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  • iPhone

    Posted on June 30th, 2007 by Spike and currently 6 commenting.

    I’ve got mine. Do you have yours?

    And it’s better than I thought it would be.

    P.S. Sinbad was waiting in line with me (no, I was only in line for 2 hours). No kidding.
    P.P.S. AT&T store salespeople work on commission. Happy iPhone weekend to them.

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  • 25 Million Online Influencers and Growing

    Posted on June 29th, 2007 by Virginia and currently 2 commenting.

    One of the things that we often find ourselves doing in this little corner of the Interweb is sharing fantastic, frightening or somehow remarkable experiences with products and services. We are definitely in good company.

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    Today, eMarketer released a report that includes their estimate that 25 Million US adults regularly share information on products and services online (they expect that to grow to 34M by 2011). Included in the same article, a BigResearch Study reveals that 91% of US adults regularly or occasionally seek out information on products. In other words, there is an active demand for all of that volunteered brand-related information.

    My major takeaway from the lovely stats and graphs in that article? Your screamers, fans, and squeaky wheels have an audience - so make sure you’re actively listening and responding!

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  • CGVG – Consumer Generated Video Games

    Posted on June 28th, 2007 by Spike and currently 1 commenting.

    The BBC reports today that the maker of the Wii video gaming system, Nintendo, has released WiiWare, which will allow amateur game makers the platform they require to create their own games for the Wii console.

    Very cool.

    “Independent developers armed with small budgets and big ideas will be able to get their original games into the marketplace to see if we can find the next smash hit,” said Reggie Fils-Aime, Nintendo of America president in a statement.

    Once a game is finished, the creator submits it to Nintendo, who in turn makes it available on the Wii Shop so gamers can download the ones they like.

    So not only will there be a lot of new, original games ” and “fresh takes on established genres, ” but Nintendo is creating evangelists who will feel like they are a part of the company through their game programming efforts. It’s a nice move by a big company releasing control and in turn, reaching out to embrace their fans.

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  • Naming Names

    Posted on June 27th, 2007 by Spike and currently 3 commenting.

    Brandweek has a very interesting article about a survey they conducted concerning the public’s favorite new brand names. What really caught my eye is that the names that were preferred were real. And when I say ‘real,’ I mean that they were words that already existed. They weren’t the Latin root of anything. They weren’t two words smashed together. And they weren’t a new, made-up word.

    Examples?

    Spykes ” a new alcoholic beverage (which might have been too good of a name)
    go! ” a new Hawaiian airline
    Tailwind ” a new line by Nike
    aloft ” a new hotel brand by Starwood

    Why do I like these names? Well, not only do they go hand-in-hand with Brains on Fire’s naming philosophies, but they allow people to instantly create an emotion about that product or service. And that allows them to quickly and easily internalize it and connect with it.

    It’s really not about creating new names ” it’s about finding them. They are already there, just waiting to be discovered.

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  • Do you Feel Like We Do

    Posted on June 26th, 2007 by Geno and currently 1 commenting.

    Summertime brings a lot of things: hot weather, thunderstorms, vacations, swimming and being lazy. It’s also a time to reconnect with your kids. And after a hard year of school, my daughter and I seem to be developing a pattern. For us, summertime means going to concerts. Our summer season of concerts started off with Peter Frampton. Frampton was a teen idol for me, but my now thirteen-year-old daughter had little knowledge of him, except for the song ‘Show me the way.’ I thought it would be an important concert for her because of his guitar playing. He didn’t disappoint, but what won her over was Frampton the artist, playing to entertain his fans. Seeing Frampton brought old fans and new fans together taking trips back in time with classics like ‘Do You Feel Like We Do’ and to the present with riff soaring songs from ‘Fingerprints.’ Frampton treats his fans like long time friends, knowing what you came to hear and not being embarrassed about playing those songs. Hearing ‘Show Me The Way’ live again brought the whole house together, Peter, and all his fans singing at the top of our lungs.

    Our next concert was a road trip to Atlanta to see the Honda Civic Fall Out Boy Tour. I was so-so excited about this concert, I like Fall Out Boy and I really like +44 who were also on the tour. But five bands will make for a long night and long ride home… I must be getting old.

    Cobra Starship, Paul Wall, The Academy Is - they were all great. All these guys and gals engaged the crowd, having actual conversations with the fans. This is one thing I’m noticing, in the past I went to a lot of concerts performed by indifferent don’t give a shit bands. Maybe it’s the accountability of social networks. But bands of today have to know their fans, and engage with them. Fans drive the bands communities promoting their newest releases and their concerts. And these bands in particular know this very well. Every one of these bands made a point to announce that they would be hanging out after their show to talk with their fans.

    The headlining acts +44 and Fall Out Boy were the reasons that most of the crowd was there and they did not disappoint. Fall Out Boy is growing up as artists and used the concert as a way to entertain and also make their fans aware of social issues that they should care about.

    That leads me to +44. +44 is two-thirds of Blink 182 a pop-punk band founded in 1992 - and in my opinion, Blink along with Green Day and Rancid are founders of modern day punk music. My daughter and I joked about a ‘what if they played a Blink song, what would it be?’ We both said Rock Show and laughed it off. +44 played energized song after energized song and in between front man Mark Hoppus played jokes with the band and the fans. Hoppus addressed the crowd that they wanted to perform something special, they didn’t have to say a word because the crowd of over 10,000 knew the song. As +44 performed ‘The Rock Show’ at a pace and sound I can only call describe as electric. The crowd went nuts - from my twelve year-old to the adults. That one song made the show special for me, and it made me care more about the band +44.

    Jake McGee has a saying, ‘everybody leaves happy.’ And it’s great to see so many bands get it.

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