So, strangely (and shockingly) enough, I’ve got a life outside of sales letters and websites and overall marketing wonkishness.
For the last ten days I’ve been putting in long hours playing “Roger Pipebomb” on the set of Cherub: The Vampire with Bunny Slippers. The show is sort of a “Guerilla Sitcom” mashing up parodied characters from Joss Whedon’s old vampire show “Angel” with a lot of monkees/f-troop/police squad kind of humor. In other words, it’s silly as all get out, exhausting to produce and probably some of the most fun I get to have. I wrote two episodes of the upcoming season and, as an actor, got to show up to work covered in oil, dressed as a pirate and wearing a massive Trump-style wig.
That’s the good news. The bad news is that somehow along the way I managed to contract a nasty case of strep throat. I got into the doctor today and am four pills through a shiny orange bottle of antibiotics, but let me tell you, trying to act chipper and charming on set when it feels like someone is stabbing you in the throat? Not so fun.
We should be getting press in Wired online and The Stranger over the next month and then season two launches just before July. Viva la revolucion! Viva Caution Zero!
More
Bone tired. Exhausted. That’s what I am. Since Thursday night I’ve been filming season two of Cherub: The Vampire with Bunny Slippers.
And like I said, I’m exhausted. I feel like I’m about to fall right off this chair and curl into the fetal position for a six-hour nap.
Best part? I’m back on set at 6 tonight and will keep right on keeping on right through the weekend.
But there’s an upside. And that upside is this: When you’re acting in a film, you get lots of time to think. Granted, most of that time is spent thinking “Shoot, do I know my line?” and “Man, when is crafts services getting here?” and “I wonder if I look fat in this pirate costume.”
But sometimes, as you’re sitting there on take 15 trying your darnedest not to trip over your three each boots, you find yourself thinking something useful. Something like “Huh, on a film set you really have to pick and choose when you should make some sort of witty comment and when you should just keep your mouth shut. And that’s just like a marketing piece. That’s just like sometimes you’ve got to just clam up and let your prospect do what they need to do to make the sale.”
It was like an epiphany. Only shorter. And did I mention the pirate costume?
More
I stumbled out of the Market to the Max conference with an extra hundred bucks in my pocket, some good ideas in my head and a fist full of business cards. So all in all, I’d say it was a good–but exhausting–day and well worth the time, money and effort.
Not to mention the popcorn. The popcorn was really, really good.
More
Tim Armstrong from Google is just finishing up. There’s a big picture of a cow behind him. Over the cow’s head it says “Collective Wisdom.” What did I take away from this talk? That google really will rule the world.
More
Brian Tinter from Drugstore.com is talking about customer personalization. He’s a smart guy. He’s figured out that demographics re often bunk and that personalization is about a lot more than giving customers what they think they need.
I’ve also had a massive lunch and won a $100 in the raffle. Not a bad day so far.
I wasn’t able to sit down and blog during it, but my pre-lunch session was Jane Shanklin from Starbucks talking about “Brewing the Starbucks Brand.” It was a packed room–over packed actually. And she gave some good insight into how Starbucks (and Starbucks in-house creative in particular) does their marketing.
Big takeaway? When you’ve got 97 percent brand awareness you can do some pretty funky stuff.
No wi-fi in the lunch room, but I’ll get this posted asap.
More
Nothing like typing out a 500 word post and then having it disappear when you close the powerbook lid.
I’ll go for summary instead:
I’ve been to two sessions since my last post. One was by a woman from Starbucks. She talked about the big S’s way of rocking and rolling on the creative end of things. My favorite bit was when they ran a tube from a Starbucks way up to David Letterman’s office so he could have coffee whenever he wants.
Lunchtime was a tremendously guy named John from Drugstore.com. Key takeaway? Demographic targeting isn’t worth much. One to one marketing isn’t the same as personalization. I’ll need to dig through his notes more when I get home.
And now I’m in “What do you stand for and how do you talk about it?”
It’s ethically delicious. I love it.
Oh, and I won a hundred bucks in the raffle.
Yay!
More
How do you become highly valued? I’m watching a guy from Fresh Perspectives preach the concept of “Becoming highly valued.” He’s good. He’s energetic. And he’s saying stuff that totally jibes with my own sense of of marketing.
Core concept: Performance doesn’t always lead to satisfaction.
Computers and cell phone performance has gone through the roof. But customer satisfaction is at an all time low.
How do you become valued, then?
Value Reinforcement Marketing.
This is the real product that these guys are selling. The idea? Pay more attention to your customers. Not your prospects, but your actual customers. Folks who have actually bought from you.
Interesting guys. I want to work with them.
More
“Every form of new media that is successful in collecting an audience eventually sells ads.”
More
One of the core concepts of Donna Wells’ speech is this: The playing field is being leveled. The days when only big companies (the king and his men) could afford to market well are long gone. Today–with eMail, Online ads, SEO, Podcasting, Micro Radio and more–even the little guy can get in there and be competitive. Safe to say I agree with her. Safe to say the idea makes me tremendously happy.
Big idea: We’ve moved from a marketing monarchy to a marketing democracy.
More
Donna Wells from Expedia is speaking. And she’s awesome. She’s got big bright powerpoints full of startling pictures and is telling the tale of king marketing. How good is she? So good that I’m going to stop typing and start paying attention.
More
Page 18 of 21 « First ... « 16 17 18 19 20 » ... Last »
