone here you better be careful cuz everybody is a sponsor of this [ __ ] conference what brand can I quote without you know upsetting a toothbrush brand let's say I'm a toothbrush no but that's a good example because no one cares about a toothbrush right well nobody cares about a smoke detector but the last [ __ ] guy figured it out right so I think I think what it comes down to is this we should do connected toothbrushes of listen like listen my toothbrush would be text texting me right now like get to the dentist [ __ ] you know I mean it's going to happen um the reason I came up with the title of my last book jab jab right hook is to fix this problem I want to start this dialogue which is give give and then ask the reason I've been able to build businesses is I don't think I'm entitled to anything I actually think that's the biggest problem we have right now this level of entitlement just because you launch an app doesn't mean you're going to get users or you're entitled to it so my big belief is that you have to give and then you have the permission to conceivably ask for the conver version the right hook and you were in the plane but evernot fibin was there was explaining just that he says I've been giving for 4 years evernot has been free when we did premium like five bucks a month that's right and now he sells products he sells scanners and stuff guys in life a funny you know the best way to get something is to give something first it you have the leverage I don't understand how people don't understand this now I understand why it happens because a funny thing happens in the game that we all play in a world where you raise money you're against the clock you're burning and you're in bad habits when you raise money you spend it on dumb [ __ ] right because you've got a lot of it and then it starts burning quicker and what happens is you start making bad decisions because you're making decisions based on time not the marathon for me because I've always been self-funded and always self-sufficient I've had the luxury of running the marathon instead of the Sprint when you're running the Sprint you're making very quick decisions and you don't have the patience required to give give and then ask and so what I highly recommend everybody in this room give thought to and who's watching is how do you position yourself to actually create patience so that you're able to execute the right things that ultimately allow you to have the leverage to go in and ask for the sale because we're we have a supply and demand issue we have a major live in a world now I don't know if you heard about it but there's this new thing it's called the internet right and what it's done is it's created a situation where the cost of entry into the marketplace of almost anything you do has collapsed in cost and speed of getting to Market so what happens is we have dramatically more supply of everything of information of apps of products of services and so the consumer has far more choice so we have to provide more value than the fact that we're in [ __ ] existence and so that requires giving upfront and that's something that I think most people are uncomfortable doing Andor the fact of the matter is most people are wired and have the DNA of worrying about what's in it for them and not their consumers

and not what's in it for their consumers or Partners how do you uh build a following on Snapchat I leveraged my other platform wasn't one by one well I leverage my other platforms because I have followers everywhere else I mean you know I don't know if the slides up it's not but like he was a second ago I mean you know forever I always put my Twitter and Facebook handle I think it's kind of interesting that I put my Snapchat handle it was I it's I you I didn't think that we were going to I didn't know what talk about but I asked back room to put it up there because I want to build it up I'm tweeting it out I'm Facebooking it out I've emailed it out I want to build it up because that's where my depth is coming right now but what's the value of doing a Snapchat for you because it's temporary you know you have your attention does it tell you how many nothing Lou nothing is more important than the attention of the end user nothing is the cost of entrance to accomplish anything and so and the attention on Snapchat is coming that if you don't watch it now it's going to be gone forever that's right you think that's a interesting Mo like G Ka wasaki you might get a little old I think some I don't know I'm just kidding but he was saying I'm posting four times on Twitter now he was repeating the messages you know what he does right I think that's an interesting strategy I in opposite in 2013 I've posted the same message on Twitter more than once for the first time in s years because I agree with guy the stream is so busy that if you have something you want to say you have to be strategic and I think and listen but you give up doing that no I didn't do it from 06 to 20 you do it now I do so you spam the stream as well I don't think it's spam I think that's your funny way to make a joke I think what I'm doing is when it's when it's 9:00 in the morning Eastern time and I want to say something that's important that day I'm smart enough to realize at 6:00 in the morning uh in San Francisco and I have a fan base there and I need to wait and if I am a loyal follower of yours and I read the tweets from Gary I see four times the same crap you yes the on the that's horrible I understand on the flip side the reality is the stream has become so busy that I've looked at my data and my feedback that people missing it enough and not to mention it's so fast everything is micros seconds that you're not so [ __ ] devastated that you're seeing something a second time it's not the end of the world that I saw a [ __ ] tweet a second time not to mention given the fact that I try very hard to provide value and respond to everybody at scale and put out good content I'm putting out value it's not about how many times you say listen somebody might be following you L and you don't put out any good [ __ ] content so it's a complete waste of time it could be right I mean but listen we're having a little bit of fun but the truth is the truth right the fact of the matter is that if you're putting out quality content you're probably less upset that you saw the same quality content twice versus 10 pieces of content over a month from somebody who's bringing you no value at the end of the day this is all about value it's about value right it's your either entertaining people right you're either creating a utility I mean why did Instagram really work it wasn't a social network it made us better at taking photos which we care about and that utility made it extremely popular and then all the other layers came in so you can either be a utility you could be escapism because all of our lives are busy and intense and we need a little bit of escapism or you could be entertainment and if you don't understand that just look at the front of your phone I promise you the things that are on the front of your phone sit in one of those three categories and the front of your phone what is on your home screen on your phone is the single clearest Gateway into the psychology of what human beings care about in today's society wow oh yeah I could be smart too I don't I can be entertaining and curse but I've got some thoughts would you like to keep talking alone or should we um no I enjoy our conversation so much I am actually trying to p you off and I fell so far you're like so mellow and nice and I'm a new Gary ve Lu yeah you're like I mean you would have been upset that me the hair's I'm old your hair is gone well you yeah talk to me about it but when you have such a beautiful face like you do you can get away with anything thank you Gary that's why I it's your eyes right gorgeous [ __ ] eyes L thank you Gary so we'd like to take some questions okay all right who has a question here cuz that that's what that's why they came for like not for me asking stupid questions let me excuse me one second my friend that's a whole another conversation one of the if I thought that I could come to conferences and just do Q& A I would if I was known enough or if I didn't think people thought it was lazy because I actually think back to what I just said earlier which is value is what matters I think at a conference the content you can go home and watch anytime you want in your underpants right you know that is amazing what you just said because we put everything on YouTube live and we post it all on YouTube everything for free the content is there right and unfortunately 90% of the people that speak give the same [ __ ] presentation for 3 years right so you don't need to see it more than once what I think is really interesting in conferences is the engagement which is why so many people are out in the hall right now engaging with each other we put the Twitter wall up so just so that we see that they hate us we can know I see it and number two I think the biggest thing that we're going to see after this content play itself out a little bit I think the next thing and the one thing that a lot of people should be thinking about is access I think access is an incredibly high value proposition and that's why I want to do Q& A right now we actually get to engage during this limited time it's the access yet you don't take the questions yeah it's a very valid point keep talking it's good yeah hi um I don't think we need a connected toothbrush you're eating too much chocolate like we saw that no I know anyone want some what's your name Mar from Italy so good wide and deep you said so I was thinking forget we at line kaca talk which by accident nobody mention in these two days which I'm amazed it's absurd it's American bias deeper yeah could be deeper than WhatsApp can you I can't imagine something deeper than that but you see a way for brand to enter that space at the moment what's different about that is it's onetoone communication I mean one of the biggest debates about Snapchat is can you monetize onetoone communication monetizing texting which is what's WhatsApp is a very difficult proposition right I mean what I think Snapchat ultimately will do is go one to many the way I'm using it right now by [ __ ] hand I'd like to have the select all button they don't want to do that because it takes away the intimacy um this is me assuming what they're thinking about they went half pregnant with stories but as a [ __ ] experience and a [ __ ] UI what for them to truly monetize they're going to have to go one to many monetization works at one to many monetizing one to one doesn't which is why a lot of people struggle with WhatsApp and things of that nature so far I'm sure there's some brilliant girl right now in you know Scandinavia who's come up with a way to monetize one to one and I can't wait to see it I haven't figured it out nobody else has until somebody shows that or we get into what I think is going to happen which is people going to start paying for services right I mean at some level back to the jokes I was making early on in the conversation there's going to be a $20 a month or $20 a year app that might be one to one that wins its scale because it's so incredibly strong people will pay and I think that is an interesting variable that I think has a chance I always thought path or other people could go down that route um but that's why people aren't talking about WhatsApp or even snap Snapchat the reason I see Snapchat going that way is much like the way Twitter felt right to me in ' 07 and I knew what to do with it Snapchat's worked that way to me but it's been one to many it's been able to make something happen for me at scale but do you think people need Paris for example would pay for ibra to Really what's up with them in the future I think you can make people pay for anything let me explain if we went in a time machine and showed show people this and said people in 2013 spend $2 on this [ __ ] they'd say [ __ ] you it's free it comes out of the so the fact that we as human beings pay for this right here water we'll pay for anything I mean it what it what it took was somebody figuring out how to package it and had a story tell right there's some dumb people in this room that think these waters are different right that's good [ __ ] storytelling right so I think that that's what it's going to take but I think that could be done hel hey thank you for the sample on Amazon of your book it's awesome thank you so much I just had to say that but anyway what is the emotion created with this attention what is this access what's the emotional connection there and is it that we don't have an emotional connection anymore the emotional connection is completely predicated by the creative right the emotional connection is the picture you actually take that's going to be different for everybody and how they storytellers hits the road right this whole game distribution's mapped word of mouth on the Internet is mapped the social graph is mapped that redhead dude that was here he mapped it his company well he the company Facebook they mapped it that's not what matters is what story you actually tell the emotion is predicated by what you actually put out there right the emotion you get out of a song or a movie is based on that not based on how it was distributed to you what Snapchat is doing is not changing the emotion what it's doing is it created a utility that actually gave you the opportunity to get somebody's attention in a very noisy world but your book the emotion you create to my mind is hopefulness the story makes me feel like something good is can happen I can make something happen by what you show me that's my but that's me being but I'm an optimist right you should do a church of Gary ve well I've been thinking about it you know that would be a good Next Step you know those churches in the US where you have those thousands of people and business wise it's like what Mark B is doing with dreamforce right you have like 50,000 people coming and and because Mark is so magnetic right and you're the same you should do that went to go see Book of Mormon on uh Broadway and you know these Mormon guys they figured out a real Racket and so you know starting a religion whatever gets me to buy the New York Jets I'll [ __ ] try it next question uh what do you think oh uh the biggest mistake that young startups and young entrepreneurs are making in trying to get new users in this really in uh just busy time with social media like you're saying you know I think most the biggest single mistake that I see young entrepreneurs making is two things one not realizing that they're actually not an entrepreneur right let's address this right and this is a real statement tough one for me to say because it's a very guy it's a very douchebag thing for me to say but I think it's an important conversation that we have I think we're living through a very attractive time to be an entrepreneur right you know [ __ ] you know Mark put on a hoodie and a movie came out and you know Instagram made a billion dollars after 500 Days and everybody decided they were an entrepreneur the amount of Ivy League schooled kids that I'm meeting right now who think because they went to Stanford or Yale or Harvard or brown what have you or anywhere else obviously I'm in the US that think just because they're smart students that they're entrepreneurs that then I watch and the first taste of adversity that they get they crumble like a bunch of [ __ ] and so I think the first mistake we have right now is we have an issue where people have decided they're entrepreneurs when they're not you know I think that's the biggest problem number two is people think it's a lot easier than it is I mean listen the Press you for every Instagram there's 5 million insta [ __ ] right and so you know the like I think we're in a we're not in a bubble finan eventually because we're not I don't think so let Facebook $120 billion and Twitter $20 billion fine but let how many times profit is at listen I don't understand anything Snapchat and I'm the billion I'm the first one to I made a let's explain I made a video the day Facebook bought Instagram I was on CNN and I said they stole it you sat up here just a couple hours ago and saying everybody thought you got killed now it looks smart right so they're Smart Buys you were wrong I was right okay so here's what I think Lu I think that there's plenty of things that in 2007 people fought this way as well and um then it didn't go I think Andre's the one that this is not me Cycles we're at the top of a cycle no we're not Uber and Airbnb and Nest are just the beginning of Technology eating everything in our lives this is the be this is not a cycle this is literally the beginning we're going to look back at this as the early ear early days there will be a smart toothbrush and smart pants and smart [ __ ] everything we're just starting so number one I don't think we're in a bubble I do think though of Entrepreneurship I think there's a lot of Pretenders um and idiots like me that are angel investors who what we do wrong is we see some kids come in with a great idea or a decent idea and we think about how we would build it as operators and so we invest not realizing they can't operate and that's where I've been caught I mean I think every business idea is good because I think I can make every business work and that's a mistake and that's something I've had to fix uh who has the mic here over there let's follow the microphones hi Gary and try to go everywhere in the room please uh so we'll go this way next time so you we've heard about your thought on social media and you also say you hire a 280 people in 2 years how do you build a culture how do you make sure that the people you bring in have the same view as you have uh on social media and Venom media very easy I'm the head of HR comma CEO right I spend anywhere between 2 to four hours a day with talking to employees we don't have a head of HR still because the only way to instill the culture for me is through dictatorship right so I want them to have a sense of values and listen we're a very interesting company I tell everybody I value how you care about the other boys and girls in this company more than how skilled you are and people think I'm joking because it's a nice thing to say but at then it doesn't get executed it gets executed in my building we've fired some of the most talented people because they weren't willing to be the culture fits that I want because ultimately I want to do for Vayner media what I did with Wine Library the reason I was able to Wine Library and that $60 million business is cuz the culture was set and it didn't collapse with me leaving and it's true family I want to be able to continue to do other businesses so I'm okay with not letting it get too big or as big as it can be upfront back to what I talked about earlier which is I'm constantly in Marathon mode not in Sprint mode so I'm willing to leave 20 to $50 million on the table with this company because I'm spending way more time than I should as a CEO on HR issues because it's going to pay me dividends in 10 years it's like the same old story it's like parenting this is all like parenting you know when your 15-year-old comes home high and smashed the car and all [ __ ] up and you grab your spouse and say honey we've got to talk about the kid it's over you should have talked about the kid when the kid was 5 6 78 and you didn't give a [ __ ] and you were going on vacations or work too much this is about parenting you've got to put in the work in the first 10 years to get the dividends in the back 10 years thank you Paris oh it's crazy online as well it's not only Paris this I know you're worldwide l i put the oh come on I was talking about you I'm kidding I'm having fun with you finally I get you a little upset good morning my name is Cabana how are you fine thank you where are you from I am from Bolivia living in Paris uh my question comes about sharing yes okay because you're sharing information but it's important to know what is the customer uh what does he want so uh having the customer sharing is very important too so from my experience I can see that there are so many cultures where it is very open so the customer is going to share on share so you can analyze the information yes but you have some other cultures where the customers will not share because they feel like they are being tracked or whatever uh so what I wanted to know is that uh from your experience do you think that these customers will in a day converge to a same behavior or do you think that we have to deal with it this question is so fun for me because I don't know if you know this but I was born in the Soviet Union right so my Heritage is from communism I was born in bellarus so when I came to the states when I was 3 years old by the time I was 14 I still pretty much grew up in a Soviet household at least inside cuz we were just becoming Americans so I came from the country that was most predicated on not sharing I mean my mother had a refrigerator which was unheard of in Russia cuz everybody was poor and she hid it in her living room behind a carpet on a wall because she didn't want her neighbors to know like the ultimate in in hiding information the truth is absolutely not the habits of the US consumer or other parts of the world where they don't fear privacy or those kind of things they're going to share when you go to Venezuela or certain parts of the Eastern block like bellarus where I come from or other places they're growing up in a very different environment and their habits are totally different and it doesn't become a one- day thing I mean you're talking about generations of culture change when my dad found out 6 years ago that his phone number to the house was on Google it was the worst day of his [ __ ] life I mean he was devastated because he grew up in a culture where privacy was the most valuable thing and now his son goes to conferences and says privacy is dead it doesn't mean anything that's a brain twist what do you think that the

governments are reading our emails though I think everybody is on the record 247 365 I actually live my life completely with the thought process that everything I do is always being looked at and that's my life I really do now what does that mean it means your Revenue your profit your salary your everything I choose my porn habits oh yeah if we actually M all that you saw that I mean but I me they recall that so that they can harm you in case they need to but I really mean that I truly live my life I mean I can someone build a service that will uh you know hook into your YouTube channel I mean um account and each time you watch pawn it tweets it I'm watching this that's a good list I think people are grossly underestimating where the world goes with this lack of privacy I actually think it's going to be very beneficial I actually can tell you right now that 5 years ago I mentally made that decision as I started getting some internet Fame and people were taking pictures and things of that nature and I have become a better person because I think that I'm always on the record it changes your habits it changes the way you are and I think we're grossly underestimating some of the benefit I mean as the world's gotten more public kidnapping is down cuz it's hard to kidnap because everybody's got a phone there's a lot of ying and yangs everybody looks at the negative I think there's enormous positives to a more transparent world if we know that we're on the record I mean it changes quite a bit of behavior cheating you know there's just a lot of variable changes I think depending on where you live you're going to act differently but I do yeah but if you build a product like you're a startup and you have to keep it you know I just I'm I don't think anybody we live in a very cynical world we all see what's going on here and I'm going to tell you right now that the far majority of this crowd right now more believes that they're on the record 247 365 than they did two years ago and I think it's just the beginning of that Trend I really do fa thank you hello I'm jeev from Paris be careful with jeev I'm not scared so the end of privacy has you tell us is also the beginning of uh totalitarism in history times what do you think yeah you know I haven't very honestly I haven't thought about that all the way through but I think that's right I mean listen we are grossly grossly underestimating what's going on right now this room and everybody watching we're like the people that know what's going on right and every one of us including me who prides himself and understand understanding consumer mental behavior of what happens all of us including myself are grossly underestimating what's happening I mean when everybody freaked out when Amazon showed the drones I watched all the feedback I'm like what do you guys think I mean listen we're all going to become [ __ ] robots right Google Glass that's preview [ __ ] we're going to [ __ ] I'm going to put [ __ ] all on I mean we're going to be [ __ ] robots and I mean that I think you know listen if we drop the [ __ ] C man in the middle of this room right now he'd be like [ __ ] we evolved right we are I think we're go I mean I think we are dramatically underestimating the culture shifts and the human shifts that are really coming and I think the companies that are the most interesting to me are actually Uber and Airbnb and nest because they're giving you a preview of like the real world being a lot of it in the last 10 years has been very contained to the digital world I think our real world is starting to really be you know dramatically shifted and intertwined and I think yeah I think that's one of it I think it's what we consume I Bitcoin how about Bitcoin is so confusing to me I'm just not mathematically smart enough um but yeah I mean bitcoin's incredibly like Napster it's the first version of Something disrupting everything I mean but illegal that he going to die and then the next one I thought Facebook credits was going to change the world for all my that have been right go watch my Keynotes two years ago I said all of you would use Facebook credits all the time to me at some level that was a preview to bitcoin I think bitcoin's massively interesting I don't understand it I really don't just because I don't understand currency and I'm not mathematically smart enough to talk on this issue and haven't done the homework but yeah I think it's that kind of stuff I mean I just I I'm completely convinced that all of us in this room will be flabbergasted what the world looks like in 15 years FL labber gasted next question here thank you um hi my name is Darko I came from Macedonia you said brands have stories we all have to have good stories at Viner media do you help Brands develop their story or do you create stories for them that's a great question thanks what we do really well so the answer is both sometimes but the truth is this is where I think people get confused you know what we're really good at what my new book's about and what we do at vayer media we tell stories contextually to the platform they're in meaning it's I almost called the book slang marketing meaning if you want to promote on Tumblr you better know how to make animated gifts if you want to play on Pinterest you need to know what an infographic is you also have to respect the psychology of the end consumer so a lot of people in this room no matter what you do you're using social networks as distribution to somewhere else most people here and I would was watching all the web hashtag work most people here use social networks as modern-day email Services they blast out awareness to something else they use and they put a link and they drive you elsewhere I believe that is the biggest misnomer around social right now that people are underestimating storytelling within the platform right can you teach us yeah so if you are not put animated gifts do 700% better on Tumblr than a picture for certain brands so you should do more of that is the slang of Tumblr right the proper use of hashtag the amount of people here that want to create their own hashtag and start a hashtag or get their brand or businesses or apps hashtag trending when they have no [ __ ] chance versus looking at the 10 hashtags that are actually trending and looking at them and trying to be creative to take one of them and still tell you what they want to say by using one of the hashtags in there that's a tactic that we see over 2,000% higher engagement and awareness by using a hashtag that's already trending and being creative how to put it into your copy instead of you thinking how to do that right psychology a 28-year-old female that's on Pinterest that's on Facebook at the same exact time has a very different psychology when she's on Pinterest she has intent to buy or aspiration to buy when she's on Facebook she's getting informed about her world the way you have to story tell to her in her stream is very different but everybody here just puts the same [ __ ] picture on all the platforms or even worst the worst [ __ ] move they have their Twitter and Facebook linked so when they put one it goes somewhere else stop [ __ ] doing that I yeah it makes no sense it doesn't work and it just proves that we are trying to use these platforms as distribution instead of actual places to tell stories posting Twitter stuff into Facebook is a so what we do well is we take what story they want to do and we make it contextual to the platform we're putting out the content on uh where's the next microphone yeah here how about some people up there I like those people they're real chill and laidback it's just that we want to reward those who stay with us on stage it's like they're on stage but sure we can know but you what you don't like those people I love them Gary thank you so much it's my turn so this is how you talk after two days of not sleeping right yeah could you imagine if I [ __ ] sllep it took him a little time to wake up okay right the first 20 minutes he was so quiet and now finally we got a [ __ ] our [ __ ] every 10 seconds okay uh first two questions first one is you were just mentioning the let's call it the State of Mind of a psych for the Psy ology of the platform so when you're in Facebook you have a specific intention yes maybe this is the reason why Commerce is not working over there or maybe there is a great way to make Commerce work there but it has to be aligned with the state of mind so could you say something about it you know the answer you're the way you stated my qu the question just now makes you makes me realize that you're thinking about this proper everybody wants social to act like search you know when we search we have intent to buy often which is why it works so well everybody wanted to apply Google adword logic against Facebook ads and it didn't work so you're absolutely right not to mention the other reason social is different than other things in Commerce is social is truly human all the cliche things that me and J over there and everybody else has been saying for a long time they're true it is human you have to be authentic could you imagine hanging out with somebody who tried to sell you something out of every time they ever talk to you you're not going to convert so everybody's in the right hook right hook right hook business and when you know a right hook is coming you duck so on social the pattern is jab jab right hook give value give value and then ask Nest can't put buy Nest buy nest they have to give you infographics of stuff they have to make an interview with the CEO they have to do testimonials maybe even something that has nothing to do with their business like happy holidays it's all jabbing that's setting up the opportunity to go in for the conversion so what you say is that s Commerce can be great on Facebook but it has to be um via a different way of communicating it this is what you're saying 100 I'm selling not only for I mean the amount of books I'm selling on Facebook now is incredible to me even from two years ago because I've learned this pattern that's why I wrote about it clients that we've had like Green Mountain Coffee or the NFL where the kpi was how many people did we convert right how many k cups for Green Mountain Coffee in their curing machine did we sell how many people did we get the NFL to sign up for their fantasy product on nfl. com not on ESPN and all the clients that I get that are completely conversion based only on social always hate me for the first 6 months and always love me for the back 6 months because all we do up front is jab because we're trying to open up the window for the opportunity to sell so okay you intrig me for the seven different questions so can we meet somewhere following this session and ask a question yeah I'm organizing this right now actually okay when are you available Gary you want to meet uh some people thank you very much should I uh organize your schedule I'm available now what's the problem well people need to eat yeah I'll just walk right over there no I'll just walk I'll just hug it out you we have to stop uh what no I he got like upset at me no we need to go up there now because Gary was U but listen I mean they paid too right I no I know that so who has a question um as far as we can who has a question just raise your hand see quite I have no questions those who have questions are here see yeah one question there very good hey how's it going um just say what what's the future of Snapchat in Your Vision you know how how's it going to go on I'm already crazy to turn down 4 billion you know I I don't know what Snapchat has to prove to me my favorite conversation since I've been in this space is when everybody who didn't know [ __ ] about this said that Facebook was the next Myspace right remember that like oh Facebook's the next Myspace you shouldn't invest in this because in four five six years 3 or 4 years there'll be something else and the reason they were wrong was the question that we had earlier which was Facebook was being operated by different operators than the people that were operating Myspace why has L web been a success for a decade because two people have operated this to success there's plenty of conferences plenty that haven't gotten as big there's plenty of everything operations and execution matters right so Facebook very early on between not only Zuck but the people that I saw there whether it was Kevin cerin or Dave Moren or Cox or Charlie Chie like all those great people you just knew that they had the quality to execute and every time they did a product update Newsfeed things that were unpopular I believe they were doing the right thing and I think that's why they are where they are today so far at the height of it mattering Snapchat has made one product update one that I think is extremely poor so for the first time ever in two years I'm actually slightly down on them because I'm scared that they don't have the product shops to actually take it to the next level I can't answer your question of where it's going because I tend to not bet on the horse I tend to bet on the jockey and I don't have a real understanding yet on this jockey to really make a bet because I care about my legacy and I don't want to be wrong with my prediction right now so I don't know but over the next year what they do with the product will really dictate it this is all execution it matters so much okay one more and we'll have to stop uh but Gary is here so we'll have to you will have to follow you yeah what I'm useless here totally useless hi Gary uh my name is Ivan Hernandez and first of all congratulations on all your success thank you um speaking about growth um I think the big mistake that many companies make is growing too fast and just growing for the sake of growing the growth that biner media has accomplished is impressive you know from 20 to 300 employees in 20 months is

crazy how have you managed to control the growth in a way that actually it's growing not to get bigger but growing to get better well vayer is a very different company right you know remember I have no funding vay's gone from 20 to 300 with zero funding we've used our own cash flow so we're building an but listen and I don't think I'm so cool like plenty of people will grow to grow and have a huge exit and be very strategic about it and raise money and do well for me it's been very easy we're growing slower than I'd like because I truly believe our agency with who we compete with can do better work than anybody in the marketplace but I can only grow so fast because I do have a p& l I do have B2B clients that pay me 120-day terms so I can only grow so quickly right um you know I'm very very proud of how quickly we've grown completely predicated by our own cash flow and our own execution I think it's a good story for people to pay attention to if they actually care about actually building a business versus just building head count you know I want more headcount I just can't afford it yet said I mean you know Gary you uh happy you came cuz I know you've not slept in uh technology I'm happy for you l that I came I'm kidding I love l i of course I'm happy I this is the one of the Premier Events in the world enough with this Premier event in Europe this is one of the Premier Events in the world um you know I'm very proud to have been coming here for a long time I've missed it for the last year or two that I haven't been here I see a lot of familiar faces I hope I see some new faces as I walk out here and um I'm just very thankful for your attention and allowing me to talk so should we organize you to um like so we go somewhere and you keep meeting people that you want I promised I actually have a like uh some interviews that I'm supposed to do so I don't want to be disrespectful probably oh okay so give me a time that works for you for for them to I meet what time is it it's 1 right now okay so I have to go do an interview that I promised in The Press Room but I'm more than happy to meet in the main hall at 1:40 how about okay: 140 yeah okay there is a better building for that if I may uh how about doing it in the hostman building and the team will show you because there is most more sitting space it feels complicated it's very easy hostman building 145 I swear it's easy thank you very much