by Freddy J. Nager, Founder of Atomic Tango LLC and Marketing Demonologist It was brilliant. Not the film, but the marketing campaign that turned a $15,000 amateur horror flick into a $100 million box office smash. The problem? Serious anticipointment…
Tags:anticipointment·buzz·college market·Eventful.com·Hollywood·horror·marketing·movies·Paramount Pictures·Paranormal Activity·Wired
by Freddy J. Nager, Founder of Atomic Tango LLC For all our talk of freedom, we Americans LOVE rules… Our favorite sport, football, has the most rules of any sport on the planet. Poker players make up new rules with every hand (“threes and hearts are wild except for the Queen, which you can pass [...]
Tags:blogging·conventions·Internet·rules·social media·Twitter·web design·Wired
by Freddy J. Nager, Founder & Fusion Director, Atomic Tango LLC It’s not as much fun picking on Coors now as when they were run by right-wing zealots from a mountain stronghold in Colorado. (Alright, it’s a brewery, but it’s fun to say “mountain stronghold.”) I did razz ‘em for their faux microbrew, Blue Moon. [...]
Tags:advertising·beer marketing·Coors·Coors Light·packaging·Wired
Customer: Do you have “I Just Called To Say I Love You”? Barry: Yes. Customer: Can I have it? Barry: No. Customer: Why not? Barry: Because it’s tacky sentimental crap that’s why. Do we look like a store that would sell that song? Do you even know your daughter, there’s no way she likes that [...]
Tags:Amazon·business·Chris Anderson·Comcast·content·Daily Candy·High Fidelity·iTunes·Jamati·Long Tail·marketing·media·music industry·Netflix·strategy·Wired
by Freddy J. Nager, Founder & Fusion Director, Atomic Tango LLC Just over a year ago, Wired magazine proudly proclaimed that the future would be free, an argument based partially on ad-supported free sites like NYTimes.com. Of course, it was hard to take this manifesto seriously since Wired still charges for their magazine (cover price [...]
Tags:advertising·business·free·Google·Imeem·LinkedIn·marketing·micropayments·New York Times·revenue models·SpiralFrog·Splashcast·subscriptions·TechCrunch·Web 2.0·Wired·YouTube
Last week I hit the Digital Media Summit in the coolly atmospheric Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. There I enjoyed several speakers providing intelligent and informed insights into the industry, including Zango’s York Baur, Quarterlife’s Mashall Herskovitz, and my MBA classmate Jake Zim of Safran Digital Group. But many of the other speakers were so intently spinning [...]
Tags:bud.TV·Budweiser·business·CBS·Comcast·consumer justice online·consumers·customer service·Digital Media Summit·focus groups·Forrester Research·Groundswell·Jake Zim·Jericho·market research·marketing·media·Neiman Marcus·Pareto Principle·Quarterlife·Red Bull·research·strategy·Wired
So I’m thumbing through my favorite geek magazine, Wired, when I’m suddenly confronted by this Belvedere Vodka ad that features a woman applying lipstick in the reflection of a belt buckle. (If any of my female readers have ever executed such a task, please let me know… What? None of you have? Gee, what a [...]
Tags:advertising·alcohol·belvedere·Belvedere Vodka·branded content·marketing·sex sells·Vincent Gallo·Wired
by Freddy J. Nager, Founder & Fusion Director, Atomic Tango LLC So I’m thumbing through the latest issue of Wired magazine (which, by the way, features a brilliant article on the music industry by David Byrne) when I come across an attractive painting of beer. (What’s not to like?) As a huge fan of microbrews, [...]
Tags:advertising·beer·Blue Moon·Coors·marketing·web design·Wired
"Common sense is the little man in a gray suit who never makes a mistake at addition, but it's always someone else's money he's adding up."
- Raymond Chandler
Let's hear it for uncommon sense: that inner itch that inspires you to stray from the herd, ditch the training wheels and leap into the fast lane. As we all know, it's the risk takers who get their faces on the cover of Wired magazine and their words on National Public Radio. No one ever remembers who won "honorable mention"...
Cool Rules Pronto celebrates uncommon sense in marketing and media. It's written by Freddy J. Nager, the Founder & Fusion Director of the L.A.-based creative strategy agency Atomic Tango, and marketing instructor at UCLA Extension, the University of Wales, and Antioch University L.A.
