We held our annual Halloween bash last Friday and, in true CurrentMarketing style, left no beer unopened and no man, woman or man dressed as a woman standing at the end of the night.
Please be kind with your comments, particularly with regard to "Big Red."
We're busy. We're growing. And we're busy .. did I already mention that?I'm looking for a couple more entry-level geeks to add to CurrentMarketing's web department. Benefits include plenty of video game talk, free soda, maybe some beer, and you'll probably even get paid!
If you want to come work with a Geek In Charge, Code Ninja and Wonder Boy (yes, those are on our business cards), you'll need to know some things from this list:
You don't have to know all of the above, but the more the better of course. If your language of preference isn't listed above, well, no worries. Tell me what you do know and we'll see what happens.
Put your resume up online somewhere and post in the comments of the blog entry.
Or seek me out on Twitter and send me a message there.
I know I’ve said it before, but I love this time of year. It’s late October and the best teams in baseball are battling to see who will be crowned world champion. It’s a time when legends are made and hearts are broken. (And in case you hadn't noticed from the first two clips, there is a glaring lack of actual baseball footage on the internet. Thanks MLB! So here is my greatest childhood baseball memory, lovingly recreated using NES RBI Baseball.)
So I thought it might be fun to look back as some classic commercials featuring the Boys of Summer; some of baseball's immortals and some not so much. Back in the 50s and 60s, it wasn't uncommon for ballplayers to take winter jobs to supplement meager earnings. So picking up an extra few bucks to shill for breakfast cereals and disposable razors was a welcome windfall. Here are a 5 of my favorites:
1) I was always a big fan of the Bob Uecker Miller Lite ads, and being a Yankee fan, this one helps me to forget the miserable season we just went through. I'm sure they're great seats Ueck, but with the ticket rates at the new Yankee Stadium, I'll never know.
2) This is a strange one: Mickey Mantle for Karo Syrup. I'm not sure what I like more, Mick's delivery or the fact that they managed to sober him up long enough to get through the filming.
3) This isn't your kid's Playstation: Roger Maris hawks Action Baseball game. Roger wasn't the most charismatic ballplayer of all time, but I can't hit a curveball, so what do I know?
4) Duke Snyder sells Ovaltine, with the help of Captain Midnight. I've got a 3 word secret clue for you. Ovaltine tastes nasty.
5) Several Dodger greats, including Roy Campanella, Don Zimmer, and Louisville's own Pee Wee Reece pitch Gillette Speed Razors. And I'll even throw in a link for a companion spot featuring Yankee, Dodger and Giant "greats" with one of the best unibrows since Frida Kahlo around the 1:22 mark. Enjoy.
MarketingProfs has released the results of a study of 600+ of its members in which they asked a series of questions about spending for 2009. No surprise that the economy has stymied spending even in 4th quarter and into 2009.
I'm extremely pleased to see that their prediction is that the economic situation will expedite the shift from traditional media to digital media. It's certainly an element that will be a much larger part of our 2009 plans. The primary argument of which we need to convince our clients is that digital marketing delivers the same thing television, radio or outdoor can - eyeballs. The difference is the qualification of those eyeballs. We can narrow TV to a demographic group and even index programs against certain behavioral tendencies. There is, however, no way to place a spot within a program that will ONLY hit people who are, for example, interested in switching banking services. Online marketing, however, allows us to reach only people who are searching for a new banking partner. So, it still delivers eyeballs, but only the eyeballs who are specifically looking for our product.
So, I ask myself (and by virtue of the blog's interactive nature, you)....why does it take an economic downturn to convince our clients that this marketing strategy is more advanced in targeting than traditional media?
While gearing up to watch the Daily Show, my wife and I occasionally flip the TV over to the CW, to watch a locally produced show Secrets of Louisville Chefs. I love the idea of this show. Louisville has a lot of great restaurants, and there seem to be more every year. I have several friends who are chefs and who deserve the recognition of one my favorite arts, but somehow, Secrets of Louisville Chefs manage to make every dish look as unappetizing as possible. I don't know what camera they use, but the picture is always bluish, suggesting mortification or mold, and the food is always shiny, making it look greasy.
It's amazing. They go to so much trouble to showcase local chefs, but seem to forget that the at-home audience can't taste the food - we have to rely on the visuals. I have a few suggestions for the producers of this show:
1. Get a better camera. It looks like you're shooting this on Beta or DV. That is so 20th century! The Panasonic HVX200A can be purchased at B&H for $5,200. It'll shoot in 1080p, and not only will your food look like it was shot on film, but you'll also build a small library of HD footage ready for when they throw the switch in 2012.
2. Get a couple of softboxes. You want to mute that light to reduce the shine. Seriously, that food looks like it was dipped in the second tank of my veggie car! Digustipating!
3. Color correct your footage. It doesn't take long and it's pretty easy. You'd be amazed at the difference in the picture if you would pull some of the blues out and actually make it look like food.
Make the investment. You won't regret it.
Interesting, and alarming, interpretation of Verizon's move to crank up their SMS rates by 3¢ per message:
http://tinyurl.com/48zy5h
Mobile Marketer predicts that Verizon's rate hike could potentially bring down the domestic mobile marketing industry. I don't feel educated enough to discredit this claim...but if it is true, then I scorn our country's inability to take advantage of a marketing avenue most Asian nations have not only grasped, but made their primary marketing vehicle.
In Korea, for example, most retail outlets have a bluetooth transmitter that will pick up on the presence of an open mobile channel in their vicinity and use that channel to push a message to a person walking just outside their doors. So, a C-store, for example, can push a "Red Bull 99¢ today only" type message to me as I walk right past the entrance to the store.
I believe the issue is most likely a lack of regulation. Not that I am for MORE laws, but if the mobile marketing industry fell under some sort of regulation, it would be extremely difficult, even impossible, for a company like Verizon to deliver an industry-crushing blow like a 3¢ rate increase. It would enable mobile companies to focus more on creative solutions to marketing to its subscribers rather than making a few cents on each of text message.
After years of being one of my favorite shows, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation sort of lost some of its luster for me last season. And by CSI, I don’t mean CSI Miami, or CSI New York or CSI Okalona, or any of the other abominations that they pass off as television programming. I’m talking about the O.G. show… CSI Las Vegas.
The season premier, “For Warrick,” was the payoff to the “For Gedda” cliffhanger from last year’s finale that left Warrick Brown shot in an alley. And since it was a foregone conclusion that Gary Dourdan’s character would not survive, (due, it seems, more to Dourdan’s off the set antics than for story reasons,) the premier was less plot resolution and more a sad goodbye to Warrick. Particularly strong was William Peterson, who usually gives a very even keeled performance as Gil Grissom. His delivery of Warrick’s eulogy was particularly moving and was one of the few times we get to see Grissom’s emotional side. (As opposed to Nick Stokes, who seems to get emotional when the weather changes.)
It isn’t that I don’t enjoy the show any more. The writing is still as good as it ever was and the performances are still interesting. (Particularly Peterson, whom I have loved since Manhunter… the original Silence of the Lambs prequel. Damn you Ed Norton for remaking that movie!) But the show has hit that point in its run where it has started to coast on its success. And there is no bigger sign than that Peterson, the show’s lead and the department’s leader, is leaving in episode 10 this season. Shows often lose actors and it isn’t always the kiss of death, but it really feels like the sharks are circling and The Fonz is revving up his bike.
But C.S.I. isn’t going down without a fight and to keep the show in the top 5, they are bringing in a heavy hitter… namely the heaviest hitter of them all, Ike Turner himself, Lawrence Fishburne, to replace Peterson as the head of CSI. Fishburne will show up in episode 9 as a permanent cast member. They are also finally replacing Jorja Fox, who’s character, Sara Sidel, left last season. Fans of Showtime’s “The L Word” will recognize, Lauren Lee Smith, who will be playing Bryce Adams, a character described by CBS as “a flirty and smart CSI who entered law enforcement to rebel against a controlling father.”
I’ll be interested to see what happens this season, because if anyone can save this show for me, it’s Morpheus.
I was a little bored last night before the Dancing with the Stars Results Show (sorry Kim!), so I decided to check out Opportunity Knocks. I have to say I was pleasantly surprised! It was actually my favorite new show of the season!
I think because Ashton Kutcher is a producer, I was expected to be Punk'd somewhere along the line, but it's actually just a quiz show that rewards families that know their surroundings really well.
Each family member is asked questions about other family members, items in the house and throughout their neighborhood. When a question is answered correctly, more money goes into the family's stash and if all the individual's questions are answered correctly they win a prize just for them. At the end, the family has a chance to answer another set of questions to double their money or risk it all for a chance to win $250,000.
Watching the show made me glad that I wasn't on there with my own family! I love quiz shows and think I'm super-good at them, but I couldn't image being on there with my mom. She's awesome, but tends to prance around in her own little happy world and doesn't pay so much attention to the details the show asks about. Does anyone seriously think my mom would be able to tell the difference between the grass in her own front yard versus the grass in the neighbor's yard? I don't think so!
Private Practice debuted its second season last week. To recap last season, Addison, of Seattle Grace (home to Grey's Anatomy) moves to LA in search of sunshine and no more Meredith and Derrick drama. She begins to work at a "private practice" that focuses on alternative medicine.
The two heads of the practice used to be married, so there is always tension and drama between them and everyone else has either been or wants to be involved with somebody else at the office. Season 2 is more of the same. Since there are only seven people that work at the clinic there are only so many feasible love triangles.
I'm a huge Grey's Anatomy fan and my favorite part about that show is all of the awesome personal drama. Who didn't love Izzy hooking up with Callie O'Malley's husband?!?
With Private Practice, the personal drama is so dull, that I mostly look forward to the medical mysteries. In the season premiere, there was a family that had a son with a disease that could only be cured by using the blood from a relative's umbilical cord. The boys' parents conceive another child, but when the boy takes a turn for the worse the mom breaks her water by using a knitting needle, in order to have the premature baby right away and save her son. Finally, some drama!
I don't think the spin off is ever as good as the original. I still enjoy Private Practice, but wish we could spice it up a little. Maybe Addison could sleep with her coworker/best friend's husband. Now that would make Dr. Izzy Stevens proud!
Last week I watched the new series "The Ex List" on CBS. It's about a 30-something florist, Bella, who visits a psychic that tells her if she wants to ever get married she will have to do it this year or it will never happen. The catch is that she doesn't have to meet a new guy and start from scratch because she's already dated the guy at some point before.
In the series premiere, Bella gets reacquainted with a singer that she dated 7 years ago. She thought perhaps he had matured from the emotional cry baby she dumped back then, so she invited all of her friends to check out his band playing at a local bar. Too bad that he dedicated a song to her called "You're a Crazy Bitch and You'll Die Alone." I think she pretty much got the point after that.
Since she has to find Mr. Right within a year, I do wonder how the writers will be able to keep stories about Bella and her crazy ex-boyfriends fresh. But, I'm sure there are plenty of female writers on staff that have dated a ton of train wrecks!