Last night, I went to Game 3 of the NBA Finals here in Los Angeles (Go Celtics!).  I took the Metro, as usual, and got off at the 7th Street stop, which is only a few blocks away from Staples, which is at 11th Street.  During the walk, we joined a crowd that was walking from one of the independently-run parking lots, still a few blocks away from Staples.  Right outside this particular parking lot were women dressed in bright magenta outfits handing something out.   I thought to myself “Yay, free goodies!”

What they handed out was a tidy bundle containing a black t-shirt and a black cap with the “NBA Finals 2008″ logo on them.  On the back was the T-Mobile logo.  Ahh, I thought.  That explains the magenta.

I was really impressed.  I’m a sucker for packaging, and the bundle was very nicely rolled and held together with a thick magenta rubber band with T-Mobile on it.  A lot of people grabbed them up as we walked the few blocks towards Staples.

After standing in line for a good while, I got to the security checkpoint and was told I could not bring the bundle inside.  WHAT?  I could bring it back to my car, they said.  WHAT?  I don’t have a car, I said.  My only option was to relinquish the bundle.  I saw many others faced with the same option, and after the long wait in line and the parking lot a good walk away, most followed suit and gave the bundle up to security.

And the reason why?

“T-Mobile”

Not being the official wireless sponsor of Game 3 (I believe Verizon was), the powers that be weren’t going to have a crowd filled with T-Mobile logos.  And can you blame them?

What I don’t understand is how T-Mobile failed to factor this outcome into their marketing plan.  A lot of time, money, and effort went into making those t-shirts and caps, and most of them ended up being thrown away (unless security had other plans for them).  A little research would have saved a lot of expense.  Handing the bundles out AFTER the game would have been a much better idea.

Maybe T-Mobile (well, the marketing agency)  thought they could pull a fast one and get free advertising time during the NBA Finals.

Looks like they were wrong.

Does anyone buy anything now without conducting an online search for reviews? I know many of us compare prices and look for the best deals, but what reviews, rating, and photo galleries. You can even find series of “unboxing” pictures as an excited consumer documents taking the product out of its box. Perhaps I’m a bit obsessive, especially when it comes to higher-end stuff, but I go pretty crazy reading as much as I can about the product before I finally buy it.

The point of all this is that I just purchased a new cell phone. It was pretty expensive for me since I’m still under contract and couldn’t get a deal on the price. I shopped around, and with rebates and contract extensions, it was still the best value getting it directly from my provider.

I chose the T-Mobile Dash for its wi-fi capabilities (I don’t want to subscribe to a data plan) and for its QWERTY keyboard. I was a bit reluctant to go for it because it didn’t look very “cool” in pictures online, but a few bloggers commented about how pictures don’t do it justice. What sealed the deal for me is that there are countless blogs, forums, and comments on the web from Dash owners who absolutely love their phone. One even used the term “adore.” There’s almost a fanatical following about it. That’s the best kind of marketing you can get: world of mouth. It can, quite often, make or break the success of a product (or movie, previous blog entry in point).

I really do like the T-Mobile Dash. I’ve been playing with it a lot, changing the color schemes, adding plugins, installing and removing applications—basically making it my own. The main thing I want to mention, and I haven’t seen this brought up on many sites, is that the T-Mobile Dash works with my Yahoo! Music Unlimited To Go subscription. Even though it’s not on their list of compatible devices, it works perfectly. This has made me very happy about my purchase, and considering the number of Dash users out there, Yahoo could benefit from updating their list.

*Note: The Yahoo! Music Unlimited To Go service is no longer being offered and I don’t know if it will work with their regular Yahoo! Music Unlimited service. I subscribed shortly before they stopped accepted new accounts for my Sansa Connect.

Looks like the Speed Racer movie crashed at the box office this weekend. It brought in only $20.1 million, quite bad for a movie with a rumored cost of $160 million. It’s not for lack of advertising (see previous posts), but really, the movie just does not look interesting.

I remember seeing the trailer for it in theaters. I think it was shown before There Will Be Blood, but I could be wrong. What I do remember was being quite bored watching the trailer. It was a bunch of colors and lines, swooshes and swirls, but there was nothing at all appealing about the stories or characters. All style, no substance. I was with a friend who felt the same, and days later it came up in conversation (as movies usually tend to do with me) and I learned that a few other people felt the exact same way. They couldn’t pinpoint it, but they had all seen the trailer and some commercials and it did nothing for them. I thought it was just me: I’m not big on racing movies, but my friends who are don’t seem to be excited for this one.

It’s too bad. The Matrix is one of my favorite movies of all time. This seems like such a departure for the Wachowski brothers, and not a good one.

Woot, an online retailer, has a deceptively simple business model: One Day, One Deal(sm). For those of you unfamiliar, every night at 12 AM CDT, a new product is put up for sale on Woot. It’s quite often technology related, though not always, and 99% of the time, it’s at a price you won’t find anywhere else.

The product is left up for sale with only $5 shipping (yes, even for 52? HDTV’s) until they sell out or until 12 AM the following day. Woot has developed quite a following: tens of thousands of devoted Wooters check in every night like clockwork to see the new product up for sale, or to try their luck against the coveted Bag of Crap. More on that later.

At the moment I’m writing this, Woot is in its second day of the Woot-Off. Whoever thought of the Woot-Off is a marketing genius. Instead of the standard one product a day, a limited number of a product is put up for sale to be immediately replaced by another product once it sells out. Flashing yellow lights and a progress bar indicates how much of the current product is left. It make take a few seconds for a particular product to sell out, or even a few hours, but the fact is, it always sells out. Many Wooters are glued to their computer screen, constantly hitting the refresh button, and buying products just to see the next item up for sale. It’s impulse buying at its best, and another perfect example of this occurs whenever Woot puts up the Bag of Crap (which may sometimes show up during a Woot-Off).

The Bag of Crap, or Random Crap, is the hottest item on Woot. It’s not up for sale very often, maybe less than a dozen times a year, but it sells out within seconds. Woot’s web servers are flooded with tens of thousands of people trying to make an order at the same time or repeatedly hitting the refresh button at 12 AM to see if the Bag of Crap is the new item up for sale. People get angry, excited, murderous—and for what? Well, as Woot describes it, it’s crap.

The Bag of Crap is a grab bag of what Woot calls Random Crap. It’s actually the Random Crap that’s up for sale. It’s $1 per crap with a max quantity of 3 craps. With the standard $5 shipping, you’re paying $8 for the Bag of Crap (woe to those who forget to change the quantity to the max of 3). The BOC is a very clever way of simply clearing out their warehouse. And what can one expect to get in this highly-desired Bag of Crap?

Broken pens
Plastic keychains
Wooden rubber-band shooting guns
Balloons
Thermometer
Christmas sweater
Water gun
Product manuals
Setup CDs

That’s just a tiny list of the many different items people have received in their Bag of Crap. Doesn’t sound very exciting, does it? Well, occasionally Woot has been known to throw in items that are a bit more practical, like say, a 52? HDTV, a PS3, Nintendo Wii, Roomba, iPod, and more. Now do you see what the fuss is all about? Despite the odds of receiving one of these high-end items being slim to none, to many it’s worth the $8 for the chance. But it’s more than that though. It’s also the excitement, anticipation, and fun of getting in on an impossible-to-get-in-on purchase. It’s a hunt for an unknown treasure—most of the value is in the hunt itself.

As a Wooter since 2005, it never ceases to amaze me how extremely well Woot does. I have more self-control and practicality than the average person, yet more often than not, at 10 PM PDT, I get the impulse to buy just because it’s something new, it’s there, it’s going to sell out, and it’s a great price. Prior to that night, it’s nothing I ever thought about buying. I don’t need it. But I want it. Fortunately, I usually succeed in talking myself out of it, but every night thousands of people do not.

Great job, Woot.

We’re working on creating a couple new pages at work based on my suggestions. I feel strongly that, in many cases, visuals work a lot better than copy (and yeah, I’m the copywriter). In our industry, not many people easily grasp what it is they’re buying. They know it’s something they need, but without an understanding of the product, they have a tough time closing the deal and, as our stats show, spend a lot of time going back and forth.

I’m excited about this new project. Knowledge is power, and people feel more inclined to buy if they feel secure about having all the facts. Our visual explanation of what our customers will be getting will give them the confidence they need to complete their purchase. More details and links soon.

So apparently I’m not the only one that finds the Speed Racer ad amazing. I get to see it every morning on my way to work; it mesmerizes me each time. I feel like a little kid enthralled by shiny objects, but being a fan of technology, can you blame me for being thrilled by seeing something so futuristic looking?

Anyway, I found a YouTube video that someone took of it. It doesn’t do it justice:

Side note: To my friends who follow my ramblings here via this blog, I have moved my personal ramblings to Twitter and will focus more on work-related and marketing topics here.

I take the subway system here in Los Angeles, known as the Metro, nearly everyday. This come as a surprise to many. L.A. is known for its traffic and love of driving, and it’s true that many will drive a distance that is easily (and in my opinion, enjoyably) walkable. I have met people who have lived here for years and didn’t even know that Los Angeles has a subway system.

It does have its shortcomings; I wish it would run later and span out to the Westside. Fortunately, it has suited my needs for the past 8 years and counting. I really admire the artistic and architectural elements put into each subway station which gives each of them their own unique layout and style.

Within the past year, I have noticed advertisements showing up for the first time in select stations. Normally, I would be irritated by commercial ads showing up where before there were none, but to my surprise, I actually like these campaigns. They are well-done, stylized, station-wide advertisements. Currently, at the Universal City station stop, there are large, mural-like ads plastered throughout the station to promote the upcoming Indiana Jones movie. A few weeks before, we had great line drawings promoting the L.A. Marathon. The ads are often very big and designed to fit the space they’re in, be it a wide wall, narrow column, or a section of the floor. They look great and I’m glad the Metro chose to go with something so tasteful.

Yesterday morning, Tuesday May 6th, I was surprised by a new kind of ad. Maybe “shocked” is a more appropriate description considering the reaction of some of my fellow riders.

I was riding the Red Line towards North Hollywood as I do every morning for work. I have a habit of standing near the exit, staring out into the blackness of the dimly lit tunnels through the glass (or is it plastic?) doors and windows. There’s nothing to see; it’s dark and I tend to just drift off staring at my own reflection.

Until yesterday, that is. All of a sudden the bleak monotony was broken by blocks of bright, colorful lights. Having seen the same emptiness nearly every day for years, it took me a moment to realize what was going on, and once I did, I was quite astounded.

Right before arriving at the Universal station, the dark walls are lined with a series of very bright LCD screens. Each screen displays an image slightly different than its predecessor, and as the train speeds by, we’re captivated by an electronic flipbook effect. Everyone in my train car turned to look. A tired-looking drunk standing in the middle looked like he had just seen a ghost and searched futilely for a safe place to retreat.

To say that I’m impressed is an understatement. This innovative form of advertising accomplished exactly what all ads should do: capture the attention of its audience. It also spread its message beyond that audience because I went to work and shared my experience with my coworkers. I’m writing about it now.

Though it hasn’t changed my opinion about the item being advertised (the Speed Racer movie doesn’t look very appealing to me), it may get others to check it out now that they’ll associate it with something with such a high “cool” factor. Whoever is in charge of the advertisements in the Metro system is doing a great job, and I can’t wait to see what else they come up with.

If you’re in the L.A. area, I seriously recommend checking it out. Metro fare is only $1.25 each way, or $5 for a day pass. Check them out at www.metro.net.