Bkon Brewing is about to change the world...of TEA!

RAI - Reverse Atmospheric Infusion

There is nothing like this in the world...or galaxy!

 

 

Stay tuned...more to come!

A leadership thought: "great leaders never believe they're the smartest on the team - instead they cultivate an environment to create the smartest teams"


 

Season's Greetings!

WHAT BRAND CATEGORY KILLER HAS 40K LOCATIONS & IS ONLY 5 MINUTES FROM YOUR HOME?

REDBOX! What an amazing company and concept with thousands of passionate employees working behind the scenes every day to deliver Hollywood's best entertainment. Whether it is movies, games, Hi-Def Blu-ray titles and who knows what next, REDBOX has redefined how we consume entertainment. With locations everywhere and nightly movie rentals for only $1.20, it is hard to believe REDBOX has only about half the rental market!

REDBOX was started in the early 2000's by a guy named Gregg Kaplan who worked in a think tank lab at McDonalds in Chicago. These guys were constantly exploring ways to bring more value to their Customers. Being the outright leader in providing the best food value in QSR with products like the BIG MAC, $.99 Double Cheeseburgers, and Chicken McNuggets, McDonald's owns the VALUE MENU.

With a back drop of value and a growing desire to find more ways to bring families together the REDBOX entertainment giant was born! After a few short years the concept was spun out of the McDonalds corporation and found a great partner not long after with COINSTAR the company that makes converting our coins and change into dollar bills easy! It was a match made in heaven.

Today there are almost 40,000 kiosks in about 30,000 locations across North America. You can usually find a kiosk at your favorite neighborhood grocery, drug or convenience store. Believe it or not about 70% of US homes are within 5 minutes of at least one REDBOX, often more like 3 or four. Now that's simple and easy!

REDBOX makes it easy to reserve a movie or game you want through your computer or mobile phone. All you do is set-up a REDBOX account, search for movies and games you want and simply reserve your selections online. Then pick up your selections at your favorite kiosk.  Within minutes you’re being entertained at home for the lowest prices on earth. Nightly rentals are $1.20 for standard definition movies, $1.50 for Blu-ray movies and $2.00 for games.

So, when it comes to unbelievably great entertainment at ridiculously low prices there is only one place to go that MAKES IT MATTER and that place is REDBOX entertainment! 

Make it Matter Tonight!!

Finally! Social Media Connects with Emotion...and gives the world a COKE!

After 40 years of hearing that resoundingly familiar song "I like to buy the world a COKE and keep it company...."  and all its renditions over the years, the powers of Coke, Google and the creative genius of 70 year old Harvey Gabor recreate the magic of "Hilltop" shot in Italy in 1971.   Harvey may be one of the six grand old men of advertising yet he still has the creative juices to collaborate and advance a great idea!

To date this is one of the most effective demonstrations and examples of effectively leveraging social media, today’s technology and emotional connection of great marketing. Beyond that, they "raise the bar" and extend the idea into the real world through digital technology creating access that touches every heart on the planet...at least every heart that is close to a Coke vending machine...Amazing!!

This is truly special and will make you say WOW!... It is not often we see marketing and advertising executives really leveraging the unique qualities of social media and today’s technology to make the world a better place.

To be honest, we are all a bit exhausted of the growing "noise" of social media always trying to sell us something. The Internet is a media that is all too easy to fall into the trap of being "transactional" becoming the direct-mail of today (albeit saving trees) when the real purpose we engage social media today is to build "relationships". 

This is an excellent example of how great brands can connect with fans using the advancement of today's technology and find a place in the hearts and minds of their fans - the goal of every great brand to Make It Matter! Enjoy the video and link below...

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Make It Matter...

Here's to a great 2012!!

Apple...the New Hard Rock Cafe?

Anyone who isn't living under a rock knows Apple has been quietly taking over the world during the past ten years or so. While Apple has always been a company many kept in their view out of the corner of our eye given its coolness, the early days seemed to be concentrated on a small group of sort of hippy-ish people. Then came the iPod...and the adventure into main stream began exploding. If you didn't have an iPod, well you didn't have your very own personal music store! After the iPod introduction we simply watched the iPod get smaller and smaller and hold more and more music - we were truly amazed!

Next the iPhone. Most thought it would never really catch on big and that the Blackberry was the winner. After all the iPhone was very expensive and lacked a keyboard. Well, now the iPhone is the leading smart phone and along with our iPods we're beginning to say but don't i need an iPad and iMac too? Just amazing how this brand has taken over our lives by a guy named Steve Jobs.
Even the Apple stores early on seemed more like a museum than a hard core retailer - akin to the Nike stores. But then that too began to go main stream like Starbucks with a store in almost every mall on the planet! Their biggest store, 23,000 s.f. just opened in NYC's Grand Central Terminal replacing former tenant Charlie Palmer's Metrazur restaurant, who Apple reportedly paid $5 million to vacate the location early.

And now the crowds build for every store opening and there are actually groupies that attend every store grand opening hoping to be one of the first 100 to receive the grand opening T-shirt...attempting to collect them all. The grand-opening shirts and their minimalist design hark to the first of Apple's more than 300 stores, which launched in McLean, Va., and Glendale, Calif., over a decade ago. Most are black with white lettering. But Apple sometimes marks major new openings with a special design or color, such as red for this year's Hong Kong debut.

I'm quite surprised that Apple hasn't designed the T-shirts to feed the collection (or should we say bragging rights) fever and steal a page from the Hard Rock Cafe...same logo on every shirt with a simple listing of the city below the logo. "Oh, were you at the Beijing China Apple store opening? Wow aren't you cool!"

All I can say is it seems everything Apple does is well planned and thought out...they Make It Matter and have built one of the largest most loved brands in the world!