Interview With Josh Rubin, Cool Hunting

Josh Rubin who runs popular site CoolHunting will be appearing at the Future Marketing Summit presented by IF! in New York City on February 23rd.  We asked him some questions.

Where do you get your inspiration from?

I get my inspiration from the details.  I believe there are no new ideas, just great executions. 

What is the biggest but most ignored trend you see?

If it’s a trend then it’s not being ignored, is it?

Are new wave trend spotters a competitive or complementary to the established trend firms?

Both. The traditional trending firms tend to have a longer term focus
and less frequent deliverables to their clients—this works for many
large corporations. For smaller or more nimble organizations, and those
with rapid product development, the ‘new wave’ is more valuable.
Consumer demand is changing more frequently these days, making it
harder to keep up using traditional methods which means there will be
more competition (or collaboration) between models in the near future.

You’ve just started to produce video content What sort of content
are you covering ? Should all online publications move into video?

We launched video for two reasons: 1. the technology is just getting
to a point where people can easily consume video content distributed
through untraditional conduits. 2. there are lots of things we cover on
CH that are better served by audio and video over words and pictures.
And that’s the first requirement for what we will do a video on. The
second requirement, just like the site, is wide open—it simply has to
capture our interest. The videos are 1 - 3 minutes because that’s what
we think is the optimal length for mobile, and even web-based, viewing.