Monday, March 26, 2012

A Bit of Free PR Advice

So the video below marks my inspiration for this post. It's only slightly outdated (Summer last season 2nd Atlanta race). That's my man--Tony Stewart--autographing a hat for me. He makes regular appearances at Office Depots across the nation. My husband was awesome and kind enough to go and get my a bracelet on his way to work so I wouldn't have to wait in any long lines with my three kids. Other fans, I learned, had been waiting since 1a.m. to see Tony and snag an autograph.

With kids in tow, we waited outside in a line for 2 hours to see Tony. This was my first time EVER getting to see him in person, and up close (I've seen him at races, but from the stands and while he was in his car). Some of the other fans clued me in to the fact that Tony doesn't come outside, he sneaks in the back door. I was really excited to give him a huge welcome to Atlanta, but no biggy. So two hours of waiting in the blistering heat with kids whining about boredom, hunger, thirst, potty breaks--you know, kids stuff. Finally the Office Depot managers come out to inform us that we'll be ushered in small groups to get our autograph. He also let us know that we could snap shots, but that Tony wouldn't be posing. Again, no biggy.

So of course, the line break lands me right at the entrance--kinda first in line for my group--waiting to go in and see the man who I have adored for the past 13 years (this year makes 14). The friendly associate takes us on a brief tour around the outskirts of the store to meet back up with the line. By now--and I'm not lying--I was about as giddy as a schoolgirl. I've never met a giddy school girl, but that's the saying. The reality was that my eagerness to meet Tony for the first time was embarrassing the heck outta my kids. I might've been red in the cheeks, but I couldn't see me.

So here we are--next in line to see Tony. I've got my camera rolling. I can't speak. Yea, me! Not able to come up with anything intelligent to say. Crap! So he signs my hat, I say thanks, and I'm on my way. -.- Not even a minute has passed, but my opportunity was gone. I ran into another woman who found the courage to cry right there. Thank goodness that wasn't me, but afterwards--on my hour long trip home--you better believe I could have. I couldn't get it out of my head. Before me was the guy I had regularly fantasized racing against (among other things, but that was the cleanest thing we ever did ^.~) and I couldn't say or do anything to get his attention. Not even a glance. He almost lifted his eyes up enough toward the end, but the video doesn't completely catch that he immediately moved onto the next thing to sign. It was depressing--no--DEVASTATING. I was crushed. In my head, I had always imagined he would see me, fall deeply in love and we'd be racing tracks across the country. Yea, a little far fetched, but I don't think I'm the only person (woman) to imagine this about any driver (and of course I knew (know) that will never happen--huzzah for happy marriages); especially after I had been watching him race since I was a teen.

Anyway, the point is, this led to me to look more into Tony Stewart. No doubt he loves his fans. But I have found time and time again, stories of his personal disregard for fans. Obviously, I don't know if they are all true. I would like to believe he didn't really walk by a kid in a wheel chair and say "sorry, late for qualifying," and this post is not about Tony Stewart, per say. He's just my shining example. Sorry Tony (as if he's reading--you can't see my eye roll, but I rolled my eyes at this idea).

The point of this post is PR 101. Celebrities of all venues, acknowledge your fans. Consider for a minute that all women have fantasized about you (this includes the women celebrities, too). A little eye contact, a small smile--it all goes a very long way. Now all of us ladies might not be drop dead gorgeous, or blond, or big breasted, and we may have three kids, and some junk in our trunk, and drive gi-normous vans... Regardless! The things we have done to you in our minds are unspeakable. That little glance, that simple smile, it makes us feel special. It keeps our fantasies alive. It ensures we'll remain your fans. It sells YOU. If you are too busy for your fans, one day they might get too busy to watch you. #JustSaying

I still adore Tony Stewart, even if he does treat me bad (lol, I'm so kidding). I hope that the rumors of his bad PR behavior aren't true. I hope he stops in an Office Depot in my neck of the woods again this year. I might not wait two hours in the hot sun to see him, or I might use the time more wisely to develop a slightly less duh-ed approach to meeting someone I consider a celebrity. I dunno. Maybe, I'll turn my attention to some of these other drivers who have been so awesome as to follow me on Twitter. I'm just saying--go the distance for your fans, they keep you driving. ^.~



Sunday, March 25, 2012

Commercials Ticking You Off?

I waited some time before I posted this blog, because I didn't want it to be a series of blasts at people by which I was relatively bothered. However, it occurred to me that I would have to sum up the situation that led to this post for complete clarification. For protection of their identity I am not using names. I will simply use @PeronIDisagreeWith1 and @PersonIDisagreeWithMore. Onto to the post!

So as you know, I'm a racing junky. I get my fix from watching Speed Channel and on the weekend--NASCAR racing (go Tony--by the way!). As of late, there's been all sorts of stuff coming up that stops me from enjoying the race personally, at home, on my couch, on my decent sized TV, maybe with a beer. Today was no different. I had to go get the tires on my van changed. Well I didn't have to... I chose to because my husband said he'd stay home with the kids. That's like a vacation to me. Of course, I didn't expect it to take as long as it did, but that's not the point of this post. Anyway, when these events come up, I stay up to date with the series of posters tweeting on Twitter. In particular, I follow @theNASCARfans and several other accounts whose purpose is to draw attention to companies for gaining more sponsors in the sport of racing.

Now, I think @theNASCARfans started this approach, and I loved the idea. It has certainly taken off, too. David Stremme displayed the logo on his own car. Since then, there have been other accounts arise with the same intention, some for specific drivers, but mostly for the same purpose. Let me be clear, this was NOT related to @theNASCARfans. This was another account of the same intent whom I no longer follow for their--I'm keeping this clean, so I won't finish my thought and we'll just call them @PeronIDisagreeWith1.

Anyway, @PeronIDisagreeWith1 tweeted about the many commercials. The person even counted the number of commercials to laps driven--basically made a math/science and countdown to commercials. I really didn't pay that too much mind. I just shook my head and ignored it. However, @PeronIDisagreeWithMore chimed in with their opinion of the race as "boring" and needing the saving grace of rain. For some reason, this just begged me to chime in. So I kindly reminded the two that they could change the channel if they were so unhappy with the race and all it's commercials. Well @PeronIDisagreeWithMore must be a nutty liberal or something, because instead of coming back to me with anything pertinent, they persisted in childish ridicule and bickering with me. Honestly, with me?! Are you serious? I also reminded @PeronIDisagreeWith1 that the purpose of their account is like that of @theNASCARfans--to get sponsors to look this way, and by bitching about the commercials they were indeed doing just the opposite. These people swore they realized that sponsors are the ones that keep these cars on the track, on our TVs, and thus deserved their air time. But @PeronIDisagreeWith1 insisted that the itty bitty space taken up on the cars was enough commercial for all the sponsors, and we the fans should not have to watch commercials. @PeronIDisagreeWithMore suggested I was overstepping some boundary with a lack of expertise on the subject. Maybe @PeronIDisagreeWithMore should get to know someone before they make such claims. I'm a student of Marketing already holding one degree (not a big one, but probably one more than @PeronIDisagreeWithMore). I have natural awesomeness for marketing in general which is why I have chosen to study in the field. When I bust into the career, I'm going to rock whatever company I work for. But I digress. @PeronIDisagreeWithMore then insisted that the commercials aren't even focused on the teams with lesser sponsors. This is where my post comes from.

It doesn't take a genius or someone with a degree in Marketing to know that you don't bash the sponsors if you want to keep them. Next point, teams have MANY sponsors. Some big and some small. The ones that get noticed are the ones that pay the most. So those teams with small-time sponsors aren't going to have commercials because their sponsors put all the money into the team. They get their shine when the driver wins and thanks those sponsors. Even the big-name drivers have smaller sponsors you rarely hear about, because it's all about the dough. Some sponsors sponsor more than one driver just so they can bring us more drivers. Guess where all their money comes from? Well they don't pull it out of thin air. They most likely don't get it from the government. They get it from the consumers. They get it from the fans who are loyal to our drivers so much that we choose to buy products with the drivers face/number/logo on it. They air commercials that help us remember just who sponsors our teams, just who keeps the race on our TVs, and just who keeps our ticket prices down.

Now, that being said, I agree that commercials can be frustrating--especially when they get timed right before a good wreck or involve feminine odor, penis problems, absorbency of tampons, or other such unmentionables. But you know what? NASCAR does instant replays, and in most cases cuts right back to the race. I remember one station did commercials on half the screen and the race on the other half, which I thought was great. Maybe they (the data collectors of commercials) didn't find this very effective--honestly, I don't know and I'm not going to look into right now. The point is--the sponsors get their air time. They get that time based on how much they pay for it. They bank on our fanship to bring back the bucks they are spending on these teams. They will do it however it makes them money.  There is absolutely no way for all of the sponsors to be given their time as the cars rolls by--the whole show would be focused on the stickers. There's a great idea. -.- The point--if you don't want commercials, go to the race and watch it from the stands. Otherwise, don't make an  account (a copy-cat one at that) that feigns having a mission to acquire more sponsors for the teams and then bitch about the commercials. You are undoing all the hard work that true intended accounts like @theNASCARfans have started.

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

A Moment on the Injured List

At the moment, I am babying my fingers and hand. The quick story is that I went to move a piece of exercise equipment that I had just finished using. I must admit, I saw it was smoking, and this was not a good enough indication to me that I should avoid grabbing it. So I did... and now it hurts. Duh! I've done worse than this, though. After mowing the lawn I went to put my mower away. I couldn't get it positioned right, so I decided I would just pick it up and move it into the place I wanted. Of course, in that situation, there was no smoke, just the general knowledge about engines being hot after use that should have better guided my intentions. Anyway, since I have to take a moment to pause my workout and ice my hand, I figured I could still type.

So currently myself and many others are following the NASCAR appeal for the 48 team. If you don't follow Stewart-Hass Racing, I suggest you do. If for anything, the user is pretty dern funny.

It's currently raining in my little southern nook of Georgia. It's alright, too, because I hate having to go out and water the yard. However, with all the seeds I sowed, water is kind of important. So yeah, YAY FOR RAIN!

Of course, that is not what I wanted to chat about in this post. I know so far this page has been just a mess of random conversations, and I thought it necessary to clarify my mind-blowing intention (at least this week's) for this site. We all are very aware of my desire to be rich. Just about everyday I come up with my "plan for life" that will lead me there. This is just another one, but it's kind of stuck. Since I can't seem to make a buck being someone else's muse, I've decided I should just be my own. I mean, I'm crafty, sometimes philosophical, witty, bold with expression, and I love to socialize! So I'm going to craft whatever I craft, write whatever philosophical, witty, or fantasmical (yes, I know that's not a word) shtuff (this one, too) comes to mind and I'm going to post it for everyone to enjoy. Probably not going to use Blogger to do this, though. Blogger is a stepping stone. But I mentioned that in the last post. I will definitely keep everyone up-to-speed with what I'm doing (no matter how insignificant it may be). So check back frequently, hit me up on Twitter and Facebook, and be lively here. Otherwise, just enjoy my ramblings :)

Monday, March 12, 2012

Just Awesomeness

It's been quite the week for me here in Snellville, GA. We celebrated my daughter's 2nd birthday just yesterday, in fact. Hooray for terrible twos! If you weren't able to keep up with her while she did all her birthday shopping, just go to my Facebook or Twitter page, and you can see all the highlights.

Anyway, as you can see, my blog page is going through some ch-ch-changes. I was absolutely mystified when Google Adsense wouldn't approve my account because of my page being "too confusing." They also said something along the lines of promoting discrimination, or something. Maybe they were mad that I mentioned bad driving by some of NASCAR's finest. Anyway, I thought this was mostly interesting because this is a Google site and I used all of Google's tools to put it together. So Google gave me the tools to create a mess! Thanks Google. No, it's not their fault. So I spent, probably a little more time than I should have, in re-configuring and redesigning my blog site. I brushed up some of my Adobe Photoshop skills and added a nice new banner. I had a very colorful background for about 4 hours, but it did some real damage to my brother's eyesight. After he recovered, he kindly suggested a  more professionally appealing glow for my page. And since I'm all about being professional (o.O) I went ahead and made some adjustments. If you have any changes or recommendations, feel free to share them. Keep in mind, I'm a rather simplistic person with not too much technological prowess. In other words: Keep It Simple, Stupid. Eventually, when this site starts bringing in the visitor counts that I want, I'll run off to Go Daddy or some other host site to park it in the "big boy" parking lot.

Just so I mention it before I forget it, I didn't get to watch the entire Kobalt 400 yesterday. I already mentioned it was my baby's birthday, but also, I had an assignment that I put off for too long during the week. I did catch the last three laps, and only did so because of the helpful Tweets I received to keep me informed of Tony Stewart's whereabouts on the track. If you haven't watched Tony throughout his racing career you won't recognize just how much he's changed over the years. I am particularly impressed by his running so far this season. I've noticed since he was a rookie that he really did nothing during the majority of the season. Most of his wins didn't happen until they started really counting. This season, though we're seeing him really go for the win in every race. I love it! That's the champion we're looking for in racing. Someone who knows that you race to win every race, not just some. I'm glad Tony Stewart's really shining on the track, and I hope he keeps it up.

On a side note to NASCAR racing, is everyone aware that Trevor Bayne needs a full-time sponsor? You know I'm all about Tony, but Trevor is young, good looking, and he can race! Tony Stewart is still all those things, too, but he's got sponsors. You can follow Trevor on Twitter, and you can show your support for his team by hash-tagging "SponsorTrevor" or by adding @SponsorTBayne21 to your own tweets. Remember, fans are the only ones capable of keeping NASCAR racing alive and well. There's a lot of drivers out there trying to make something of themselves. Trevor is one of the good ones. However, this post is long enough, so I'm going to stop blowing up people's skirts. I will get another blog posted shortly. Sit tight. And as always, thanks for following! Feel free to leave comments.

Thursday, March 1, 2012

A Bit Overdue--NASCAR Sprint Cup

    Let me first apologize for the delay in this post. I realize raceweek is over.  If you're anything like me, you spent those days in front of your TV (or if you were lucky--in Daytona) watching Speed Channel and FOX. So what an opener, huh? I mean has NASCAR given us exactly what we asked for or what? We wanted driver skills (or lack thereof) to be apparent on the track. We wanted accidents. Don't lie, you know you love the wrecks. Most importantly, we wanted to feel like we were watching a race and not just a parade of fast cars. I think NASCAR gave us just that. Yet, some people are now bitching. Why? 


  Let's get into this piece by piece. We'll start with Danica Patrick. Look, I love that there's women racing. I don't know if there was a lack of options, but Danica needs a lot of work. Joey Lagano didn't hit the wall as many times in his first season as Danica has in her first three races. It really is a shame too. Now, I'm not saying any of these hits were her fault, but her inexperience certainly didn't pull her out of anything. Mostly, I feel sorry for the wallets of Tony Stewart and Dale, Jr. My main issue with Danica Patrick was that she was crammed down our throats throughout the pre-season and during every single race so far. They altered the "Gentlemen, start your engines"  to be extra clear that there was a woman on the track. We get it! She's here! She can't Steer! Get over it! And then let's get back to racing. Anyway, maybe if Danica spent less time in interviews, and more time behind the wheel of this particular car we wouldn't have seen her wreck in every race. This is extremely important for her too, if she expects to be taken seriously on the track. Let's be honest, she has a great body and she's absolutely beautiful. Unfortunately, that's why most want to see her fail. Those were the assets focused on previous to her being a race car driver. Because of that, no one is expecting much from her. She's got a lot of ability under that pretty little face, though. If she had it to do all over again, I wish someone would have advised her to build up the experience and skill, then sell yourself as a sexual image. We all know sex sells. I would never suggest a great looking woman not use that piece of marketing. The men do it, and so shall the women. However, it comes with consequence for a woman (especially in men-dominated sports) when she can't prove herself on the battle field. Drive first, sex next. That's all I'm saying. 


   And what about my boy Tony? What a teaser! After the great racing in the Budweiser Shootout and the first place finish in the first race of the Gatorade Duel, I was half expecting him to, oh I don't know--RACE--at the Daytona 500. I totally understand that Tony didn't want to waste fuel and energy in pushing from the start, but when did he plan on pushing? Throughout the entire race, he was just there. We kept hearing how he wanted this win so bad, but I don't think the Tony we saw in the Daytona 500 was the Tony that wanted a win. I've watched Tony Stewart since he was a rookie. I know how he races to win, and that wasn't it. That was driving Miss Daisy. Personally, I didn't care to see Jimmie Johnson take so many championships, but I would love to see another driver (more importantly--Tony Stewart) take more consecutive championships. I know he has the skill. I worry more that he's becoming too business-y and "I'm-an-actor" focused. Don't forget your fans Tony. 


Do I really need to mention the strategic approach to racing exemplified by J.P. Montoya. Holy crap! If you can't win--crash your ride into the nearest jet fuel-filled blower. After all the hard work put in by the blowers at Daytona on Sunday and Monday, it's sad that someone would show such disrespect by driving their car into one. However, I'm kind of surprised by JP. In previous seasons we've seen him go head-to-head with some great drivers trying to take that win. Maybe there's was just too big a gap in the off-season.


  I'm torn on this season so far. The drivers were very anxious during the Daytona 500, and this may have contributed to a lot of the action we saw on the track. I hope we did not witness the season to come, though. I hope these boys--and the girl--get their shtuff together before the next race. In my opinion, if you ain't in it to win--you're paid too much. So, boogety, boogety, boogety... Let's go racing boys. Get out there and deliver our season's champion.