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By Vegasbab, November 14, 2008 12:23 pm

A few months ago, The Recreational Boating & Fishing Foundation (RBFF) launched a new campaign and website with the help of Colle+McVoy. I’m totally in love and impressed with the site even though I’m not the biggest fishing fan. I’m also impressed that they’ve continued to expand and add to the site. I really like the Phased approach they’ve taken with the project. Why not start crawling today vs. waiting a year to sprint?

The newest phase in the project is the addition of Fishington, a boating and fishing social community. I have to admit, I’m a little skeptical of it… I’ve always been a believer that you have to connect with people where they already are, not force them to create an upteenth social networking profile. However, because the content and demographic is so unique, I think it just might work.

Of course, people are never happy with stuff, so here’s some things I wish they’d change:

• - For the love of god, please let me hide my age! There should be an option to show birth date, but not the year.
• - Allow me to rearrange my profile boxes. If I’m more interested in Hot Spots, I should be able to move those towards the top or to the right hand side.
• - For the most part, I love the profile completion bar that gives you “points” for completing different parts of your profile. At heart, people are competitive. If they can easily get to 100% vs. 50% they will. By adding this feature, it encourages people to keep adding to their profile and returning to the site. However, you only get percentage points for following the instructions underneath the staus bar. For example, the first time I signed on, it said, “Add a HotSpot. Will add 8%.” While I didn’t add a HotSpot, I added pictures. My completion rate stayed at 43%. The next time I signed in, it said, “Add Media. Will add 8%.” Once again, I didn’t follow instructions; I added a HotSpot instead, remembering I would get an additional 8%. But, after adding a HotSpot, my profile completion stayed at 43%
• - While I love being able to add pictures and videos, I wish the feature was faster to use. You can only add one picture at a time and you MUST add a description. Wow! What a pain. I’d love to add pictures in bulk. I’d also love to group my pictures into photo albums. And most importantly, I want options! Don’t force me to add a description if I don’t want to.
• - Adding a profile picture is slightly awkward. Most social media sites automatically resize your image to fit. Fishington doesn’t. Hmmm… cancel upload and go back, I’ll resize the picture myself. Unfortunately, the site doesn’t give you the dimensions to do this.
• - While I love the idea of searching for HotSpots, the tool (at least for me) is difficult and frustrating to use. I like that you can add your favorite HotSpots to your profile, but I can’t add more than one at a time. Once I add one, I have to start the process of finding HotSpots from the VERY beginning. More often than not, several favorite HotSpots show up on the first search. Once I favorite one, I should be taken back to the previous screen vs. having to start the search all over again.
• - I know it just launched, but I think it’s important to tie all your social media efforts together… i.e. actively promote this on the Take Me Fishing Facebook Fan page, on the YouTube Channel, etc. and then vice versa. You have to go where your customers currently are. Not where you want them to be.
• - On a random note, I’m surprised that the website pulls in the YouTube videos vs. hosting them. YouTube is one site that most corporations block. Hosting the videos allows everyone to see them. Including a link to YouTube allows everyone to easily share, favorite, comment, etc. if they choose.

And a few things I love:

• - I totally love the homepage video of the RBFF President/CEO endorsing and explaining the community. WOW! Really impressed that he did this. It also puts a face to RBFF. I imagine he appeals to the larger demographic. For me, he reminds me of my Grandpa, who taught me how to fish.
• - I love and hate the openness / non-privacy all at the same time. I think for this community it works and is needed to connect people with common interests.
• - I’m jazzed that the site actually keeps me signed in indefinitely. Everything else usually kicks me out after two weeks and remembering my logins and passwords can sometimes be a pain.
• - Totally love the whole Angler’s Legacy feature. Although, it might be interesting if it showed how many other people had taken the pledge (a la Nike+). I think it would encourage more sign ups and a better sense of community (as long as enough people have taken the pledge )

Can’t wait to see what the next phase of this brings!

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By Vegasbab, November 12, 2008 9:10 pm

A Smart Girl listens, but never believes, kisses but never loves, and leaves before she is left.

I’m sorry to all those who have been affected by this mantra. It’s quite the downfall, but it sure as hell keeps the broken hearts away… or at least it’s supposed to.

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By Vegasbab, November 11, 2008 12:56 am

I like lists. I like making them and better yet, I like crossing things off them. Just a few things I wish others would cross of their list when contacting me.

1. Make sure everything is spelled correctly in your initial email. I’m always flabbergasted by this one. You’d think most people would have a “pitch” template. All they do is copy and paste and pop in a few unique points (i.e. my name, something specific about my company, etc.) Guess what, if you have glaring misspellings in that first email, I’m not scheduling a follow up call with you. I already know you have zero attention to detail.
2. Follow instructions. My voicemail clearly says, “…If you’ve reached my voicemail, please follow up via email at xxxxxx@xxxx.com.” Yet, only two out of ten follow up via email. This one surprises me too. How often do you check your voicemail? That’s what I thought.
3. Okay, this is really 2.5. We have a business relationship. I’ve told you before that I check my voicemail once a week and you need to shoot me an email. You’ve experienced my lack of response to voicemail. Yet, you still leave me voicemails expecting me to return your call that day. Where did I go wrong?
4. This one’s a long shot, but it would be nice if you checked out my company’s website before calling me. You could find some great insights into what’s important to us and a little bit about our brand strategy along with company information.
5. Follow up. I’m HUGE on follow up. In fact, it’s the joke of not only my department, but the entire company. Even though it’s a joke, everyone freakin loves it. I’m anal. It’s how I roll and it’s the only way to get shit done.

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By Vegasbab, November 8, 2008 7:30 pm

I spent about 48 hours in Minnesota this past week. Don’t ask why Anyway, you gotta learn something right?

1. Minneapolis is a real city with big buildings and everything. I don’t know why I was imaging something different, but I was. It’s actually pretty cool.
2. Apparently, there’s a super cool sculpture garden. Unfortunately, shopping at Mall of America was way more important and time just ran out. Oh well, I’ll have to go back to see the giant cherry on a spoon.
3. Mall of America really is all it’s cracked up to be. I even got my picture taken with Santa Claus.
4. 60 degrees is not cold. I promise not to complain about the Las Vegas “cold”… at least for a few days.
5. I went partly for work. Holy crap, there’s a ton of ad agencies that have offices in Minneapolis. I’m still befuddled by that one.

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By Vegasbab, November 5, 2008 11:20 pm

As of late. We all know I’m insanely fickle

1. Vick’s Vapor Rub. I started using it because I couldn’t stop coughing. Not only did it stop the cough, but it made my feet and legs super soft. And it tingles. Suffice it to say, it now has a permanent place in my medicine cabinet.
2. Facebook. Yea, I still love it. Even with all the invites to lame applications. I think this may be my longest relationship.
3. iGoogle. It took awhile, but slowly and surely it has grown on me.
4. Delicious. Totally awesome for all the CMS systems I have to log into that have ridiculously long and hard to remember urls. Now, I can do it from any computer and it saves my usernames and passwords too.
5. Naked juice. Apparently, it’s my comfort “food” when feeling shitty. The name is pretty fun too.
6. B Frank Wine. Yes, I called the agency. Yes, they were cool enough to send me a few bottles. No, I haven’t opened one.
7. Creative Beef. Never disappoints and consistently posts on a daily basis. It’s always the shiny spot in my day.
8. People who follow through. Shocker! Some people can get shit done and send emails in a timely fashion even with all the “cost saving” going around. These people don’t make excuses. They just do their thing. These very few people make me very, very happy.
9. Actions. Talk is cheap and meaningless unless you can back it up with actions. I love people who have the balls to talk the talk AND walk the walk.
10. Last Calls. Everyone needs one.

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By Vegasbab, November 4, 2008 11:11 pm

Here’s a few things that would happen in my Fantasy World:

• - Criss Angel would be fired / removed from the script. He’d also have to pay his half of the contract plus all the money lost becasue of his screwups. Or, maybe he could tragically die during one of his tricks. You know, like actually get sawed in half.
• - Douchebags would be fired and the people who actually did their jobs got to keep ‘em
• - Illness and coughing would be non-existent
• - My guts wouldn’t have shit for brains
• - I’d have a masseuse on call 24/7

Yep, nice and simple. Really, all I want is #1, but #2-#5 would be nice too.

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By Vegasbab, November 4, 2008 10:56 pm

This post was going to be titled, “Why Obama’s Going to Win.” But, alas, it’s been a crazy week and I never had a chance to flush this out like I wanted. Since the election is over and I’m dying, the post is going to stay half-assed. Deal with it.

First, let’s make it really clear: I’m not pro any candidate. As a marketer, I’ve loved watching each campaign’s advertising efforts. For the non-political people out there (and I’m sure there’s a lot), their votes were based off of the advertising campaigns or friends’ opinions vs. taking the time to read the facts. So, whomever had the better advertising campaign was gonna win. Let’s check ‘em out…

Keep in mind this is all based on the advertising I’ve seen. Yep, totally biased post.

When 46% of Americans are using the internet, email or cell phone to get news about the campaign, whether you want to or not, it’s a place you have to be. I really applaud both candidates efforts in social media / next gen advertising, although I think Obama did a more well rounded job. Here’s a couple:

• - Obama has Facebook targeted ads. McCain? Nope. At least none targeted to me. PS- Remember when Facebook let everyone change their name to include “Obama”? Yea, that wasn’t against their Terms and Conditions or anything.
• - Obama had in-gaming ads.
• - Both had twitter streams. Although McCain’s, for the most part, is a bot. One that constantly sends out a crazy amount of links at one time and then is quiet for a few days. Not to mention it’s only following 21 people. Obama’s twitter stream has a much better pace and follows everyone back.
• - Obama used text messaging- text ‘Vote’ to 62262. The original message I received was lame. But, damnit, now they had my phone number. The message I received on Election Day: “People who love their country can change it! Make sure everyone you know votes for Barack today. For voting info call…”

Reality check: ALL social media is still niche. While I don’t advocate TV commercials for my employer, they’re definitely necessary for things like an Election. At the end of the day, this is the way to reach the masses.

• - 99% of the McCain TV commercials I saw were attack ads against Obama. They had a negative connotation. They didn’t allow Americans to empathize with McCain. And they continuously repeated Obama’s name.
• - 95% of the Obama TV commercials focus on Obama. They were not attack ads. They had a positive connotation. The majority of them featured a family and/or a blue-collar worker. Basically, An All American, Apple Pie persona. Americans empathized with these ads. There’s an emotional tie. Based on these ads, Obama seems like a nice guy.

I wish I could find the psych study that compared people’s conscious and unconscious reactions to these ads. Basically, the participants consciously had negative feelings about Obama after seeing McCain’s attack ads. But, subconsciously they had greater negative feelings about McCain. Classic example of the ego vs. the id. We all know “who” typically wins those fights.

Last but not least, there’s branding. While it may be lame, Obama did a fantastic job branding everything with that red, white and blue pepsi-like “logo“. McCain’s logo? Ummm, a general star? Whatever you want to call it, Obama’s freaking logo was EVERYWHERE. The logo was even on posters that didn’t advertise Obama directly, just that people should “Go Vote.” That’s a strong unconscious message that apparently worked. According to Google Insights, the chatter about Obama far outweighed the chatter about Biden, McCain and Palin.

Maybe four years from now people will make educated votes instead of following the masses. Until then, start ramping up those ad campaigns.

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By Vegasbab, November 2, 2008 8:01 pm

An oldie, but one of those email forwards I still love. Thanks to The Girl Riot for this one!

You go to a party and see a sexy girl across the room. You go up to her and say, “Hi, I’m fantastic in bed, what about it?” That’s Direct Marketing.

You go to a party and see a sexy girl across the room. You approach her to get her telephone number. The next day you call and say, “Hi, I’m fantastic in bed, what about it?” That’s Telemarketing.

You go to a party and see a sexy girl across the room. Your friend goes to her and says, “Hi, my friend over there is fantastic in bed, what about it?” That’s Advertising.

You go to a party and see a sexy girl across the room. You get up, straighten your clothes, approach her and pour her a drink. You open the door for her, pick up her bag after it drops, offer her a ride, and then say, “By the way, I’m fantastic in bed.” That’s Public Relations.

You go to a party and see a sexy girl across the room. She comes over and says, “Hi, I hear you’re fantastic in bed, what about it?” That’s the power of Branding!