The interesting part to marketers here is this: if you read the response (hint: power words) it’s clear that what is supposed to look like a personal opinion from a Sprint employee is a (not so) carefully worded hype element. Basically they are trying to stay mysterious and hush-hush, even distancing themselves from making an official statement by putting in a disclaimer (first sentence), while still confirming that the Supersonic is indeed coming out. And, without officially saying so, the email even gives some specs, which to me reads like an ad  for it. Listing the “leaked, not confirmed” specs and using words like “unbelievably thin body” is meant to whet my (the consumer’s) appetite. It worked. This style of quasi guerilla hype marketing is a bit unusual for Sprint. I like it.

I think Sprint needs to fight with everything it’s got. If this means to let their reps respond to inquiries about leaked phones with a bit of fake hype then so be it. Even if it’s cookie cutter text written to look like it’s the personal opinion from an employee and not a official Sprint statement is okay here. Yes, maybe this could be worded a little differently, a little less obvious. But I’m glad to see Sprint trying this route.

Hey, I love what HTML5 will be able to do. In the future. Flash is pretty bloated, yes. And while I personally never had any problems with Flash on my Macbook Pro, I believe that others do. But you know what Steve, your iPad is going to sell NOW. So we want to watch Hulu and all the other Flash-based video sites on it NOW. Not in the future. NOW.

See, this is the difference between a mega corporation like Apple and us “little porn guys”. If we pulled this “we don’t like this format so we’re not supporting it” bullshit we’d be out of business. For Apple, not having Flash is a feature.

From a marketing perspective, Apple is God. Making a lack of something a feature and claiming this lack is to provide a better user experience (because choice just isn’t good for people, apparently) is pure gold – mostly because a lot of people actually buy into that nonsense.

Imagine Korn’s new video debuting on Camz.com.

Personally I think this crossover promotion is very cool. I don’t see this type of thing happen just yet here in the United States. It’s not a new trend either, many mainstream companies in several European countries, in particular Germany, have been embracing and promoting adult entertainment related services for years. For example, years back I recall finding huge mainstream sites like Deutsche Telekom’s main site linking to adult sites via it’s “erotic section”.

Sexual entertainment is pretty common in German mainstream media (thank goodness!). although I understand this has been toned down in recent years.

Germany’s largest newspaper is Bild Zeitung and for as long as I can remember it featured naked breasts almost daily. As a matter of fact, Bild Zeitung online is doing a feature now on…Rammstein’s “Pussy” video, including sneek peak and sexy pics, polls, and so forth.

The pic to the left here is on its main page right now. Imagine National Enquirer having tits on its front page. Or USA Today. Hmmmm…

Too bad they were blocking the video to viewers in the US the last time I checked.

I’m excited that a major band like Rammstein (one of my favorites since their debut album Herzeleid) is doing this at such a level though. It’ll be huge for Visit-X.net. I hope one day more mainstream outfits in the US will embrace “porn” more. It would benefit everyone involved, if done correctly.

So I get an email from Sprint just after midnight 06/06/2009 – As expected, the Palm Pre is now officially available.
After the hype Palm and Sprint have been building you’d expect those guys to put some extra care into the launch.

All pages should be up and running, all links working, all graphics carefully selected and positioned, purchasing information and opportunities should be aplenty, and everything should just be ready for the consumer.

This is always important and particularly so during any major product launch or site change. To get the email you had to have filled out a form at Sprint.com to be notified of the Pre’s availability, making those consumers who received this launch email prime customers – exactly the kind  Sprint and Palm need to stay alive during these times.

But when I clicked the link in the email, instead of wowing me with some sexy presentation and an opportunity to buy this highly anticipated gadget right then and there on Sprint’s site I get an almost blank page that just says “We’re Updating…”

If an important launch like that is so unorganized and unreliable, what else is?

How this Relates to You the Webmaster / Marketer

Just because sending emails doesn’t cost money doesn’t mean it should be used without care.
Are you making sure all your links work in every piece of communication you send out or publish? Did you make sure that every page your visitors go to is entirely free of broken links, outdated information, and other stuff that can cost you sales?

Double and triple check your stuff. Pretend you’re the person you are marketing to – would you take action, (would you buy, would you sign up, would you leave your email, would you…)? Are you even able to?

There’s not a huge amount there yet but like all Wikis, this could potentially become big, fast. So go ahead and start your engines, err…entries.

Here’s the press release. Or go straight to Carnalpedia.org here.

PRESS RELEASE (unaltered) —

###

“Wikipedia for Porn” Launches

After several months of development, the world’s largest sex encyclopedia is opening its door to the public. Carnalpedia is a free, peer-editable resource on sex, pornography and the adult industry that uses the Restricted to Adults website label to allows services like NetNanny to block access to those not of an appropriate age.

San Diego, Calif. June 4, 2009 — After several months of development Carnalpedia is opening its doors to the public. Built on MediaWiki, the same platform that powers Wikipedia, Carnalpedia is a free, peer-editable resource on all things sex and porn related.

After only a few weeks it is already home to over 120,000 articles, making it the largest online sex encyclopedia. Everyone, including adult companies, webmasters, porn stars and sex enthusiasts are invited to share their wealth of knowledge on the site, including the creation of pages for any products or services they would like to increase awareness of.

“The fact that Wikipedia has a certain type of audience leaves a lot of information about sex and the adult industry either blocked or censored. Having a wiki geared exclusively for the topic of sex, as well as having all the articles using the Restricted to Adults website labels, allows us a lot of latitude in what we can provide,” said site creator Jeremy Haddock.

The site allows images to be added only by authorized individuals from approved sources to ensure compliance with copyright law and the legal age of the models. All pages within Carnalpedia also carry the RTA label, which allows services like NetNanny to block access to those not of an appropriate age.

Visit http://www.carnalpedia.org or http://www.carnalpedia.org/Carnalpedia for more information.

————————————————————————————–

I call any form of advertising and marketing that’s wasteful and pointless Black Hole Marketing.

Yes you aren’t crazy – there really are stupid marketers doing stupid things all the time.

To give you an example, I just saw yet another TV ad from Comcast, advertising their new bundled cable Internet and TV packages. A nice TV ad, and I’d be interested in the offer – except Comcast doesn’t offer service anywhere in the metropolitan area where I live (a very big city. Oh screw it, it’s Phoenix).

I bet this ad is shown in many other areas where Comcast isn’t even operating. Black Hole Advertising.

The same evening I see another TV ad, and get a pamphlet from Sprint in the mail. Both forms of advertising talk up Sprint 4G, Sprint’s new super fast wireless internet access service. Download and upload speeds rivaling cable. Awesome. I so want it.

Problem: it doesn’t exist yet, except in Baltimore. Later this year a few other cities should have Sprint’s 4G service too. So why advertise this nationwide? To hype up demand for 4G prematurely?

That’s stupid marketing.

It’s stupid because it costs a lot of money to produce and air television commericals, and to print glossy color pamphlets that are sent to hundreds of thousands of people who can never buy.

It’s stupid because it tells thousands (millions) of people about something they can’t get, making the offer pointless. It’s not a “hype” thing either because you can’t hype something if you never plan on selling that something. The Comcast ad is a great example. Comcast isn’t in Phoenix, and will likely never come to Phoenix. But their ads are shown here on local TV, during prime time. Phoenix’ ad marketing isn’t cheap. Why not put this money towards advertising in areas Comcast does have service?

Some genius at these companies’ marketing departments thought it’d be a good idea to spend a few million dollars advertising to people who are not – and never will be – customers.

That’s money down a black hole.

This is frivolous spending because it cannot possibly yield any positive results. And yet you see this type of idiotic marketing everywhere.

Whether the marketing/ad people are just not paying attention, don’t care, or are really that incompetent doesn’t matter – the result is the same: wasted money and energy.

So, is your marketing effort seen by people who can actually be your customers?

I’ll share some interesting statistics of those three behemoths and throw out some ideas and views on what’s going to happen with them.

For newcomers to marketing and branding on the Web I’ll talk about some basics you don’t want to miss. For the more seasoned guys and girls there are some reminders meant to help you get back on track with your stuff (we all need to remember to get Back to the Basics sometimes).

Remember that the numbers and opinions you’re about to see are based on current statistical information. I might completely change my mind next week if the numbers change. And statistics alone never show the complete picture. But right now it doesn’t look good for…

FIND OUT!

They’re  renown self help gurus who originally had a good service to offer, had a great reputation, and now are nothing more than desperate telemarketing sales spammers.

Got an automated call from Loral Langmeier’s office at 1-866-905-9891

The message stated that Loral Langmeier would conduct a seminar in my area and gave dates. It tried to elicit third party credibility by mentioning Loral Langmeier was featured on Dr Phil (FAIL!). Doesn’t matter.

I knew of Loral Langmeier from the movie “The Secret” and thought she offered good advice and ideas about wealth creation. I don’t recall ever putting my phone number on any lists permitting her to call me. And my number is on the FTC’s Do Not Call list.

And yet, Loral Langmeier saw fit to infiltrate my privacy anyhow and pitch me on her services.

Very disappointing to find out she’s nothing more than a spammer.

Needless to say I’m not interested. She betrayed my trust by calling me, despite me never giving out my phone number. And that’s after I received a bunch of nearly daily emails about her stuff. It was so bad I unsubscribed from her mailing list, something I rarely do.

Rewind a few years to Robert Allen, author of money books like Nothing Down Real Estate and others did the same crap: start out with a decent idea, then kill his good image by spamming the hell out of his subscribers. Not only that, if he somehow got your phone number you better expect a call every few weeks about his services.

You betray our trust, you lose. If you act desperate we don’t believe you are as good as you say you are because if you were you didn’t have to be desperate.

If you are a marketer remember that you are not in control (as Seth Godin likes to say) – your customers are.

You should see the complaints both of these guys log on the web.

FAIL.

J-SiN and me had a lot of fun so the interview went  a bit long and it’s broken down into two parts. Part one is up right now.

If you’re thinking of starting to shoot naughty stuff, or are already doing that and need some tips or a refresher or two click on over to SiN 2.0.

While you’re there, download and listen to all the other great podcasts and interviews with some of the smartest minds in the industry. Never hurts to learn a new thing or two, does it?

UPDATE: as of 10/20 the second part is available now too on Sin 2.0. The second part of this podcast deals with proper equipment choices and post-production tips.