December 23, 2002
Marketing: The Power of Peer Pressure

SoulKool harnesses the power of coolness to increase sales

By STEVE FRIESS

Newsweek

The attention of young urbanites has long been the holy grail of modern marketing. Now some of the largest brands—Coca-Cola, Coors and VH1—are using the guerrilla-marketing tactics of the New York-based firm SoulKool to break through to consumption-happy 18- to 34-year-olds. The strategy is to manufacture coolness by giving products to the hippest nightclub goers.

WHEN ARISTA RECORDS wanted the newest Toni Braxton album to be seen as cutting edge this fall, it shipped SoulKool about 20,000 sample CDs. SoulKool sent them on to hundreds of enthusiastic—and unpaid—foot soldiers around the nation to give to their friends.

SoulKool founder David Elias, 29, started building his cool network two years ago by chatting online with other clubgoers. The lure of freebies and the chance to be the first with the latest stuff was more enticing than money, says Elias, himself once a DJ and club promoter. Today his database holds 20,000 names vetted for coolness through an exhaustive questionnaire.

But Elias, who gave his “street teamers” the new Vanilla Coke and Mint Skittles, won’t activate his network for just anything. “This company wanted to launch a new ‘cool’ type of sunglasses,” Elias says. “Only problem was, it wasn’t cool.”

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