If the FQ name could be anywhere, where would it be?

[Deb]

Ok... Just about everyone knows that I don't spend money on marketing yet.[nbsp][nbsp]I've considered quite a few possibilities in the area, and of course the business plan should certainly have the goals of marketing within it .... I know as time goes on we'll be spending money in the area, but I just received a press release that takes the cake! BEDFORD, TX - October 25, 1999 -- C I Host (www.cihost.com (http://www.cihost.com)), the fast-growing leader in Internet solutions and the web hosting industry,
today announced its purchase of a first-time sports sponsorship through Adauction.com.[nbsp][nbsp]As part of the purchase, World Heavyweight Champion Evander Holyfield will display the C I Host name on the waistband of his boxing trunks.[nbsp][nbsp]The C I Host name will be clearly emblazoned on a large, centered patch on the back of Holyfield's waistband for the upcoming heavyweight
championship fight against Lennox Lewis on November 13 in Las Vegas.[nbsp][nbsp]So, if/when we decide to start paying for advertising... where should we goal to have our name sit?[nbsp][nbsp]The possibilities are endless.[nbsp][nbsp]Was just wondering what you all would prefer... how will we ever top the trunks of a Boxing Star? Maybe we could get our name on the lights of the New Years Eve ball in times square? Or, what I'd really like is to be on the left side of a race car at Daytona! Any ideas?[nbsp][nbsp]Of course, TeRRa would rather we spend that kind of cash on staff or hardware or software upgrades... but geeee that's just not as much fun is it?[nbsp][nbsp]Besides, once we're rich and famous we'll have the money to blow... so let's hear it! Where would you like to see the FutureQuest name?

Deb
[nbsp][nbsp]--
[nbsp][nbsp] Holyfield vs. Lewis -- Maybe we could buy the competitions belt?

[Jason]

I've been thinking of contacting a couple of boot companies and seeing if we can make an arrangment where they'll press our logo into the soles of the boots they make - that way when people walk down the street in the snow it'll leave a nice big impression with our company name on it ;-)

Jason

[elite]

Well on that impression thing I read in a magazine that at some beach an advertising agency gives the beach free sand rollers with the hitch that the rollers press advertisments on the sand!!!

Thats was pretty funny :)

Here is a great Idea Deb, at the last trade show we were at we threw off about 20 shirts to people, you should have seen people fighting as I threw them off a balcony :)

Oh well just an idea or maybe you could get it rolled in beach sand *grin*

By the way who in hell is going to see a boxers waist band that clearly *note I could be very wrong* lol..

Or of course you could gather about 30,000 and get a 1/4 page ad in the Wall Street Journal *lol* actually my budy did that before his company went public, and that our site got put in there for free in an article *grin*<!-- NO_AUTO_LINK -->
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[Tatu]

Hmmm....

Wouldn't you like to be walking (or comfortably driving in air conditioning) around town under the grueling, hot sun and BAM! you see an old lady sitting in a roofed bus stop proudly displaying the FutureQuest logo, only to be followed by a PalmTran bus with a nice 9' by 4' ad!
:)
Hey, either that or billboards...
-Tatu

[Tatu]

Ooo, whatabout printing ads on free:
-mousepads
-mouses
-monitors (hey, I could always use another one)
-toilet paper (you could distribute free TP to all offices and homes in central Florida as I cover Palm Beach County :) )
-mugs
-pens
-cheapo watches

-Tatu

[elite]

Pens and pencils purchased in bulk cood be pretty cheap and would be great handouts at expos... Also consider water bottles. These also if purchased in bulk could be had for cheap.

[Scott]

FutureQuest to have a television commercial!

If you go with a local double digit station and a thirty second slot, it won't be too cost prohibitive.[nbsp][nbsp]Time slot pricing varies by time, show and season.[nbsp][nbsp]

A great television station (single digit), to buy air time from is WGN, which I believe is nationwide now by way of cable.[nbsp][nbsp]WGN may cost more then local double digit stations, but every nickle you spend will come back to you dressed up as a quarter.

As for production costs I know a top shelf braodcast cameraman/DP that may be agreeable to bartering for services.[nbsp][nbsp]I know I am!

You can shoot on location to save on sound stage rentals and editing costs could be absorbed mostly if not completely in the production/barter deal.

A clever creative script seasoned with a little humor and a big hook....can't lose.

The difficult part is casting the talent in front of the camera :)

Once you connect, people will listen.

Scott

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www.modbod.com (http://www.modbod.com)

[julieA]

Hey, never say that! I have one daughter who starred in a hospital commercial the day after she was born, one who played the newborn &quot;Sleeping Beauty&quot; surrounded by screaming fairies (without crying) at 10 weeks and a 15 year old who acts at the Young Troupe during the week and dj's for a college radio station on weekends. [Hey, you gotta start somewhere.] All this and I can't speak to two persons gathered in the same hallway without getting a nosebleed. But, Talent is really easy to find. . .it's usually under your nose- and most will &quot;act&quot; for the &quot;experience&quot; so it's economical, too![nbsp][nbsp]Of course, we didn't schedule a Florida vacation next year so you may have to look locally for your commercial stars this year. :)
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mother of eight, wife of one...

[Armand]

clearly emblazoned on a large, centered patch on the back of Holyfield's waistband
Darn, would love to see it on the front so every time he got punched in the stomach it would make for nice symbolism. http://www.arcanumcafe.com/ubb/evilgrin.gif

Hmmm...advertising huh... well wonder what some skywriting over comdex and tech expos would cost.. better yet, Superbowl..lol.

[tedloh]

Don't know if this is done that often in the US, but it is certainly done here:

If the second-most visible ad spot in a boxing match is the waistband of a fighter, what is the MOST visible ad spot?

Will wait for replies, but you'd be shocked as to how you could upstage CI Host.
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Ted (Chief Do-It-All)
Tygre Systems Co Ltd
Bangkok, Thailand, Land of Smiles :) :)
http://www.tygresystems.com (work in progress)
ted@tygresystems.com

[Scott]

julieA,

I agree there are many people willing to work for a reel, some talented, some not.[nbsp][nbsp]The trend now is for the Seattle/Cali Gen Xer anti model types to do comercials, (i.e. the Philips flat screen tv commercial).
They may be green, and they don't have to speak, but they have the look.[nbsp][nbsp]It sells.

When your paying a mid-range broadcasting company somewhere in the neighborhood of $18,000-$30,000 for a 30 second pop, not including pre and post production costs, you take a hard look at your content and talent.

I've been working in the film/entertainment industry since 1978.[nbsp][nbsp]My contemporaries and I spend considerable time and money sourcing out talent, union or otherwise.[nbsp][nbsp]Talent has never been easy to find.

You're fortunate to have a talented family ;)

Scott




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Once you connect, people will listen.
www.modbod.com (http://www.modbod.com)

[Stephen]

Here's how to do it on the cheap. Have Justin write a brilliant script that everyone wants, put FQ's name on it, and give it away for free at www.cgi-resources.com (http://www.cgi-resources.com).

If it's really good, it'll be on every third web site... ;)

[elite]

I think Steve is 100% right!

[Tatu]

All joking aside, Stephen has something here!

Setup Scripts.FutureQuest.Net or something and buy a few of Justin's scripts (like THE best banner ad program in the under $150 category) to give away freely. I dunno, you'd have to work this around with Justin.

Them there's always the nation-wide, Palm Beach County based PaxTV (by Paxson Communications). I hear they have some cheap ad rates... but I don't see how their target audience (&quot;PaxTV, A friend of the family&quot; is there motto, so their target would be families with lils) would match FQ's (the developer/techie and occasionally people like JulieA, Hearts, and me... whom of course are aspiring techies :þ ).

-Tatu

[turnkey]

Deb,

You also might look at some print ads in some of the trade jounals. &quot;Wired&quot; runs a lot of hosting ads - you could stress the high level of service and care for the product.

Cheers,
Turnkey

[Justin]

Hm... keep talking like that and one might think I was a good programmer or something ;)

Actually, I do plan to eventually release a not-so-free version of the banner script and my search script, but being that it is on my own time it won't be given away as an advertisement carrier... it will be for computer parts/smokes/gas/beer money ;)

Now on the other hand I have no problem making some of my pay for scripts free for FQ users (as a preinstalled cgi-sys type of deal), but the rest of the world will have to pay for it.

Besides, the end users would remove any advertisement notice - especially if they're happy with their current host. License agreement you say? Bah! Nobody follows those... Want proof? Do a search at any one of these sites (all links below are to the page containing a search box):

http://www.gamer2000.com/
http://www.nt.net/
http://www.sscoc.bc.ca/search.html

Did you happen to see &quot;Search powered by SFE Search. © 1999 SFE Software. All Rights Reserved&quot; anywhere on the results page? Note that to modify the script one would of course have to scroll past all the copyright notices.

The above links are only a small few, and all of them emailed me for either support or feature requests, or wanting me to link them from my site (showing that they're using the script - yet they remove my copyright :( ) - so there are surely a lot more sites out there removing the copyright notices.

I of course haven't contacted any of these sites, if only out of laziness, but the point is, if they'll remove a copyright notice from a free script (leaving the copyright is the ONLY thing I ask in return for it's use btw), they will certainly remove an advertisement.

The concept would simply not work for any sort of Perl/PHP script.

Just wanted to throw my thoughts in ;)

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Justin Nelson
FutureQuest Support

[tedloh]

Whaaaaat?[nbsp][nbsp]No one bit the hook?

There are two prominent places for advertsing in a boxing match.[nbsp][nbsp]One is obviously the boxer's shorts - or either boxer's shorts.

The other is the canvas itself - which NEVER moves out of the picture (how many times have you seen Don King's logo on the canvas?).[nbsp][nbsp]Over there, though I suspect that spot is not for sale.
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Ted (Chief Do-It-All)
Tygre Systems Co Ltd
Bangkok, Thailand, Land of Smiles :) :)
http://www.tygresystems.com (work in progress)
ted@tygresystems.com