Magic Jack = Cool Tech: Phone Service for $20/year?

I received an email from a friend about Magic Jack this morning. At first, I was thinking it was one of those jacks you can use on your car that automatically jacks up your car using a hydraulic jack powered by the car battery. What I ended up seeing was something totally different.

The Magic Jack is a USB device that you plug into your computer and then plug your regular phone into the jack in the back. The device allows you to use your regular phone to make calls anywhere in the US or Canada (sorry Mexico). Supposedly, it sets up in about 45 seconds and requires no additional software. Their website says that the first year is $39.95 and subsequent years at $19.95. Vonage… Who’s that?

Comfort Shoes Make Walking More… Well, Comfortable

Comfort Shoes

One might expect the most comfortable shoes in the world to come from a well known shoe brand, one of those companies that spend hundreds of millions of dollars a month on advertising. Instead, they come from a company that is well known for innovation but not necessarily footwear: Gadget Universe.

It started with the research of rubber for the construction and automobile industries. Scientists investigating shock absorption for buildings and automobiles discovered a special polymer that was both lightweight and absorbed shock and vibration. The research lead to the development of the very first Gravity Defyer Shoe: the Catapult MMXT3.

What is the Gravity Defyer?
It was scientifically constructed with a hidden 6mm (1/8″) shock absorber under the heel that releases its reciprocating resistance power each time you step. As your weight changes to the balls of your feet, the hidden shock absorber generates upward pressure, rebounding your body upward and propelling you forward in life.

It’s almost as if Aeolus, the Greek god of wind, himself has taken his powerful wind out of his bottles and put it into each pair of the Gravity Defyer Shoes. Your entire body will receive an energy burst when you slip on the Gravity Defyer Shoes because your joints and spine will no longer feel the full impact of your high impact life. The basic findings by the scientists of the Impact Research Technology Lab were that the combination of lightweight rubber and lightweight, durable springs will reduce the impact and force of gravity on our entire body much the same way that a suspension system helps reduce the impact on an automobile and airplane.

Look great too! We all have them, an expensive pair of dress shoes for those special occasions. The shoes that world famous secret agents wear to the black tie party where they end up doing some reconnaissance before they are chased around a European city by evil henchmen. The kind of dress shoes that show class, style, and sophistication but are so uncomfortable you can’t wait to take them off. Designed by the best shoe designers from three continents, the Gravity Defyer Shoes provide you with all the sophistication and comfort needed to keep up with the best of the world famous secret agents.

Every shoe is also sent through a comprehensive quality assurance process to ensure that each pair of Gravity Defyer Shoes adheres to the highest standards set forth by the Alexander Innovation Wizard. Relieve your feet, ankles, knees, hips, and spine. Give your whole body a break from the pressures of your daily life.

My Favorites of 2007

Nearly a week into 2008, and I am long overdue for a post. What better way than to recap my favorites of 2007:

Favorite blog on my blogroll: 800lb Gorilla

Favorite color: Powder blue from the San Diego Charger jerseys

Favorite day: Day before my birthday (My brother and I ran the LA Triathlon Sprint)

Favorite city: Many to choose from, but gotta love Chicago (even during February)

Favorite SkyMall gadget: Gotta love the Gravity Defyer Shoes

Favorite conspiracy theory: Tom Cruise was cloned by Xenu and the clone is the crazy one we’ve seen in recent years

Favorite book: If I Did It. Just kidding. The Seven Lost Secrets of Success. Joe Vitale has mastered success and is passing it along. That’s the way it should be!

Favorite moment at work: There are so many to choose from. While the Montel Williams show was interesting and The Talking Show was a first, neither of them is the top choice. Not quite the top either, the GBK Oscars Gift Suite was certainly enjoyable, as was the Scriptwriter’s Showcase. I even learned about how bad the strike would be months before it happened. Even though having Reggie Bush on the cover of the magazine was nice, that too was not my favorite moment. My favorite moment at work definitely has to be when I realized I had a great advertisement.

Favorite dance event: 2007 US Open. The Moorpark College Swing Dance Team received second place in their very first team competition at the US Open. I was one of the founding members of the college club at Moorpark, so it was particularly enjoyable to see them do so well in their first competition.

Favorite radio moment: When I was doing the Gadget Panel Radio show while on the road, heading to a Dodgers game. My phone cut out and Gadget Panelist Vadim was unable to get himself on the phone circuit. Great radio!

Favorite blog I didn’t write: The blog recapping my trip to New Zealand with the 20GB of pictures and photos I took while down under.

Favorite Movie: Ratatouille. The little ones teach us so much in life.

Favorite Website: Ext JS. The web’s future is so bright it’s gotta wear shades. My favorite demo is the desktop sample.  My nerd side is shining.

How you know you have a GREAT advertisement

Do I have a product that will sell and will this advertisement sell? Two questions posed by everyone in business, and particularly marketing. I have the secret formula for you right here.

Its late September, and I’m sitting in a product meeting unlike any other product meeting I’ve seen before. Alexander Elnekaveh (he’s not Alexander Innovation Wizard yet) is talking about the product of the future. In marketing, you must have bravado about your products. If you don’t believe in them, you won’t convince anyone to purchase. I’m thinking, I’ve heard Alex say many of the same positive things about other products of his in the past but they didn’t pan out into best sellers.

Something is different about this new product. I’m sitting there staring at a pair of men’s dress shoes. What’s so special about these shoes? They have spring in the heals, reducing the impact walking has on your ankles, knees, hips, and spine. The shoes are incredibly comfortable too. AND they are dress shoes. This means, I can walk into a client’s office and be both comfortable and good looking at the same time. That’s a rarity in the world of professional business attire.

As an advertiser, I know my gut feeling is only going to get me so far. I need something concrete to know that a product or an advertisement is going to work. There are several traditional options, such as focus groups and testing. People even have “experts” look at the ad and tell them whether the ad is going to sell or not.

Working with Alex on the shoes, I discovered a new method for determining if an advertisement is going to be a success. It’s pretty simple, actually. Here it is: If everyone is telling you no but the sales are showing otherwise, you have a great ad.

When I first told SkyMall that we wanted 2 pages for the shoes, they said we were crazy. The shoes are outselling the next best selling item by 4x. SkyMall is notorious for being conservative with their products. On the other hand, Popular Mechanics is well known for being cutting edge and keeping up with the latest in technology and innovation in both content and advertisements. They were pleased to have the two page advertisement on page 4 of their February issue. Of course, the shoes are selling great! Going back to conservative publications, Scientific American shunned the idea of the advertisement in their magazine completely. It wasn’t just the advertisement, it was the product. This was proof positive that we are on the right path. Scientific American is much more conservative with their publication than Popular Mechanics. Not surprisingly, you will see more innovative products advertised in Popular Mechanics, which also boasts a circulation 3x the size of Scientific American.

You might be thinking, Jared is crazy! Well, I won’t rule out that idea. However, when you compare the direction that publications like Popular Mechanics are going (increasing circulation while competitive magazines are stagnant or decreasing circulation), it makes sense. These kinds of magazines are winners because they are willing to remain competitive with their advertising costs while staying fresh with both their content and advertising.

People subscribe to magazines not just for the content, but for the advertisements as well. Don’t agree? Two words: Super Bowl. Still don’t agree? Comment.

While there seems to be a never ending list of people with great things to say about the Gravity Defyer Shoes (such as Dr. Joe Vitale, who literally wrote the book on Direct Marketing), there is a long list of people who think it’s crazy! The only thing crazy about the Gravity Defyer Shoes is how much people love them when they try them on.

technorati tags:popular mechanics, scientific american, magazines, skymall, gravity defyer shoes, advertising, marketing, shoes, sales, copywriting, products, business, publication

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Fall in love with the Gravity Defyer Shoes

The Gravity Defyer Shoes are a hot item. They were a huge hit when they debuted at the 2007 CES. Yes, shoes made their debut at the largest consumer electronics show. A crazy idea, but it actually makes sense, given the amount of time people spend on their feet.

I love these shoes. I wear them to work every day. The first time I realized how comfortable they are is when I decided to wear another pair of shoes to work. Um, that didn’t work out very well. Gimme my GDS! I’ve given about a dozen pairs of these shoes to my friends who have complained about shoe comfort. Even the pickiest of friends had something good to say about the comfort.

See what people said about the shoes at the CES as well as what other bloggers and reporters have to say around the web:

Read what GUTTERBOY said (humorous)
Read what turboGADGETS said
California Newswire
The Red Ferret says they “are straight off the ‘what the…?’ banana boat LOL
Investor’s Business Daily
Nothing to do with Arbroath
Dr. Joe Vitale has many good things to say not just about the shoes
The Gravity Defyer Shoes are wishlisted by someone on TheThingsIWant.com. Perhaps I’ll send him a pair 😀
CrunchGear had their hopes up about defying gravity
MondoShoes had something to say too
Sys-con
Yahoo! Finance published the press release
Can you Digg it?
eNewsChannels
They even love it in India
The Ventury County Star picked up on the hot news!
So did the Dallas Morning News
Even EARTHtimes.org got in on the action

See the reactions from people at CES for yourself!

Comfy shoooooes 😀

Gravity Defyer Shoes

technorati tags:Gravity Defyer Shoes, shoes, gadgets, gadget Universe, Innovation Wizard, alexander elnekaveh, Dallas, news, Ventur, CES, consumer electronics show, tradeshow, press release, crunchgear, digg, videos, youtube, deals, cool stuff, blogging, work, marketing, advertising, press, business, media

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Why Sharper Image Will Post Disappointing Q4 Results

The answer to any specialty retail store’s woes is simple: Sell as many hot items as you possibly can.

It might sound like I am over simplifying things. Many will argue that there is much more to business than this. You need to manage supply-chain. You need to properly advertise. You need to properly manage overhead. You need to have a broad product selection. All of these, except the last one are true. A broad product selection is not necessary for a specialty retail store like Sharper Image.

I’m not saying to put only five items into a retail store. What I am saying, is that you have a retail store that sells your hottest selling items. You provide enough space in the store to fully showcase those items. Then sell the rest of the products, the $19.95 items on the Internet. I know the first argument will be that of square foot analysis.

Square foot analysis is essential the retail store equivalent to square inch analysis in the catalog industry (which is where Sharper Image came from). The idea is as follows: you provide only enough space in the store for how well the item sells. Like most economic formulas, it is very easy to calculate. You figure out the overhead you need to pay for and allot space according to the profit you make on the item. And like most economic formulas, it is fundamentally flawed.

The biggest problem I had with economics when I was pursuing my Bachelors in Economics was that it always seemed like economic theories were developed in Fairyland! Well, that is precisely where all economic theory is developed. Terms like “Ideal Conditions” are constantly used in economics. But I digress.

Getting back to Sharper Image. I visited a couple of Sharper Image stores this weekend, hoping to find the coolest gift item I’ve seen all season: The Voice Activated R2-D2 robot. I couldn’t imagine that having not been a top selling item for the holiday. It was only 120 bucks, received good reviews, and is just about the coolest thing I’ve seen in years. I had played with one at a Sharper Image store earlier in the year. R2 responded to me, was trained by me, played games with me. R2 was definitely going to be part of my holiday shopping.

However, Sharper Image is out of stock. Hammacher Schlemmer is out of stock (although they only sell online, so that wouldn’t do me any good anyway). Now, since Hammacher’s website is showing a ship date of 2/16/07, I’m guessing that his is a supply issue with the R2 robot. Maybe Lucas doesn’t want to make a ton of money this year so he is only selling a handful of the robots. Something tells me that this is not the case. Instead, what I think happened is that Sharper Image just failed to project sales on this item correctly. The result: no R2 robot for the millions of Star Wars fans out there but plenty of dancing iPod dogs.

So, when you check the sticker for Sharper Image next year, don’t be surprised if they post disappointing earnings for Q406. Despite ousting Richard Thalheimer, Sharper Image continues to focus on stuffing more products into their stores that everyone else is already selling. Rather than focusing on innovation, which is what made Sharper Image the behemoth it is today, they are focusing on firing the right people. Don’t expect any good news from Sharper Image for ’06, and I’d venture to say that we should probably expect plenty of disappointing news in ’07 as well.

Happy Holidays!

technorati tags:sharper image, r2-d2, robot, gifts, star wars, george lucas, Richard Thalheimer, shopping, christmas, business, stocks, thoughs, technology, gadgets, rants, business, holiday, cool gifts, toys, advertising, retail store, catalog, marketing

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My Screenwriting Debut

It turns out that my screenwriting and directing debut also turned into my acting debut. A few months ago, the CEO of the company that I work for decided to start making short infomercials about the products that we sell so that we can send them to the companies that buy our products. It was something he pretty much took on for himself. I gave him tips here and there, but I had very little involvement with it.

A few weeks ago, he scheduled the video shoot. I tell him that he should probably write a script for the whole thing. He says he will work on it. Of course, nothing happens with the script and it is now the day of the shoot. Suddenly! A panicked IM, “Jared! I need you here right now. Read this script that I put together, and let me know what you think.” It is horrible, to say the least. I hop in my car and head into the hills of Sherman Oaks.

I arrive at a house filled with models having their makeup done, a videographer setting up the lighting, and one of my employees shooting a behind the scenes video. I find my boss in front of a computer trying to type out a script. He hops out of the chair and say, “Here! You do it.” I sit down and ask him questions about how much interaction he wants with the host. Does he want to say the big words? See, English is not is first language, so words like ancillary don’t just roll off his tongue.

I’m finished with the first script. BLAM! I hand it to the hostess and she nearly faints. “It would have been nice to have this earlier than today. This is well written, but I’m not going to be able memorize half of this in 10 minutes. Can I just improvise?” Hey! I just got a compliment about my writing from a woman who’s been on Broadway. Nice!

My boss and the hostess interact with each other on the camera a bit. Well, there goes that plan for the script I wrote! Now, I’m going to have to rewrite everything. No big deal. I start slicing and dicing. Heck, I’m a virtual Veg-o-matic with words. A couple of minutes later… BLAM!!! Script, versions 2.0 is in their hands, printed in 40 pt font so that they can read it from across the room.

Cameras rolling… blah blah blah CUT! What happened to the script? My boss is reading from the script. The model is reading from… Well, not really sure. She’s doing a great job though. She’s a very effective ad-libber, but she’s totally stealing the show from the CEO. The day just seems to keep going. More ad lib. More uh?!? Well, let’s just say that the CEO wasn’t too happy with the outcome.

A few days later we have the DVD of the shoot so that we can start doing some rough editing. What’s next? Well, looks like we are doing another shoot. Stay tuned for another story about My Acting Debut followed by another about My Directing Debut and My Editing Debut. Coming to a bulletin and blog near you!

technorati tags:screenwriting, video shoot, debut, blogging, gadgets, innovations, acting, writing, broadway, scripting, script writing, models, CEO, work, videographer, veg-o-matic, host, hostess, making the video, behind the scenes, Sherman Oaks

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Sharper Image 20% off Dec 7 & 8

If you want to shop at the store, select the following image and text and then print the selection to your printer

About this offer: About this offer: *This offer is for 20% off merchandise purchases at Sharper Image retail stores, or online. The 20% discount applies to merchandise only – both regular price and “sale” products (shown online as “Now only” prices). The offer does not apply to any non-merchandise purchases such as delivery charges, gift certificates, gift cards, replacement/service guarantees or taxes; it does not apply to auction site winning bids. This offer cannot be combined with any other promotional prices (shown online as “Special price”) or other special offers. This offer cannot be applied to prior purchases. Not all products are discountable, please see individual product pages or ask an associate for details. Select national brands (including Microsoft Zune, Apple, Bose, Canon, Casio, Dyson, JVC, Olympus, Panasonic, Samsung, Sharp, Sony, Stern Pinball, RCA, Toshiba, and Weber) are not eligible for discounts and are excluded from this offer. Also excluded from this offer are Factory Reconditioned products (YYY and ZZZ product numbers.) Good December 7th & 8th 2006.

To redeem online: Please click through this email to our primary U.S. Website, www.sharperimage.com. It is not necessary to enter a special code. The offer is not valid for online orders placed on our other, non-primary Websites (such as Yahoo!, Amazon, shop.com, International, or eBay sites). To redeem in stores: Please give a printout of this email to a store associate when making your purchase. If the item is not on-hand in a store, an associate will be happy to place an order for you (delivery charges may apply). Code 27902. Holiday Shipping Schedule Order by 9AM PT: Monday, December 18 for Standard Delivery. Wednesday, December 20 for 2-Day Express. Thursday, December 21 for Next Day Air. For Royal Service, In-Home, Truck, or Vendor Delivery, please order by Thursday, December 7. We hope you enjoy receiving Sharper Image’s email special offers and product previews. However, if you wish to unsubscribe from this email list, please go to http://interact.rsc02.net/servlet/formview/tbd. Be sure to use this address: $PREML$. Please allow up to 1 week for us to remove your email address. You may receive further emails from us during that time, for which we apologize. View our Privacy and Legal Policy. The Sharper Image 350 The Embarcadero, Sixth Floor San Francisco, CA 94105

SkyMaul on Amazon

For those of you who enjoy reading SkyMall on the airplane, the folks at The Kasper Hauser Comedy Group bring you a spoof with SkyMaul, available on Amazon.com. Looking for an iPod shredder? SkyMaul is the place for you.

Amazon.com: SkyMaul: Happy Crap You Can Buy from a Plane: Books: John Reichmuth,James Reichmuth,Robert Baedeker,Dan Klein

technorati tags:SkyMall, gifts, funny

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Great Copy Equals Record Selling Shoes

I’m sitting in my office and I receive an email from the from the assistant to Dr. Joe Vitale. Vitale? That name sounds really familiar. I pull up his website: mrfire.com. Yet, Dr. Vitale goes far beyond his website. He has a blog: mrfireblog.com. But there is even more. For those of you who have seen “The Secret“, you will recognize Dr. Vitale as one of the several powerful contributors to this transformational film.

Dr. Vitale has written dozens of books (and multi-media products) on marketing, positive manifestation, and empowerment. He is a best selling author as well as a best selling eBook author on Amazon and Barnes & Noble. This is merely a glimpse into the success of Dr. Vitale. Given Dr. Vitale’s background, you can understand why I am beside myself when the next day starts off with him telling me that he loves the copy I wrote for the Gadget Universe Gravity Defyer shoes.

I’ve been pinching myself all week. It’s hard to fathom that a master of marketing would have such great compliments for my copy. I enjoy writing, so to have my work validated by someone like Dr. Vitale is a phenomenal compliment and a tremendous professional accomplishment. The pinching stopped today when I received an email from Dr. Vitale and checked out his latest blog. I have my interview with him Monday morning at 8 o’clock! Early bedtime on Sunday for me.

Here is Dr. Vitale’s original post regarding the copy I wrote for the shoes. I am so excited about my accomplishment! Adding to the recognition from Dr. Vitale is the recognition from consumers. The Gravity Defyer Shoes are outselling the next best selling product in the Gadget Universe catalog by 2 to 1, and they are the fastest selling new product in the history of the catalog. Keep a lookout for a new version of the two-page ad coming to SkyMall Q1 of 2007. A single page version of the ad is being prepared for my 2007 magazine campaign.

technorati tags:copy, copy writing, marketing, shoes, gadgets, work, gift ideas, advertising, SkyMall, gifts, success, sales, top seller, best seller, accomplishment, magazine

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