the .blog of Sean Sullivan

Satellites. Ted Turner. Playmakers. It is clearly evident that ESPN, the most prominent sports specialized broadcasting network ever, has had to change their tune in 2005 due to a number of realizations. When ESPN (Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) entered the scene over 20 years ago, they were forced to focus on “speciality” sports-related programming. Events such as tractor pulls or Australian football. Events the major networks wouldn’t pick up. In 1987, when ESPN launched NFL Sunday Night football, now a weekly tradition every fall, growth began. Over time, ESPN has become as much of a reputable source for quality sports programming as the big 3 (NBC, ABC, CBS). Broadcasting major sporting events in football, basketball, baseball, and hockey, you could always count on ESPN to catch a good quality games at odds time throughout the week.

With the growth of technology, has come a barrage of competition for the leader in sports. Because of satellites, we can now turn on TBS to catch the Braves, WGN to catch the Cubs, Fox Sports Net L.A. to catch the Kings. Smaller networks have moved into the arena and stepped on ESPN’s shoes. I don’t have any numbers to prove that the movement by these smaller networks has affected ESPN’s viewership or ratings, but purely based on observation and reasoning, it appears that the network’s crown isn’t as jeweled as a few years ago.

What I feel has been a major impact, is the level of programming that viewers are now faced with. Decisions. With the purchase of a new big screen HDTV, consumers must also make the dive as far as upgrading their cable or satellite package. When they get these more “souped” up packages, they are faced with a number of smaller networks that may be broadcasting similar sports events as ESPN. Even the specialty events such as World’s Strongest Man has competitors on [what is now] Spike and NBC. In fact ESPN Thursday Night Hockey is gone after last year’s strike and OLN (Outdoor Life Network) has taken the games.

So how does ESPN differentiate themselves?

Original Programming.

Of course, ESPN has the ringer–Sportscenter. With witty and colorful hosts, Sportscenter is the most entertaining way for an individual to find out about all the latest happenings on the internet. (And until everybody has broadband and streaming sports highlights become more the norm) Those ratings will be safe for a while.

With a large number of programs being presented under the title ESPN Original Programming, we can see where this is headed. Playmakers, a weekly hour long program about the real dealings of the players in the NFL, was a true test for how successful sports related original programming could be. This article by Business Weekly Online, written in November of 2003, reports average rating of 1.9 (or 1.6 million households) at that point in time. Eventually because of that program’s ccontroversial content and lack of sponsor support, it fell off the radar.

Last January, ESPN played off the popularity of poker by hiring Michael Madsen to star in “Tilt”. A show about the casino and poker underworld. With camoes by big name poker players, it was fairly popular among many of my colleagues and friends. Bound for Glory, The Season, and many more on the way, we can almost now expect to see a reality show or original series as often as a football game when we tune in to ESPN.

ESPN can get away with it. They can give these original series the exposure they need in order to produce the viewership they need. During the broadcasting of a Sunday night football game, a quick ad in the bottom right hand corner of the screen for the newest series, now that’s exposure.

The Popularity of Online Job Classifieds

Enid Burns has written an article featured on ClickZ.net concerning the shift of job classifieds to the internet. After a sample, by TNS, of 5,000 was surveyed, it appears that there is a polarity in the popularity of online job classifieds. The divide–interestingly enough–is income.

More than three-quarters of those with household incomes of $50,000 and over use the Internet to search for new employment. About 70 percent of the same group use newspapers. Households with incomes below $25,000 rely on newspapers 80 percent and Internet 50 percent. Data for job seekers under 35 is more evenly distributed between the survey’s categorized “high” and “low” incomes.

So does this mean that if you want to find the better paying jobs, you need to go online? Of course not. That quote states that 75% of high income are looking online and 70% using newspapers as well. Higher income job-seekers are just looking online in addition to the paper, widening their search.

The Problem with Online Job Hunting

As an individual who has, in recent past, dealt with online job-seeking, i feel that most systems seem too cumbersome to use. Monster wants you to log-in, update your profile, etc. The same with CareerBuilder. These are great sites if you’re shooting for getting a barrage of resumes out there to a large quantity of companies. Does this work though?

I feel a personal approach is the way to go. I think the reason why craigslist is such an effective job search tool is because it’s more personal, much like its print counterpart–the newspaper.

If i’m in the middle of a job hunt, I don’t want to send my resume to some “skimming” program that searches for keywords in my resume by way of a google-esque nature. I’d rather send it to an actual human being who might at least look at it with his/her eyes and not string matching.

That is the problem with the “big” job search sites. They tend to feel way too impersonal for my liking. If you’re a job seeker, here’s my advice, seek out those sites with a more personal feel. Find those listings that provide you with an actual person’s email, not careers@thiscompany.com.

If company’s want to allure the cream of the crop in candidates, maybe they will take heed and realize that it’s not just what the prospect can do for your company, but what your company can offer that prospect in return. With a cold & impersonal auto-submit process, much like what Monster and CareerBuilder offers, I (as a prospect) wouldn’t feel like I’m getting much other than my name in barrel with all the other fishes, only to have a script program pass me over because of diction.

On the beaten path I tend to drive everyday, there is a retail store that was under construction for about the past month. The store had an interesting name, and I had never heard of it before. Not really sure what it was or having any real clue what they did, I decided to go ahead and do some research and solve this enigma (of course stopping by and asking would’ve been too easy).

The name of the store. iSOLD It (on eBay). I wondered, well what exactly is this place? Are they owned by eBay and acting as a brick and mortar consignment center toting the popular online auction site’s name? If they weren’t owned by eBay, how could they have the company’s name on their sign? A friend suggested, well I’m guessing that if you want to sell something on eBay, they will do it all for you so you don’t have to hassle with it. I thought, no, that sounds like a business plan that thrives off laziness… that would never work. Oh wait a minute, many businesses thrive off laziness. I gotta check this out.

Upon researching the company, iSOLD It, I started to unravel an entire underworld of retail stores that I never really knew existed. Being an individual that has sold many items on eBay, I always thought it was pretty simple to snap a photo of the item, type in a quick, catchy description, and voila! Let the bidding begin. Well it turns out, this underworld–the clicks ‘n’ mortars to be exact–are popping up left and right. Franchises that handle your ecommerce selling so you don’t have to worry about it. People that want to sell things online may have stigmas, or lack of time, to accomplish such. So these retail chains are thriving on that need.

What is a “click ‘n’ mortar” retailer? I’m defining them as brick ‘n’ mortar retail outfits that act as a segway between ecommerce and the traditional business world.

With competitors such as QuikDrop, Picture It Sold and other eBay certified “trading posts”, iSOLD It has managed to accumulate over 7.5 million in revenue since its inception. The company is reported as not yet profitable, but with franchises popping up nationwide, it’s well on its way to accomplishing that feat.

The process is simple. Take your old DVD Player, your fine China, or your autographed picture of Tony Danza to your local iSOLD It. They will “professionally” photograph the item for inclusion on the auction site. Then the associate will create your auction. All for a cut of your selling price.

You may ask, what would be the cost of such a service? On i-soldit.com, they’ve included a nice commission table, showing you how much they’re gonna make off (*cue Gollum voice) my precious. If your item sells for $100 you will make 63 cents off the dollar. Now you have to understand that yes there are fees that eBay collects that these “click ‘n’ mortar” stores are absorbing, so that comes with the territory. But these commission rates seem pretty steep to me.

The idea is sound. This business is targeting the non-technologically apt / extremely busy crowd of people out there who want to take advantage of the great service that is eBay. However, as generations progress, I can not see this being a lasting business. More of a fad maybe?

One marketing ploy that iSOLD It has made is to include coupons in every copy of “The 40 Year Virgin” that is published. Maybe I am wrong in my assumption of the target demographic, but if you were to insert promotion into a DVD, would a comedy targeted toward a younger crowd (who has grown up with the internet) be the opposite of an ideal strategy? It’s great that they are getting the name out there, because after all name recognition is king, but seems that money might be better spent elsewhere in the budget.

The site is streamlined. Quick to the point. You get your 3 step synopsis of the service–drop off item, watch people bid, pick up check (-%30+ commission). The site has a nice little form where you can enter your auction information to view how people are bidding. The retailer’s site also features all the items being sold by their services (gaining your item a little bit more exposure on the web). The site totes a nice ribbon stating that they are the “#1 Seller of Items on eBay”. A neat service is their estimation of what your items value is and what you might expect out of your sale. A sales quote of sorts.

They have definitely put a PPC (pay-per-click) ad campaign into effect. Upon searching Google for “ebay trading post”, they are bidding high enough to gain a top position (overture claims this to be a $4 max bid). However, the landing page for this ad is a section of i-soldit.com geared toward parties interested in opening their own franchise store. This may be the company’s pure plan in marketing right now? Open franchises and let the eBay name on their signs take care of the rest. Local seminars throughout California are held for prospective owners to learn more about the opportunities.

Does eBay mind the use of their name?

Under the eBay Trading Post User Agreement, it is stated:

Code of Conduct. You agree to abide by the following minimum conduct standards in your eBay Trading Post-related dealings with others during the term of this Agreement:

1. You will not represent yourself as an employee, representative, partner, or agent of eBay. Further, you will not imply an affiliation with eBay or in any way suggest that eBay is involved with or endorses your products or services.

Take a look at this picture and what is your interpretation (courtesy of i-solidit.com)

Click ‘n’ Mortar. Hope those aren’t cement shoes.

With the NFL season coming to an end and all the teams getting ready for the play-offs, many creative teams for big (and not so big) companies are gearing up for the grandest ad exhibition of them all–The Super Bowl. Weighing in at a whopping 2.4 million dollars per 30 second spot (the exact same price as last year) there’s already a lot of tip-toeing in the marketing community about what the big thing is going to be this year. Who’s in? Who’s out?

It appears that the 2006 Winter Olympics, starting only five short days after the Super Bowl, are going to play a major role in the decision of large companies–whether they are in or out. So far, rumors have it that McDonald’s and VISA (long-time Olympics ad supporters, long-time hot and Super Bowl ad supporters) are opting for an extended elope with a more conventional, widespread audience rather than the quick one-night stand with the priciest date in town.

Speculation is on the dot-coms. Will we see GoDaddy gamble for a couple spots like the recently 21-year-old who gets his hand on some hot dice in Vegas? Last year that was the case. When NFL executives yanked their 2-minute warning ad, they hit blackjack and gained much more publicity than that second 2.4 million could’ve ever. Rumor has it CareerBuilder.com has already purchased an ad, flexing their muscle and proverbial middle-finger at monster.com, who was quite active years ago.

Of course Bud will be back for another round. Maybe Miller will be in the corner, taking tips from their boxing coach, getting ready to get to the next bell.

Let’s see what happens, and for the time being, let the speculation rest. After the big game, we’ll take a look at exactly what happened.

As I’m sure everybody reading this blog knows, the game of poker has undergone a serious explosion in the past few years. With blame pointed toward the wide-spread coverage of the 2003 World Series of Poker Main Event on ESPN (7 one-hour episodes total) the felt in most casinos has become a feeding frenzy for thrill and prize seeking individuals. 2003 marked the first year that the world’s most recognizable poker title witnessed victory by an unknown, a numbers-by-day accountant. This planted in a seed in many serious “home” poker players that they too might be able to get a piece of the action and hence, the poker revolution, if you will. With this revolution has come an un-escapable number of money making opportunities for retailers, both brick and mortar and online. You can’t walk into a bookstore or gift-shop these days without seeing a Texas Hold-em Poker set on an end-cap, sporting the faces of some of the most recognizable “athletes” in the game. My intention in writing this entry is not to focus on how big the game of poker has become, but to focus on a unique way that one poker player, inparticular, has cashed in on the revolution.

Daniel Negreanu, one of the most amazing players of the game, has claimed an amazing stake on the business side of the game while only in his early 30’s. Winning the Toyota Player of the Year crown at the 2004 World Series of Poker, Negreanu has an amazing resume of poker feats following him around in his brand new Tacoma. By establish an amazing name for himself in the poker community, making numerous appearances at nationally televised tables on the World Poker Tour and interviews on poker and non-poker related talk shows, “Kid Poker” has built himself an empire of poker related products.

I think it may be safe to say that today Negreanu does not do most of the number crunching related to his tax form due to his dealings at a poker table. In April of 2001, previous to reaching world fame, Negreanu registered the domain name FullContactPoker.com. Originally serving as a “poker blog” and a forum for fellow poker fans, Full Contact Poker was a great community for people interested in learning more about the game. Fans of Negreanu could read regular entries about his musings concerning the poker community and large scale match-ups with the likes of Doyle Brunson, Phill Hellmuth Jr., and more. It was a great way for a fan to see the way that a professional poker player may think or live.

After some time, the site began to take on a different feel. With a new site design, fullcontactpoker.com began to include more promotional components such as advertising contests, high-stakes heads up matches with Negreanu and so on. The blog and forum were still the major focus of the site for visitors. Then a transformation began.

This past summer, a contest was held for a new logo design for the site. Amateur graphic artists who frequented the site’s forum were invited to submit a conceptual piece of what they felt would best represent the site. The winner of this contest and a number of runner-ups were invited to spend a weekend in Vegas with Negreanu and friends–playing poker, games, and having a great time. My question is, were participants in this contest aware of the extent this logo would be used?

A couple weeks ago, I visited FullContactPoker.com to read a few blog entries and see what Negreanu had been up to lately. I noticed mention of the site undergoing a number of changes and an opportunity for current visitors to become “charter members” of the site. I thought to myself, why would Negreanu be expecting such an influx in visitors where he would need to reward all past members for their patronage to the site.

Then my answer came.

A good friend sent me a link to the site and told me to take a look on what had happened. I was astonished, upon visiting, at what the site had become. It was no longer a personal site geared toward casual students and fans of the game, but had become a full-blown “corporate” poker center. Launching a new poker room online casino, Full Contact Poker had morphed into a site looking to compete with the likes of Full Tilt Poker, UltimateBet, and PokerStars. Now this isn’t the first pro poker player that has decided to move in this direction. As a matter of fact, Doyle “Texas Dolly” Brunson has his own site Doyle’s Room, which I think is one of the finest poker rooms on the net. Being curious with the new Full Contact Poker, I decided to download the client and take a look at what it was like. I sat down at a table with my friend and started splashing around some play chips on a few hands. Overall, I felt the program was pretty standard and just seemed like another mediocre poker room on the already saturated internet poker market.

With promotions like 50% bonus on real money deposits and a contest to become Negreanu’s “Protege”, the site has obviously given some thought into how to market the new casino. The contest to earn Negreanu as a poker teacher sounds very tempting and a good reason for a fan to play on this site.

However, there were some major roadblocks that led to my uninstalling. The interface felt very cumbersome and visually dull. It attempts to integrate with the internet site’s black and blue color scheme. If you have ever studied casino psychology on any level, you understand that casino’s use particular color/lighting schemes to keep players gambling. I don’t think Full Contact did their homework with this subject. The appearance of the poker room appears a little depressing (for lack of a better word). Also, for the common individual who just wants to play with fantasy chips, the site needs to be more instrumental in helping them learn their game. It was hard first of all to find play chip No Limit Hold ‘em games, the most popular variant of poker naturally. When I made a crazy call with my pocket pair and busted out my entire bank roll, the site made it impossible to figure out how to “reload” so I could continue playing. Hence I left.

What a lot of internet marketers, web developers, and so on view as a critical lesson to intricate design is this. On the internet there is so much competition. It is not hard to find somebody who is providing the same service or product as your site or company. Internet visitors are very impatient. If they can’t get what they want easily, they will go somewhere else very quickly. This is what happened with my Full Contact Poker experience. It was too cumbersome to use. I went elsewhere to get my poker fill.

Now, I’m not here to nit-pick on Negreanu’s venture into the internet poker scene, as there is much money to be made. The site is doing an amazing job of making it clear the bonuses that you can receive through playing in their poker room. Even when viewing Negreanu’s blog, you are being hit up to earn your 50% deposit bonus or visit the cashier to purchase more chips. Some definite calls to action there. Internal link paths and site structure are very well developed. You definitely know you’re on an online poker community and it’s very easy to get the client downloaded so you can begin playing. The site has an extremely chic presentation.

Today I looked and there were over 16,000 players online. That’s 9,000 more than Full Tilt (with their major marketing ploys especially at the 2005 WSoP) currently had at the same time. Not bad at all. My question is this–are we seeing this huge number of players on the site due to its freshness, the fact that it’s the new kid on the block that everybody wants to check out, or will it fade into the back row with all the other non-premier poker sites. I suppose with this only time will tell.

There is one unique factor in this equation, however, that will help set it apart from the rest. This site is only going to become more successful as times goes on. Mainly because of a name. Negreanu has this figured out quite well. It kind of reminds me of what Jay-Z did with his career. Build a name based on your talent, use that name to sell your products (ever hear of RocaWear?)

For Negreanu, the sky will be the limit. He currently has a number of projects in the works. A new video game, Stacked, due for release soon. An instructional DVD in the works. It will be amazing to witness how big this Negreanu empire becomes. You couple the fact that his name will be permanently engraved on the poker A-list with the products he has developed, we may witness ourselves an eBugsy.

Being that the word “snack” is in the title of this website, it would only make sense that the first real entry in the blog would be about a snack product.

A few months ago a friend and I went on a quick road trip up north to visit some friends at a neighboring college town. On our way home we stopped by at a Burger King. Equipped with my ’spidey senses’, I found myself a little more observant than usual. I saw a little display sitting on the counter for gourmet cookies by a company I admittedly had never heard of before–Otis Spunkmeyer. I found the name odd and somehow catchy. Well here we are a few months in the future and I decided that I would figure out exactly what this Spunkmeyer cookie machine is all about.

After digging deep into their company website, located at spunkmeyer.com, I found it interesting the way that this company is marketing their product. First of all, they pride themselves largely on being atop of their market (providing cookies to food service providers such as schools, hospitals, etc) It looks as if though the company took a shift from being just another local cookie shop to a national “gourmet cookie enabler”. Otis Spunkmeyer actually ships their frozen dough all over the place, apparently holding standards high as far as the conditions of preparation.

I think enabler is a great word for what Otis Spunkmeyer does. A business like Burger King or a service like a school cafeteria that may want to offer delicious gourmet cookies to their customers may not want to deal with the micro-management of making cookie dough. Spunkmeyer steps in, offers a steady stream of consistently high-quality dough to these food servicers, enabling them to offer an extra item on their menu with minimal hassle.

It appears that as of late, the cookie guru is offering fully customizable cookie toppings for their products. They are marketing this program as a manner in which for restaurants to keep customers coming back. The company’s site states, “Fun, fresh ideas will keep customers coming back to see what cookie creation you’ll come up with next.” They also present the customized cookie program as manner in which to battle price objections (I’m not sure how much these things cost) and generate sales while creating excitement.

The Otis Spunkmeyer website is designed with the food service provider in mind. Most of the copy on the site is geared toward prospective retailers of the company’s gourmet goods. The site has the intention of building excitement in that prospect with a conversion factor based on lead-generation. The site structure paths funnel the visitor into a enrollment form, in which information for a sales consultation is submitted.

I thought it was interesting to take a deeper look into how Otis Spunkmeyer has set up their cookie empire. They have definitely followed a company path different than that of the Nabiscos and Keeblers of the world. Good work Otis, next time I’m at Burger King I may just have to see what all this fuss is all about.

Welcome to my newest location on the internet, sullisnack.com. Working as a designer and marketer in a number of non-traditional channels day in and day out, I wanted to start a new blog where I could note my observations and interpretations of the promotional marketing world surrounding us. I am going to attempt to keep the content on this site focused to marketing techniques that I encounter in the business world and my everyday living alike. With an open mind and fair consideration to all, this should give visitors a chance to gain some quality insight to various events and also the ability for you as a visitor to make your own remarks on the various topics at hand. Hopefully many of you will enjoy the long-lasting relationship to come! Thanks and check back soon!