I work out my mind so you can work out your arms!

My mind never stops working. I actually like it this way but sometimes it prevents me from sleeping.....so a long time ago I came up with a nighttime activity that I can do at bedtime to get me to relax so I can go night night.

My ritual starts by me slipping into something comfortable.....clearing my mind......letting my mind drift into a place where I can fantasize on how to innovate the current marketing for industries who I don't think are doing a very good job.

Yes I know that was a long way to travel for a simple masturbation joke.

Anyway I spent some time thinking up ways to re-invent the Sports Club/Fitness Club industry marketing because in my opinion this is an industry that could use some new ideas.

The goal of this post is not to "out" any one company and I am in no way pointing fingers or saying all fitness clubs employ these lazy practices but a bunch do and the perception of this industry is (in my opinion) is largely negative and that is why this was a fun little project for my brain.

To truly make a difference you need to change the way people think of a health club by making it a place people want to join, tell their friends, and hang out long after their work out is finished.

I would do this by changing all the direct mail pieces with the stock photography of frogs and generic people (a common practice with the local clubs in this area) and re work all the collateral to reflect the personalities of each unique club....the direct mail pieces should be targeted to the neighborhoods in and around the clubs and the collateral should reflect this. Make people feel they are hand selected and not a singular piece for the entire chain with multiple locations listed on the materials and drop all the questionable offers of $XX per month for the first 10 people who join only to have people show up and find out it is really three times that amount.

I see the key to making this great is by building a community.

If you create an environment where people look forward to coming and staying at your clubs you will empower the membership to boast about the clubs to the point where they are an extension of the sales team.

This is easy to type and not so easy to pull off but I see doing fun regular events like movie nights , Nintendo Wii Tennis Tournaments, Speed Dating, Surprise Birthday Parties for members on their B-Day and other member oriented events you create a feeling of club and community that will get members talking....and hopefully to non members.

Every marketing plan I dream up has a healthy dose of Guerrilla activity. I love Guerrilla stuff and done well is so over the top effective in getting people talking about your service and company....an example of a guerrilla campaign for a health club would be to have people doing barbell curls on the subway in rush hour...not saying anything or selling anything...just lifting/curling while wearing a club t-shirt.

I have an even better "WOM" idea but I am keeping it for myself since it can be used in a bunch of different ways.

.....and this is where I fell asleep........but to quickly finish the concept idea I think there are opportunities online like a Facebook Exercise Tracker App. and a whole whack of other lead generation tactics so they can dump the "win a free membership" ballot boxes that populate convenience stores all over the city.

Anyway if you are in a position to execute on these ideas I would be happy to share the rest of my ideas.......heck you could even hire me to be a consultant!

I await your call

Saul

Forget Must See TV. Now it is Must Green TV!

Two things I don't post a whole lot about about are:

- TV Show Plots
and
-The Environment

The reasons are simple. Even though I watch more then TV then most folks I rarely watch them on the broadcast day (thanks to Tivo/PVR) so I would just feel silly talking about shows that are a few weeks old..........and I choose not to talk too much about the environment (even though I have in the past) because....well....everyone else is and I don't think I have anything interesting to add to the conversation.

That is until today....and I am combining/complaining about both!

This week NBC launched a GREEN IS UNIVERSAL campaign where for a whole week NBC shows worked a "green" message into every one of their prime time shows and interstitials.

This may have seemed like a great idea in a board room but in execution it left me feeling as if I was being pandered to. Shows like 30 Rock, My Name is Earl, ER, The Office, Life, Chuck, Bionic Woman all have smart writing staffs and I watch and enjoy every one of these shows (yes...even Bionic Woman...and geez I watch a lot of NBC shows) but the Green Messaging in these episodes seemed forced (by the studio and the dialog) because......and I am making a HUGE assumption here.....I imagine this green decision came after the shows where plotted out or even written.

I feel this way since in Bionic Woman (and I am going by memory here) the good guys looked for the bad guys at an environmental fund raiser but instead of just saying in passing that "this is a environmental fund raiser" they instead worked in a full soliloquy about how this fund raiser was helping save this and that they are happy to be looking for the bad guy here. ER was almost as bad because they had a character complain that his carbon footprint increased due to a prank they pulled on him. 30 Rock was funny because they pretty much admitted they were doing this because they had to.

Anyway my point here is this "Don't mess with my TV" or better stated....this seemed crass and commercial. Two things that saving the environment are not supposed to be about. These episodes will seem strange out of context and if you are going to do a promotional tie in like this you don't want it to harm your product in the process.

NBC dropped the ball here and could've achieved the same results they set for their Green is Universal week by not playing with their shows and just had the stars/characters do the PSA's and interstitial in between the episodes. This could have saved them from getting characters to comment on how they are giving up Styrofoam cups only to have them go back to their old ways in future episodes.

Oh Ya....and don't mess with my TV

saul

...an arts and crafts project for you to try

Hi Everyone,

Been tied up with work stuff (something I will be blogging about soon....perhaps later today) so I have not been posting as much as I usually do.

I am busier then ever today so instead of posting about something that isn't going to move you and captivate your imagination (I was going to write about a rumor that DC Comics is going to kill Bruce Wayne and make Robin become Batman) I have decided to wait till tomorrow to fascinate you with my brain power!

BUT WAIT

Just because I have nothing interesting to write about today doesn't mean I am not leaving you with homework.......as you may know I have an unnatural connection with custom sneakers....so much so that I considered starting a small business designing custom AF1's. People always ask me to make them shoes and/or how I do it so I am going to spill the beans.

Here is a step by step guide how to create some cool kicks!

Have fun!

saul

I would like to take "Flying the Friendly Skies" for 1000 Alex

I am a passionate guy with a whole slew of interests.

Some of the things I am most passionate about are movies, books, TV, marketing, and my family but the thing I am most passionate about is customer engagement (and ways to get people to love your brand).

I have spent some time in Airports the last few days and I came to the conclusion that airport waiting areas (or gates) are possibly the most boring place in the world. Sure you can surf the interweb (if you want to pay for it) or watch the muted TV set tuned to Headline News or even survey the people around you and figure out (in your head) who you would have to beat up to prove your domination and leadership should you choose to start a new civilization with only the people in your gate area.

That being said I think these areas are probably the absolute best areas to get people to embrace the brand of whatever airline you are flying on because like people in prison....they can't go anywhere......so sonce they are a captive audience why not provide the customers with a super cool experience so they will feel so good about the airline they will forget that the level of service in the air my not live up to much.

So how should/could they do this?

Each "gate" area should be equipped with ginormous video walls and feature different interactive games and events in different locations or just different gates. Some of the events could be Jeopardy Tournaments with all the travelers playing against each other, or other fun trivia style games that many people can play at once.

Even better then the game show idea (am more profitable for everyone involved) is using these walls to introduce people to MMORPG games and/or just video games in general. This would be sponsored by a game manufacturer like Playstation 3 or even a game like Halo 3 or perhaps something less violent....who knows.

I realize these ideas will require people to have controllers and this is easy to equip the seat with but if this idea takes off then cell phone companies like RIM or Palm Treo can add these controls right to people's cell phones and then "road warriors" can get right in on the fun as soon as they hit the gate area.

.....and my absolute favorite idea using this space is to create a "Real World" game show set in this space and let travelers participate in a real world game of the Family Feud....because people love getting kissed by a Richard Dawson impersonator or whatever other game show who wants to pay the airline companies the opportunity to promote their brand while developing a new fun feeling of engagement for the customers of the airline.

Sure this would smell of commercialism and people would see it for what it is BUT if you give people a solution to boredom and add a sprinkle of fun at the same time I know people would forget they were being advertised to and look at it as an added value of flying with [insert name of forward thinking airline here].

Sure this idea is "out there" but the best ones always are!

-saul

I have been tagged and now I have to share personal things about me!

I am “it”.

I am saying this because I was tagged by by Stephanie Fierman to participate in a b5media’s meme about 7 (G-rated) things you may not know about me (or care)....so here is my list:

1- I love Blaxploitation films like Coffee, Black Belt Jones, and Dolomite
2- I sold my 20,000+ comic book collection because I didn’t want to move them with me into my new house....but I kept my 500+ trade paperbacks.
3- I own 12 suits, 45 shirts and 100+ ties and yet I wear jeans and superhero t-shirts everyday
4- My two favourite fiction authors are Lee Child and Harlan Coben.
5- I fall asleep listening to podcasts
6- If I am home alone for dinner I will usually eat cereal.
7- I usually read two books a week...and by books I mean real books (business or fiction books)

And as a bonus.......#8 – I am the Smartest Man in the World (I bet you saw that coming)


Stolen directly from Stephanie Fierman's site

According to The New York Times, a meme “is an infectious idea or any other thing that spreads by imitation from person to person… the World Wide Web is the perfect Petri dish for memes.” It seems like a 21st century chain letter to me but (a) neither I nor any of my family was threatened with death if I didn’t ‘pass it on,’ so that’s an improvement, and (b) it seems a harmless way to connect with people and to promote websites and blogs not only inside your existing network but to a broader audience, as well. Perhaps memes could be worked into fresh “Refer A Friend” online customer acquisition campaigns.

I tagged email a few folks and told them to participate but I am not going to publicly tag anyone!

Hope you liked my list

-saul

Thoughts on Great Ideas

Ideas Ideas Ideas!

Lets ask David Lynch what he thinks of them!



Thanks to Yves Van Landeghem for finding this!

saul

If I am ever charged with a major crime........

I am counting on you........my loyal readers and friends to get Jake Byrd to come to my press conference.

It would make things more fun!




I had noticed that the content was becoming very serious so I hope you enjoyed this video. I have seen it a bunch of times and it still makes me laugh!

-saul

Shopping stories!

Hey y'all,

So I have been blogging a bit too much about department stores and such recently and I should be able to spill the beans as to why soon but I wanted to share a cool experience I just had in a fancy pants department store that made me think there is hope for one of shopping's great institutions.

I am blogging "live" and direct from an iPHONE in an apple store in beautiful downtown Buffalo and I gotta say real quickly that iPHONEs are the real deal. They are smaller/thinner then I imagined and are a real treat to play with........I would buy one but since I live in Canada and they don't work there I don't have to fight the urge to spend the money.

Anyway my wife and I made the trip south to Buffalo so she could find some work clothes. She exhausted all her options at home and is looking for new trails to blaze. Our first stop was Macy's and two things of note happened (one minor and one major). First thing was I got kicked out of the ladies fitting room because well I am not a lady (even though I am very sensitive). I was in the fitting room because I usually accompany my wife since it make things easier for me to tell her how she looks from the male perspective....and I like to watch her undress and dress etc. Well the sound of a mature male voice in the fitting room caused some of the other ladies to feel......perhaps left out of the fun and complained that I was there.

PLEASE NOTE* I was on a completely closed change room (no curtains) with my wife and no shenanigans were going on. Her and I were talking about her clothing choices and that was it....no lovin' or stuff like that.

SO anyway the cashier lady asked me to step out and I did without making a scene and sat on the "husband" chair outside the fitting room only to be told that if I didn't mind could I wait a little farther away as the lady who complained did not want a confrontation.

Again I did as asked without making a scene since I am "not that guy".

After my wife was done we went to another section to look at different stuff and then we checked out. At the checkout (this is a different employee then the one that asked me to leave the fitting room) the Cashier asked us if we were from Canada (Buffalo is a border city so a big chunk of shoppers could be from either side of the bridge) and did we know about the Macy's International discount.

Ya see Macy's offers an 11% discount to people who can prove they ain't from around these here parts. We gladly accepted the discount and I was very impressed that in two very different incidents (both involving me somehow) that the employees went out of their way to help their customers and offer help and assistance.

This may seem like nothing and them just doing their job but it really proves that when people like their jobs and make an effort they have a positive effect on your experience with their product or service

-saul

Ideas that scare people!

Seth Godin has an interesting post (from a few days ago) about big ideas and how he is happy to share them on his blog because the more you share them the better you get at coming up with more.

I agree whole heartedly with Mr. Godin and while I like to share ideas here I am in no way comparing myself to him (I can here it already......"I know Seth Godin and you sir are NO Seth Godin) but I also know that every time I mention his name here I get extra readers :)

OK OK lets bring this back to being all about me.

About a week ago I blogged about some ideas I had to make Department Stores fun again. One of my ideas was to convert the toy departments in most stores to licensed child care centers that parents could leave their kids in while they shopped and the kids would play with toy (That were also for sale) and that stated that in my not so humble opinion that more merchandise would be purchased because the parents could shop "stress free" and the kids would fall in love with whatever toys they played with and insist the parents buy them something from the toy department.

The whole thing is brilliant so I felt like sharing it other places as well. I went to LinkedIn and posted the idea in the "LinkedIn Answers" section asking people what they thought and the responses surprised me.

People were split 50/50 as to if they liked the idea but the people who were negative on it were not just negative they were angry and objected to this ideas with every ounce of their being and some even went as far as to call me a name or two.....and even more interesting was the fact that some folks (who were the angriest) qualified themselves with the statement that they are not department store shoppers.

This got me thinking about how ideas can be scary to people because the best ideas involve change and change makes some people uncomfortable.....and how change touches people who are not even interested in your product or service. I still stand by my ideas and think they are "gold" but this experience did bring me to an understanding of how people think and how to apply this to people when you are marketing to a mass audience.

-saul

Warner Brothers, Are you out there?

A woman has posted on YOUTUBE an audition tape for her to star in the upcoming Wonder Woman movie. She writes on the You Tube comments this......

I'm a huge Joss Whedon fan, and want to be the "young, unknown" to play the new
Wonder Woman, so I wrote and produced my audition trailer! I hope that if you
watch it you enjoy it and that if anyone can pass the word on to Joss or Joel
Silver, or someone at Warner Brothers that would be wonderful! The story is
basically straight from the comics, featuring Wonder Woman and Artemis, the
Amazon who ends up killing Diana and becomes sort of an "evil" Wonder Woman. I
hope you all enjoy the trailer!

Personally I want to see Cobie Smulders in the role



But here is this girls video and you can decide!



-saul