very brief tonight:
our music contest page is FINALLY live!
http://lightninginabottle.org/contest
thank you to the undaunted mr. shaw for getting it to work.
Search Results for: "what the hell is a strategy"
[LIB07] what the hell is a strategy, anyway? #2
i’d like to say a few words about how horrifyingly, dismayingly, pitifully, AWFUL our purchase page is. we didn’t design it. it’s what our ticketing company is making us use, and we can’t change it and it’s totally driving me crazy!
yeah, THANKS, inticketing!
yeah, i know you’re green, and use soy-based ink, and recycled materials, and that’s all great, but…what are you thinking with your web services?
check it out:
THIS is our website that the Do LaB designed:
THIS is our purchase page from inticketing:
…..i think i might cry.
like are you kidding me? who okayed THAT from an experience design standpoint, huh?
yes, dear, customer, you’ve come this far with us. we have reminded you of how awesome LIB was last year, we have managed to convey some hint of the kind of crazymagic experience that awaits you this year, and just at the point where you are really ready to make the commitment to join us on the LIB adventure, the point at which, you are essentially trying the ticket on in the dressing room, asking us, “what do you think? does this look good on me?” what does inticketing do?
oh, it throws the lamest looking webpage with a whole lot of T+C bullshit at you.
well, you know….. those tickets do kind of make your butt look sort of big.
oh… this is making me so frustrated, i’m considering just getting our programmer to hack the freakin‘ thing. at least put some pictures on it, for god’s sake! move the T+C crap BELOW the credit card info part. or, better yet, just keep the “i agree” checkbox, and say “click here for terms and conditions.”
bad experience design is bad customer service, inticketing!
from the standpoint of an experience creation company, this makes me feel like we’re actually MISTREATING our potential attendees.
like, no, really, our event is WAY better than this lame purchasing experience.
we promise!
sigh… anyway…
miraculously, even in spite of all of that, tickets are starting to pick up this week. in the past three days alone we’ve acquired guests from utah, ohio, and texas! we probably have about 15 states represented at this point. including hawaii, oregon, colorado, new york, and my home state, massachusettss—woot!
the word is definitely getting out there.
[LIB07] what the hell is a strategy, anyway? #1
people keep asking me what i’m up to these days. people that don’t know that my life has been completely taken over by Lightning in a Bottle. and i try to explain something about how there’s this 3-day greeen music festival, and how i’m directing the whole marketing strategy for it, and how that involves managing everything from our email communications, website updates, street promotions, pr efforts, and to all kinds of other initiatives… but the truth is that when you’re so in the thick of it, it’s really hard to step back and gain enough perspective to really be able to articualte ANYTHING that you’re doing. it’s hard to comment on the state of the battle from the trenches.
so it’s dawned on me that i should have started this months ago. but what the hell, 4.5 weeks out is better than not at all, right?
at this point there’s new moves happening fast and furious, and i figured this could be a good place to document the LIB07 marketing & communications strategy process. it’s also the process through which a grassroots organization is transitioning from the underground to the spotlight, elevating both its community of fans and network of creators with it.
here’s what’s happened within the past few days in the land of LIB promotions:
– LIB + worldchanging = : worldchanging is an online hub that aims to connect innovative, forward-thinking people who are doing things now to create profound, positive change for a better future. i thought they were great even before that fortuitous introduction to alex steffen at sxsw that resulted in this great little piece. turns out worldchanging digs us too: we’re now officially the “coachella for environmentalists”! awesome!
– what lucent dossier really wants to know is… : met with dream this weekend about really kick-starting community interaction among lucent’s 16,000+ myspace friends. we’re so excited by all the great response we’ve gotten already that we’re planning to continue stirring up conversation among that community on a very regular basis leading up to LIB. (taking cues from gnarls barkley on this one, for sure. 😉 )
– the santa barbara news press, which did an article on LIB last year wants to know what’s new about LIB this year. they’re saying that unless there’s something drastically new it probably won’t warrant extensive coverage. so what do you say to that when you know that the santa barbara community digs us hardcore for what we are, not for any gimmick we might be doing differently?
i say:
“last year it was the first time we’d ever done an event in s.b. we have a devoted following in l.a. but we had no idea how people there would react to it. whether they’d even care. the response we got from the people there was really overwhelming. we kept hearing over and over how excited they were that we had brought an event like this to santa barbara. people really loved this festival.
so the big difference is that while last year our venture into s.b. was somewhat of an experiment, the genuine enthusiasm for LIB within the santa barbara community (the same community where “earth day” originated) is what’s giving us the support to bring LIB back on a larger scale in all areas in 07.”
– “hi, i’m an awesome video of Lucent L’amour that no one’s seen before”:
david starfire, one our mainstay event djs, and on the lineup for LIB, turned us on to this really great video of an event we did in february 2006 (yeah, that’s how long it takes us to catch up here, at the Do!) anyway, we contacted the creator, and are considering using this video in the Spring issue of the Do LaB Artist Network email blast, which is going to be all about videos, especially music videos. he says he’s got footage from LIB06 as well, maybe we can find some way of convincing him to edit that too…- lots of other bits and ends going on, and in the works, including that ad in Plenty Magazine, now on newsstands, gonna be getting some coverage from bijoubreaks.com, the San Luis Obispo New Times is gonna be doing an interview with some our crew–jesse, dream, and shena, i think. brian shaw is hopefully programming our music contest as i type, i think…brian? are you? will we be able to announce it to the bands that sent in submissions soon? ….
and then there is, of course the constant construction and preparations going on for another little festival called Coachella where the Do will be producing an acre-big installation with full performance stage and sound-system just two weeks before LIB…. so that’s going to be madness….
i think this is all i can think of for right now…. not sure how often i’ll be making these “what the hell is a strategy?” posts, but i’m positive it’s a good idea that i started.