The big social media takeaway from last weekend’s Republican debate in Iowa was Mitt Romney offering Rick Perry a $10,000 bet on a policy position. But the moment also provides 3 great lessons for marketers. Context is critically important. One of the first lessons we learn is the importance of context – there is a time and place for every message. Anyone caught passing a note to the cute girl in the front row in first grade and facing the embarrassment of having the note read aloud … [Read more...]
A short film I produced to promote the 4-Hour Body book
December 21, 2010 By 4 Comments
I produced short film last week in an effort to create a remarkable marketing campaign for Tim Ferriss' new book launch, The 4-Hour Body. The film stars yours truly. It's a comedy. It's called The Book Signing. Click here to watch the short film. I'm liking this movie marketing thing so much I decided to start another blog, Moviepreneur.com entirely devoted to movie marketing. I'm hoping to carve out my own niche and continue to do really cool films that help promote stuff. … [Read more...]
I helped a homeless man and promoted a book at the same time
December 17, 2010 By 10 Comments
I wanted to help a homeless man get a meal and put some money in his pocket (and a copy of The 4-Hour Body) while helping me promote the book to a very busy Harvard Square bookstore in Cambridge, MA. I’m very proud of this and believe that if replicated all over the country, not only would it generate incredible, positive, buzz about the book; it would bring homeless people into a better light and help & inspire a lot of people. Homeless people in this country are treated unfairly, … [Read more...]
Celtics & Dunkin Donuts – The Rigged Fan Contest – Racism and Discrimination Inside
October 25, 2010 By 6 Comments
So the day started off nice, lots of work on my slate, calls to make, content to put together for my upcoming product launch. Everything is moving nicely and I'm checking items off. As I jot down some things that I want to get done today, I find out about this Celtics/Dunkin Donuts event at my local Dunkin Donuts with Ray Allen. I decide to take the show on the road and get some work done in a different environment. So, I arrive at Dunkin Donuts and I'm hanging out working on some … [Read more...]
Water is selling out, quick, everyone buy it!
October 5, 2010 By 5 Comments
Not too long ago here in Boston there was a "boil order" which meant that we were supposed to boil all our water before we drank it. Something was wrong with the water. This resulted in mass panick and ultimately all of the stores sold out of bottled water in the affected area in a matter of no time. Here's a bit more background information on the situation if you care to check it out. Ok Brian... but how does this apply to marketing and what's the lesson here? This is a very very … [Read more...]
Your content is distracting your users from the ads
October 4, 2010 By 4 Comments
Something interesting happened last night when a friend of mine tried to give away his furniture on Craigslist. Nobody believed him that it was good quality furniture with nothing wrong with it. They all wanted to know why he was giving it away and what was wrong with it. This is called perceived value. If you are giving away something for free people associate a value with it. They perceive it as not worth that much, since you don't even want it. The same thing is true with Internet … [Read more...]
6 Mistakes That Most Companies And Marketers Do, Over And Over Again, part 1
September 21, 2010 By 2 Comments
Sometimes when I consult with clients, I talk to their marketing and sales executives, and in many cases it always amazes me how incompetent people are when it comes to marketing, especially online marketing. Here are 3 (the other three will follow in my next post) of the most common mistakes marketers do, over and over again (sigh). 1. Not knowing your demographic. I could write a book about all the clients I’ve consulted who’ve just put up a website, put a ton of cash into … [Read more...]
$20,000 in one month…when just starting out.
September 7, 2010 By 9 Comments
Does that sound impossible? Not at all, it’s very doable. I was going through some old papers and spreadsheets, when I found a session I did with a guy named Michael that I coached a couple of years ago. He was straight out of college, and needed to make some money, so he paid me to coach him on how to get started. I gotta give it to him, the guy was smart and a fast learner, and most important of all, he was a social person. He knew to dress up for business meetings, and he knew how to … [Read more...]
Contacting impossible to contact people
September 6, 2010 By 1 Comment
I'm back from my Bahamas cruise and completely rejuvenated. I just finished re-reading The 4-Hour Work Week and took away one really awesome piece of advice. I'm just going to paraphrase as to not give too much away. One (of the many) ideas that the book presented was relating to contacting people that were seemingly impossible to contact. The idea is that the average person will just assume that they won't respond. Woah, this makes a lot of sense. And, maybe they would respond if you took … [Read more...]
You Talk The Talk, But Do You Walk The Walk?
August 31, 2010 By Leave a Comment
So this other day I was helping a friend of mine with setting up a couple of business meetings at different locations, so that he could start expanding his business into other areas. This very day, I noticed something that I actually notice very often, especially here in L.A., or on the US West Coast in general, which is that a lot of people talk the talk, but they just don't walk the walk. Now what the heck do I mean? Well, every time I go to an actual physical meeting (which you should do … [Read more...]
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