What do Lavell Edwards an Elf and Dell Schanze have in Common?

Answer: All three have starred in and/or produced some of the most bizarre local TV commercials I've ever seen.

Since my experiment a couple of days ago with reader submitted commercials didn't catch on, I have been forced to find some of my own. I hope to someday come up with a top 10 list, but for now I chose three of my favorites from Utah. Not all three of the ads I found are commercials or even videos, nonetheless you will probably find them funny if you've ever lived in Utah.

1) Totally Awesome Computers:

This company is no longer in business and all videos have been erased. Therefore, all I could find was an audio clip. But, for those who remember the commercials this audio clip of Dell Schanze criticizing the Better Business Bureau will bring back some dreaded memories of his annoying TV adds.

Totally AWESOME!

2) Big Lots

You have probably seen the happy little Big Lots elf in their new commercials. Now you can watch the auditions and how Mikey the elf beat up a two foot plastic reindeer in his quest to become the Big Lots Christmas SpokesElf.

Check out Mikey

3) Intellibed

This has to be the all time most awkward commercial I have ever seen. The legendary BYU football coach Lavell Edwards and Paul James, the former voice of BYU football, team up to make this bed commercial (the only problem is that they're in the same bed).

-I'll apologize in advance because this link doesn't go directly to the commercial, but follow the link below to the Intellibed website. From here you should see a picture of Lavell and under his picture the link to the commercial. Sorry!-

Awkward Bed Commercial

And 1 in Provo

On Friday night I had the rare opportunity to watch And 1 play at the Pinnacle Security Gym for free. On Saturday the same team played at Timpview High, in front of a paying crowd. That's just one of the perks of having a wife that works for Pinnacle (I'll have to blog about my trip to the tumbling gym later).

The video is kinda short because we only had my wife's digital camera, but it was one of the best dunks of the night. During the warm-up the guy I have the picture with (I can't remember his nickname)pulled a 360-under-the-leg slam, the Air Up There's signature dunk. They put on a good show, so even if you have to pay I recommend going. I'd be interested to find out if anyone saw them play at Timpview.

Why Local TV Commercials Stink

I was reading a classmate's blog today, and she mentioned something that I have long been put off by... Bad marketing campaigns and sucky commercials. A common theme with all poorly done marketing campaigns seems to be that they are mostly produced locally.

I want to try an experiment with this post. Instead of spending hours sifting through local commercials and picking the ten that I think are the poorest, I think it would be fun for the readers of this blog to search for their favorite cheesy commercial and leave the link to it in a comment. I'll then go through the links and do a top ten list, much like the one I did for the Loved Yet Forgotten Childhood TV Shows and then submit the list on Digg.

As a small prize for submitting the best commercials I will include your name (either real or some sort of username) and a link to the website of your choice. This could be a blog or a web page you have, I just ask that the content of the page you choose is clean and unoffensive.

A lot of the elements that local TV commercial producers employ can be seen in the video I've linked to this post. My brother made this ad as a joke in high school and I think in some ways it's better than some of the local commercials I've seen. So, there you have it. Let the experiment begin!

5 Biggest Online Marketing Stories of the Week

Today

First Virtual-World Millionaire, in Real-World Dollars

Who ever thought that an avatar would land the cover of Business Week?! Well, that was over 6 months ago, before Anshe Chung of Germany had officially become a millionaire. Before the semester began I had never heard of Second Life, but now it seems that not a week goes by without some story mentioning the virtual world.

If you haven't read the story of how the virtual real estate mogul amassed a fortune in "linden" dollars, which she then converted into real currency, then here's links to a couple of sources: Paul's Blog, MarketingVox Article, Business Week.

Thursday

Half of Youtube's Audience is Over 34

This was big news, especially since the 35-64 demographic is the most sought after group by marketers. When you think about that it makes sense because a majority of the wealth in the US, and I would presume abroad, is held by this group.

Wednesday

Youtube Goes Mobile with Verizon's help

Youtube is making it's first step toward mobile uploading and viewing of it's videos with a partnership with Verizon V-cast subscribers. This was good news for Verizon, but no one knows how long this exclusive partnership will last. According to Youtube cofounder Steve Chen, the company's eventual goal is to make sure all cell-phone owners have access to the site's videos.

Tuesday

Websites Score Big with Fantasy Football

Sixteen million adults are expected to compete in fantasy football leagues this year, compared to fourteen million this same time last year. The great thing for websites that host leagues is that fantasy football players are some of the most engaged consumers online. An average user spends 3 hours a week researching players.

Monday

Cyber Monday Sales Worse Than Expected

After all the hype, the phenomenal gains expected for online purchases just didn't measure up. The biggest day so far for online purchases was not Monday but the day before Thanksgiving. And most companies believe that the biggest day of all is still to come.

Top 10 Loved Yet Forgotten Childhood Shows(Of the late 80s and early 90s)

Not every childhood TV show is as memorable as Double Dare, TMNT, or Sesame Street, but once you watch these intros you might be surprised how familiar they are to you. This list is a product of reminiscing with family a couple of nights ago. Enjoy!?

10 Nick Arcade

Bringing video games to life!

9 Wienerville

Remember this one? crazy..

8 Roundhouse

They made being good cool!!

7 Today's Special

Here's the real proof that mannequins come to life when little mice say "hocus pocus malimocus"

6 The Adventures of the Little Koalas

My brother-in-law loved this one so much I had to put it on the list...

5 Fred Penner's Place

Even if you don't remember this one, just watch it.

4 Eureeka's Castle

The one and only. Definitely a forgotten one because this is the only video we could find..

3 Legends of the Hidden Temple

Olmec. ha!

2 Hey Dude

It's a little wild and a little strange...

1 Land of the Lost

Yes. :)

The End

Mitt Romney 3rd On Blogosphere Poll

With the midterm elections behind them, Republicans and Democrats alike are looking ahead to the 2008 presidential campaign. As speculation of who is being primed for the candidacy unfolds, the prospects for Governor Mitt Romney are looking good.

On a popular conservative news blog, Hotair.com, I took a poll on likely GOP candidates in 2008, and among the pool of likely candidates Romney was high on the list. Of the 8,100 or so submissions - blogosphere wide - Romney came in third. Barely behind Giuliani and about 5 percentage points behind the leader, Newt Gingrich. For those of you who may want to take the poll or see the results here are the two links: Poll Rankings

While browsing for a picture of Mitt, I stumbled onto an economist article that's a couple of months old but even more intriguing after the midterms. In the article Romney is described as a "scarily perfect presidential candidate," yet he has one major hurdle to overcome, his religion.

A strikingly high percentage of voters said that they would not vote for Romney based on his affiliation to the LDS church (37% to be exact). However, the article reminds us of the following tidbit from our political history:

... 37% is certainly not an encouraging figure. But back in 1960 35% of people told pollsters that they would have qualms about voting for a Catholic, and in that year a Catholic reached the White House.

So, despite the odds Romney is still a likely candidate, who in my opinion deserves a shot at the white house. I think he is at least a viable Vice-Presidential candidate. But, let's put the question to the public... what is your opinion of the man they call Mitt?

Rutgers fans rushing the field against Louisville

Now watch as the final seconds unfold, and the Rutgers fans prematurely rush the field. Then finally, as the last two seconds expire watch the aerial shot of Rutgers fans turn the the field into an ant hill.

Rutgers Winning Field Goal Over Louisville

They're calling it the biggest win in Rutgers history. Well, it was a great comeback win for Rutgers to put off the #3 ranked Louisville. It came down to the last seconds of the game and a second chance field goal. If you missed the game or just want to watch the drama unfold again here's a clip.

Online Political Ad Spending Goes to Email, Not Ads

From a MarketingVox article:

Though online spending by political advertisers is up from the levels of the 2004 national election, the portion going to online ad placements is actually down.

A report by research firm PQ Media on political media spending claims that email accounts for 80 percent of the $40 million spent online by political advertisers leading up to this year's midterm elections, ClickZ reports. The shift can be explained by a need for candidates to focus more on geotargeting during the midterm, whereas during a national election advertisers can move more toward mainstream political websites. (Italics added)

"Is there more online advertising than there was in 2002? The answer is 'yes,' but compared to 2004 there is much less [online] advertising because it's missing that national component," said Dr. Leo Kivijarv, VP and head of research at PQ Media.

So, even though the use of online ads are down from levels in 2004, this doesn't mean that advertisers ignored the internet. Their focus merely shifted to a more targeted method, email. There are other mediums that may have seen increased attention during this election. The biggest one probably being online video.

As Jimmy Zimmerman mentioned on his blog yesterday, online video is another ad medium that politicians need to pay attention to, especially in the coming years. He states:

With online video streaming still being so young, I bet we will see online video making more of an impact in the future.

In the years to come, political candidates will need to stay on top of new Internet trends including online video, blog networks, and social networking.

As an absentee voter for Texas I relied on political commercials from Youtube and other sites to make informed decisions. Since I couldn't see the geotargeted commercials on Utah television or recieve the geotargeted direct mail at my Utah address, I had to do my own searching. I wonder what happened to those geotargeted emails though?

I imagine online video was a big influence on absentee voters, who had to research their candidates from afar. Are there any other absentee voters who would agree with that?

Judge Lewis Under Fire In Utah

Last night, I checked the ABC 4 website for more information about President Hinckley's story, and I came across another story that had some personal relevance.

Leslie Lewis, a Utah criminal court Judge, has come under the scrutiny of the media for her controversial statements and rulings.

About 3 weeks ago I attended an afternoon of public hearings where Judge Lewis laid down the law on several substance abusers and even one murderer who she gave a life sentence to. She reminded me of Utah's version of Judge Judy. She was opinionated, firm, and frequently interjected personal vignettes into her decisions. For this reason it came as no surprise when I read the ABC 4 report on Judge Lewis and her taped comments about the LDS practice of baptism.

The tape comes from a hearing addressing problems between a divorced couple on arranging parent time. At the end of the discussion Judge Lewis asks if there is anything else to discuss, and the father's attorney brings up that he would like to baptize his daughter in the LDS church, but the child in question had told her father that her mother didn't approve.

Then came Judge Lewis' opinion:

Judge Lewis stated that a decision of this nature must be made jointly between parents. Then she added, "And may I add my own personal story. That same thing was done to me and I have resented it lo, these many years."

Judge Lewis continued, saying that people are too young at the age of eight to make a decision of the magnitude of baptism. She then ruled, "The child is too young. The child will make the decision when she is twelve."

I tried to reason why this story was coming out now, almost a year later, and it appears that the media is following up on other negative reports about Judge Lewis (See report, ABC.com)

Being LDS I found her comments mildly offensive, mainly because they were somewhat unwarranted. On the other hand, it was the father's attorney who brought the whole religion issue to the forefront. Should a judge have a right to rule on such matters when they are brought out by the attorneys? I don't know, but having sat in her courtroom and listened to how she judged I think she handled her cases with a fair amount of justice and wisdom. Nonetheless, there seems to be a lot of controversy over her opinionated interjections.

What are your thoughts about Judge Lewis? How should Utah and the LDS population respond to her public comments? Or, should this issue just be dropped completely?

President Hinckley's Longevity Record

I don't normally blog about the news outside of marketing, but tonight I watched ABC 4 and one story seemed relevant to my blog readers. President Hinckley of the LDS church is soon to surpass the longevity record for the oldest living LDS prophet.

A little after 12 a.m on Friday President Hinckley will be 96 years and 133 days old, and will surpass David O. McKay as the oldest LDS prophet ever.

On Tuesday, I had the chance to attend the Prophet's address at BYU where he shared some of the many landmark experiences he's had in his long life. This is yet another notable event that somehow I think President Hinckley won't give much second thought too, considering his respect for those who have gone before him. Nonetheless, it is a considerable achievement, especially for someone with a prophetic calling such as Hinckley's where the "weight of the world" has been his to bear for more than 10 years.

For those of you who may read this and have no idea who or what I'm talking about here's a link to President Hinckley's wiki and a few other LDS church sites:

Learn More
President Hinckley's Wiki
LDS.org
Mormon.org

This Is Halloween

Happy Halloween!

24 Trailer - Season 6

This is my favorite tv show. I know there a lot of 24 fans out there, but maybe you haven't seen the trailer to next season yet. Go check it out, Jack is back!

24 trailer

That Novel You're Workin On

For some odd reason I can't post a video to my blog, because my blogger account information seems to be wrong even though I know it is right. Has anyone else had this problem? I was having the same problem trying to use Hello to publish pictures, so I changed my password. But, the problem persisted. So, until the problem gets fixed I will just have to add a link to the video I wanted to share.

I usually don't watch Family Guy (even though I think the show is funny, it seems to have gone downhill), but this is a clip I just can't get enough of. Stewie sarcastically nags Brian over a novel he's been working on. Check it out! You'll laugh, I Guarantee it!.

Stewie and Brian

Social Networkers Are Becoming Immune to Ads

Advertisements on Social Networking sites are being ignored, according to a MarketingVOX article. Likewise, the article reports that peer recommendations are the most influential to user's of sites such as Myspace and Facebook.

As a social networker these findings come as no real surprise. I hardly ever look at the adds. When I go to Facebook or Myspace I think I've subconsciously trained my eyes to only notice the things I care about, like messages or friend requests. When a bogus email comes to me promoting some great new feature or product I don't even give it a second glance before deleting it. However, if someone in my network of friends or family requests a website or product I would probably go search for it as soon as I had the chance.

This is a behavior that seems to be true for most users. So, reverting back to my post yesterday the rules of the marketing game are changing. Marketers are going to have to rely more and more on personal promotion of their products to stay afloat in an online 'user-powered' world.

Mobile Television a $27 Billion Industry?

In another report from MarketingVOX this week the co-chair of Disney ABC TV, Anne Sweeny, was proud of ABCs experiments with online streaming TV programming, and expressed optimism for the future of mobile TV. Commenting on their new media initiatives at a trade show recently, Sweeny stated the following:

"Industry analysts predict that mobile television could be a global market worth as much as $27 billion by 2010."

Just for some perspective on how big $27 billion is, I attended a Nike information session last night and the rep said that Nike does $15 billion worth of business a year!

Well, that may be comparing apples to oranges, but when you think about how long Nike has been around and all the business that they must do worldwide the mobile TV estimates seem a bit prepostorous to me.

Anyone else feel the same way? Or is mobile TV really that big? I know in Europe and Asia they use mobile phones to connect to the internet a lot more than we do here in the US, but how feasible is watching a TV program from a cellphone screen?

Internet Marketing Trends

Last week in my internet marketing class with Paul Allen, we discussed some of the trends that marketers are beginning to face. I took notes on our discussion and I thought they might be useful for someone who's thinking about where they want to take their marketing in the future. So, here are some take home points from my notes that day:

Global trends
1. Nokia- 3 billion cellphones by 2010
2. GPS in cell phones - smart phones will enable marketers to send geographically specific messages
3. Broadband in cars
4. Intel Viiv PC (next generation tv set) + Google Video - Intel envisions t.v. of the future streamed over internet\Sounds more like Youtube + Tivo than On Demand television.
5. Broadband everywhere, most devices internet-ready
6. Tivo: 94% of users skip all commercials,
7. XM and Sirius Radio
8. 985 million mp3 players to ship in 2009 (including phones, games, devices, and ipods)

Future Internet Marketing
1. Google SMS
2. Froogle - making sure your products are showing up on comparison sites and not just driving traffic to your own site
3. The future of television - Google Video (just bought Youtube)
4. Ipod cell phones - Mobile t.v.
5. MobiTV
6. Satellite, podcasting
7. Online Classifieds and Online Yellow Pages vs. Traditional Yellow Pages - ClarksList and yellowpages.com
8. Blogging campaigns - can be a successful advertising tool, have popular bloggers promote products
9. RSS Feeds
10. Content is published on Google and Yahoo
11. Direct PR
12. Add company logo to Google Local
13. Pay per Call -Perfect for local services companies (demo AOL search)

Main Point: The future of marketing cannot be based on interruption, instead marketers should focus on having users promote products (viral marketing).

White and Nerdy

For those of you who always wanted to ride with the gangsters, but were left out because you were white and a nerd, I have just the music video for you!

This Weird Al parody of Chamillionaire's "Ridin" is great fun!! It's called "White and Nerdy", and I just saw this on the cecilismyhomeboy blog and I couldn't resist sharing it with all my caucasian homies (you know who you are).

Just like the original song, Weird Al keeps the message real by reminding us of the other type of racial profiling that doesn't get as much media attention. Check out this video for some laughs!

The picture is just another version of what Weird Al is singing about. Clay's Achin' to ride with the gangsters and rhyme wit 'em too, but it's hard being White and Nerdy!

Digg founders launch Revision3

There's been a lot of news being dugg lately on the popular website digg.com dealing with the recent announcement of the launch of Revision3, a new internet video production website from the founders of digg.

What is Digg?
For those who haven't visited digg.com it's a fun site that allows users to submit stories or content about all kinds of news related topics. From what I understand the website was started by two men, Jay Adelson and Kevin Rose, who gained recognition on the old techTV channel as hosts. They started digg.com as a medium for a technology savvy audience to post user-generated news and content that they could share with other users and that could be voted on through a process they call "digging".

For as difficult as I may have made that last sentence sound, joining the digg community and the process of submitting and voting on material is very simplistic, which I think is one of the key drivers to this website. That's what keeps me returning at least. The process of sifting through stories that already have a lot of diggs, and finding the less popular ones is kind of addicting. The stories you digg get saved to your profile as a history and community members can see a list of stories you've dugg.

So enough about digg, all I will say now is that if you've read this far you should probably at least check out the website to see if you agree with me or not.

Revision3
Returning to my topic... the founders of digg have now launched an interactive user-generated internet video site which has some unique characteristics. First of all, they have a programming formula that, quoting the New York Times article from Sept. 25 is "a hybrid of the polished shows created for the networks and the amateur videos that populate sites like YouTube." Although they are taking a chance by seeking to bring more order to user-generated media, they are following a trend in Internet video from user-generated clips to "a more controlled environment." I've added a link to the article on my digg account that would be a useful read if you're interested http://www.digg.com/users/aublivious/dugg

I think these guys are on to something. It's a simple idea, just taking something that is already successful tweaking it a little bit by organizing it better and adding a few features, but isn't that what has worked for so many successful companies (Google particularly)? Very few are successful at reinventing the wheel, but in a real-time world where thoughtful marketers and entrepreneurs can spot a trend as it unfolds there are endless opportunities for those who capitalize on them.

Disclaimer - New Title

It took a while but I finally chose a title fit for my blog. Not only was it the most interesting topic to me, media and marketing offers a lot of play room so I can write on a broader range of topics if I choose to. Of course, there will be a general subject matter that I will stick to most of the time, so that those who decide to read or link to the blog will have an archive of similar articles to read as well. However, I won't say that I am specializing in any one specific area. The title says media and marketing, and what that entails is up to my own discretion, but at the same time I hope to offer articles, news stories, opions on t.v. shows/movies, and marketing that are both fresh and interesting. I welcome anyone to comment on things I post whether they agree or disagree with what I have to say, just keep it clean! I apologize for the purely informational posts so far, I am writing another post after this one that will be more interesting.

My First Post!!

This is a historic day! Not only is this my first blog post ever, it is also the 5 year aniversary of the 9/11 attacks. So, excuse me for being either too bitter or too sweet tonight with any of my comments.

Even though the only reason I am starting this blog is because it is a requirement for an Internet Marketing class I'm taking at BYU, and considering I usually don't enjoy doing anything just to fulfill a requirement, this idea really intrigues me. Does anyone remember the show Doogie Howser, MD? Well, If you're old enough to remember then you might understand me when I say I kinda fell like Doogie at the end of every show writing his daily log. Anyway, it's always exciting to be a part of anything as expansive and contemporary as the online community.

Maybe some of you thought as I did today, back to five years ago; where you were, what you were doing, and how you felt when you saw the atrocities of 9/11. I remember I was at my grandmothers house in Houston, Texas and I had just woken up and walked into their living room. I could see faces before I saw anything on t.v. They didn't even have to say that something terrible had happened, I already knew. I remember feeling helpless and like I had to do something at the same time. I even considered joining the military, thinking my hopes of serving the two year mission I had already been called to for my church were over.

Nevertheless, I pressed on... We all did. I did serve a mission. I came home and found a wonderful companion and married her, and now we're expecting our first child! Even though it was a terrible day that none of us will ever forget, I learned that we can still overcome even our darkest days. Here's to the victims, the heroes, and the villains of that day! We Will Never Forget! We Will Never Give Up!