Andy Boyer

Category: Media

  • Viral Spiraling Out of Control

    How much of this campaign will be about issues, and how many people will be voting based on who has better supporters making YouTube videos?  Check out this CNN story about Hott4Hillary.

  • Launch of MyElectionChoices.com

    MyElectionChoices.com%20logo.gifAfter a few weeks of tinkering, we’ve launched the 1.0 version of MyElectionChoices.com.  The site will continue to evolve, but in its current form, visitors get to choose topics they care about in regards to the 2008 Presidential Election, then select positions they agree with from various candidates. 

    At the end of answering a few topics, visitors then find out which Presidential Candidates they share political views with.  Since we have statements from 17 candidates, there’s bound to be a couple people that you’ve never heard of.

    There are still plenty of improvements to be made, but give it a whirl and let me know what you think.  There’s a Groups option at the end to make it easy to invite others and compare how certain groups compare aggregately to National Averages.  And there’s a survey at the end as well that will help us shape the constant revisions.

  • Inspiration from an Unlikely Millionaire

    If you had an Internet connection at work in 2000 or 2001, one of your colleagues forwarded you a link to HotorNot.com.  You played with it for somewhere between 5 minutes and 8 hours, helplessly clicking on the neverending stream of pictures of people who wanted you to judge how good looking they were.

    About 1% of this crowd probably wondered if the founders were making any money, or if they simply launched the site for fun.  Well it turns out they were making GOBS of money.  Giant trucks were backing up and dumping bars of platinum into their backyard.  In a nutshell, it proved that a simple idea, at the right time, with the right people, was infinitely more powerful, satisfying and worthwile than simply attending weekly staff meetings.

    Well, if you read techCrunch you probably already wandered over to this blog post from the CEO of HotorNot. If you have ever considered running off and starting your own idea, here are some wise words to help get you moving in that direction.

  • TixMob Launches in UK – New Way to Buy Tickets for Events

    An old friend from Manchester sent me news about his company, Tixmob, this morning. Here’s a synopsis:

    http://www.tixmob.com/ Is a new concert ticket agent, just like Ticketmaster and Seetickets we work directly with concert promoters and event organizers to sell tickets on their behalf.   Unlike Ticketmaster, Seetickets etc.. A Tixmob ticket is paperless. Upon purchase it is sent to your mobile phone in the form of an sms message with a bar code. When you get to the event the ticket taker will scan the ticket with our scanner to prove it’s valid and it hasn’t already been used. So ticket touting/scalping is more difficult, you’ll probably get in faster since, for a while at least, we’ll usually have our own que.   A big complaint people have about ticket agents like Ticketmaster is all the crazy fees they stick on top of the ticket price. Generally Tixmob will have a booking of 10% of the tickets face value. As some extra incentive for people to try the product, we’ve reduced booking fees on our first few events to as low as 2%.

    While it appers to be UK based for now, the US possibilities seem far reaching as well.  I would assume sports teams would love the anti-scalping features.  Anyway, something to keep an eye on.

  • Lumosity – Something to Play With

    I will take the leap and say that a small company called Lumosity falls into the world of Marketing.  For, positioned one way, Lumosity would simply be entry #3.2 billion in the category of "Ways to kill time online when you should be productive."

    But instead, starting with the tagline of "Reclaim Your Brain" and extending through the core messaging, Lumosity is much more than a nice looking version of any casual games portal.  According to their literature, I will actually get SMARTER by spending time on their site. The multi-layered exercises and puzzles are designed to actively stimulate regions of my brain that have gone neglected, enriching my overall intellectual capabilities. 

    So far, I don’t feel smarter, but it has kicked my paranoia level to an all-time high, as I wonder if I am simply a pawn in someone’s giant marketing copywriting experiment.  But, I have succumbed to sucker status, and the exercises are fun, so we’ll see where this gets me. 

  • When You Start to Believe We Are Not Surrounded By Lunatics, Please Refer Back Here

    I’ve been doing some political research for a little project that I hope will launch very soon.

    But it’s given be the opportuity to read blogs written by supporters of particular candidates.  And every once in a while, I run across someone so out of touch with reality, you have to think they could bring down an entire campaign just by being a loud, lunatic supporter.  If you were a Brownback campiagn strategist, how do you approach this nut job and say, "Look, we appreciate the support, but Shut the Hell up!  You’re killing us!"

    Here’s the loony in question.  Never have a I seen such a well thought-out and researched blog post that contains such ridiculous conclusions from the data in question.

  • News from Prison – no not that prison

    I have no interest in adding any comment on the Paris Hilton fiasco.  I feel bad for anyone that is that scared and upset.

    So instead of talking about a celebrity that wants to avoid her sentence, I want to introduce you to an imate that wants to use his sentence to become a celebrity.

    Meet Patrick Knight, a death row inmate in Texas who is quickly giving those who favor capital punishment a poster child to point to.  Knight is taking his punishment with such contempt, that his friend has set up a web site asking people to email him jokes.  The friend will bring him all the jokes, and then Knight will use his last breath to "leave them laughing" as KLTV puts it.

    None of this is illegal.  But what a statement about how easy it is to become a celebrity these days, if only for a minute.  Had Knight put togther a tearful, remorseful apology to the family, no one would know.  But instead he decides that his last act will be one which gets him a little national attention.  It’s a final selfish act for someone who has already taken a loved one away from someone else.  Some things just amaze me.

  • Crystal Air – Great stuff

    I think I wrote about this before, but please check out the hilarious CrystalAir.com

    In particluar, if you like the Muppets, check this out: 

  • If You Can’t Build a Marketing campaign Around This…Then You’re Just Not Trying

    Minor League Baseball rules.  Here’s Phil Wellman, manager of the Mississippi Braves, politely disagreeing with an umpire.

     

  • Succumbing to the Grocery Store Promo

    X-13D.jpgIt’s easy to reach me at the grocery store.  Just have the best discount.  I admit it – I’m cheap about commodity items like frozen dinners, toothpaste, shampoo, soup, pasta sauce, etc….if you drop your price for a special, I’ll buy it.

    And so I was surprised at myself when I ran across the latest Doritos promo, and how I immediately put a bag in my cart.

    First off, I don’t buy chips.  I’m big enough – no reason to make it easy for the fat cells to win this battle.

    If you look around the grocery store, you see thousands of packages that have been meticulously designed, researched, surveyed, evaluated, tested, focus grouped and rewritten so that every word, even the small print, succinctly and accurately explains the attributes of the products in the clearest way possible.  Marketing folks around the country – folks not unlike me – make a living figuring out EXACTLY what should be on that package.  They want the consumer to know what they are buying and why they want it so badly.

    And then —– here’s Doritos with a bag that says, "Um, we’re not going to tell you what it is.  Eat it and tell us what you think it tastes like."

    GENIUS! I MUST HAVE A BAG NOW!

    I don’t know what it is, but I am now all a twitter about the surprise I have just bought myself for $2.50.  It could taste like an old shoe, but the simple fact that I’m driving home from the grocery store wondering what I bought makes me WAY more than $2.50 worth of happy.

    I think they could have charged me $10 for this, and I’d have said, "Sure.  I want, no I NEED, to try that black bag of X-13D’s."

    So here I am on a Friday afternoon.  My bag of chips in front of me.  And I seriously think this may be the most exciting moment of my week.  What will they taste like?  Do you know? 

    Ok, opening the bag now…. it smells less pungent than your normal bag.  Does this mean less taste?  I hope not.

    The chip has a lighter color than a normal one.  I’m now worried. Is X13-D shorthand for "X-13 flavor, Defective"?  Are these the chips that didn’t get enough Doritos sauce in the first batch?  Am I about to eat a reject?

    Time to taste… 

    Ah ha….no this is not a reject.  It is unlike a chip I have had before.  I think it has mustard in it.  And I usually hate mustard so I never would have bought these.  But I am oddly intrigued…..It’s mustard and…..something.  I can’t place it.  But I bet I eat this whole damn bag in the next 3 or 4 days trying to figure it out.  

    So, Mr or Ms Doritos Marketing person – I salute you and your mystery campaign.  You are zagging when other people zigged.  Nice work.