the thought

Kathleen Steinmetz

When I started this blog, it was about the event that took place at Thayer Media on October 31st – all hallow’s eve. But it turned in to something much much more…

How it began
I know, I know, it is almost Thanksgiving and here I am writing about what happened at Thayer Media on Halloween. What can I say – time flies? Thanksgiving and Halloween are just so close together!

On Halloween, our good friends at Martini on the Rockies radio station visited Thayer Media to deliver Halloween treats. They were dressed as musicians you hear on their station: Elton John, Stevie Nicks, Bette Midler, the Martini mascot herself, and the classy Frank Sinatra. (They pulled up in their limo painted with the Martini logo – we were a bit jealous they were driving around Denver in a limo all day).

They did not just deliver candy. The sales manager, Blake Mendenhall, also delivered a beautiful rendition of Frank Sinatra’s “Summer Wind." We always knew he was a great guy, but who knew he could sing too!

What happened next
Here’s where my blog took a turn… I shot some video footage of the Frank Sinatra performance to share with readers of “The Thought,” so I head to the ever-popular video sharing site YouTube. I have never used the “all buzz all the time” site, so I am prompted to join to upload my video.

All is well until I am asked to create a user name for myself. I quote the phrase at the top of the page:

“Join YouTube. It's free and easy. Just fill out the account info below. (All fields required)”

Please take careful note of the two key words “free” & “easy”

Following this phrase is a form I need to fill out that includes various information such as email, user name, password, confirm password, date of birth, and a verification code that ensures I am not a spammer.

I choose a user name, I fill in a password, I confirm a password and then I verify the code. Oops! That user name was taken. Does the site suggest trying UserNamexyz123 because that is available? No.

I try a new user name. It takes me a few minutes to think of one, I am trying to be a bit more obscure now. Again, I put in a user name, password, confirm the password and I verify the code. And again, “Sorry, that name has been taken” pops up in red letters.

Now I am frustrated. I try one more name, one more time. No dice.

I tell ya, for a company that was recently bought for $1.65 BILLION dollars, that has the video sharing market cornered, is constantly in the press AND boasts some of the largest traffic numbers on the Web, one would think that YouTube would offer these millions of users a little help in the registration process.

My exercise on YouTube ended even before it really began. I can’t say I am not a little disappointed. And you should be, too. That video was worth sharing!

You never know, I just may find a user name that works one of these days and then everyone on the Web can view the video. Until then, enjoy this second picture.

06:41 PM | Permalink

Stacie Bogan

I love TARGET, who doesn’t? Only at TARGET can you enter with a list of 3 items and leave with 20. I’ve personally never spent less than $30. I’m convinced there is something in the air; maybe subliminal messages are broadcast as I browse each aisle.

So when I found out that TARGET.COM offered personalized local ads by zip code, I signed up instantly.

In the event that you (like me) can’t wait for an email, the ad is online and available by, of course, zip code. What a beautiful thing! It is set up to browse by each page of the actual circular. Each item included on a particular page is listed to the right including a thumbnail image, descriptor, and of course an option to add to shopping cart. Can TARGET make it any easier to shop?

11:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Elizabeth Rector

The English word, raconteur is derived from the French word, raconter, meaning to tell or to relate, which evolved from the Old French word aconter, meaning to count, or to reckon up. Aconter is also the source of the English word account, which is a narrative or a record of events.

Today, however, if you ask any modern music aficionado, White Stripes fan or 16-year old kid, it means something quite different.

According to Wikipedia, the colossal online encyclopedia housing over a million entries, a Raconteur is a member of the collaboration between Jack White of the White Stripes, Brendan Benson, Jack Lawrence and Patrick Keeler of the Greenhornes.

In fact, when you Google “raconteurs definition,” the band appears as the first search engine result. It is quite an achievement: The Raconteurs, ten songs deep, have managed to dethrone hundreds of years of linguistic meaning.

It is important to point out that the Raconteurs could never stake this claim without pay-per-click, wikis, consumer-generated content, streaming videos, online interviews, ecommerce, enewsletters, vertical music and video search engines, cell phone cameras, social networking, viral word-of-mouth and blogs.

Yet Jack White is unhappy. In an interview with the UK’s The Independent, White said, "The Internet is like an electronic rumor mill and it can be destructive." Jack questions the virtue of bloggers who hold no journalism degree or gift for the written word yet have the ability to possess a worldwide audience. He complains of the proliferation of his live recordings on sites like YouTube.com. In an interview with the Denver Post he said, "I've gotten critiqued about being against the Internet in the past, but look at it from our perspective. If we make a video, somebody from the set posts photos that night and kills the surprise. If we play a new song live, they'll just compare the album version to what they heard on YouTube months before."

The Raconteurs kicked off their North American tour at Denver’s Fillmore auditorium three weeks ago. My sister and I bought our tickets the day they went on sale and I rearranged previous travel plans twice so I could attend. Long before the release of their first album, Broken Boy Soldiers, I listened to the two available cuts - ‘Store Bought Bones’ and ‘Steady as She Goes’ - on their Commodore 44 inspired website. In the time that elapsed between the April album release and the show, I listened to the album countless times and watched numerous live recordings on YouTube. I received more Raconteurs newsletters than all other music newsletters combined. I streamed their live performance on KCRW’s The Morning Becomes Eclectic the moment it became available. I downloaded the Rolling Stone Original interview and read plenty others. I spent an exuberant $6.00 on Anthem magazine just because the Raconteurs were on the cover. Amongst friends, I have dispelled misconceptions that the Raconteurs are a contrived super group or a side project on the p.s. note.

Most exhausting, I become slightly faint when people say, “Jack who?” and I am thus inexplicably forced to describe what Jack White means to me. So I guess you could say I was ready for whatever the Raconteurs threw my way at the Fillmore. I was definitely not surprised, I did not expect to be, nor wish to be.

Uh-oh! Somebody found the set list, took a picture of it, posted it online and in doing so “killed the surprise.” Other than the Flamin’ Groovies 'Heading For the Texas Border’ and a yet to be released ‘5 on the 5’ what else would they play? They only have one album, ten songs.

Continue reading "rac•on•teur (r k n-tûr ) n. One who tells stories and anecdotes with skill and wit." »

04:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Katie Bastian

I was reading through my Marketing Daily online, when I came across a great viral marketing success story.

Crispin Porter + Bogusky, the creative agency of record for Volkswagen US, created a very successful viral marketing campaign for the re-release of the Volkswagen Rabbit. According to an article published on ClickZ.com http://www.clickz.com, the purpose of this campaign was to position the Rabbit as an ideal vehicle for city drivers.

The project centers around Steve, a filmmaker from Colorado, who has never driven in New York City. He drives around The Big Apple, in the Volkswagen Rabbit, that is outfitted to look like a NYC cab. As he drives around the city, the hidden cameras on the dashboard capture the distinctive qualities of city driving.

For example, he picks up the “Classic New-Yorkers”, college students who move to the city for the summer, and a pair of traveling foreigners from Switzerland who are pure entertainment in the back seat. Steve has 14 days to complete this documentation. These videos can all be seen on the Gypsy Cab Project website http://www.gypsycabproject.com.

Why was this such a great example of viral marketing success?

Viral marketing can be defined as a marketing technique that seeks to increase brand awareness through word of mouth. In order to be successful, it must be attention-grabbing, entertaining and engaging. The point of viral, or word of mouth, is to get people talking about the product or service – both socially and in the media.

This campaign proved to meet the goals of a successful viral marketing campaign by being attention grabbing (the name itself is intriguing), entertaining (videos involving real people creating comical situations), and engaging (the internet was the perfect medium to facilitate engagement because people navigate the website themselves).

In addition, it garnered plenty of media attention. Just Google “The Gypsy Cab Project” and you will find plenty of outlets that covered this story.

After I heard about The Gypsy Cab Project, I was curious to see what the car itself was all about. The marketing-masterminds enticed me enough to check out the Volkswagen website http://www.vw.com.

But did I tell my friends about it?

Well, I’m writing about it on a blogsite – so I guess that is proof enough.

11:18 AM | Permalink

Curtis Hart

Recently, I was one of nine recipients of a friend’s email referring me to the Phillips Bodygroom website. This is an example of viral marketing at its best. In this Amway-esque example, each person passes the information on and soon enough there is a pyramid of people referring each other to the site.

Or perhaps not.

I didn't forward the site on. I didn't think it was that funny, the product wasn't that interesting and I didn’t see any novelty to the site. I can, however, appreciate the marketing campaign.

Continue reading "Jumpstarting Your Virus" »

02:05 PM | Permalink