So many things left to be “Vaynerchucked”

Most of you who come across this site, especially those on Twitter will be familiar with the name Gary Vaynerchuck. I’m not going to go into much detail about him as enough content already exists on the web in that regard. What I do want to discuss though is the concept that he has displayed when it comes to niche categories and how web savvy individuals can leverage their passion into their job.

First, let’s define the faux-cab (faux-vocabulary) word in my title: Vaynerchucked

Take a category (interest) that traditionally has a halo of affluent users and exclusivity and facilitate a guided entry point into that niche for a younger and/or more mainstream audience by focusing on entry point products that have outstanding value (all while adding “thunder”)

Ex: The new owner of the cigar shop Vaynerchucked the place and now hosts free “learn and burn” sessions for young professionals living in the neighborhood.

Below is just a small sample of gated-communities that are begging for a mascot like Gary to show up and bring in a new audience.

Cigars: This niche category is the golden goose in my opinion. If I owned a cigar store I would be on this IMMEDIETLY. Cigars are a product that are typically associated with an older, stodgier, richer crowd, but that is quickly changing. Much like wine there are products in this category that can fit in anyone’s budget. There are certainly a fair share of personal blogs on this topic already (check out Dan Honigman’s) that might grab some advertiser dollars but the perfect formula for this equation in my opinion is distribution + promotion. In other words, having a venue to sell the cigars you promote is a perfect business model.

Art: Locally in Chicago, the Museum of Contemporary Art has done an excellent job of bringing new faces to the museum by hosting an event called “First Friday.” It is essentially a social mixer that takes place within the museum. The MCA could do so much more with a personality representing them. Not only could they increase their First Friday attendance, but they could promote the work of their artists. Sure most people aren’t going to buy the $5000 painting mounted on the wall, but I would bet anything that same artist has side projects and small pieces they would want to sell to generation a steady flow of income. Benefit to the museum? Sell the artwork in their gift shop. Benefit to artist? Obvious.

Literature: Who can’t afford a book? Why hasn’t Borders, Barnes & Noble, or Amazon created a personality yet? Sure there’s the Oprah book club, but that is targeted to a very different audience than I’m thinking of. This is a category with endless content waiting to be discussed and something that will beg for audience contribution.

Watches: Little known secret. There are a LOT of guys, young and old who love watches. Open any magazine targeted towards men and count the number of watch ads. There is a HUGE demand here. Obviously watches are not as low on the commodity scale as say wine or cigars but the margins are higher. A person who is in the market for 2 or 3 watch purchases a year may still be interested in content around them on an ongoing basis. As a side benefit, if your content were to garner a large enough audience smart forward-thinking watch manufactures would certainly be sending you pieces to “evaluate.” That would be enough monetization for a lot of people.

Investing: Jim Cramer has certainly done an excellent job bringing Wall Street to the masses but in many ways he is still framing up his content to people who are Gen-X and older. Even in a rough economy, there are still young people who range from recent grads to those who are pre-family that have an interest in investing. There are countless resources available but there’s still no personality behind them. Additionally even the likes of Cramer haven’t done deep dives into the web 2.0 tools that are available for investors. The market needs someone to talk about the Covesters and Mints of the world.

Collectibles: It doesn't matter what kind of collectible it is, if there is a group of people who are hording X item, then that item has value, and thus is monetizable online. If you host a show about baseball cards but don't own a store that sells them, there is still plenty of room to generation income. Think of all the companies that sell products that cater to the collector audience that would want to advertise on your site? Go to Google and type in "Baseball Card Sleeves" and watch how many distributors pop up. That money could be yours instead of Google's. See demonstration here.

The point that Gary V. has driven home in many of his recent speeches is that brands and in many ways verticals have not kept up with the changes in the media landscape. One of the biggest reasons for the success of Wine Library TV was that it took a product which has been sold and marketed the same for decades and moved it to a platform where literally millions of fresh customers were spending their time. No one was there to serve that market, so that’s exactly what he did. If large brands are smart, they will jump into this space quickly and copy what he did. If not, then someone else will do the Vaynerchucking for them.