I wish Bloggers and PR people would just have dirty sex already!

OK, so here is a true story about something that happened to me last week. I happen to be minding my own business in a hospital and I wandered in to the emergency room where I saw a doctor preforming a procedure. This was a bloody mess of a thing and right in the middle I noticed that the Doctor forgot to clamp off an artery that resulted the patient to start to bleed. I brought this to the attention of the Doctor and patted myself on the back for sticking with ER even after George Clooney left only to find that the Doctor didn't appreciate me telling him how to do his job. He went on and on about how I didn't go to medical school and that he knows how to fix people and am an amature who is just pretending to do the job of people who go to school for a long time and usually work their way to a place of authority.

This really stuck with me. Mostly because the patient bled to death and I watched but also because most of the same feelings I had in the ER were revisited over this weekend reading blog post after blog post about bloggers telling PR folks how to do their jobs and how they shouldn't bother bloggers with Press Releases and not to pitch them this way or that way.

Yes, I am a blogger and Yes because I am listed in the AD AGE Power 150 list I get a lot of attention from PR folks but (and I think I am in the minority) I like the attention and have been offered some cool invitations and even given a product or two for free. This by no means is why I started blogging but it is a perk I enjoy and hope it continues.

Maybe I just don't take myself seriously enough and don't think of myself as a journalist but I can't bring myself to complain about people showing me a little love....sure I get plenty of Press Releases but at the same time I also get plenty of letters from the widows of dead royalty and you don't see me complaining about wealthy widows wanting to give me money....OK I did twitter about it once but I treat those emails the same I treat any email I get that I am not interested in.....I delete them.

Yep, you read that correctly. If someone sends me an email I am not interested in I delete it...not email them back and try to teach them anything and I don't run and blog about it. I just delete it.

Weird Huh?

Sure I read everything that comes because I respect that these people have a job to do and while not every offer I receive is a sexy one I don't and would never belittle them and disrespect them. I love PR (big shout out to LexPR, HighRoad and 5W PR) people and have had a crush on at least one person in every PR team I have ever worked with. That being typed I think most bloggers (of elevated status) only want the cool stuff. You never hear people blogging about "Oh Geeze. I was just offered a super cool camera to use for 6 months and report if I liked it....when will this torture end" it is usually about not cool opportunities.

I can only speak for myself but I wish I could get more free stuff. I am not ashamed to say it makes me feel like a big shot and I think others agree. But it seems to me that some bloggers only want the cool stuff and not the lame stuff.

I say you have to take the good and take the bad. You take them both and there you have the facts of like....ohhh the facts of life.

Oh and by the way....if you are a PR person reading this I wouldn't mind:
Free Nikes, a Wii, a fancy watch, calf implants, a new car, a sexy nanny and robot...make that a sexy robot!

...and if you were wondering, I might have exaggerated the Hospital story.

The person didn't die and we are now BFF's

...and speaking of conferences I am attending

I will be heading out to New York tomorrow for a jam packed schedule of meetings/parties and conferences. The list of all the things I will be doing is too long to list but one thing I think that is super cool (and worth talking about here on the ole blog) is that I am ending my week by attending Blogger Social.

Myself and more than 80 of the smartest/sexiest bloggers in the entire world are coming together in NYC to get to know each other, drink a little drink and maybe just maybe solve the world’s problems!

I am planning on twittering a whole bunch from the “road” and may dive into the blog a bit but I will be collecting a slew of stories and will probably bombard you with a story or two a day once I get back...Oh ya and if you are wondering who I will be hanging out with you can check out this nifty directory or follow any of the links below to see their sites!

Susan Bird Tim Brunelle Katie Chatfield Matt Dickman Luc Debaisieux Gianandrea Facchini Mark Goren Gavin Heaton Sean Howard CK Valeria Maltoni Drew McLellan Doug Meacham Marilyn Pratt Steve Roesler Greg Verdino CB Whittemore Steve Woodruff Paul McEnany Ann Handley David Reich Tangerine Toad Kristin Gorski Mack Collier David Armano Ryan Barrett Lori Magno Tim McHale Gene DeWitt Mario Vellandi Arun Rajagopal Joseph Jaffe Rohit Bhargava Anna Farmery Marianne Richmond Thomas Clifford Lewis Green Geoff Livingston Kris Hoet Connie Reece CeCe Lee Toby Bloomberg Seni Thomas Darryl Ohrt Joe Kutchera Paul Dunay Marshall Sponder Chris Kieff Tara Anderson Jason Falls Paul Soldera Roberta Rosenberg Saul Colt Todd Andrlik Nathan Snell Ryan Karpeles Mike Sansone Jennifer Laycock Neil Vineberg Cam Beck Mike Arauz Matthew Bailey Heather Gorringe John Rosen Cathleen Rittereiser Tamar Weinberg Rita Perea Linda Sherman Matthew McDonald Kaitlyn Wilkins Terry Starbucker
Jennifer Berk Jane Quigley John Wall Scott Monty Kevin Horne Virginia Miracle Amanda Gravel Susan Reynolds David Polinchock Shashi Bellamkonda David Berkowitz Vahe Habeshian

Yes, It is a very impressive list and I am honored to be included on it..I just hope everyone likes what i have included in the conference freebie bag :)

The movie going "experience" is coming to a theatre near you!

I am a few days late on this announcement but surprisingly I didn't see much pickup on it so I am going to blog about this now as if it was two days ago.......so here goes.

Any regular reader of this bloggie blog know that I love movies. I used to think I would only be happy working for a fancy pants movie studio (even though I am very happy doing what I am doing now)and because of my passion for this stuff I follow the industry news reasonably closely.

Well today (remember I said we are pretending) I came across an announcement that Cineplex Entertainment (the largest movie theater chain in Canada) is moving forward to revolutionize the movie going experience .

According to their press release "Cineplex will unveil some impressive out-of-home entertainment extras. The new amenities and services at the 12-screen, 45,000-square-foot movie complex include bowling, billiards, babysitting and VIP auditoriums.

The chain's aim is nothing short of "revolutionizing the entertainment landscape in Canada," says Cineplex president/CEO Ellis Jacob. "This is a true entertainment complex like no other, with something for guests of all ages to enjoy. It is the next generation in theater entertainment, with many new amenities and services all under one roof."

Taking this on face value I think this is a cool idea and it is something I suggested a while back but I wonder if this will work the way they are counting on it to.

I say this because as someone who loves movies I actually have absolutely no complaints about the movie going experience. If I had my way I would only see films in the theater and only watch films at home that are not available any where else.......so why am I skeptical about this announcement?

Because going to the movies is about spending a lot of money. This is not just a perception but a reality. Concessions are out of hand and a single ticket is actually less then getting a hot dog and a large drink. In my humble opinion I think movie chains would benefit a great deal from making films and concessions more reasonable instead of offering us more ridiculously overpriced forms of food and entertainment.

So you are probably asking yourself how I know that these new options will be over priced and the answer is..............I don't! But my perception (and this is their brand because all good marketers know that your company brand isn't what you think it is but rather what others think it is) is that all stuff by this chain is over priced and expensive.

Anyway here is the full list of all the new stuff going into the theater

• The Backlot family entertainment centre has six lanes of bowling, a licensed lounge with appetizer menu offerings, two party rooms and a games room with the latest interactive video games and billiards;

• VIP Experience (for ages 19 and up only) with three auditoriums featuring reserved seating, in-seat service and a licensed lounge with appetizer menu offerings, private box office, concession stand and premium seats;

• Cineplex Kids Club child-minding services staffed by the YMCA of Oakville for parents and caregivers while they watch movies;

• Canada's largest digital cinema system with nine cutting-edge projectors delivering razor-sharp images;

• FastLane Service allowing guests to order food and beverages at an automated kiosk and then proceed to the FastLane counter to pick them up;

• XTRAS - a retail store offering DVDs, CDs, books, magazines and movie collectibles including posters, action figures and T-shirts. (again I need to pat myself on the back because I thought of this along time ago)

.....and even with all my ranting I will probably go check it out at least once......cause deep down in side I am a bit of a sucker who loves movies.

-saul

Creating Demand for a product by telling kids to stay in school!

Mr. T is a smart guy. Not only did he know that school is important (cause he kept telling me) but he also new that there is no room for jibba jabba in a conversation.

So why is Mr. T making me think about demand generation?

Honestly?

He isn't but like the late Lou Rawls, It is better to have Mr. T and not need him then not have Mr. T and need him.

Anyway, now that I have that out of my system I can talk about what this post is really about.......product demand.

What happens if you have the absolute best product on the shelves and no one cares?

Wanna know?

The answer is not much....not much sales...not much profit and not much interest.

So how do you create demand?

Well there are bunches of good ways that have worked time and time again but that is not what this post is about........this post is about an idea I had on how to create demand a brand new way!

Parents all around the world use incentives to get their kids to co-operate and "listen". I know this because I am one of them.....and it got me thinking if this could be "productized" and I think it can.

So here is my idea on how to create demand for a teen/tween oriented middle to high end consumer item......make it a school based incentive. Think about this. What if there was a cell phone or ipod/mp3 player that could only be purchased after you meet a school related goal (Attendance or Grades etc). Students would be exposed to your messaging all year or for an extended time creating more then demand but desire! In simple terms you are letting the school market your product directly to the target market the same way they would a school trip and at the same time this strategy is guaranteed to get major media attention. Your company will be thought of as a community builder since you will be rewarding students for their hard work and while the “exclusive” product will not be available to the general public your other products will!

Sure some people will object to this and see this as crass commercialism but if you could work out a beneficial partnership where the school benefits with something (books/uniforms/trips/whatever a school needs) you could create a slow buzz for a product while also giving an exclusive “coolness” to something that would otherwise just be another product in a category.

Sure there is risk to this but I see this as a calculated risk with a HUGE reward.....kinda like casing a leprechaun.....or a guy who wear 30 lbs of gold around his neck!

-saul