Tafuro Communications

I was forwarded the NFL Fantasy Files “Pick Me” promotion which depicts some players preforming seemingly impossible drills.

After watching this I initially thought real, just well rehearsed; then switched to thinking fakes.

Unlike most “faked” videos that have gone viral, I cannot find any conclusive confirmation. Typically there is an article somewhere like Adweek or Ad Age that credit some agency for the creation.

Any references I find are very vague and seem to lean create your own opinion… which has led me to a final opinion (for now).

I think that the individual acts themselves are real, however I do not think that any one drill was performed without cuts and with out some creative post production editing.

That said, because the promotion is for Fantasy Football and named “Fantasy Files” the players, NFL and talented production company do not have a need to “come clean” on this one as the very nature of what they are promoting doesn’t warrant it.

I don’t make it to downtown St Pete often for a night out unless I coordinate with a friend close by for a place to crash because driving is out of the question and a cab to pricey.

However when I do make one of the stops is typically the Independent.

So I was excited when I read today on the St Pete Times website that the owners are trying to open a Tampa location in Seminole Heights.

“We have wanted to expand to Tampa and noticed that the neighborhood didn’t really have a neighborhood spot with good beers. We heard through the grapevine that that was something on the top of people’s lists.”
The City of Tampa is supposed to decide on a zoning request which successful and the purchase goes through the Independent aims to open by late summer.

Three Seminole Heights neighborhood groups support the application with restricted closing hours which should make the passage of this pretty simple.

UPDATE  1/28/09

Owners of a proposed German-style deli and tavern won initial approval from the city council Thursday to sell beer and wine. A final vote is scheduled Feb. 5.

I am really looking forward to this as a nice Seminole Heights pub is the prefect middle ground for me in Forest Hills to meet up with friends from Tampa Heights and/or South Tampa.

I somewhat wish the hours would be expanded at least till 2 a.m. on Friday and Saturday. A beer and wine pub with food is much different then a MacDinton’s type establishment and SoHo free-for-all that these restricted hours are likely a response to.

This week Adweek examined the strategy of national companies that are using well connected bloggers to help create content and buzz surrounding their brands.

The article, Brands Tap Web Elite for Advertorial 2.0 provided insight on how national companies have learned from mistakes of the past when blogging was brand new and are now using the medium to successfully share consumer experiences with new potential customers.

Earlier attempts have backfired on companies and the bloggers who wrote about them due to the content not being considered genuine and in many cases the content and message itself being driven too directly by the brand that was being discussed.

According to Greg Verdino, chief strategy officer at Crayon:

“There’s not a direct quid pro quo,” said Verdino, who also blogged and Twittered about CES for Panasonic. “When you give people equipment and they love it, just like any other consumer they’ll evangelize it. We’re not looking for them to hit message points and in effect shill.”

This strategy and respect for disclosure by giving editorial freedom to the blogger has made given the practice a transparency is a wide departure from the past.

[Social media marketing company] Izea has a controversial past. It started its life as PayPerPost with the idea that advertisers would pay bloggers to write about their products. Its early iterations did not require disclosure by bloggers, which made the company a black sheep for many.

Using national strategies locally

These same strategies can successfully be used on a local level to help small businesses. The current economic climate has caused many small businesses like retailers and restaurants to be tempted to cut back on marketing.

Declining distribution of print publications and newspapers, high cost of television advertising and the clutter of competition for radio listeners have all combined to make traditional mass media a difficult prospect to afford and justify for small businesses.

Given the difficulty small independent business owners have of deciding how to spend marketing dollars; many wind up relying on word of mouth and saving advertising budgets to help cash flow.

Capitalizing on word of mouth

Most anyone will agree that word of mouth is one of the strongest forms of marketing, however that can be followed with a statement that if you don’t advertise, no one will find you to start talking about you in the first place.

Utilizing blogs, email, social networks and a solid customer loyalty incentive can accomplish both sides of this task.

Implementing this kind of marketing is very inexpensive with the key to success remaining solidly in the hands of the business owner.

• Properly implement the appropriate online marketing tools
• Create a loyalty program of genuine value customers
• Train and incentivize your staff to exceed customer expectations

The technical implementation is the simplest part of the equation and least expensive part of the equation. It is certainly the latter two that are much more difficult to carry out.

Why now?

In a down market there a few things that make this a perfect time to make this your focus.

• The tools are inexpensive
• Customers are more likely to report a bad experience or perceived value
• Loyalty increases when people go out less because they want to increase the chances of a good experience.

It is said that customers will tell 10 friends about a bad experience and a good one far less.

Why not make it easier for them to tell the good stories?

A St Pete Times article last week illustrated the unforeseen consequences of a federal law going into effect next month.

The law, which would affect manufacturers, retailers, consignment stores and thrift shops around the country, was supposed to thwart the influx of lead-laced children’s toys from China. In 2007, more than 6-million toys were recalled because of lead.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission tentatively approved some exemptions.

But for now, the agency’s stance is that after Feb. 10, all items designed for children 12 and younger must have proof that they were tested for lead.

According to the article the cost of testing can range from under $100 to thousands.

The article details a number of items, stores and individuals that may, or may not be affected by the law.

• Will garage sales be affected?
• Will hand made ring bearer pillows need to be tested?
• Will the law be enforced?

This looks like a great idea that may go severely wrong if not corrected.

“I think it’s important to understand that the Consumer Product Safety Commission is a small agency and the first place we would go would not be the neighborhood yard sale,” said Vallese, the CPSC spokesperson. “But this is not a law that retailers and manufacturers should roll the dice on in the off chance they might not get caught. They have an obligation and responsibility to meet the law.”

The above statement should scare smaller retailers because they may be targeted first to to give large retailers time to comply before being tested and fined.

The CPSC could rationalize that used toys hold the most potential for contaimantion and require the quickest focus.

Target the source

The manufacture and country of origin can usually be identified on the toy itself in most cases (typically etched in hard plastic). So why not allow the retailers to get verification from the manufacture in an effort to better track what groups of toys may be tainted and more importantly which counties are supplying them.

Manufactures are ultimately responsible for having provided production contracts to factories without following up on quality of work and should be responsible for the testing and fines.

The CPSC should help small retailers organize testing and send the bill to manufactures.

In the same way the nation’s Superfund sites are the responsibility of identified sources of contamination so should our children’s toys.

Little more than a week after announcing they will raise ticket prices to Busch Gardens and SeaWorld, Belgian beer brewer AB InBev has announced it will trash a 50-year old theme park tradition by no longer offering two free beers to park visitors.

The move, done to enhance the parks’ appeal for patrons of all ages, ends a tradition that dates back to 1959 and Busch Gardens’ origin as a small bird garden that offered tours of an adjacent A-B brewery.

According to Advertising Age the Belgian brewer plans to run five minutes of advertising during Super Bowl XLIII on February 1, 2009.

Advertising time during this year’s Super Bowl is reportedly being sold at a rate of $3 million for a single 30-second spot.

Assuming the Belgian brewer has a cost of $ .40 for each free beer given out, one 30 second Bud Light spot would allow them to hand out two free beers to 3.75 million visitors or roughly 85% of all visitors to Busch Gardens in 2007.

The entire $30 million Super Bowl advertising buy would supply a whopping 75 million free beers.