Ventriloquists and Beavers
A Dummy's Puppet's Ramblings - from Chip Martin, Puppet
Mannequin American views and guidelines on marketing/PR trends plus bits of humor and interesting but useless information. For information on Chip's background, go to http://www.dale-brown.com/.
What's a Jib Sheet?
Dale and Leslie continue to learn the ropes, or I should say, the "lines" of sailing while on a 48 ft. yacht in the Gulf of Mexico. That's not them in the photo, though. No one has seen or heard from them in 3 days so we had to use models for the photo. I don't know where Dale and Leslie are ... but I'm sure they're alright. I mean what could happen ... storms, pirates, fire, falling overboard, tipping over, running out of wind ... I don't know, I'm not a sailor and I'm not a water log. But I'm sure they're okay ... unless they actually ate the food that I packed for them.
Meet a Canadian Vent
Below is a photo of Canadian ventriloquist Neale Bacon and his Beaver puppet (I neglected to ask the Beaver his name) with Dale and Louie. I don't know who created Neale's puppet, but it's really a great character. Neale is a family entertainer with a lot of great puppets including a really funny Pig. Here's his web site.
Speaking of "Canadians" and "Beavers" ... one of my all-time favorite TV commercials features both "Canadians" and "Beavers." It's for Molson beer and it demonstrates that Canadians have better senses of humor than Americans. Click here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y09YOkVmGg0 to see it. This commercial would never be allowed to air in the States. But I laugh out loud every time I see it. I wonder if it was the inspiration for Neale's puppet? I doubt it.
Neale took the top photo of David Turner during the Saturday Night Show at this year's Vent ConVENTion. David designed and built his figure, Harley. It's a great puppet and Dave's routine with Harley is very entertaining. Click here to go to David's Web site.
By the way, Dale's popular book "Making It Up As You Go ... Ad libbing and Audience Participation" is back in stock. It's based on the lecture he gave at the Vent ConVENTion two years ago and contains great how-to advice along with lists of stock "ad libs" that vents can have in their back pockets to use when the right moments arise. Go to http://www.dale-brown.com/ to order the book.
Interesting Art
Barnaby Barford creates art pieces using primarily found objects and turns them into sardonic and humorous sculptures. Here are a couple of pieces from his collection called "Private Lives." The fact that I like them probably shows that my sense of humor is a little "off."
Above: Mary Had A Little Lamb
Above: Dear lord, for what we are about to receive make us truly thankful.
Come on, that's funny! (Don't tell Dale that I posted this.)
Using Marketing to Promote Value
Marketing is nothing more or less than an exchange of value. It's just common sense that if you give a little, you'll usually get a little in return. But to quote President Harry S. Truman, "If common sense were so common, more people would have it."
Let's just say that the idea is to use marketing to offer prospects something they'll want as opposed to hitting them over the head with messages that they'd rather ignore. If the value offered by the marketer is different and exceptional, then the customer will pay back the marketer with loyalty and brand evangelism in good times and bad.
Take the T-shirt company Threadless. It has built a reportedly multimillion-dollar business in eight years by encouraging its customers to submit original designs and vote on the shirts the company will print. The "value" is customer engagement and originality. An old product with a new slant. Brilliant.
