We had a great meetup with some really interesting attendees. Much animated discussion that, oddly enough, just happened to coincide with topic I sent out on the agenda: creative marketing.

Attendees

• Bego Gerber: is an independent business development agent working on a “pro-sumer” (as opposed to consumer) product that enables individuals to buy directly by from companies at wholesale prices, as well as receive rebates on the products they purchase. (You’ll need a password for his web site: ebiz)
• Phil Johnson: is a musician working fulltime to promote both his band, Roadside Attraction, and the band’s record label, Dangerous Grooves.
• Anthony Ettinger: is a software engineer who has two side projects – a politics-focused discussion site called It’s All Politics, and a search engine optimization site called Top 25 Web. He’s looking for ways to turn these resources into a steady revenue stream.
• Brendon Wilson: is a product manager at PGP.

Topics Discussed

• The majority of the conversation centered on the creative marketing techniques being used by the attendees to find new customers for their products. On the personal side, Bego uses the personal touch to spot potential customers and business partners; for example, wouldn’t that smartly-dressed woman in the line at Starbucks with her child, obviously going to work, like another income stream that would allow her to stay at home with her child? For Anthony’s business, most of the new “customers” for his come to him via Google or other web sites, and so the challenge for him is to stimulate enough interest via valuable content to encourage linking that will drive traffic. In the world of rock’n’roll, Phil and his band are using a combination of sampler CDs (one of which he provided to each attendee), surveys, and email lists to not only get his band’s music out there, but also understand the audience for their music; particularly interesting is his band’s use of email – after a show, they send an email to all concert attendees, inviting them to download the MP3s of the live show. Great stuff on all sides.
• Some of the conversation focused on how to enable consumers themselves to generate the value of the product. For example, Anthony has been toying with the idea of releasing his partially completed search engine optimization book via a Wiki on his web site, thus enabling his community to flesh out the book and add value to his site. For Phil, a similar effort using message boards on his band’s web site met with limited success due to a flood of comment spam/inappropriate content that limited the usefulness of the effort.
• Many thoughts on the difficulty of “rising above the noise”. As more access to technology enables anyone to publish music, software, or other content, how do you get your message out there and gain an audience? This group’s opinion appears to be that the only way to succeed in this environment will be for entrepreneurs to build a core committed audience, one that will closely follow the artist’s work and spread the word of what they’re doing, not simply because they’re the “hot new fad”, but more because their is a strong bond between the audience and the artist that transcends the commercial nature of the artist’s work.

Interesting Books, Movies, and Events

• Door to Door
• The Business School for People Who Like Helping People
• Against All Enemies
• Higher Ground
• The Hunting of the President
• The Trial of Henry Kissinger
• Kavalier and Clay
• Big Fish
• Wag the Dog: Of particular note – the special features on the DVD are quite insightful, especially given current political events.
• The Fog Of War
• Outfoxed
• Mars Rover presentation: The NASA presentation at the Computer History Museum offered great insight into what it takes to accomplish truly outstanding feats.