March 18th is/was National Awkward Moments Day. As I said before, I did not make up this wonderful holiday, but it is certainly like Christmas for theCRICKETtoy®. To celebrate this grand day, I had a huge event that went on all day long both online (via Twitter) and live in person. Over $4500 worth of prizes were donated to give away.

     In town, I travelled all around in theCRICKET car with theCRICKET mascot (Calvin) doing fun and awkward things. Online, I had a Twitter contest asking random questions throughout the day. It certainly was an awkward day in a good, bad & ugly way. Here’s the recap:

Ugly
     It turns out you CAN NOT sit in the food court at the mall and then walkaround in a giant cricket costume. The security guard informed me of that. Thrown out of a mall-priceless and awkward!

Good
1. We did a photo shoot at Belmont University. The folks there were gracious enough to allow me to come on campus and do a photo shoot with a giant cricket. Here’s how the conversations went:

Student:What’s going on?
Me:It’s National Awkward Moments Day. Do you want your picture with a giant cricket?
Student:YES!!!!

     It was awesome. The photos are online for you to see and for the students to download and do with as they please. I obviously encourage them to post them everywhere (and mention www.theCRICKETtoy.com)

2. Sweet CeCe’s downtown Franklin. ‘CeCe’ donated 5 free yogurts to the first 5 Tweeters to show up. It was a pretty good crowd and Sweet CeCe’s rocks! If you haven’t been there, check it out! If you don’t have one in your town, they are now franchising!

Bad
     I did not do a good enough job marketing the event (live and online). As a result we didn’t have crazy crowds and I wasn’t swamped with answers for the trivia questions online. When it’s a one man/bug show and you are just getting started, you do what you can. There are only so many hours in the day. I have a publishing company. I’m producing a children’s record and along with having 2 daughters and an amazingly supportive wife, I have a 5 month old son. You can only do so much. BUT, I ABSOLUTELY know what to do better next year. No question!

     Here’s the really interesting part that many social marketing experts don’t talk about. I have 6,000 followers on Twitter and over 1,000 friends on Facebook. I talked about this event for the week building up to this grand day. During the actual day, I tweeted the questions and did fun updates (like when I was thrown out of the mall). I think the draw to my blog from folks is more about an entrepreneur starting out without investors and learning as he goes while admitting his failures. Admission:I had only about 40 more hits to my website than normal. Yes…40.

CHIRP. CHIRP.

     I should have done a LOT more marketing to radio, newspapers, tv and put up signs all around town. That would have really helped out. BUT, I really thought with the 6,000 followers and 1,000 facebook friends that we would get some viral traction and folks would share this silly day. That did not really happen. I did have some great folks do some tweeting/facebooking, but as a whole Twitter completely failed in my opinion. You would think that of 6,000 followers, at least 500 of them who CHOSE to follow me would talk about National Awkward Moments Day. That did not happen.
I had 15 people tweet about it.

     So the questions comes to mind:What value is there in large follower counts when you are not some sort of celebrity whom ALL of your followers live to see your tweets? I just don’t think it’s as powerful as it used to be before all the direct marketers took over. Just my opinion though. I would love yours. Post your comments below!

Takeaway
     I ‘think’ one of my greatest strengths is the ability to step outside of myself to see what did and what didn’t work and learn from it. I am not afraid to adjust my expectations, my plans and my direction. As my good Marine friend always says, “Adapt and Overcome.” That is a GREAT philosophy in business. You just have to constantly assess where you are and where you should be.

     There were some amazing moments in the day, but they were not ALL amazing. So that’s the goal for next year.

Pure Amazing.

That and don’t get kicked out of the mall again.

CHIRP. CHIRP.

National Awkward Moments Day turned out to be a LOT of fun yesterday (March 18th). I think the most fun was doing the photo shoot at Belmont (in front of Beaman). Just to have people walk up and ask what’s going on and be able to say “It’s National Awkward Moments Day. Do you want your photo with a giant cricket?” That..well, that was the best.

I told them all we’d post the photos on the web so they could download them and have some fun. If you were at the photo shoot, go find your photo and download it. It’s completely free for you to do whatever you wish with. All I ask is that you tell people it’s www.theCRICKETtoy.com who did this for you. Oh…and buy a cricket or two.

More details about the day later. I wanted to get these photos posted for everyone.

Lots of fun. Plenty of awkward moments. Chirp. Chirp.

Here’s the link to all the photos!(our flickr account)

Happy National Awkward Moments Day!

     We are celebrating both online (via Twitter) and all around town today! Honestly, someone called me last year and told me about the holiday the day BEFORE it (I had no idea). Since this is basically Christmas for theCRICKETtoy®, I HAVE to do some fun, silly and possibly awkward giveaways today!

     Online, we will be tweeting random trivia questions all throughout the day. In order to win, you must Tweet your answer with @theCRICKETtoy and the hash tag #chirpchirp

A sample answer might be:

@theCRICKETtoy Those aren’t pillows! #chirpchirp




     For those folks around Nashville/Franklin/Spring Hill, here’s how you can win prizes at our First Annual National Awkward Moments Day Progressive Tweet-up or FANAMDPT-u for short:

7:30am Starbucks-Spring Hill
     The first 10 people to say “Chirp. Chirp.” to theCRICKETtoy® mascot (Calvin) will receive a prize. One of those prizes is a $150 value!

10am Belmont University-Beaman Student Life Center
     First 20 people to get their picture with Calvin receive a free CD
     Everyone who gets their picture with Calvin will receive a free temporary tattoo (you put it on, not us)

12:30pm Cool Springs Galleria Food Court
     First 2 people to find Calvin and say “Chirp. Chirp.” win prizes. One of those prizes is a $150 value!

2pm Daylight Donuts
     Everyone that says “Chirp. Chirp” at the register gets a FREE coffee (2-3pm only)
     First 10 people to say “Chirp. Chirp.” get a prize. One of those prizes is a $150 value!

3pm Sweet CeCe’s (Franklin)
     First 10 people to say “Chirp. Chirp.” get a prize (1 per family)
     Every parent gets a FREE 20 day subscription for their children to Franktown Rocks!

4pm Jump Zone (Franklin)
     First 20 people to say “Chirp. Chirp.” get a prize (1 per family). One of those prizes is a $150 value!
     Every parent gets a FREE 20 day subscription for their children to Franktown Rocks!
     EVERY child gets a free Bob and Larry sticker (while supplies last)

5:15pm Chick-fil-a (New one-off Highway 31)
     First 15 people to say “Chirp. Chirp.” get a prize (1 per family). One of those prizes is a $150 value!
     Every parent gets a FREE 20 day subscription for their children to Franktown Rocks!
     EVERY child gets a free Bob and Larry sticker (while supplies last)

     There are over $4500 worth of prizes to be given out today (online and in town), so follow us on Twitter and come see us around town today (and tell your friends and family). Trust me, you will NOT MISS US!

  Driving this

  Wearing this

National Awkward Moments Day Schedule

Follow. Tweet. Win.

Thursday, March 18th

Please come to ANY/ALL events you can!



7:30am   Starbucks-Spring Hill(in front of Tanyard Springs)
          4839 Main Street, Spring Hill, TN 37174-2725

10:00am   Belmont University-Beaman Student Life Center
          Free Photo Shoot with theCRICKETtoy® Mascot & a Blue Screen
          1900 Belmont Boulevard, Nashville, TN 37212-3757

12:30pm   Cool Springs Galleria Food Court (bugs gotta eat)
          no promotions here..just a bug eating chicken (Chick-fil-a)

1pm   TBA via Twitter www.twitter.com/theCRICKETtoy

2pm   Daylight Donuts (Franklin) (FREE COFFEE to all who come & Tweet while we’re there)
          128 Royal Oaks Blvd, Franklin, TN 37067

3pm   TBA via Twitter

4pm   Jump Zone (Franklin)
          1725 Columbia Ave ,Franklin, TN 37064

5:15pm   Chick-fil-a (BRAND NEW ONE!)
          1105 Shadow Green Drive, Franklin, TN 37064

7:30-until   Zanies Comedy Club-Nashville (attending/no promotions here)
          2025 8th Avenue South, Nashville, TN 37204

     We are giving away great prizes ALL DAY at EVERY location! We are also doing random Twitter giveaways, so MAKE SURE to follow us on Twitter
to get the online challenges as well.

     Prizes include:theCRICKETtoy®(of course), Shirts, CDs, books, DVDs, Online subscriptions, free FOOD, free COFFEE, free Jump Zone passes, Hydromassages (had one today!) and temporary tattoos. One of the prizes is a LIFETIME Supply of theCRICKETtoy®! What’s a lifetime supply? Check it out here.

     Please share this with everyone you know (Twitter, Facebook and actual live humans).

Here are post cards if you want to print them and hand them out!

     Thursday, March 18th is National Awkward Moments Day. I did not make that holiday up. It’s one of those fun, silly holidays. BUT…it is basically like Christmas for theCRICKETtoy®!

     We are going to be celebrating all day this Thursday with the 1st Annual National Awkward Moments Day Progressive Tweet-up!

What that means is that theCRICKET car:

theCRICKET mascot (Calvin):

and theCRICKETtoy®:

are going to be at different places all day long around Nashville/Franklin/Spring Hill. We’ll be giving away theCRICKETtoy®, CDs, Books, tattoos, awkward movies and other things(come see us). We will end the night at Zanies Comedy Club in Nashville to see Tommy Davidson perform.

     BUT…I need a REALLY CLEVER, silly yet effective, easily implementable social media marketing plan for that day. I want to give out a Lifetime Supply of theCRICKETtoy® to someone that day, but I can’t figure out how to do it.

     I need someone to come up with a fun Twitter/Social Media campaign to get tens of thousands of folks Tweeting about theCRICKETtoy®. I’ve thought about trying to do something with the most retweeted tweet “Happy National Awkward Moments Day @theCRICKETtoy. Chirp. Chirp.” idea, but I can’t figure out how to track it and make it work. I need something where EVERYONE wants to retweet about us. This is the BIGGEST day of the year for us and I want to make theCRICKETtoy® be one of the top 5 words on Twitter.

     I need help

     There are SO many people on Twitter that profess to be GENIUS marketing folks that surely someone can come up with something.

Here’s my proposition:

     Make your proposal in the comments to this blog (including your Twitter/Web page of course). If I go with your proposal, I will give you 10 of theCRICKETtoy® AND you can be a guest blogger on this site and make one post promoting you/your company etc. (keep it clean-My 7 year old should be able to read/see the post).

     The winner is the FIRST post of whatever the idea is. If you use someone’s idea who posted before you, they get the credit, not you. Be specific about the marketing plan. Please don’t just say ‘1st to retweet ‘That was Awkward. Chirp. Chirp.” wins a lifetime supply of theCRICKETtoy®.’ Make it buzzworthy, viral and worthy of tweetin’/retweetin’ about.

     In the new world of marketing, honesty is key. There’s no question I’m doing this for hype. Someone who’s a genius at hype, buzz and massive retweets and hits, make theCRICKETtoy® famous next Thursday, March 18th.

     Good luck. Many awkward pauses!

     Jeff Anderson-creator/inventor of theCRICKETtoy® for those awkward pauses.

     my Twitter is @theCRICKETtoy

     I had a big tradeshow at the beginning of February. The upside potential is great AS LONG AS we had the opportunity to talk with all of the sales reps of this company, they liked ups and they remember us as they place their orders. Here’s what I knew going into the show: If the sales reps like your product, you get on the list of approved products. Then each rep chooses products and quantities himself/herself. That order is combined into one Purchase Order and then it is sent to us.

     What this means at this show is that I need to try and talk with EVERY sales rep, explain theCRICKETtoy®, the crickets chirping, the awkward pauses and how they could best utilize our genius gadget. I want to get their attention, I want them to come to our booth, I want to tell them why we’re geniuses (chirp. chirp.) and when they leave, I want to make sure that they remember me.

     Enter Mark Hughes ‘Buzzmarketing: get people to talk about your stuff.’ Through the recommendation of a dear friend (who is SPOT ON with his book recommendations), I go and buy Mark’s book.

     Mark says that buzzmarketing “captures the attention of consumers and the media to the point where talking about your brand or company becomes entertaining, fascinating and newsworthy.” (page 2 of the book)

     He says there are six buttons of buzz and they are: the taboo, the unusual, the outrageous, the hilarious, the remarkable and the secrets (kept and revealed) (page 29 of the book).

     How can I push the buzz buttons so people come TO my booth, offering me their valuable time and then REMEMBER me when they leave? Mark’s book pushed me to think hard about this and this is what I came up with:

     What if a giant cricket handed out real chocolate covered crickets on a silver platter at my booth?

     Chirp. Chirp.

     I was honestly not prepared for the response at the show. It was absolutely amazing! Unusual? Outrageous? Hilarious? Secrets? All of these things happened with us at the show. We were a breath of fresh air at the show. I had at least 30 people come up to us and actually say “Everyone is talking about theCRICKETtoy®.”

     Everyone that walked into the building saw this giant cricket with bouncy antennae. The director of Veggie Tales (Big Idea) is a good friend and he made this costume for me (for FREE mind you!). You can’t help but look at it. It got EVERYONE’S attention! They walk up to see what we are about and the giant cricket holds out the tray of chocolate covered crickets. A barage of results happened with so many hilarious stories (some I can’t repeat). Of about 225-250 folks there, 75 people ate the crickets. I gave out a good number of theCRICKETtoy® to folks and throughout the entire rest of their conference, there were crickets chirping EVERYWHERE! The MCs had them to use in case their jokes bombed (assuming they got to theirs before an audience member got to theirs). They used them the entire weekend. The head of the show told me we were the ‘talk of the show.’

     A friend of mine (my age) took 2 days off work to stand there and wear the costume all day and tell people about theCRICKETtoy® when he took the head off. You can’t have a very serious conversation with theCRICKETtoy® mascot head on.

     Mark also talks about honesty/openness about what you are doing. Consumers today are so aware of marketing that to try and hide the fact that you’re advertising something is insulting.

     The story told is this guy has an idea for an invention, his amazing wife gives him the ok, and he creates theCRICKETtoy®, buys a PT Cruiser and wraps it like a giant cricket, makes a giant cricket costume and goes to a tradeshow with a clearly GREAT friend wearing the costume handing out chocolate covered bugs which this ‘genius’ inventor had actually made with his 2 daughters (see former blog post). It’s a completely true story and a large run-on sentence. The folks loved as I explained what it is, how I came up with it and how they can use it. I then told them as I pointed at the giant cricket with desert bug snacks on a tray, “I was trying to figure out how I could get you guys to remember me when you are ordering products.” “Not a problem” they all said smiling, laughing and picking cricket legs out of their teeth.

     I was so blown away by the response of the folks that I sent Mark Hughes an email thanking him for his book and what it meant to my company. He sent back (immediately) this reply:

Thank you for being a reader & thanks for your wonderful note.

The book is just half the equation…the most important half is people like you who take action.

Jeff, thank you for your kind note, congratulations, and may God Bless You & your family.

-mark hughes

     I REALIZE that I talked about theCRICKETtoy® this entire blog entry and not as much about what’s in his book, but that is the point. Buzzmarketing challenges you to find ways to get people to talk about your stuff. This blog entry is simply what I came up with to do that at a tradeshow. It was SO much fun I can’t even describe!

     You NEED this book if you EVER do ANY ADVERTISING/MARKETING for your company or product. It does not matter what industry you are in, this book will challenge you to become buzzworthy and not just go the same route everyone else does. Go the same route as everyone, and you’ll get the same low returns on investment as everyone else does. Markets are saturated. People’s time is valuable. People want honest, real, remarkable, amazing, funny stories that they can talk about with their friends, co-workers and family. Read the book and figure out how to tell your story in a different way than your competitors and you will get a return on your investment that you will not believe!

     I’ve now realized that theCRICKETtoy® is buzzworthy on so many levels. I just have to find ways to get people to talk about it. Help me if you can. Share a link to my blog, buy theCRICKETtoy® and chirp chirp chirp chirp chirp.

Many awkward moments.

Jeff

This one is a special day
with reverent thoughts I smile and say
“Happy birthday to the man
who’s rhyming life, a fan I am”

On Mount Crumpit a creature whom Karloff and Carrey
gave glimpses of life both saddened and scary
did learn from a ‘who’, who taught in a pinch
that Christmas is for all, yes even a ____________

A fantastically furry and flamboyant feline
Whom Myers admired, we all would opine
that 1 and 2 Things and a fish may think that
trouble may follow a _____ in a _______

I heard a who in Who-ville speak
So in specks of dust I now must peek
“Cause whether you’re famous, big or small
a person’s a person, no matter how small”*

Chartreuese or Emerald; Fern, olive or jade
Shamrock or persian, could all be the shade
Whether camo, or mint is yet to be seen
But one thing is for sure, eggs and ham are now ____________

Hops on Pops are very good things
And Yings are things that like to sing
Foxes in sox(es) occur as they may
in imagined worlds where we dream to play

Wockets in pockets are only the start
of crazy adventures dear to our heart
From Marvin K. Mooneys to Hooper Humperdinks
Our minds run free, Oh how he made us to think

Once we as children, now parents, these books
So ingrained in our mind, that nary a look
at the words on the page for they’ve lodged in our mind
as we snuggle precious ones, speaking all words in rhyme

So some day as my son’s son reads the words
That mom shared with me and made my mind stir
I pray that the dreams of a child are made loose
Because of the words of the late Dr. Seuss

Happy Birthday Dr. Theodor Seuss Geissel
March 2, 1904

by Jeff Anderson*
except for “Cause whether you’re famous, big or small

a person’s a person, no matter how small” taken from “Horton Hears a Who!”