Andy Boyer

Month: May 2008

  • Sounders Show Off New Microsoft Uniforms

    sounders.jpgThere will be no jokes about the Sounders having to restart the game every 30 minutes to reboot.  Nor will anyone talk about them having a bloated team of 476 players.  And certainly no one will complain that every MLS team must have 10 players from the Sounders roster included with every installation.

    No, we won’t make those jokes because despite getting Microsoft money, the Sounders now have the coolest sponsor in the MLS and the best uniforms in the league.

    In fact, I may go as far as to say that the MLS has the coolest sponsor in all of Professional soccer, with the announcement of Xbox 360 deciding to be the face (or chest as it were) of Seattle soccer.

    Think about the great teams in Euro soccer and then think about their sponsors:

    • Manchester United: AIG Insurance (On a scale of 1 to 100, they score 130 on the boring meter)
    • Arsenal: Emirates Air (borrrrring)
    • Chelsea: Samsung (boring, but at least they are technology)
    • RealMadrid:  BenQ Siemens (more technology, but from Taiwan)
    • Bayern Munich: T-Mobile (yawn)
    • Inter Milan: Pirelli Tires (ok, that’s pretty cool I guess.)
    • AC Milan: Bwin.com (online betting is pretty cool too I suppose)

    But until I see Sony, Gucci, Rolex, Ferrari, Gulfstream, Prada, or BMW on the front of a jersey, I’ll take Xbox 360 as the coolest sponsor in soccer.  (How does Apple not get that they need to do this…) 

    Even better, the sponsorship and company are here in Seattle.  And tell me it’s not a great looking jersey.  Just tell me how to order and I’m in.

    (This photo was taken by Courtney Blethen of the Seattle Times, and I grabbed it from this article. Seattle Times: If you need me to take it down, please just let me know.)   

  • Mariners Offer Apologies, Announce They’ll Work With Season Ticket Holders to Salvage Season

    Don’t you wish you’d see a story like this come from Safeco Field?

    Mariners Offer Apologies, Announce They’ll Work With Season Ticket Holders to Salvage Season 

    SEATTLE – Seattle Mariners President Chuck Armstrong made a ground-breaking apology to Mariners fans today, promising changes will be made and optimistically promoting the 2009 season.

    “On behalf of the entire organization, I want to let everyone know that the disappointment you feel for this team, is felt ten-fold in our offices,” said Armstrong.”

    Armstrong acknowledged the 2008 season is officially over, and told fans that the focus is now on an AL West title in 2009.  “Given this unique opportunity to plan 10 months out, we really want to involve the fans,” explained Armstrong.  “Our scouts and talent evaluators will release a schedule of events, so that fans can provide input and feedback.  We really want the Mariners fans involved with this rebuilding process.”

    Mariners ownership appears to be embarrassed by the result of the season, and realize that their customers have vastly overpaid for the tickets they have already bought.  “We set the prices, and released the product,” said a front office executive.  “Now we see our product is over-priced, and will compensate fans accordingly.  Our customers are our most important asset, and we want them to pay a fair price for what they are seeing.”

    The Mariners also announced the forming of a “Fan Oversight Group” a committee of 11 non-employees, voted on by fans, who will have a seat on the Mariners Advisory Board and access to executives.  This group will not drive decisions, but will allow fans to have transparency into organizational matters that affect the customer base.

    —————— 

    So of course this is silly. But can you think of another business in which you can charge premium prices, provide a shoddy product, exhibit no competency to improve the product, hide behind a release cycle as an excuse for over-charging customers, and provide absolutely no insight into how you might fix the product’s issues?  I can’t think of anything comparable.  It’s just a shame – Beautiful stadium, fans who want to care, and a team that looks like the season is an inconvenience that breaks up their winter holiday.

  • Wall Street Journal Scoop – Agencies are Offshoring Creative

    I tell you what. You hear complaints about the mainstream media being out of touch at times. But thankfully the Wall Street Journal is able to restore my faith in their relevance by coming up with scoops such as this: 

    More Digital Ads Are Produced Offshore
    Marketers Ship Work To Costa Rica, Bulgaria; AvVenta Reaps Rewards

    Really?  People are offshoring their creative?  I had no idea.  I mean, when I used elance.com last month to have 35 ad banners made for $400, and 25 different firms bid on my project, I just thought I was unique.  It never dawned on me that there was an actual industry around connecting American companies to leverage affordable and talented creative folks from abroad.  Thanks to the WSJ, my eyes have been opened to this 5-10 year old phenomenon.

    Among the many sad parts of this article, is the fact that the story was obviously planted by a firm called avVenta Worldwide.  So not only does this WSJ writer, Emily Steel, make it appear that she just found out about creative outsourcing, she also makes it appear that she thinks that avVenta Worldwide is somehow revolutionary in the space.  The article basically tells this story.  "Agencies needed a way to cut costs and bill their Fortune 500 clients the same amount.  So they hire avVenta Worldwide, who has a team of creatives in Costa Rica, Bulgaria and the Ukraine. The agency margins grow, avVenta Worldwide margins grow and no one knows the difference."

    Well, no one knows the difference until your PR team gets an article placed in the WSJ and all of those Fortune 500 clients who thought they were paying for Madison Avenue heavyweights with Masters in Graphic Design say, "Uh, WTF?"

  • Monday Night MLS Soccer

    Dear MLS,

    I must admit, I’ve been trying to get excited about watching your games this year in anticipation of Seattle’s entrance to the league next year.  But I’m having a hard time tracking you down on the TV dial.  Also, it seems like your games are generally on in the middle of weekend afternoons, and frankly, there’s just too much other stuff to do.

    May I offer a quick suggestion that would fit better with my schedule?

    Monday Night Soccer.  Remember the old days of Monday Night Baseball?  Think back before ESPN, when the only ways to watch baseball were Saturday’s Game of the Week with Kubek and Gariagiola, and then MNB with guys like Cosell. Drysdale and Michaels.

    Here’s why this works.

    1. Monday is a travel day for most basbeall teams, which leaves sports fans with not much to watch.
    2. You can start every game at the same time.  You only have 14 teams so it shouldn’t be hard to build a schedule to get everyone within a timze zone of each other so that all the games kickoff at 6:15pm PST for West Coast Days and 5:15pm PST on days when they play on the East Coast.  If you start 7 games at the same time, and lets say there’s 1.5 goals per game, then you are showing goal highlights  from other games every 9 or 10 minutes.  Every American can appreciate goals being scored at that pace.
    3. Here’s your opportunity to build some personalities into your broadcasts.  I’m sure we all appreciate that the guys who used to play U.S. soccer need jobs now, but you have a sport with a lot of dead time.  Where is soccer’s Howard Cosell?  Bring me someone who can spin tales for 90 minutes.  He should be able to quote from TMZ, Perez Hilton, the London Times and LeMonde in successive sentences.   There would be no better place to have a real "character" to promote the games into living rooms.
    4. Monday is a huge day for adult soccer leagues, and these teams go to bars after games.  Make sure your TV broadcast partner replays the broadcast, so guys who get done playing soccer can sit around watching MLS highlights rather than home runs. ESPN 2 should have no problem with this.

    Monday Night Soccer.  Excuse the mixed metaphor, but this is a slam dunk.

  • Explaining Kids’ Hyperactivity

    Here’s an odd report that comes out of England.  Does it mean that pregnant women must add Cell Phones to the list of things they can’t use? Perhaps.  

    In a nutshell, the suprised researchers found that cell phone usage while pregnant leads to hperactivity wwhen the kids are born.  Specific results:

    • Mothers who did use the handsets were 54 per cent more likely to have children with behavioural problems
    • The likelihood increased with the amount of potential exposure to the radiation.
    • When the children also later used the phones they were, overall, 80 per cent more likely to suffer from difficulties with behaviour.
      • They were 25 per cent more at risk from emotional problems.
      • 34 per cent more likely to suffer from difficulties relating to their peers.
      • 35 per cent more likely to be hyperactive.
      • 49 per cent more prone to problems with conduct.

    So if your kid is hyper – don’t blame them….it sounds like it’s your fault 🙂  Can’t wait to see the first lawsuit to come from this…. 

     


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  • Andy 3, Bridge 0

    Team "No Runner Left Behind" attacked the Beat the Bridge run for the 3rd time this weekend, and we’re proud to announce a clean sweep.  Everyone cruised across with no problems, (except for the guy pushing the baby stroller, which we are not counting as failure.)  In fact, we set a team record with everyone finishing between 42:00 and 47:00.

    Make sure to book mid-May 2009 to join us next year for this event.  It’s a great time fo ra very worthwile cause.

  • The Story of An Underperforming Campaign

    (And now we get back to this being a marketing and business blog…) 

    This article from the New Republic chronicles mistakes the Clinton campiagn made over the last 15-16 months.  Note: I’m not saying that her campaign is over, but I think if you start as the overwhelming front runner, and then become a candidate struggling for survival, it’s fair to say your candidacy has underperformed.

    While the article is interesting on a political level, it’s also a perfect example of simple business mistakes that can make you lose consumer confidence and fall behind in the marketplace.  A couple of themes that transfer include the following: failure to recognize competitive threats, total lack of long-term focus, not taking care of the people who can give you free publicity, what happens when you choose the wrong message, and how the public turns on you if they think you are dishonest.

    Check out the article here. 

  • Taiwan Recap – I go searching for the lost temple

    sDSC04948.JPGFor no reason whatsoever, I decided to close out my trip to Taiwan with a long hike in the Tawianese forest.  I guess I can’t say "no reason."  Vittorio and I had taken a gondola up to the hills to see some pretty big temples, but he had to leave to catch his flight back to Europe.  I still had another 5 hours to kill, so I thought 3 of them could be effectively used wandering around the woods.

    Plus, my Lonely Planet guidebook, which hadn’t really been right or useful all week, said there was this crazy temple buried in a wall behind the waterfall.  I had to see it. So off I went, up the rock stairs into the unknown forest.

    I’m not sure why I expected it to be less humid in the middle of the forest.  But it wasn’t.  And I guess I forgot about the fact that there would be bugs, because there were.  Otherwise, the hike started stupendously.

    It didn’t take too long for me to start talking to myself, mainly cursing how this idea had enetered my head.  Why couldn’t I have stumbled on the page in the guidebook that mentioned an air conditioned museum, or better, maybe a  martini bar. 

    But I would carry on.  After all, when is the next time I would be able to see a temple in a waterfall?

    After a few km, I reached a key fork in the road.  Unfortunately for me, the brilliantly marked signage did not mention which diretion my destination was.  I would be forced to use the guidebook, which to this point had gotten me lost on well marked city streets in two different countries.  Now I would use it for an unmarked forest trail.  Yippee.

    sDSC04969.JPGI slogged through the trail when a frightening thought hit me.   Vittorio had left me in a totally different place than I was now.  Literally no one in the world knew where I was.  If I fell, I’d be one of those guys that just vanished off the planet.   Hmmm….

    The hike was beautiful, except for the fact that I had no confidence in where I was going, and not very much hope that I was headed toward my mysterious temple.  The path kind of disappeared, but I finally found a creek, which seemed like a pretty good thing to follow if I was looking for a waterfall.  The bridge I came across did not instill confidence, but luckily the water was shallow enough to cross.

    sDSC04970.JPGAnyway, after a few hours, I actually found this temple, and it was pretty cool – especially for something built into the side of a waterfall.  I walked through to take some pics from the other side, and there were actually some people inside there, which kind of freaked me out.  And they offered me tea.  Now, I thought it was a funny thing for people who don’t speak English to offer to sit down and pantomime with me.  But I appreciated the gesture, despite the fact that drinking unfiltered Taiwanese forest water before getting on an 11 hour flight seemed like a poor idea.  I passed on the tea, and headed back to the gondola, content with the way the trip was coming to an end.

  • We Interrupt This Week For…..Jury Duty

    There’s nothing quite like digging out from a week or two on the road. Catching up on work, catching up with people, catching up with laundry…it’s all just one week of catchup. And nothing can throw a wrench into those catchup plans quite like being called to jury duty.

    Now I know it’s important. I know if I ever get hauled off to court I would hope to have a jury of my peers there to decide my fate. But maybe at some point we need to look at the logistics of the current process.

    Today I sit up on the 12th floor of the Seattle Court Building, with about 60 fellow strangers. To make the math really easy, let’s say the average salary in the room is $52,000 a year, so everyone makes $1000 a week or $200 a day. So, on average, the Tuesday to Thursday interruption would cost everyone about $600. For 60 people, we’re talking about $36,000 in wages being used for the process.

    Now consider these cases are misdemeanors. No case will be more than a few hundred or maybe even a few thousand dollars. We’re taking $36,000 in wages to settle cases worth 10% of that total.

    Not only that, but consider the juror who works for himself or is not paid by his employer to go to jury duty. If a guy is suing for $600, it would actually make more sense for the jurors to each chip in $100 to simply settle the case so they can go back to work.

    Does this seem like the best way to handle this? This scenario didn’t even take into account the salaries of the lawyers, bailiffs, security, judges, or any other cost associated with a trial.

    So if you have not been privileged with this process, here’s how it works. You show up at 8:30am and watch a pretty ironic video explaining how important your role in the process is. You get put up in a giant room which supposedly has wi-fi access (down at the time of this writing), some soda machines, coffee, magazines, etc…And you just wait. At some point they are going to come and call a bunch of people for a case.

    Apparently there are 5 jury rooms, so I expect they will call 12 people at a time, with 6 people becoming actual jurors. It’s unclear whether you get bounced back to the juror pool if you don’t make the cut from 12 to 6.

    Big News—-Now at 10:30, we are getting word that people are getting called. Here are the names – Judy, Earl, Sarah, Ron, Jerry, Wendy, Theodore, Anthony, Albert, Thomas, Beverly, Kirsten, Elmer, Malia, and Rob. So I don’t get picked. I get to stay in the lobby here and keep working I suppose.

    14 names. Maybe there are 70 of us in here. Ok, change all the calculations up above.

    I guess the rest of us sit around until the next case is ready to go to court. Maybe everyone else will settle and we all get to leave. Would that we could be so lucky.

    Now if the wi-fi was working, this whole thing wouldn’t be much more than a minor inconvenience. I’d get some work done, and all that would be different would be the view. But I’m not sure why I’d expect the IT department for the City to be able to keep a wireless router running. Apparently they are assembling all the best and brightest minds down there to figure out which cord to plug back in. I can barely contain my optimism that we’ll have access anytime in the near future.

    In the meantime, it appears the other computers are up and running, so as soon as the selected jurors head to court, I should be able to sneak in and siphon off an Ethernet connection to broadcast more riveting jury duty play by play, and more importantly, get some work done.

    Update:  2:30pm. 

    We’ve been sitting in a room all day, and only 16 of the group have been called.  Not sure what the rest of us our here for.  They let us all go to lunch from 12-1:30, so now we’re back in the room like we are doing homework in detention.  It’s werid, we’re all working or doing stuff we’d be doing anyway, but we’re annoyed because we are stuck in this building.

    We hear another announcement for a cattle call:  Here come the names: gail, laura, geoffrey, guy, chris, dwayne, laura, william, berthold, teresa, edith, kay, eve, william, debra.

    No Andy on that list.  I’ve been spared again.   

     

  • Tawian Temples, Towers, Strange Foods and More

    You can say this for Taiwan – you certainly can’t get bored from a lack of experiences. Consider our range of activities in 72 hours in Taipei and the surrounding areas.

    • Gorging on a variety of strange foods bought from street vendors for $.50, in nighttime street markets.
    • Taking an elevator to the top of the world’s tallest building.  A 600 meter per second journey that goes 89 floors in 47 seconds.
    • Taking a subway out to the Beitou Hot Spring, and getting in natural cold, warm and hot pools with 50 people who didn’t speak a lick of English.
    • Wandering through a giant temple in the middle of a downtown park.
    • Bussing out to a natural park on the country’s north coast.
    • Taking a gongola ride up 2,000 meters to reach some temples, then hiking a few hours to find a nother temple carved into the wall of a waterfall.
    • Nearly getting run over by one of the 198 million scooters that dominate the roads.
    • Shopping at computer markets getting incredible deals on memory cards, USB drives and other small accessories.
    • And then, eating more food from more night markets.

    I’ll slowly get the pictures up to illustrate some of these activities, but the basic story is one of Taiwan being one of the most diverse places I have visitied.  After the fury and fervor of Hong Kong, Taiwan could easily be termed disappointing or unexciting.  But when you look at the wide range of activities, it really is quite a fantastic place.  5 million residents is nothing compared to Hong Kong or Tokyo, but it’s still a major city with more to offer than you can do in 3 days.  Plus, Taipei represents the very top of a long island.  There are another 18 million people in the rest of the country, in areas we didn’t even contemplate visiting.

    When you consider how close it is to all the major Asian hubs, like Tokyo, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Singapore, etc… it really becomes a place that could easily be the start and end points for my next Asia vacation.