Archive for the ‘Marketeering’ Category

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Project: Fiesta!

Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010

Good buddy via interweb and someone with whom I instantly bonded during my last visit to Chicago, @phampants (also here) has teamed up with Karen to apply to the Ford Fiesta Movement! Personally, I am going to follow this every step because as someone who works with brands in social media, I'm particularly interested in the process on both the administrative and end-user side of things.

If you don't know what this Fiesta Movement is, www.fiestamovement.com is pretty complete with its information. And if you remember this movement from last year, you know it made an impression.

Ok, enough with the link dump. The point is, among other link love, you should be passing around the videos to support them.

Let's get team John & Karen on the road!

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Posted in Internet, Marketeering, Social Media | 2 Comments »

Who Has The Jitters? This Guy.

Thursday, January 29th, 2009

Coffee makes me twitch.

Smattering of information! Here:

Nerdness: Remember I was talking the other day about a WP plugin that’ll let you incorporate code into posts? Turns out there is an even better one called Raw HTML, which lets you escape your code pretty easily and effectively. This means that, unlike the WP-allow tags plugin (which actually served me pretty well), this one can be evoked on a case-by-case basis and won’t apply to the entirety of the blog. Right on.

But does it work? You betcha:

Dude… why? Just… why? Not a day goes by where I really wished I had learned Hiragana. And now I may never know why these dudes are getting hit in the nuts by … what appears to be a “nut shot machine”… Why the fuck would you make a nut shot machine? I would never be on this gameshow.

Drama: I make girls cry. I didn’t mean to, really. In actuality it wasn’t my fault since I was only a messenger. I guess that doesn’t matter since I was still a bearer of bad news. I probably shouldn’t broadcast this over the internet out of respect to those this situation involved but let’s just say it has something to do with a missing automobile.

Musicianship: I know I started a musician blog already but I have to ask a question to everyone: If one writes enough sets of music in a number of different styles, are those sets still that one person or can they all count as separate solo projects? For instance, I’ve been writing an electronic shoegaze set for forever, a post-punk set only recently, and a folktronic set for ideas that wouldn’t fit into the other two. Those three styles wouldn’t make sense to release under the same name… or would they?

Corporate Life: The reason I’m so hopped up on coffee is from needing to take work home tonight. A lot of people hate being under pressure, but I am actually quite fond of it. No! Seriously, I’m not being sarcastic! I’m of the mindset that if you have too much to do, it suggests that you have a lot of opportunities to accomplish just as much.

And this is weird for me, because I was totally not an over-achievers in school. My grades prove it.

January: I realize that this is your last ditch effort to screw up my life by making it difficult for not just me but those around me, but you will not succeed if I can do anything about it.

And now I have a bloody nose. What the hell…?

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Posted in Blogging, Life As A Nico, Marketeering, Musicianship | 5 Comments »

Jump In.

Thursday, October 23rd, 2008

Wow, I haven’t posted anything all week.

This is a short one, but I just wanted to plug the music magazine industry and the video game industry are having one steamy affair lately, and like any good networker, a handful of friends, coworkers, and I are heading out to mingle at this event:

Is anyone else going?

If you’re going, meet me at the bar.  I’ll be the drunk guy with the glasses and long black hair.

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Posted in Gaming, Life As A Nico, Marketeering, Music Biz | 2 Comments »

TV on the Internet

Wednesday, October 8th, 2008

When a friend of mine from another marketing company asked me what I thought of Fancast I thought it was just another Hulu.com. But being the curious type, of course I would take a look around. What I was trying to find was a reason to visit this new site over Hulu. I found a couple of reasons for why this might be a nice way to go about watching TV on the internet:

  • The search function also yields results like actor bios and lists the content they’ve got on site (instead of linking out) for that particular search.
  • Discovery Channel.  Nice.  And we all know how I feel about the Discovery Channel.
  • Movie Trailers.  Ok, now we’re getting somewhere!
  • Blogs?  Really?  Okay, it’s always nice to get a second opinion, and even though I do already get a lot of this info from other bloggers who I read regularly anyway, this is a nice little flavor to have while you’re loading videos.  Also, it looks like they are using the WordPress platform, and that puts me right at home.
  • None of this signing in nonsense that Hulu makes you do if you regularly clear your cookies.

It’s not until I started actually watching an episode of something that I saw a familiar logo and I realized, “Oh, it’s not a competitor with Hulu – it’s a partner, so that means they’ve got Hulu stuff and some other crap.”  I think it’s a good move on their part in catering to the “I’ll watch something when I have time for it” culture we live in now, but I also wonder how Hulu feels about this partnership.

If I were any site that syndicates content like Hulu, I’d probably realize very quickly that it’s in everyone’s best interests to get that content in as many places as possible.  More views = more metrics = better ROI if you’re an ad buyer = more money if you’re Hulu. So, good for Fancast for helping to add volume to the echo chamber.  And from the consumer side of things, it’s nice to just have everything in as many places as you can, especially in the case that one breaks down. And it’s not like re-purposing copyrighted video is going to stop people from re-purposing stuff, so why not take credit for putting it out there? Especially when that’s an opportunity to get people to take a look at an ad?  And bragging rights for being forward-thinking?

For us consumers, it doesn’t matter how it gets to us, as long as we get to watch it.  Right?

And as final test of functionality, does this new site let me embed videos?  Let’s find out:

So, would I use this site over Hulu?  If I had heard about it before Hulu, definitely.  But for now, there isn’t all that much of a difference for my purposes. However, if I visit Fancast, and the video that I’m watching is then hosted by Hulu, don’t they both win?

I’m going to do it that way from now on and see how it works out.

That aside… does anyone want to see the movie (above) with me?

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Posted in Internet, Marketeering, Random, Research & Development | 5 Comments »

Twitter to Involve Ads?

Tuesday, April 15th, 2008

I realized I haven’t posted much about my *fascinating* industry lately, but this came up in the industry gossip:

Twitter To Add A Business Model?

My belief? It’s companies getting excited about 2nd Life all over again. Even if they were to monetize it, there is very little point to Twitter to begin with. Oh, I’m a user, and it’s neat to be able to post to it from my phone, but I still firmly believe that advertising via Twitter is a mediocre idea at best.

Why? Because old-skool marketers are thinking about numbers. Quantity, not quality. Sure, if someone links you to something they know you might think is cool, that’s something different than an incoming deluge of bland ads that have little to do with you. And moreover, what makes ad-sellers think that because they purchase an account at $1,000.00 for 1000 followers that they will keep those followers once they start pushing ads? Slim to none. It’s easy to unsubscribe, and in that case, it kills the point of you purchasing a huge Twitter account.

Exception: If accounts take on some kind of personality that matches with the brand, something that communicates brand news in a real human way, it might work. Might.

After all, I would pay more attention to and appreciate a Twitter post that reads:

Than this:


(Oh, come on, you know this will eventually happen. NO ONE is immune to penis enlargement spam.)

However, this should not prevent users from building up profiles for larger brands to snatch up at a high cost later on.

Hey, 20somethings, what do you say we do our homework, build a giant network, and cash out soon?

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Posted in Marketeering, Photochops | 4 Comments »

"So What Do You Do?"

Thursday, April 10th, 2008

Last night I went to a TechSet event in Hollywood and it was one of the weirdest nights at a bar I’ve been to, in that I actually enjoyed all of the conversations I had mingling with strangers. Seriously, it was very memorable. Props to Stephanie Agresta and Brian Solis for putting it on.

I went with some coworkers to do some old-fashioned networking, and among these coworkers was BJ and fellow 20something Katelin (can’t wait for her post!).

But the event itself was interesting in that it seemed like an adult version of high school. That is, there were 3 distinct parties:

  • The TechSet (AKA The Geeks): Obviously part of web 2.0+ culture, and also the main reason I wanted to attend this event in the first place. Some exciting conversations about the future: about why certain technologies work and why some flopped; about why we just can’t ever get our clients to buy into new approaches because of endless explaining to them about how these things work; about the bottom-line, and the best way to use it; about reaching the ends of the internet, poking around, and discovering that there are no best-practices because very few others in the market have gotten this far to define what the hell is going on; and most importantly about trading business cards like they were freaking Pokémon (gotta catch ‘em all!).
  • The Film Festival (AKA The Life of the Party): Down the street was a film festival event that seemed to be comprised of young, independent film-makers from around the world, who seemed to be hell-bent on getting drunk, cracking jokes, and talking about the Los Angeles culture. So long as you were in character (character being any cordial drinker with any kind of sense of humor) these people were actually a blast to talk to. May their films be queued in many a Netflix account for ages to come.
  • The GQ Party (AKA The Popular Kids): These were tragically hip, well-dressed, very attractive, and intensely clique-y. As BJ put it, the GQ party was identified as either very pretty girls who were sitting alone and txting on their phones, or a very pretty guys and a girls who were standing next to each other but who weren’t talking to each other, and instead looking around the room for something to comment on. This supports the idea that when you spend your life on your looks, you have very little in the way of being conversational. That is, until they get drunk, in which case they became friendly and conversational but still didn’t have any good ideas.

I don’t mean to demean pretty or popular people… wait, no, I do. I hated these shit-talkers in high school and now the tables have turned, because I have a career path and their shelf-life expires at 30. Who’s the loser now, assholes?

…

In the end, the party was pretty fun. I hope there are more events like this because I really do like pontificating on the future of the internet. And moreover, it’s really nice to talk to people who know their shit! And it’s even nicer to discover that I also know my shit enough to keep the conversation running in perpetuity. Crazy!

I realize I am swearing in this post more than I normally do but I will attribute this to being somewhat hungover.

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Posted in Blogging, Internet, Life As A Nico, Marketeering, Research & Development, Tech | 4 Comments »

"Prices and Participation May Vary"

Friday, January 4th, 2008

Considering the industry in which I work, I have posted a long overdue disclaimer on my blog.

Hooray! Now nobody can sue me!

Posted in Internet, Life As A Nico, Marketeering | 1 Comment »

Mad Widget Skills

Monday, October 1st, 2007

Holy crap, I just saw this widget that ReverbNation is putting out that can almost make a band website obsolete.

(Check out what I’m talking about here)

I stumbled upon this because I use ReverbNation’s calendar for booking bands at The Cocaine, so I have some knowledge of RN’s capabilities and convenience… but this thing is incredible! Of course, it’s not necessarily small enough to fit on a lot of people’s internet real estate, but I still think it’s a brilliant idea. It’s a multipurpose widget that makes promotion of your own band substantially more portable than having a MySpace profile; but what I really like about this widget is that the music player is a cross-promotional tool. You can promote other bands that your band listens to with this tool, and that is way more conducive to encouraging music as a community than it is a competition to see who can fellate more label support out of the industry.

The header on that page I linked to calls it the “Ultimate Promotional Tool”, and I’m inclined to agree – well as far as the internet goes. The only thing I can think of that’s better than this idea is… well, playing a show.

Posted in LA Underground, Marketeering | No Comments »

Teetering on the Edge of Tomorrow / TV Trays

Wednesday, August 22nd, 2007

I’ve been scouring the web for how to measure the statistical metrics for a Wikipedia article, and being completely unable to find this sorta thing given the most popular tools, I’m getting closer to thinking that these clandestine metrics are a trade secret. So what does this mean for marketing? Well, it means that destinations concerned with quality of content, (*ahem* Wikipedia) will keep on keepin’ on metric-free, and that there is no way to measure a metric for a referential site. And why should it? I mean, on a site primarily concerned with just pure information, why would the metrics for an article even matter to them? Exactly. So although this puts a roadblock on some of my research, it is encouraging to know that advertisers aren’t allowed to exploit Wikipedia–simply because of its nature–as a place to pedal things.

Getting listed in a Wikipedia article, however, in terms of marketing = gold freaking coin. Why? Because you can’t just put advertising bullshit on there.

So here’s my recommendation to advertising and marketing: create content that is pure, referential information that isn’t designed to sell something – and you’ve got yourself one of the biggest placements you can get. In an encyclopedia.

********

I want a TableMate. I’ve heard from other laptop freelancers that this thing is a godsend, especially if you’re couch inclined, so I’m seriously contemplating a set. This is not an endorsement, especially because the thing looks about as aesthetically appealing as a toilet, but probably matches its functionality. And I am less about aesthetics than I am about function.

No, that is not to say I will crap on it. I can hear my roommate sigh in relief…

Posted in Life As A Nico, Marketeering | 3 Comments »

Hamburger and Anime

Thursday, August 16th, 2007

Those two aren’t related, I just want to talk about them both.

Hamburger: As it turns out, the Sirloin burger at Jack in the Box actually does taste kinda different from a regular burger. I’m not advocating fast food, but I will make a note of its changes since I just ate one.

Anime: I have to attend a conference today with the Kids division at a major studio (major as in been around for 80+ years – but I can’t break NDA) to talk about what kind of marketing and research we can provide for a sci-fi anime, but what I think they don’t realize is the same thing that gets a brief commentary on the trailer for Paprika, to which I’ve linked on my blog before. My main gripe is that animation is seen as almost exclusively a jejune medium by traditional American standards, and only recently (and barely) with Adult Swim, the demographic for animation is shifting to include a more mature audience. Well, okay, not “mature”, I guess, as much as “not safe for children”.

My point is that animation has already taken off as a sincere and legitimate art form in Japan, and the only thing that lets us as Americans come close in animation to an artform is CG animation, and even then, we are still getting only Pixar’s work, which is still family oriented. Pixar’s work is well-executed, of course, but it’s not very profoundly challenging in terms of a message and plot. American animation has yet no Paprika, Akira, Paranoia Agent, Cowboy Bebop, or FLCL. And if we do, it totally did not even brush up against the pop-culture wall.

Ah, well. I have my meeting in a bit, I’ll keep everyone posted.

Posted in Marketeering | No Comments »

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