Blonde Productions Group

Coohill’s restaurant is about to open the doors to Lodo’s newest French fare bar and eatery at 1400 Wewatta Street. The chandelier of grape vines from Napa has been installed, holiday parties have already been booked, the slick new site www.coohills.com designed by our sister company, Unleaded Group has launched and all that’s left is to create a buzz by opening day. Blonde Productions Group provides hands-on marketing services to meet each of our clients’ individual needs. Creative services simply cannot be cookie cutter because the status quo efforts won’t catch anyone’s attention. So we came up with this window design to alert the foot traffic of the hot spot to-be. We chose the tag line, “Get your fete on!” (”Fete” meaning “party” en Francais) because Coohill’s offers all the flavor of French-inspired cuisine without any of the stuffy stereotype. The local ingredients and the sustainable style paired with the fun atmosphere keep it very Colorado.  We included a qr code aimed to the Coohill’s Facebook page so passersby could snap a quick photo of it and instantly become a Facebook fan in order to stay updated on Coohill’s news and sneak a peek at the menu. Now that’s marketing at the technology tempo.

See you at the opening on November 9th, 2011!

Contact Nancy Clark at 720-221-7126 x 205 or Nancy@blondeproductionsgroup.com for fresh marketing ideas.

When Unleaded Software released its Kindle book on Amazon entitled “NONSTOP: Uncommonly Good Advice About Taking The Internet To New Levels,” we hoped to influence a global SEO Internet audience. We never seriously expected that our audience of promoters would extend to New Dehli (as in NOT pastrami), but today we learned that our online resource book is being promoted by the Indian experts on internet SEO.

Thus, while we stand proudly behind our American roots and we are loyal to protecting jobs and careers keeping all of our productivity inside the U.S.A., we’re getting global props. And frankly, nothing feels, well, more deserved.

Our only outstanding question: how much is $6.95 in rupees?

For SEO that ranks, contact ryan@unleadedgroup.com.

To purchase “NONSTOP,” go to: http://www.amazon.com/Nonstop-Uncommonly-advice-Internet-ebook/dp/B002RL9KWY%3FSubscriptionId%3DAKIAJZO3MQ7Q5AC567OA%26tag%3Dsoftishop-20%26linkCode%3Dxm2%26camp%3D2025%26creative%3D165953%26creativeASIN%3DB002RL9KWY

If you thought the government was muscling in on your health care and taxes, you can now add a third item to the list: blogging. In its infinite wisdom, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission issued updated guidelines-the first since 1980-to its Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.

Beginning Dec. 1, bloggers or other word-of-mouth marketers must disclose their material connections to advertisers-material connections meaning payment or free products. Cash or in-kind payment to review a product is considered an endorsement.

Violations can result in a lawsuit or other action.

How the FTC will monitor blogs is yet undefined. Think government bailout: the big banks got money without appropriate restrictions on how to spend it, so ever more egregious actions resulted.

Do you think the FTC will do any better managing the universe of cyberspace than FEMA did Hurricane Katrina?

I’m speechless. And that’s not a paid position.

If you’ve got a message to communicate, contact us at 720-221-7126. Yes, you WILL pay us; yes we will blog our truth; yes, it works.

Is the language of Twitter so brief it’s dangerous?

Best known as the author of “The Elements of Style,” William Strunk Jr. was famous for urging writers to cut out the excess. He hadn’t met Twitter yet.

Last week, two US Governors, Sarah Palin and Arnold Schwarzenegger, came under fire for shortening their Twitter messages to a point that they were less than clear. And everyone knows how clearly politicians address their constituency, ahem.

Yahoonews.com reported that Palin’s abbreviated Tweet went like this:

Re inaccurate story floating re:ethics violation/Legal Defense Fund;matter is still pending;new info was just requested even;no final report.

Schwarzenegger accompanied his Tweet with a video of him holding a knife big enough to fend off a polar bear (oops, wrong Guv.) Even his press secretary couldn’t explain why.

Tweet limits the writer’s commentary to 140 characters. That leaves little room to elaborate or even explain.

While the brevity might have impressed Strunk at first, it’s certain that the Master of Succinctness would have blanched at the resulting confusion. After all, writing well is a means of communicating, not obfuscating.

Even bloggers at the Christian Science Monitor poked fun at the politicos by compiling examples of political tweets in a post entitled, “Politicians using Twitter: Morons or visionaries?”

At Blonde Productions Group, a member of the Unleaded Group, we urge our clients to Twitter thoughtfully. Too much too often is annoying to followers. Deploy your tweets sparingly and save the planet.

Book sales are off; Kindle is up. Amazon, the godfather of the Kindle e-reader, reports that 35% of its book sales are now books read on Kindle. Across the board, there’s been a 150% rise in electronic book sales in 2009 compared to the same period in 2008. And there’s been a 4% decline in sales of printed books on paper.

What started out as an indie notion has been widely adopted. Seemingly overnight (Kindle is two years old, but most of the world didn’t begin to recognize it by name until late 2008 and early 2009), clicks are the new currency of reading.

This new form of New Media Gloss is here to stay. Cultivating green reading; sparing forests.
Be sure to read Unleaded Group’s new kindle release “Nonstop-Uncommonly Good Advice About Taking The Internet To New Levels. Only $6.95.

London’s Court of Appeals determined May 20 that Pringles are a food group, not just a snack, meaning that the chip is taxable at 15%, according to a report filed by msnbc.com. Across the pond, potato chips are subject to the tax while most foods are not.

The judges’ ruling was based on content value. A lot like the value between a good Internet site and one that’s lacking.

From the public-facing side of a website the SEO underpinnings aren’t necessarily evident. A flash home page, for example, might fill the senses with entertainment, but it can’t be optimized the way a hybrid html/flash page can. And if you’re seeking to boost your website to the top of the search engines, it’s essential that your website be able to be optimized.

The alternative is like dieting on martinis and chocolate-entertaining but valueless.

If you need help determining the nutritional value of your website as it exists today, or if you want a whole new website with exemplary content written by proven journalists, contact us at www.blondeproductionsgroup.com. Or call 720-221-7126.

In romantic relationships, the most ominous words spoken are “We have to talk.” Those four one-syllable words send men to their caves and prompt women to convene to discuss his inability to communicate.

Now that science has been taken to a whole new level: According to Nielsen Mobile, the second quarter of 2008 was the second consecutive quarter in which the average number of text messages sent was significantly higher than the average number of phone calls placed. While the number of calls has remained steady, text messages have soared-up 450% in the last two years.

The division in demographics has never been more apparent in the texting growth. Not surprisingly the 13 - 17 year-old group sent an average of 1,742 texts per month compared to 2,331 voice calls.

As cryptic as text messages can be, they’re now the preferred vehicle for transmitting communication. Void of sentence structure, proper grammar and sans the benefit of intonation, text messages are what young people today rely on. The critical mass of youngsters using near code to establish plans, convey emotions and transact financial matters (see www.mocapay.com) should send an alert to marketing experts to trim their message, focus on the call to action, and at all costs be brief.

Consider the crash of US Airways Flight 1549. Passengers instructed to prepare for a crash landing simultaneously tucked down while furiously texting loved ones to say goodbye in anticipation of not living through the Hudson River landing. Their relatives were among the first to hear the news that the airbus was crashing…even before it hit the water.

For a short course in concise messaging, contact Blonde Productions Group (www.blondeproductionsgroup.com) at 720-221-7126.

U hear?

When Barack Obama announced his choice for Vice President, the message was spread via approximately 2.9 million texts-the largest mobile marketing event in history. In one push of the “Send” button, Obama’s campaign revolutionized advertising technology.

In early 2008, the platform for Obama’s text campaign was launched during Super Bowl, the championship of NFL, also the championship of advertising campaigns. The ad promoted to viewers that they could text to Obama (62262) to receive future text updates from the campaign. Instantly, the assembled football fans were recruited. Their text contacts were now in the hands of the Obama campaign and they were on record as potential volunteers and/or voters.

Popularized by this event, mobile-marketing is without a doubt the future of advertising.  Companies like Gap and Allstate Insurance have taken the lead in text advertising.  Savvy enterprise had grasped that mobile marketing and social networking sites enabled them to communicate to a broad audience for little cost.

Blonde Productions Group (www.blondeproductionsgroup.com) calls this new medium “textology” both because it is short for text technology and because it recognizes the science of text message marketing. “Texting is the way to reach consumers 40 and under,” says Nancy Clark, president of Blonde Productions Group, a member of Unleaded Group in Denver, CO.

Textology isn’t just for industry giants; it can be utilized by any size of business. It is important to offer an incentive for the consumer to sign up for these updates.  In Obama’s case, it was the first release of information that appealed to audiences. A retail company can promote special offers or sales. Another angle is to text new releases of information-if your cupcake company releases a new flavored frosting, it’s worthy of a text release, especially if you add a call to action like: one free cupcake when you buy one dozen.

Caution: Don’t overdo text promotions by sending too many or sending insignificant information because recipients will want off the list. If your texts are timely, relevant and worth the customers’ time, they’ll be well received and they’ll drive extra business.

This type of communication is not only fast and direct, it is also easy.  You can create one sentence-long text and send it to everyone on your list at one time.  According to Time Magazine voters under age 25 contributed nearly 17,000 of Obama’s votes-significant in that he won the election by under 20,000 votes.

The demographic of young adults has adopted texting and technology to stay connected. This is the antithesis of first generation marketing using internet which underscored the anonymity of the internet space versus the community-building sense that facebook.com and other social networking sites offer. To this younger group in particular the connection is in the familiarity. Really. Friends text friends, so it just makes sense then that texts are bonds of friendship.

Consult with Blonde Productions Group’s textology experts to find out how to make your message most effective and how and when to send it. Until you get your texting down, you will want to call us at 720-221-7126 or email nancy@blondeproductionsgroup.com.