College Marketing

last month I get a  call from  company called Digital College Network. The President and CEO Chris Esposito has a very unique business opportunity targeting the highly fragmented 18-24 year old market. You se the kids today are not like they used to be. They may not be smarter than those of yesteryear but they are getting information quicker and have answers faster than ever before. They are trained differently, they are relaiant on the computer and not their brains. They dont study anymore they simply google. They feel that is studying. They can do so much research that it appears they have spent weeks preparing for stuff when in actuality they have shortcut the system. By knowing where to look they can find stuff. By knowing how to keystroke they can expedite stuff faster than someone who can not do computer shorthand.

 

I have been watching my 3 and 5 year old children as they send text messages on my iphone to their grandma. I get an email from my son with all 18 of his classmates names written on a stickie note that he sends to me almost daily. The names are in order like in his kindergarten class. Alphabetical. He writes his name and his sisters name on every email. From Hudson and Ella to Daddy. I love you. Then he lists all the kids. Thats it. Been doing it for a month. How he knows how to spell all of his friends names still amazes me. 

 

Which brings me to my nephew, who at 15 has created a music video, recreated a song and generated awareness. To the tune of over 80,000 people. EIGHTY THOUSAND people know my nephew Jamie? His youtube video got so much attention that kids were copying and making their own. It was again -amazing.

 

Which brings me to the DCN. They have a platform that is a no brainer. Students have to go to school. They have to buy books. There are specific books for each school, and they have to be purchased at- The bookstore. So DCN cuts a deal to put LCD screens in all the schools. At the Bookstore. In front of the cash register. WOW! Why try and find the kids when you can go where they already are- School. Having a HD LCD TV in front of you asking you fun contest questions, showing you the hottest trends, Music Videos, Film releases, sports and other related news while you wait in line – makes time go by faster, makes waiting more enjoyable and makes DCN a homerun for advertisers and content owners to broadcast to the youth market.

The ability to access this ‘don’t bother me’ group of college students is a godsend to brands who have a very difficult time penetrating this group. You cannot force feed these kids. They dont like big business. They like to be notified from trusted friends on whats cool. They don’t like being told what to wear, how to think, and what to do. They would rather hear about a group from a friend tan from the radio. They would rather see a youtube video than a music video. Its not just youtube BS. Its a fact. And others are taking notice as well. ManiaTv is right on the heels of YouTube, and gaining popularity by the second. College kids converse with friends on other continents all day long using SkYPE, for free.  I used to have to ask my parents to call my friends in the next city. That cost more money than it does now. Its probably the only business in the world where the prices have dropped. So whats next for these kids? Who knows? The group changes their minds on whats cool every 5 minutes or so.

 

Street teams, Viral marketing, Social Networking, blogging, all are relatively new ways to catch up with these kids. They are spending less and less time on sites. They are jumping around, with multiple screens open looking at everything for a second, Bookmarking stuff they like and making quick references to things on the fly. Sending text messages and status updates to their friends. Thats what they do. Thats what they like to do. They best way to contact your friends is by posting your status and have them notify you when they are close or when they notice you are available. No more leaving messages and waiting for a response. Now you can go on facebook, see where all of your friends are by the second and hook up.  Its simply – Amazing,,,,

Nelly

Just saw Nelly perform his new single on the Leno show. Wow! It just goes to show you that he is truly one of the best there is, time and time again. His flow is so smooth, his hooks are so memorable all the time and he doesn’t have use profanity to get his point across. His beats are club joints that get your head bobbing and you start singing the hook. On every one of his songs!

Hot In Here took hip hop to a whole new level. It combined an uptempo, club jam, with that southern rap style that just rides the beat to the fullest. Whether Nelly is dolo or with an entourage like Ashanti and Akon he is by far one of the best hitmakers there is today.

When Nellyville hit the airways back in the 90’s and Country Grammar was riding high on the charts Nelly had brought a new flow to radio. Sisco soon followed and you had a grip of hip hop artists that were really breaking in the clubs more than the street as traditional rappers usually do. It was the fact that these artists were really “hook based” hip hop artists and not just busting lyrics and trying to focus on their 16s.

I am glad he is back, and I’ll be buying his new smash record.

Estelle

Estelle is one of the best records I have heard in a long time. The music is great, she sounds so sexy, and Kanye delivers as always, rounding out a great “American Boy”. The first time I heard the record I was driving with my babies Ella and Huddie. We were headed to malibu and the song came on and their legs started kicking in their car seats against mine. I looked at them in the back and they were jamming. This has always been my sniff test. If my three year old and my five year old start dancing to a song its a hit. And sure enough this one is is a smash. Instead of playing records for programmers to gauge a hit, we should be playing records for preschoolers and seeing if they react. They will give you real honest feedback not some bullshit remark like what does their myspace look like or what is the commitment from the label.

Entourage

I think Vinny Chase is the coolest guy on TV. He’s a guys guy, chicks dig him. He is always calm, collected, and really depicts what a young star should be. He should be doing more movies, like Emile Hirsh The rest of the cast is also exceptional, Drama is such a great big bro and although I really never liked E, he is starting to grow on me. I think his coming out moment was when he got in Billys grill in last seasons Medellin piece. Turtle is a great slacker best bro and Ari, who I have known for a while is the best agent in the biz. As a former UTA alum, Ari Gold is a mix between a bunch of guys who really believe that they are the stars and everyone else is just filler. One person I do miss from the mix is Debbie Mazur who really kicked it up a notch as the publicist and sometimes mother figure to Vinny and the boys. The first two episodes have been just what I expected, great fun for everyone. It was good to see Mark in tonights episode. One of my bros, Lukas Haas has been added to the mix which is great. Looks like its gonna be a great season.

Talent

What is talent? the definition of talent talent

 |ˈtalənt|noun1 natural aptitude or skill : he possesses more talent than any other player | shedisplayed a talent for garden design.

I am sitting watching the US OPEN and I just heard the funniest thing. Roger Federer said that he has lost some matches and people forget how great he has been. He has been in three finals has won 35 straight matches and the media is saying he is done. And he said it hurts. He is two slams away from knocking off Sampras and still feels he can’t catch a break. He has been #1 on the charts / rankings for 5 years! Can you imagine that. If an artist in our business was top of the charts for 5 years without being knocked off the Number One spot? 

We take for granted what talent really is. Just because someone screams, curses, and shouts into a mic doesn’t mean they have talent. Just because a little kid puts on makeup looks like a doll and does beauty pageants does mean they have talent either. Talent is a gift. It’s something that is much more noticeable in athletics than anything else in the world. You see greatness when you watch an athlete. Listening to hip hop all my life, I have seen greatness. I have seen artists like Nas, Chuck D, Rakim, and others flip words like magic and make them sound and mean different things. I have seen them capture a crowd and make them think. I have seen a comedian make people laugh so hard that they couldn’t stand. Fall out of a chair laughing – Like Jamie Foxx, and Dave Chapelle. These guys have talent.I have seen Tom Hanks, Russell Crowe and Deniro take my breathe away on screen. Pacino, Streep and some young kid named Dicaprio blow me away in “Whats Eating Gilbert Grape” one of my favorite little films. Now he has talent. 

We need to recognize true talent when we see it. Embrace greatness and aspire to do great things. Its very important to be able to distinguish between talent and luck, for most people get lucky sometimes but very few are truly talented.  I am rooting for Federer to win this Open even though Rafa is one of my favorites as well; I just think Roger needs this one and he deserves it.

These Bitches are crazy

What is the criteria for stardom? Is it box office, record sales, book sales or is it ratings? Back in the day Stars were reserved for really talented people or those that embodied greatness. Now a star is someone that fucks on video cameras, or drops out of elementary school. Or parties with their mom, snorts coke in bathrooms with crackheads, while their mom pops bottles wearing Barbie dresses trying to get laid by rappers. Is this new school or old school. Whatever it is, I hope my kids never enroll there. With Britney and Lindsey and Amy and Lily carrying the torch for the young girls of today, I think whoever is managing these fuck ups needs to be smacked. Or better yet, they need to find a strong woman manager to smack the shit out of these bitches.

The Game vs. Slipnot

The fight for the number one record in the world this week goes to ?

Well it depends who you talk to. 

I was celebrating with Game this week at the 944 party, he was notified that his record went Number 1 on the Billboard top 200, and I congratulated him with a toast but then I got word that Slipnot was Number 1. So who really is the best of the week? Does it really matter? Game is a major star these days and no one knows any of the guys in Slipnot. or do they? Slipnot is a marketers dream. Their Merch flies off the shelves at every show and Hot Topic store. Their stickers are on rear windows everywhere. A faceless group with a whole lot of muscle. Their shows sell out, their fans are diehards – with a vengeance I might add, and its because of the Vibe, the music and show.  Stevie Rocker, (may you rest in peace – my brother) knew this. He saw a machine. The longtail before there was a long tail. Branding the group as the leaders of a movement, the power of the crowd. When no one would play Slipnot, they were selling out shows and causing havoc everywhere.  Its about connecting to the fans not a number 1 record for one week that goes away next week. 

Game is a crossover superstar who has movies, TV shows, Shoe deals and product endorsements. His management team are my boys Jimmy and Delaney. They knew from day one that they had something. A 6′4 marketing machine that could carry the torch for the gangster rap market. Appealing to the ladies ala Cool J, with a venomous spew of lyrics that brought back the days of old. The new NWA maybe, maybe not, but nevertheless he has the torch and he isnt likely to drop it.  

No one reads Billboard or walks into a store and looks in the bin for the new releases. We sit in our cars or behind our desk and listen to whatever we want, whenever we want. Numbers dont matter in the new world order. Its about fans and the long tail. I am friends with Game so I only want him to be successful and enjoy his family, he is a family man first and foremost. Point is – Its all about the fans and the Long tail. And the longest tail right now belongs to a little kid whos daddy has an Achy Breaky Heart.

Sushi on Sunset Hollywood

The old Sunset Strip hotspot reopening next week is the talk of the 40 something crowd these days. What great memories I have of that joint. I remember the first time I went there I was kind of pissed that my fraternity bros from USC wanted to go to the spot in the first place. I am not a big sushi guy, although if you asked anyone what my favorite meal would be, anyone that really knows me would say, Tuna fish sandi on toasted onion bagel. I like my tuna cold with lots of mayo, salt and pepper, and nothing else. So it comes as a surprise that I really never got into Sushi. But I did love Sushi on Sunset. You see, anything goes at Sushi on Sunset, that was the saying. I had more fun there than any backseat of my daddys cutlass. For the SC crowd in the late 80’s there was no place better. Great looking girls, Giant Sapporo and Large Saki. The head waiter there was one of our fraternity brothers Jeff. He was one of the coolest guys in the house. Not a tough guy, kind of soft actually, but he had the best looking girls with him all the time. He set me up with one of the hottest DG’s on the row back then. She was a twin and my big bro in the house was dating the other sister. Seppi was dating Lisa C and I was dating Sue C -The Carter Twins, they were smoking hot. And they loved to hang at Sushi on Sunset (SOS). Our first date, Teriyaki steak, Tuna, freshwater eel, two Sapporos, and of course a bottle of Saki. Jeff would line em up. Two Sapporos and a tall bottle of Saki on every table. He would join us for a Saki Bomb (He dropped in a shot of Saki into a 8oz glass of Sapporo and you would down it in one shot. By the time you had a few, you were wasted. By the time you had your second bottle of Saki, you were ready to do whatever. I mean Whatever! I wont kiss and tell, but I will tell you that I hit a few homeruns, three triples and 2 doubles there; and that was just during my college years. I started to love Sushi. 

My next vivid memory was a saturday night run to hollywood with my buddy Rip. He was one of my best friends back then, He was so cool. I remember driving down sunset and stopping at the restaurant. Walking inside, I saw Jeff and sitting at the sushi bar was the most beautiful lady I had ever seen. Her full lips were covered in a deep red lipstick, Her long silky jet black hair was pulled to the side. Her white shirt was unbuttoned and her breasts were clearly visible as I looked down at her.  When she looked up at me, with those beautiful breasts staring me right in the face, I finally looked her in the eyes and realized I was staring at SADE. My dream girl back then.

If that wasnt enough, I met a guy at the bar that looked very familiar to me. He was the star of the Heinz ketchup commercial, the one with the guy holding a hotdog behind his back. Well we started drinking and like a dummy we walked outside so he could smoke a cigarette and check on his Harley. A mini Harley, the little one that looked like a Honda. He had just moved to LA and wanted to check out the town. Rip was still upstairs drinking when I jumped on the harley holding onto the back without a helmet, and headed down Sunset. As we headed westbound a cop saw us speeding and busted a u-turn. Chasing us up into Beverly Hills, I jumped off the bike as my new friend high tailed it up into the mountains. I hid in the bushes for about an half hour until he came back and picked me up. We headed back to Sushi on Sunset had a few beers, Sakis and lots of laughs that night. The guy on the Harley was none other than Matt leBlanc, who years later would be known as Joey from Friends. I ran into Matt years later at my recording studio on Beverly. I was eating at pane vino and Joey and Rachel were having lunch. We talked for a while and remembered our police chase with the LAPD. 

I am sure thousands of people have fond memories of S.O.S., every time I talk to anyone about the place the first thing out of their mouth is, “Oh man, I got laid there, I got blown there, Yada yada Yada. Whatever the story, and whoever is telling it, you should best believe it, because at Sushi on Sunset, anything goes and usually did. That’s why we bought it? Thats right, The Forster Bros, actually Jonnie my brother are now the proud new owners of our favorite spot, Sushi on Sunset. The first Rock and Roll, Sushi Joint on the Sunset Strip. Opening Sept 8. 

Sushi On Sunset – Memories Start HERE

Who is really the King

When ever people talk about music there are usually a few names that resonate a bit louder than others when the topic of who is the biggest. If I was to make a short list it would include Sinatra, Bob Marley, Elvis and Beethoven? Yes, I would include the old man in this conversation. Why, not because I know all of his music, but because I can feel his music. When my dad would play the big three: Beethoven, Mozart, Tchaikovsky, I may not of liked the music, but I liked waving my hands like a conductor. I felt powerful when I did that. Like when I play air guitar during “Freebird, or Train Kept Rollin”.                                ”Dundundundaaa, Dundundadaaa… So I started thinking- why am I a music man?

I took piano lessons from age 7-10 but I didn’t like it. It wasn’t cool when I was growing up.  I played baseball, and football. I grew up watching wrestling, loving Ivan Putski, Bruno Samartino and Andre The Giant-when he was a good guy. And as I got older I became a wrestler. I became a tennis player because I liked Borg, Jonnie Mac, Nastasi, Ashe and Connors.

But it wasn’t until I went to my cousins house in upstate New York that I think I became a music man.  I remember looking under my cousin bed and finding a bunch of records, like the Enemy in Almost Famous. I pulled out a Beatles album and I was hooked. I took my allowance money and bought my first cassette, “The Beatles” I played it all summer. My favorite song back then, “I Want To Hold Your Hand”.  My first experience with a hit single. I also remember riding my bike to tennis lessons when I was 12, I had my walkman on and I drove my Centurion 10 speed to the club everyday listening to the Doobie Brothers. “What a Fool Believes”, that was my song. Every time I hear it to this day, I think about driving my bike. As I got older and hit Junior High I remember listening to “Renegade” by Styx and thinking oh MAMA.. That was such a hot single, but it wasn’t until I went to their concert that I discovered, “Grand Illusion”. The lights started spinning, the music started to play and people started screaming. The keyboard intro was amazing, maybe I should have paid more attention in piano class. The concert was awesome. For a kid headed to high school. When i got to high school, I started listening to Aerosmith, started drawing the logo on my jeans and notebooks. Thats when I heard, “Train Kept Rolling” and “Dream On”, I was hooked. Then came Journey, Kansas, REO Speedwagon, Foreigner, and of course Iron Maiden, The Scorpions,ACDC, Springsteen, RUSH, Judas Priest, Led Zeppelin and my favorite band of all time – Bad Co. I saw all of them, and they all rocked. I remember driving in my friends car a convertible celica, we were headed home from a long weekend in Palm Springs. We were doing about 120mph listening to “Rock You Like A Hurricane”. I will never forget that day. It was one of the last times I spent with my friend Eric. He had an accident a few months later and was killed. Every time I hear that song on the radio, I open up the sunroof and look to the heavens and think of him.It was our favorite song that summer. We played the album over and over.  

College was a bit of a blur as I was a club promoter, a very successful one at that, and I was listening to club jams and DJs when I discovered Prince and I was hooked. His artistry was unmatched. The songs simply amazing. It was also the time I started listening to The Doors, Neil Young and James Taylor. All legends that helped shape my life.

I got into GnR, Pearl Jam, Sting and Nirvana in the 90s and took it up a notch and discovered that I loved Sinatra, Tony Bennett and Dean Martin I dont know if was their style that hooked me, but I was hooked. 

Then I had my son Hudson. One night I was lying on a hammock in Miami and I heard a song on my ipod. I hadn’t really noticed the song before.  I had more than 20,000 songs in my music library after nearly 20 years in the music business. As I lay in the hammock holding my son while my wife slept upstairs in the hotel room, the song started to play. It was the most amazing song I had ever heard. It touched me so much that I will never forget it. The song – “Beautiful Boy” by John Lennon. 

Musically, I had come full circle. 

So who is really the king?

I guess it depends who you ask. They are all Kings to me.

Sony / BMG

Looks like Heads will start to roll again as the majors converge and cannibalize in a fragmented market with no answers other than to buy and cut up the parts. Its like in Pretty Woman, Richard Gere was trying to explain to Julia Roberts that He buys companies and then sells off the pieces. It was a great scene probably missed by most but relished by others. In the scene, Gere and Roberts were at dinner with one of the Dukes from Duke and Duke (Trading Places) and Gere was going to buy up the company and sell off this mans life’s work. But old Mortimer Duke wasnt going down without a fight, until Gere thru in a monkey wrench and said that his plans for expansion were going to be held up in appropriations committee and would get buried thus destroying the Co that this man had built from scratch with hard work and sweat. Same thing happening here. Buying BMG for 900m is a joke. What are they going to do now, turn the company into a logo like A&M or Geffen, its pathetic. Next up will be EMI and WEA and then there will be three. Three machines all running into each other with no clear path in sight. Pathetic. ef