El Gaffney

Introducing The Group of Death

In anticipation of the 2010 World Cup draw this Friday, we’ve worked with ESPN to put together a fun little thing for football (soccer) fans…

We’ve created a heavy metal band called The Group of Death.

Inspired by the most hardcore group of the World Cup draw every four years and with the goal of entertaining football fans across the world. See the band’s one-sheet below for more info.

As most of you know, we’re constantly producing things with ESPN at W+KNY — for its sports properties (e.g., NBA on ESPN Shaqtus), shows (SportsCenter Duck) and media (ESPN.com Answers). Shit, I was going to say “I rarely share…” but instead I added links.

Anyway, the reason I wanted to post about the GoD is because it’s one of those ideas that usually get left behind for the main campaign, for the big stuff. Whether it’s too far removed from the ultimate objective (selling something), the immediate objective (need to focus everything on one main idea) or the more easily measured objective (ratings). Whether it seems too rushed to execute or too risky. Whether there’s just not enough money because producing 3 TV spots is the priority. Or whatever. An idea like this often never sees the light of day.

Props to ESPN for allowing us to bring The Group of Death to life. They had to be comfortable with the fact that this idea is not about promoting its coverage of the draw and is not meant for the sports fan masses. It’s about being present on the is the most important day for fans until the tournament starts on June 11, 2010 and doing something interesting/exciting/authentic for avid football fans.

Specifically, this idea is meant to capitalize on the fact that when the draw comes out, fans want to know two things: (1) where their team (or teams) are placed and (2) what teams are in the most difficult group – The Group of Death. It’s one of many ways we’ll be trying to build a relationship with sports fans leading up to the World Cup. And we got off to a good start yesterday when “The Gaffer” (no relation) unboxed us on EPL Talk.

Hope you enjoy it. Make sure to check out the songs on the music tab within the Facebook page (IMO it’s the best part). Come through Nevada Smiths around 5PM on Friday for the live concert. Leave a comment if you want me to save you/bring you/send you a t-shirt – I’ve got a few extras to give away.

Tags: facebook, soccer, worldcup

A Good Idea If You’re In London

Hit up the Good Ideas Salon put on by PSFK.

Check out the speaker list and get your tickets over at the site linked above. I’d be pumped to see the Dopplr dude and “Ruby Pseudo” for sure. But what I think will be interesting more than any one individual is the percentage of people with the title, “Founder,” who will be talking. Get your learn on from those with experience launching ideas. That’s valuable in this climate, especially. And Piers has done it up right with conferences in the past as well as the recent morning salons here in NYC.

Tags: conferences, ideas, psfk

When Everything Comes Together for Worse

Has anyone else had the distinctly awkward pleasure of witnessing a crowd of people respond to this Louis Vuitton advertisement at the movies?

There are so things I’d like to say this experience, but I’m trying to wrap things up) get out of here for the holidays. Thus, I want to make just one clear point: Sometimes when it makes perfect sense, you really lose. And sometimes when it makes no sense, you really win. And sometimes when it fits exactly or doesn’t fit at all, you actually tie.

Crystal clear?

No. Okay, well, here’s some advice for Louis V and other advertisers out there. Just because you make a cinematic ad (style and message), it doesn’t mean it’s right for the cinema (media). Furthermore, just because you think your target is “sophisticated and upscale,” it doesn’t make people at “more artsy theaters” the appropriate audience for your advertising. In fact, I’m really having trouble thinking of any theater or movie it would “work” for. Going to see a movie is social; it brings people (from diverse backgrounds) together for shared entertainment. (Not to sound like the speech given at every Oscars ceremony) Even someone who is compelled by the “journey” story (or even enjoys its music selection), is not going to do so in a crowd of strangers. Especially at this economically-difficult time, I can’t think of anyone who would self-identify as a fan of that brand.

I have been meaning to write this since seeing Slumdog Millionaire on Saturday night at the Angelika (highly recommended by the way) when after 4 indie previews were followed by the ad embedded above. It was met with an “Are you serious?” moment of silence, followed by a barrage of laughter and conversations (at least in rows near me) about the ridiculousness of LV’s communications. I can’t imagine the reaction would be any different elsewhere, so it’s crazy to think they’ve been running these since at least this May.

In fact, I would argue they actually disrupted my journey into a movie-going mindset (suspending disbelief, being open to being moved, etc.) with this unbelievably silly and self-important move.

Please tell me I’m not alone.

Tags: brands, movies, rants

Why Deal With New Year’s Eve?

Come out and get drunk the night before.

As Noah said (and the copy above suggests), it’s pretty simple. Be able to get in (for free), afford drinks, and find an open cab at the end of the night in New York City. It’s the New Year’s Eve-Eve Party without promoters’ names on the top of post-sized cards in Helvetica font…much to the dismay of Eric. I’ll be there, and so will these two clowns.

Tags: Friends, holidays, new years, nyc, party

Wrap That Run Up

No more NYC Marathon posts after this one. I promise. Unless I run it again in the future, of course. But I meant to share my final email in order to give a public shout-out to all my donors. Here’s what I sent:

A little over 4 and a half months ago, I started training to run the NYC Marathon for MS. A little over three months ago, I sent my first email asking for donations with two (connected) goals:

Raise $3,450 and Run the race in under 3 hours and 45 minutes.

I’m beyond happy to report that we beat both these goals. You helped me reach a total of $5,242.20 and a time of 3 hours 25 minutes and 15 seconds. That’s almost $2K more and 20 minutes less than I had hoped for! (Just wanted to give you all a chance to pat yourselves on the back, and give me a chance to show off my “3 on the AP Test” math skills :))

Thank you so much to:
Vince and Ila Gaffney, Megan Gaffney, Larry and Linda Fields, Craig Addeo, Carolena Deutsch-Garcia, Hara and Michael Cohen, Steve and Patti Cohen, Howie and Cathy Stein, Phyllis and Jarrett Pikser, Patricia Marchese, Kerri Holt, Jeff Stein, Lauren Cochran, Eric Rattner, Adrian Ho, Brean Cunningham, Jeffrey Greenblatt, Laith Kalamchi, Michael Rubinfeld, Jess April, Stephanie Redlener, Andrew Tchabovsky, Hara and Michael Cohen, Matt O’Laughlin, Robert Nelson, Lisa Michel, Kirsten Shiroma, Eric Friedman, Kim Nguyen, Jeff Friedman, Jason Brupbacher, Steven Krammer, Sherri and Jeff Feinman, Ron and Diane Kaufman, Matthew Jung, Mark DiMassimo, Paul Garvey, Zach Lev, Eric Mishlove, Tom Theys, Erica, Dave and Noah Ellenbogen, Barry Blyn, Jen Giroux, Eve Silverman, Jason Oke, Pete Brown, Justin Eshak, Michael Katz, Matthew Johnson, Steven Fields, Leah Zamkow, Donna and Ed Mishlove, Tori Greene, Marie Shadi, Lee Goldstein, Chad Blakenship, Kamila Prokop, Genna McKeel, David Buxton, Slyvan Garfunkel, Arthur Marino, Aki Spicer, Noah Brier, Evan Schepps, Sarah Saline, Sean Cox, Toby Daniels, Jonathan Stein, John Dooley, Jonathan Marshall, Ian Young, Christina Verdeschi, Annemarie Cullen, Einat Korman, Aaron Perlstein, Gary Van Dzura, Alex Sagol, Rich Weinstein, Sarah Park, Jonathan Eshak, Brian Flax, Jessica Rowlands, Annie O’Rourke, James Hochleutner, Mara Kelly, Alain Sylvain, Adrian Heney, Michael Page, Virginia Scoza, Irene Binder, and Brian Morris.

So how did it go? Well, I woke up at 5AM to go the ferry. I got on the ferry to Staten Island. I started in Staten Island and crossed the Verrazano Bridge. I crossed the Verrazano Bridge to swallow the fly. I don’t know why…Okay, I’ll stop. But suffice to say, I had a great day physically, mentally, and emotionally. The conditions were fantastic that Sunday, though a bit chilly causing me—as you’ll see in pictures—to rock gloves for the full 26.2 miles. I got to see a handful of you lining the course, including my family, which provided that extra burst of energy and motivation to keep going. And for the majority of those miles I ran with a couple of new friends from the Run MS team, Fred and Andrew. These guys kept me inspired, entertained, and honest. I had a tendency in training runs to get a little too speedy for my own good, and as you can see here my pace was pretty consistent for the entire race at 7:49.

I don’t have any glamour shots by Deb or anyone else, but I did take some screen grabs of some photos taken by the hired pros on November 2nd. (Don’t underestimate my sneakiness, Brightroom.) I put them into a little video for your viewing pleasure. Enjoy:

UPDATE: I received quite a few emails asking how long it took me to put that together. The answer: Less than 20 minutes – the bulk of which was spent taking screen grabs of my race pictures. I used Animoto, a free service that allows you to make a customized slide show video (with your own uploaded images and music). It also enables you to import the video into YouTube straight from their site. Check it out.

Tags: marathon, nyc, running, videos