Fuze Blog | © Bryan Landaburu (aka Willie Vega) | Reno-Sparks-Nevada Blogger

Christmas is dead sexy!

I am not sure who decided to put the sexy in Santa Claus this year but 2007 sure seems to be the year that the exhibitionists get to whip out their revealing costumes and make it a par-tay before the dust even settles on Halloween's Grey Goose soaked bustier.

I find these sort of events the equivalent to caddie-day with alcohol, so I will probably be a great indoorsman this weekend. But, that doesn't mean I don't admire the efforts and creative savvy of those who vow to make Jesus' birthday as sexy as it can be.

Party on Wayne!

WBV

Even self proclaimed genius' send SPAM

Be careful who you send messages to.  Today i received this SPAM from some e-mail marketing experts at ProspectDB who led their SPAM with the bold intro:

Email marketing is a powerful and cost effective...
...if done correctly. 

Here is their message in tact:

1. Addressed to "Hello"
2. I did not opt-into their list
3. Even if I did somehow opt-in to their list, there is no way to tell how, when, and where
4. Their opt-out procedure sucks (who knows, it may work but i frankly don't trust clicking links that have a series of hieroglyphic characters in them)
5. Using "NOREPLY" is a great way to get responses to your offer
6. Using a from address thats a 3rd party (in this case webmailcurrier.com) is no a great way to build trust
7. No logo, branding, or anything explaining who they are
8. I will give them 5points of credit for having a valid email address, address, and toll free number - those indeed ARE best practices
9. no way to report this as SPAM
10. Other than that, nothing in this message is representative of "best practice e-mail marketing"
11. they did toss in this disclaimer at the bottom so i think i am breaking their rules (but since i didnt ask for their damn message, and since I am not "named above", I am justifying my critique with a link to their website which i think is fair:
    CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: The information contained in this e-mail transmission is intended only for use of the individual or entity named above. This e-mail transmission, and any documents, files, previous e-mail transmissions or other information attached to it, may contain confidential information that is legally privileged. If you are not the intended recipient of this e-mail transmission, or the employee or agent responsible for delivering it to the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any disclosure, dissemination, distribution, copying or other use of this transmission or any of the information contained in or attached to it is strictly prohibited. If you have received this e-mail transmission in error, please immediately notify us by return e-mail transmission or by telephone at the number above or at the address above, and destroy the original e-mail transmission and its attachments without reading or saving it in any manner. Thank you.
12. AS A NOTE: they can "avoid spam catches" by NOT SENDING SPAM AT ALL!

Now, I must admit that I am somewhat curious to bite on their offer to see what they speak of in their: "Top 10 Keys to Successful Email Campaigns". But, something tells me I may get more emails with the subject: "increase l0ad v0lume" or "mak3 her happy th1s H0l1daY s3ason".  Sorry, I wont be able to provide a review on their 10-best for you this Christmas.

Anyway, if I (or any of our clients) sent them a message this bad, I would welcome a similar criticism.  GYST Prospect DB - you should be ashamed of yourselves.

(By the way, Fuze actually does understand CAN-SPAM compliance, double OPT-IN, and various other tactics to make your emails better than this one.  Give us a ring-a-ling if you want to chat it up.)

WBV

2007 Year In Review | We dun ran outa original idears

I frequently say that there is no such thing as a new or original idea anymore...just bastardizations of previous ones.  While once in a great while something shocks you as being original, this phenomenon is getting rarer and rarer these days.  People saying the same things, clinging to the same topics, everyone with the same self fulfilling prophecy.  We can see this on most items deemed as "retro" or "old skool", etc.  In advertising, it seems we finally hit the wall too.  I came across this post on AdLand which I found funny (and true).  They (IMHO) are correctly dubbing 2007 as: "The year we officially ran out of ideas." See their illustrated justification below...

You could add to this list a sentence and drawing on:

• Energy Drinks
• Luxury Water
• Luxury Vodka
• Green, Green, Green
• Agency re-invention
• Social networking
• and the list can go on and on...

Here's to 2008!  NOTE:  This still isn't my year end wrap up...thats still on the simmer.

WBV

E-Greetings I Can Appreciate

I hate e-cards as much as I hate Keep Tahoe Blue bumper stickers (water isn't blue hippies, so last time i checked, as long as the sky is blue, our fair Tahoe will "appear" blue as well). It's funny how many choose to celebrate their cause & 'tell you what they're all about' from the rear of their cars in the form of license plate frames or the proverbial bumper sticker(s).  Not the point of this post, but a good conversation starter at your next pancake breakfast.

Anyway, today my opinion (not of hippies) may have changed here a bit. One of our resident developers Keith pointed me to: SomeeCards.com an e-greeting site that is funny, free, and filled with all sorts of irreverent sentiments (like the one below).  It's similar to the potty humor of tshirthell.com, only there is nothing to buy, so you can fire these off all day (if you don't have a job). Someecard greetings are simple & quick and when they arrive at your inbox, they don't require a program or any dumb downloads to run.

Have fun with it for cryin' out loud...its the holidays!

WBV

Miro-Hula-Joost - Which is best??

I was three ways hot on Joost about 2 months ago, but some new services are launching into this space and the competition is heating up.  Must recently Miro came along taking on Joost head-to-head, going as far as adding a side-by-side comparison for people to make their decision.  Worth looking at services from Miro and while you're at it, have a look at Hulu (though you have to be approved to test it - come over to our office and I'll show it to ya).

Now, if you're a geek for this kind of stuff (like me) and you want to really understand it all, Gizmodo did a comprehensive review of all 3 thats worth taking a look at it.

This may all seem a little geeky but the single most interesting about all this hoopla is that the category itself has been established from nothing, and in a matter of months. Its all new, evolving, and, I still believe this technology, once people stop thinking of PC's as PC's and TV's as TV's, and Game consoles as Game consoles...once these are all rolled into one, you start to see the future of how we will have broadcast & entertainment content delivered:

• where we want it
• when we want it
• how we want it
• only what we want
• with advertising having meaning, not force fed in 30 second slots

Time will tell who the victor will be.  Think of XM & Sirius a couple years ago.

WBV

Reno is cool now...we have a District!

In an ongoing effort to "hang" with the big cities, we have our first official "district". Welcome to SoDo. It's official...we're real now.

Here are a couple potential other districts:

• SoMo - South Meadows area (obvious)
• NoDo - lets hurry and classify the university area NoDo because the University District takes too long to type.
• E40 - east of downtown on 4th street where you can easily score a 40. Don't tell me 4th street is all hip now cause my dad rustles off sleepy folks from his business porch daily.
• HoHo - this district is 5 miles east of sparks where prostitution is legal.
• JethHo - this is the area with the ill fated Park Lane Mall which was never acquired (but not for lack of effort) by Max Baer (Jethro Clampet)
• 2WD - a hip spin on double-wide for Sun Valley (our neighbor community to the north). Still sporting two entries in the Guiness for being the worlds largest trailer park, and for having the highest concentration of convicts.
• others? Submit some...I'll post 'em.

Ok you Reno purists, before you start flaming and hurling on me...take it easy...this is a joke. I like reno. I like living here. I like having my business here. I am a 4th generation native Nevadan...so I am authorized to make funnies about my home town. If we can't laugh at ourselves, then what have we become?

That said, I am starting to think we can't we come up with ANY ideas of our own. Does everything have to be a copy of what exists someplace else (and we have it too)? We have some cool "San Francisco style" restaurants. And a couple swell "Vegas style" nightclubs. We have some hip "New York style" urban highrises. What is Reno-style? Anyone know anymore? Sometimes I think we chase our tails trying to be a big city when the charm of this place is in the city's moniker: The Biggest Little City In The World. Still works for me.

I don't see our area as being cool because we have districts, and "xyz-style" stuff. Rather, Greater Reno(dash)Tahoe is unique because of the people, the mountains, the world class skiing, world class recreation, miles of open trails, 2 stroke vehicle accessibility, all the nearby lakes, the climate, the location & proximity to so much. The river redevelopment is cool, california avenue is cool, the first street bar & nightclub areas are cool, downtown Sparks & the marina are getting cool (though I am partial), Grand Sierra has turned into a very cool casino resort (and is doing original and interesting things people said "will never work here"), outside of Gotham center/urban-ia, our neighborhoods are still safe & nice, traffic ain't that bad (though the skill level of drivers is low), and in spite of rising/falling housing costs, this is still an affordable place to live - in comparison to a big city.

Folks, lets all vow to keep reno weird! Oh wait, that's Austin...oh well, use it till we sort something else out.

WBV

[another treo post - sorry for the typos]

EDAWN Launched A New Website

The Economic Development Authority of Western Nevada, and 'friends of ours' launched a new website today.  Comments on the site and "can do" reserved, we loved this particular section:

I'll say that I know most everyone on this page and this is not a flattering photo of any of these people (David excepted because he's so damn photogenic).  They may have a grievance to file with SAG.  Anyway, congrats to EDAWN on launching their new site (finally replacing the tired, chopped up version of the old one WE BUILT for them in 2000).  Much luck with the new improved web presence.

WBV

Will [not] work for free - Constant improvement measures

I just got back from vacation and it was a full detach for me.  Honestly one of the first vacations i have had since i went into business for myself over 6 years ago. Now, don't cry for me Argentina...most who know me, know I take time off all the time. But, i have become the king of the 4-day weekend.  This is not the same as a vacation.  Those of you with busy lives and businesses probably have similar stories and feelings.  So, my vacation was great...thanks for [not] asking.

Anyway, the holiday could not have come at a better time because the last 2 quarters have been break-neck for all involved in Fuze.  All cylinders have been singin' a throaty rumble. We have a couple mega projects launching this month...over 6 months in the making, and boy are we in need of some breathing room to look internal at our business and breathe a bit.

We were actually supposed to make December a down month to work on our 'stuff'.  You know...Christmas gifts that we probably wont complete, holiday messages we will forgo in favor of getting client messages out, a new website long overdue, etc, etc. Obviously we wont fulfill all of these.  On the other hand, I am living vicariously through my pals in Leeds at Carsonified who decided to take 10 days off to work on their business (right on the heels of their rebrand). As always, Ryan's story is interesting to follow.  Really has me thinking about our business and some of our shortcomings which we are improving (competition read on):

• As of recent, we seem to be having some trouble working on our own stuff, and at the same time, we are troubled with wrangling clients and keeping some of our larger projects on a fast track.
• We've grown, and are managing more people, projects, and clients as well - need to keep all VIP's VIP's...no bad seats here.
  
• Our processes & Project Management systems have had light shined upon them and both need to evolve. 

All not lost, just a rant. Hopefully folks appreciate the honesty. We get things done, but with some process & system improvements, we would have more capacity and would provide an even better customer experience so things are a changin'.  While I'm at it, i am re-evaluating a few other things.

Like most good agencies, we get all too frequent requests/pipe-dreams asking us to do free work for our friends-of-friends, good causes, bad causes, etc.  I am a sucker for the most part when it comes to charity and community service which is why we have contributed, in 2007 alone, the equivalent of nearly 1000 hours of pro-bono services & donations. You do the math on that...it's a lot for an agency our size. I have always been a believer in giving back so we will certainly keep helping folks out pro-bono wise, i think that our criteria for selction of charities may well change.

So, pro bono will be re-focused, but we are going to start waving off another type of freebie here for 2008.  I am not a believer in trade out, and we have far graduated from a need to do "portfolio work", spec work, trade for ownership, etc.  Can't. Won't. No mas. To support this philosophy, I came across this funny animation (courtesy of Stefan Lucut) that i found fitting so i will share:

[click to view animation full size]

The animation got me thinkin': I think some people believe all we do here is draw pictures and play on the computer, and as a result, think that we are fully available to goof off for them - as if our time has no value. We don't have a lot of agency 'fluffers' here at Fuze, everybody is a contributor (not typical of an agency, but it works for us) so we don't have a scrub team we can throw on freebie side projects.  Hell we have 100's of ideas internally we would rather work on than someone's "build me a ..." job thats lobbed over the wall unsolicited. 2008 will see these requests get highly scrutinized before we consider them.

So my holiday resolutions are:

• evaluate client roster - make sure we have good fits
• visit with clients more often - sometimes I lose touch
• keep the projects good ones - no bad work
• don't waste time - don't waste money
• build new & better processes for all workflows
• narrow pro-bono to engagements where we can really make a difference
• expand client base into target markets & industries
• continue our community involvement
• continue to grow
• LAUNCH NEW G'DAMN WEBSITE(s)!
• ...

...well, this wasn't supposed to be a year end wrap up, so i will stop and save that for December 31st, but one thing i can guarantee is that, much like 2007, you can expect a new look and feel for everything Fuze in 2008. Ever forward...as always. Pardon our dust till we take the covers off...

WBV