003- AM to PM
Step into the emerging world of 13am with our monthly feature, 'AM to PM,' where I, George Ripton, the visionary behind 13am, take you on an exclusive journey through the month that was, our future aspirations, and an insider's peek into all things 13am.
In our third edition of AMtoPM, I want to focus on the milestone we hit last week: reaching 100 artists. This was another great achievement as we continue to build the 13am brand and community. Our core ethos has always been to build platforms and opportunities for creatives to showcase their work and, in turn, earn revenue for their craft. Aside from that, it's to offer our prospective customers real variety in our offerings. While still at the start of our journey, this landmark is a further enhancement that we're on the right route with regard to both of our targets.
The month of March saw us add Nicola Laurora, Laura Daddabbo, Sara Maese, James Gilleard, and Alessandro Strickner, which allowed us to reach artist number 100 in what’s been a relatively short lifespan for 13am. As we continue to build the 13am community, our collective network, skillset, and diversity continue to grow too. Within the lineup, we boast representation from 40 different nationalities, showcasing a groundbreaking mix of disciplines and cultural backgrounds.
At 13am, we're establishing an unrivaled community consisting of the very best creatives from within their respective fields. Their talent and reputation are backed up by their collective reach, which is almost 2 million on Instagram alone. Collectively, we have the capabilities to tackle full-circle creative briefs including but not limited to illustration, design, photography, art direction, augmented reality, artificial intelligence, film direction and editing, copywriting, poetry, virtual reality, and much more. In the group amassed so far, we can boast work for clients such as Adidas, Apple, CNN, Deliveroo, Disney, Economist, Expo Dubai, FIFA, Google, GQ, Instagram, KFC, McDonald's, Netflix, Nike, Spotify, The New York Times, UEFA, Warner Bros, WWE, and multiple top-flight sports teams. It really is a group unlike any other and a community that’s still growing, with a further three artists already signed and ready to announce over the next week.
Elsewhere, I wanted to touch on our social channels. Despite starting with no following, in just a few months, our 13am Studio social handle has gained a collective 959 followers on our various platforms. This is increasing quicker every week as we continue to grow. We’re continuously looking at new content routes to reach new audiences and further diversify our output. As part of our regular content, we showcase each piece of art via static carousels and stories. We’ve recently launched new video templates to also showcase the art and to target platforms such as TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube shorts. We’re now on number twelve in the series of our written blog, ‘The 13th Hour,’ along with this blog being the third in our ‘AMtoPM’ series.
We’re now posting on average around 80 posts per week across our six social media platforms. Aside from the generic art showcase posts I just mentioned, we’re now running regular features such as the ‘Artist Spotlight,’ ’13 Essentials,’ and ‘Global Gallery,’ as well as various other new content routes. These will continue to expand and diversify as we move forward and grow.
Another worthy update is the imminent launch of our 13am Podcast series. A strategic move to further diversify our content streams and tap into longer-form creative content, whilst in turn producing more shorter-form clips too for platforms such as TikTok and Instagram Reels. This venture is pivotal in growing our reach and audience. I’ll be able to expand on this further very soon, but for now, I can confirm that it’ll be filmed and available as both video and audio content, based on the relationships between creativity and culture with each episode including 2-3 guests. Aside from that, we’ve secured an awesome host, well respected in the industry along with a brilliant studio space. These will be made public within the next month once our podcast branding is complete.
Outside of the above, we continue to advance 13am Academy and 13am Crowd behind the scenes, and we’re also exploring plans for a 13am centralized hub here in the Middle East, which if it gathers momentum could well be the most exciting venture of all.
George Ripton - 13am Founder