“You are such an asshole, I can’t believe you did that,” was the response we received after we decided to create a JDate profile for Richard Nouveau and set up 100 simultaneous dates for him (100 Jewish women arrived at the same place at the same time all looking to date Richard Nouveau, a man who doesn’t even exist, though some might argue otherwise).

Richard hasn’t always been friendly and loved, but he has always been our voice.  Pocket Change is an e-publication that reports on the most expensive items in New York and Los Angeles and Richard Nouveau (derivative of Nouveau Riche), our fictitious editor at large, is the captain of our ship.

Online, success is measured by metrics of interaction (clicks, conversions, etc).  Richard has given our audience someone to respond to; someone to hate, someone to blame, someone to love and someone to laugh with.  To some, Richard is a hero, to others a villain, but we have seen that people emotionally respond better to personalities than they respond to institutions, companies, personality-less brands etc.  We quickly saw that the response we received was to Richard the person rather than to Pocket Change, the company.

We challenged ourselves to take ownership of everything we published.  Covering a $175 hamburger is just news, the challenge was to make audiences believe we were somehow part of the burger’s existence. With news, no assumptions about the writer are formed.  With Richard, we were able to integrate his personality into the piece and in essence make a weighted statement about the values and culture that he embraces.  Some readers have an aspirational association with Richard’s consumption and would like to “hang out” with him, some people cathartically blame him for the cultural problems of the world.  Because readers identify so strongly with Richard, they actually hold him responsible for the items we cover.

The Robb Report positions themselves as the encyclopedia of luxury, but Robb doesn’t relate to readers.

When Richard was petitioning the city of New York to change the name of 50th and 2nd to “Richard Nouveau Court,” he was ascending the Pocket Change publication and reaching our audience in their environment.  When we created the fake non-profit called Concerned Citizens for Change to campaign against him, we controlled audience response.  We directed their hate.

The success of our Richard Nouveau personality marketing project is evidenced in the press and public interest he has attracted.  The press usually contacts us looking for Richard Nouveau.  They are always interested in a personalized tour or introduction to the luxury market courtesy of Richard.  The press allows their audiences to form their own opinion about the materialism and consumption, Richard gives them someone to hold responsible for it.

Richard hosted a speed date for “Rich Guys and Hot Girls (men qualified based on wealth requirements and women qualified based on beauty).”  The theory behind the event was offensive.  Response to the event assumed Richard was not only hosting the event but that he was responsible for the fact that women are attracted to wealth and men are attracted to beauty.  Although the phenomenon is prevalent in society, we gave people someone to blame for it.

It feels good to blame and no one wants to celebrate alone.  When you disagree with something you need a villain to blame, when you agree with something you need a community to support the conviction.  People look to other people for validation, both positive and negative, personality-less brands can’t give them that.