The emailer FLAVORPILL is a compilation of listings and descriptions of New York City area events. Originally, flavorpill was a text based mailer which focused mainly on music listings, averaging 4 events per edition. The mailer grew out of (the now closed) global lifestyle ecommerce/content site, netsetgoods.com. This February, they launched a web version and from there began covering a wider range of cultural events including film, lectures, arts, and festivals.
“I’m a native New Yorka, who loves the city and all the cultural stimulation that it has to offer,” flavorpill team member Sascha Lewis told Arts Wire. “We wanted to reach out to our NYC community which included customers from the site and people who had attended our promotional events,” she explains. Other team members are Mark Mangan, Husani Oakley, and Julien Dobbs Higginson.
The copy is interesting and enticing: “On a lazy Sunday afternoon, over French toast and frittatas, bloodys and the barbeque, three ethereal local bands will perform in a private loft. Edison Woods (WBurg), Parker and Lily (L.E.S.), and Shoes and Rider (WBurg) combine their melodic, hypnotic post-rock sounds for a summer day of intimacy, introspection, and interactivity……”
Sascha Lewis reports that the response to flavorpill has been tremendous. “We have grown from 1200 to 12,000 users in less than a year entirely through viral marketing and word of mouth,” she notes. “Our community enjoys the streamlined format, the diverse listings and of course, the giveaways. We’ve received feedback from people stating that we are the main source of information for their social calendar and that we’ve helped change their impression of the NYC cultural scene.”
flavorpill encourages event submissions. “We are very interested in making flavorpill a interactive cultural community that has an integral role in the overall aesthetic of the mailer,” they state. They commonly get 5-10 submissions a day, ranging from gallery openings, dj events, new media performances and live music events. “Obviously, we can not list all these events, so we look for the ones that speak most to our audience,” says Lewis. The best way to get listed is to send them a press release at least a week in advance in order to allow ample time to review.
