SPEED TV – Japanese Expansion Initiative
The semester’s project was to analyze the cultural dimensions of a foreign nation and bring an american product to market there. I enthusiastically harnessed my passion for auto racing and chose to construct a strategic marketing plan to bring SPEED TV to Japan. Please click here to read the report.
Note: This was an academic exercise completed by Thomas Wilk and submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for MSPC 3450 Global Marketing and Advertising, Clark University – College of Professional and Continuing Education. May 3, 2010. Certain assumptions have been made by the author in order to complete the exercise. The entire work is the sole opinion of the author and is in no way endorsed by SPEED TV, News Corporation, NASCAR, ESPN, J Sports, Mobilityland, Toyota Racing Development, Hideo Fukuyama, Joe Gibbs Racing or any other entity named in this report – Despite the fact that it’s AWESOME!
All too often, I’ve found myself completely uninterested in every song in my iTunes library (all 15.75 days worth). It’s not that I no longer like any of the music I’ve collected since the 5th grade, but you can only feed your ears a selective diet for so long. Sure, I have my usual suspects list of favorites, but today I was completely frustrated as I furiously scrolled through my digital library. That was all remedied when I thumbed to the 1993 Grant Lee Buffalo release: Fuzzy.
Grant Lee Buffalo, headed by singer/songwriter Grant Lee Phillips, was a California alt-rock trio that was blessed with critical accolades and had a few modest modern rock radio hits in the mid 90′s. Grant Lee Buffalo never broke into the true mainstream despite a successful stint opening for R.E.M. in 1995 and the band suffered a quiet end in 1999.
My chance encounter with Fuzzy first happened in 1993 while working as a dj for WXPL 91.3 fm Fitchburg State College radio in Fitchburg, Massachusetts. I spun the title track and was immediately stunned. The disc was randomly packed into a giant wooden bin tagged “New Music”. We were asked by station management and the XPL Constitution to play at least 3 tracks from this bin per hour. Playing songs from the new music bin was tedious. It’s not always easy to find brilliant new artists, especially while having to weed through countless ne’er-do-well rock and hip-hop acts from the early 90′s. Discovering and analyzing your personal tastes and savoring your sonic encounters becomes more about partnership of purpose with the artists rather than just playing records. My contempt for the bin and the process it represented ended when Fuzzy sunk its hooks deep inside my spirit.
Fuzzy plays like the soundtrack to a smoky, sepia-toned, grit-filled, dark cornered alehouse of which Grant Lee Buffalo is the house band. Gangsters, voodoo, failure, lost love and sweet affectionate hauntings serve as the lyrical skeleton to this acoustic powered jingle-jangle gem. Stinging hollow-body solos rip in appropriate time to add the right amount of raw color. A sparse ragtime piano stuffs the gaps and breathes life into this alt-rock prize. The near 50 minute narrative of raw beauty and honest pain is well-crafted and doesn’t suffer from any filler tracks.
I have carried and cherished this album for sixteen years now and I highly recommend you give it a listen. Fuzzy will forever be included on the soundtrack of my life. A beautiful reminder of great times in my personal development colored with stunning melodies and contemplative poetry discovered half a lifetime ago.
Kyle Busch had, without a doubt, one of the best seasons in the history of NASCAR. His combined stats for the top three series in NASCAR racing for 2008 are mindblowing. “Rowdy” had 21 wins, 45 top 5′s, 57 top 10′s and led a staggering 4,362 laps. He also gave Toyota their first win in Sprint Cup history. What’s even more unbelievable is that the junior Busch brother barely finished the season in the top 10 in points for the Sprint Cup Championship.
Kyle Busch entered the playoffs 30 points ahead of Carl Edwards and left New Hampshire 74 points behind. A broken suspension piece early in the race put Busch 12 laps down and was a harbinger of things to come. The seemingly unbeatable Busch from earlier in the year was no where to be found; his car suffered catastrophic engine failure after 172 laps at Dover and finished 43rd. Kansas was no picnic either. The #18 M&M’s boys couldn’t get their JGR Toyota hooked-up and Busch finished a disappointing 28th. The one no one could catch was now mired in last place in the Chase after 3 races and was in a fight just to make the stage at the awards banquet.
Busch gutted out 4 top 10′s later in the Chase, but he never truly contended for a win in any of the races. His amazing season ended with a sputtering 19th place finish at Homestead; having to stop for fuel with under 5 laps to go. He did manage to finish 2 points ahead of Matt Kenseth in the final championship standings.
Did the rigors of racing in 84 NASCAR events between Cup, Nationwide and Craftsman Trucks take its toll? Did Busch’s team peak too early or did other teams just get better? Was Kyle a victim of bad luck or just bad timing? No single answer is good enough to explain the team’s failure to capture the biggest prize in American motorsports. What race fans and NASCAR competitors do know is that Kyle is only 23 years old and he is a true wheelman. Kyle Busch has many years of racecar domination in front of him. He has the “checkers or wreckers” attitude for every race he is in. You build him something with 4 wheels and he’ll get you the best finish that machine was capable of (and often two spots more). A future champion? You bet. The question is not if, but how many.
2003 NASCAR (Winston) Cup champion Matt Kenseth makes the Chase again, but fails to make any progress toward his second Cup. He is one of only 2 drivers to make the playoffs every year since the system was implimented (Jimmie Johnson being the other). Starting the Chase in 12th place and having zero wins on the season provided the #17 car with a difficult challenge; finishing 40th at New Hampshire didn’t help matters any.
Kenseth’s bright spot in the Chase came in the second race at The Monster Mile of Dover International Speedway. He led a race-high 136 laps and finished second to his teammate Greg Biffle (Biffle’s second win in a row). Driver #17 followed up his Dover performance with a solid weekend at Kansas, qualifying 3rd, leading 49 laps and finishing 5th. The only problem was that 4 Chasers finished in front of him and Kenseth failed to make up much ground in the Chase.
Mr. consistent was really anything but in the Chase. The #17 had 5 top 10′s and an average finish of 29.4 in the other 5 races. Those stats just won’t get it done against the talent pool currently in Cup competition. Kenseth’s frustrations were apparent with a deliberate wrecking on A.J. Allmendinger at the checkered flag in Phoenix.
Hope is not lost however. Kenseth has solid support from team owner Jack Roush and Ford Motorsports; having just inked him to a new contract extension. He is also surrounded by talent that rivals the Hendrick Motorsports stables with Greg Biffle and Carl Edwards also being locked-up long term by Roush-Fenway. It should also be mentioned that this was Kenseth’s first season with crew chief Chip Bolin. His Championship crew chief, Robbie Riser is now involved with all of the Roush-Fenway teams in a front office capacity.
Take the best of The Beatles…you know, when they came back from Rishikesh, India after studying “transcendental meditation” with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and getting completely twisted on copious amounts opium. Mix in the sonic foundry of Led Zepplin, color it with an amber cloud of bong smoke and press it to vinyl. That’s how the debut release from The Raconteurs, “Broken Boy Soldiers” plays. The record is a time warp soundtrack to a comfy sofa and a small group of friends surrounded by empty cans of domestic beer and Chinese take-out on a late October evening somewhere in the mid-seventies.
A raconteur is one skilled in the art of storytelling. Nobody names a rock band like that anymore. Most new rock bands have numbers or initials in their name or some sort of weird, overthought reference to a subject matter way deeper than the band could ever hope to comprehend. The Raconteurs have brazen chops and they know it. The only real liner note accompanying the disc is a statement the reads: “Remember a time when all was not fine and up from the dingy sewers came four lousy thieves who flourished like trees behold The Raconteurs.”
The band is comprised of guitarist/vocalist Jack White (the band’s most celebrated member- best know for his work as one half of The White Stripes) and his basement tape buddy and alt-pop master, guitarist/keyboardist/vocalist Brendan Benson. The mid-western garage rock band The Greenhornes’ drummer Patrick Keeler and bassist Jack Lawrence serve as the supergroup’s gritty rhythm section.
The first single “Steady as She Goes” is a nice introduction to the album. It is reminiscent of The White Stripes single “Walking With a Ghost” (actually a Tegan and Sara cover) in both tone and cadence. The title track “Broken Boy Soldier” is the most raw and aggressive track on the album; conjuring images of Zepplin’s “Immigrant Song”. “Blue Veins”, the closing track of album is a soulful blues number also comparable to a Zep classic, “Dazed and Confused” off of Led Zepplin I. The album also has its share of garage pop fun, namely “Hands”, “Intimate Secretary” and “Yellow Sun”. There is very little filler on Broken Boy Soldiers which is a bonus due to the short play time of the 10 track album, a tiny 34 minutes. The only noticeable slowdown is the 5th track “Together” which would be the last song on the first side of a vinyl release.
The poetry in the songwriting is simple but poignant, the vocals are somewhat raw but sincere, the guitar work is outstanding and the drums and bass do not overstep their bounds. The album is a solid, well-produced mix of classic rock wonder and a glimmer of hope in a dying genre. This disc is a must for anyone who considers themselves a fan of true blues based rock music.
Key tracks: “Steady as She Goes”, “Hands”, “Broken Boy Soldier”
Spencer Savings Bank placed a series of ads in a publication called Baystate Parent. The focus of the magazine is mothers (both working and stay-at-home) in central Massachusetts. I developed this campaign to position Spencer Savings Bank as a partner in aiding the mother with her everyday life struggles. Through the use of smart copy and feminine visuals, the ads connect with the target audience on several levels.
In 2004, Marshalls initiated a marketing thrust to the college age female demographic. When new stores were opening close to a college or university campus, Marshalls would target the female residents with direct mail, newspaper and billboard advertising. This is an example of a direct mail piece. The art features a sassy college student dressed in the Marshalls fashion of the day. I personally directed this photo shoot as well as wrote the headline copy. I positioned Marshalls with a welcoming wink to the prowess of the shopper.
