Hola from South Beach!
I just left the wonderful South Beach Wine and Food Festival. While I try to make it every year, this one I had to make. My dear friend Danny DeVito was having a great party at his new restaurant, DeVito South Beach. He asked me to help him come up with a name while he was designing the place, but after 4 bottles of wine, we settled on the ultra-original DeVito South Beach. He also calls it DSB; I said he should call it Hangover, since thats what I had after the session.
Danny and I have become very close since our days on the set of Get Shorty. Being a North Easterner, he loved the irony of playing the part of a Californian trying to act like he was from Brooklyn. We played a lot of cards and drank of a lot of Limoncello drinks, which he ended up coming out with his own line of Limoncello after that.
Over a great steak dinner at DSB, we were discussing the NCAA March Madness brackets and who was organizing it this year. It reminded me of this great Facebook app that CBS Sportsline just rolled out. You can build your bracket right in the app and post it to your facebook page. It automatically updates with info to show how you are doing. There are also opportunities to compare brackets with friends, along with other social networking features. It also has just the right amount CBS branding to promote their message.
I’m excited to see how this Facebook app works for CBS. Facebook is quickly becoming the messaging platform for 20-30 somethings, with people keeping in touch over their Facebook profiles rather than sending emails back and forth. People personalize their profiles with photos, images and applications that fit their interests.
Marketers are beginning to see the power of Facebook and the need to approach it differently than normal advertising. While few people would put ads for CBS Sportsline on his or her own page, I imagine thousands will add the bracket app and check it regularly throughout the tournament, promoting the Sportsline brand every step of the way.
At the end of the dinner, Danny slid what I thought was the bill over to me. Instead of seeing a price, I saw ‘2008 NCAA Tourney’ handwritten on it. A small price to pay for such a great night!
I just left the wonderful South Beach Wine and Food Festival. While I try to make it every year, this one I had to make. My dear friend Danny DeVito was having a great party at his new restaurant, DeVito South Beach. He asked me to help him come up with a name while he was designing the place, but after 4 bottles of wine, we settled on the ultra-original DeVito South Beach. He also calls it DSB; I said he should call it Hangover, since thats what I had after the session.
Danny and I have become very close since our days on the set of Get Shorty. Being a North Easterner, he loved the irony of playing the part of a Californian trying to act like he was from Brooklyn. We played a lot of cards and drank of a lot of Limoncello drinks, which he ended up coming out with his own line of Limoncello after that.
Over a great steak dinner at DSB, we were discussing the NCAA March Madness brackets and who was organizing it this year. It reminded me of this great Facebook app that CBS Sportsline just rolled out. You can build your bracket right in the app and post it to your facebook page. It automatically updates with info to show how you are doing. There are also opportunities to compare brackets with friends, along with other social networking features. It also has just the right amount CBS branding to promote their message.
I’m excited to see how this Facebook app works for CBS. Facebook is quickly becoming the messaging platform for 20-30 somethings, with people keeping in touch over their Facebook profiles rather than sending emails back and forth. People personalize their profiles with photos, images and applications that fit their interests.
Marketers are beginning to see the power of Facebook and the need to approach it differently than normal advertising. While few people would put ads for CBS Sportsline on his or her own page, I imagine thousands will add the bracket app and check it regularly throughout the tournament, promoting the Sportsline brand every step of the way.
At the end of the dinner, Danny slid what I thought was the bill over to me. Instead of seeing a price, I saw ‘2008 NCAA Tourney’ handwritten on it. A small price to pay for such a great night!
02/13/08: Putting fun back in car buying
The web is perfect for ‘considered purchases’, such as buying a car, getting a loan choosing a college, or finding a russian bride :-)
I was asked to visit my dear old friends at Fiat in Turin, Italy. Few know that Fiat actually owns Ferrari. I was introduced to Fiat while helping my dear friend, the late Enzo Ferrari, negotiate the sale of Ferrari to Fiat. Enzo wanted to make sure that the Ferrari brand would live on with the new owners, and he asked me to help negotiate the terms as they related to marketing.
Fiat wanted to know what was the landscape for car marketing on the web. We are often asked by companies to give them a ‘lay of the land’ to understand what it will take to offer a best in class web solution. Here are two great sites that I shared with them.
Problem Playground - Honda-UK This is a cool site that promotes all that is Honda and their efforts to produce hybrids and zero emissions cars cars. While having a very ‘Ben and Jerry’ earthy and fun feel, the site lets people explore the cars and Honda’s advances. Despite being plenty of fun, the site drives to request a brochure or schedule a test drive. I’m definitely interested in the FCX, their Fuel Cell car!
Mazda took a different approach to sell their cars. Their site: ‘The Drive’ attempts to sell the emotion of driving their Miata and RX-8 through video. You get to pick the car and select from fun locations like the Pacific Coast Highway. The site then puts together a video that puts you in the drivers seat while cruising on these fun roads. You can pick the music on the radio and see it from different angles. It encourages you to turn on a desk fan to simulate that ‘wind in your hair’ feeling.
After a great meeting, Fiat’s CEO, Sergio Marchionne, let me drive his car to lunch. The car was Ferrari’s new 430 Scuderia. After ten minutes on some great country roads, I fell in love. After he shared with me the $500,000 price tag, I handed him back the keys.
I was asked to visit my dear old friends at Fiat in Turin, Italy. Few know that Fiat actually owns Ferrari. I was introduced to Fiat while helping my dear friend, the late Enzo Ferrari, negotiate the sale of Ferrari to Fiat. Enzo wanted to make sure that the Ferrari brand would live on with the new owners, and he asked me to help negotiate the terms as they related to marketing.
Fiat wanted to know what was the landscape for car marketing on the web. We are often asked by companies to give them a ‘lay of the land’ to understand what it will take to offer a best in class web solution. Here are two great sites that I shared with them.
Mazda took a different approach to sell their cars. Their site: ‘The Drive’ attempts to sell the emotion of driving their Miata and RX-8 through video. You get to pick the car and select from fun locations like the Pacific Coast Highway. The site then puts together a video that puts you in the drivers seat while cruising on these fun roads. You can pick the music on the radio and see it from different angles. It encourages you to turn on a desk fan to simulate that ‘wind in your hair’ feeling.
After a great meeting, Fiat’s CEO, Sergio Marchionne, let me drive his car to lunch. The car was Ferrari’s new 430 Scuderia. After ten minutes on some great country roads, I fell in love. After he shared with me the $500,000 price tag, I handed him back the keys.
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