Jeff Cotrupe:MarketPOWER,LLC

Ronnie James Dio and "the Maloik"

2011-07-09T15:40:00.000-07:00

At the risk of having readers think this is a Dio blog, which it is not,* I wanted to follow up my post below by mentioning something I saw recently in a rockumentary on cable music channel Palladia. Heavy metal fans have commonly adopted the sign of the horns--middle and ring finger clasped under thumb, with index and pinky fingers pointed at the sky--as "the devil's horns," reflecting the evil or tinged-with-evil nature of much of the music in the genre as well as the bands and the fans. The Palladia program I saw contained an interview where Ronnie James Dio, who made the horns a staple of hard rock and metal culture, said this about them:

"I doubt very much if I would be the first one who ever did that. It's like saying I invented the wheel...I think you'd have to say that I made it fashionable. I used it so much all the time and it had become my trademark until the Britney Spears audience decided to do it as well, so it kind of lost its meaning with that. But it was...I was in Sabbath at the time. It was a symbol that I thought was reflective of what that band was supposed to be all about. It's not the devil's sign as if we're here with the devil. It's an Italian thing I got from my grandmother called the "Malocchio". It's to ward off the Evil Eye or to give the Evil Eye, depending on which way you do it. It's just a symbol, but it had magical incantations and attitudes to it and I felt it worked very well with Sabbath. So I became noted for it, then everybody else started to pick up on it and away it went. But I would never say I take credit for being the first to do it. I say because I did it so much that it became the symbol of rock and roll..."

Dio often dealt with themes of spirituality and immortality in his music--as reflected in one of his song titles, exploring both Heaven and hell--and like most metal artists he never shied away from allowing fan fascination with a touch of evil** to stoke interest in his music. Yet he was one of the most professional, well-spoken and, from all reports, kindest people the world of metal has ever seen: someone whose intelligence and gift of communication would have stacked up favorably in any business or segment of society. Dio said it all stemmed from his Italian grandmother, "I believe it, and that settles it." (Inside joke that may resonate with many and anger some, but I hope I may be forgiven.)

If all this talk about horns has you hooked (you know that one is for you, University of Texas sports fans), you can read the passage above and much more on Wikipedia, which like me owes attribution for the actual Dio interview to Metal-Rules.com online magazine, content "Dio interviewed by EvilG," 9 March 2001.

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* Most of what I do elsewhere on the web, as expressed on News 2.0 (link above) is about research, writing, marketing & products at the speed of business™. I love what I do in all those places, but here on Blogger I stretch out a bit and write about something else that stirs my passion: music.

** A nod to the song Touch of Evil by Judas Priest.

DiO at Donington: Bone-rattling masterpiece

2010-12-10T00:24:00.000-08:00

A lot of serious rockers reveled in the metallic mastery of Ronnie James Dio (born Ronald James Padavona) during his time on this earthly sphere and mourned his passing in May 2010. Dio may no longer be here with we mere mortals, but he is survived by what may be the best Dio collection ever. Released two months after his death, Dio at Donington UK: Live 1983 & 1987 unleashes the pure sonic fury of Dio at the very top of his game and is so rock-solid end-to-end that I had to blog about it.

I didn't buy the album. My brother Joe and I bonded over Dio a long time ago, and when an unexpected package showed up last week I first said, "Hey, I didn't order this"--and then I knew. Yet when I read the set list, I realized I knew most of the songs and wondered if I was in for a warmed-over rehash.

How wonderfully wrong that notion turned out to be. This two-CD set powers up fast and propels the listener on a wave of rolling thunder that never subsides. Disk 1 was recorded at the 1983 Castle Donington Monsters of Rock Festival, where Dio, a veteran of bands Elf, Rainbow and Black Sabbath, unveiled the new band bearing his name on a bill that included a somewhat eclectic lineup of others: Meat Loaf, Twisted Sister, Whitesnake and ZZ Top. As Eduardo Rivadavia eloquently puts it in the Zune review of the album, Dio "guided his handpicked band members--faithful Sabbath partner drummer Vinny Appice, veteran former Rainbow associate bassist Jimmy Bain and white-hot guitar prodigy Vivian Campbell--through an energized set of past and future heavy metal classics." Listening to the album I am blown away...then blown away again...and then blown away again. Stand Up and Shout? Best ever. Straight Through the Heart: not really one of my favorites on other albums. Dio and band positively crushed it here. New favorite. I love the studio version of Children of the Sea. Love the raw energy of this one even a bit more. Rainbow in the Dark: incomparable. On past cuts I've been ambivalent on Holy Diver and would often skip listening. Cannot stop spinning this one. Heaven and Hell is an extended, fan-participation affair, the kind of song I usually have no patience for. I think I could listen to this one for another 10 minutes.

Rivadavia and I part ways on Disk 2: He says it felt a bit less inspired and spontaneous. I say thank God they didn't stop after Disk 1. Recorded upon Dio's return to Donington in 1987, where they shared the bill with Anthrax, Bon Jovi, Cinderella, Metallica and W.A.S.P., this one leads off by bringing to life studio favorites such as Dream Evil, Neon Knights and Naked in the Rain. I have long preferred Queensryche's version of Neon Knights; this live Dio version makes it a toss-up. Rock and Roll Children is magnificent, and I'm confident many will have a hard time listening to All the Fools Sailed Away--and in truth, many of the tunes on both disks--without pummeling an imaginary drum kit. Dio's supporting lineup in 1987 again included Bain and Appice but this time featured Craig Guldy on guitar in place of Campbell, and Claude Schnell on keyboards.

Downside to Donington? The repeats. Five songs from 1983's Disk 1 poke their heads out again, albeit 1987 versions, on Disk 2. The presence of five repeats out of 25 total tracks on the two-CD set is not so bad, perhaps, when you consider these performances were four years apart, and that some on the second disk are not the full songs but presented in snippet/medley form.

Ted Nugent was once asked what he liked best about playing rock 'n roll, and he was quoted as responding, "I love it when the music crushes me." That's one thing I love about Dio at Donington. Another is that when I finished listening all the way through the first time, somewhere in my subconscious I realized: Not once did I have to make excuses in my mind, as I have often found myself doing with other bands, for why the vocalist couldn't hit the same high notes in concert that were crystal-clear in the studio version. Or why the singer was out of tune on notes throughout the vocal range.

Ronnie James Dio: Hard rock/metal legend. Full power. No excuses.

VIDEOS from DiO at Donington here

I'll be back...

2010-10-24T19:00:00.000-07:00

Greetings. I know a lot of people have visited this blog because many of you, especially from musically-focused sites and firms, sent me comments and subsequently followed me on Twitter. Since I posted the Creed-Chevelle piece, things have heated up for me considerably career-wise. For years I was the analyst who "named Stratecast but never joined the firm," but those days are over: I'm now Program Director, OSS/BSS Global Competitive Strategies at Stratecast, a division of Frost & Sullivan. I'm doing a lot of writing but it's almost entirely focused on Stratecast reports and consulting engagements for paying clients.

That said, hundreds of blog entries and other examples of my work are yours to read absolutely free, either on or linked from my MarketPOWER, LLC core site and XeeSM social hubsite. Enjoy, and I hope to get a chance to write more here on Blogger someday soon.

Chevelle and Creed: The kids are alright

2010-01-10T14:54:00.000-08:00

The latest albums by household name Creed and lesser-known rockers Chevelle represent a bit of a departure from each band's previous work, and while this has caused some unrest among their fan bases, I think in both cases it is change listeners can believe in.

Creed reunited in 2009 and in late October launched its new album, Full Circle. The band, which has sold approximately 30 million albums worldwide, had taken a multi-year hiatus that saw guitarist Mark Tremonti, drummer Scott Phillips and bassist Brian Marshall team up with vocalist Myles Kennedy (and touring bassist Brett Hestla, now of Dark New Day) to form the widely-acclaimed Alter Bridge, while Scott Stapp pursued a brief solo career.

To far less fanfare, powerhouse rock outfit Chevelle also released its latest album in Fall 2009 entitled Sci-Fi Crimes. Chevelle was formed by Loeffler brothers Pete (guitar, vocals and Johnny Knoxville look-alike), Sam (drums) and Joe (bass), and its rock-ribbed approach has led to broad commercial success with albums Point #1, Wonder What's next and This Type of Thinking Could Do Us In. Chevelle is no stranger to personnel changes; brother Joe departed the band in 2006 (they say voluntarily, he says fired) and the Loefflers' brother-in-law and long-time friend Dean Bernardini took over on bass. Chevelle has since recorded the album Vena Sara and now Sci-Fi Crimes; Joe Loeffler is now bassist for Daylight Division with guitarist Marcos Curiel, formerly of P.O.D., and drummer Dave Buckner, formerly of Papa Roach, and the three are currently auditioning vocalists.

Full Circle shows Creed hiking harder-edged, less radio-friendly terrain than the the work that immediately preceded the band's breakup, which has prompted some fans to lament "the good old days" marked by tunes such as Arms Wide Open. There is a reason Creed has sold more albums than most rock acts who have ever lived, and I have enjoyed even those portions of its catalog that have drifted a bit too close to top-40 pop for my taste. Yet I believe Creed's persona had, unfairly perhaps, become one of "Christians who happen to rock," beset by a sex-drugs-rock 'n roll culture for which seemingly no evil is too evil and spiritually positive artists start every game two scores behind. So the reunified Creed has come screaming out of the gate with full-out rocker Overcome, complete with the most incendiary guitar solo in recent rock memory, as the album's first single and a new, heavier image. The Overcome video, with time-honored metal-band devil-horns fist pumps by the band as they play, may reflect the boys trying a bit too hard to shake that old image. Yet this album feels a lot more like the one that started it all, My Own Prison, and that's a good place to (re)start. As metal master Ronnie James Dio once put it, "We play hard rock and metal; we write in minor keys." Creed has done well on its new outing by expending little capital on up-with-people inspirationals and getting comfortable again with those minor keys.

Conversely, judging by various reviews the complaint with Chevelle seems to be that with Sci-Fi Crimes, the band has "sold out" and created a radio-ready songbook just this side of the Jonas Brothers. To which I say: You've got to be kidding. The only frustration I've had with Chevelle has been that, while I appreciate a thinking person's band that shifts time signatures over the course of a song, it is precisely those Kansas/Dream Theater-like rhythmic departures that have kept a wider universe of listeners from appreciating the molten melodic jackhammer that is Chevelle. So more straight-ahead 4/4 time signatures and a tad more mainstream feel on Sci-Fi Crimes are music to my ears. You're going to be hearing Jars and Letter From a Thief on the radio, and I do like ...Thief (video here), but my favorite tracks on the album are Sleep Apnea, Fell Into Your Shoes and Mexican Sun.

LINKS to MORE CREED VIDEOS

A Thousand Faces: The Woodlands (Houston)
Bullets:
- Live (no audience) on channel labeled on various links as V or CPE
- Produced by ExtremE1502 using snippets from The Dark Knight
My Own Prison:
- Audio-only but killer performance, House of Blues (Orlando)
- Marquee Theater (Tempe, AZ)
- Fox & Friends TV (NYC)
Say I: The Woodlands (Houston)
Weathered: Billboard Music Awards (Las Vegas)
What If:
- The Woodlands (Houston)
- VH-1/Phillips Arena (Atlanta)

LINKS to MORE MUSIC VIDEOS...plus COMEDY

Jeff Cotrupe on Facebook

Mobile advertising is on the move

2009-12-31T14:41:00.000-08:00

Ty Wang, senior director of product marketing for service delivery solutions at Oracle, posted an entry on the Open Communication Blog at Billing & OSS World touting a Gartner forecast that mobile advertising will generate billions of dollars in revenue by the year 2013. Ty asked a great question, in effect, these figures sound great, but what if anything is really happening in the market? Who's doing this? As the animated hologram told Will Smith’s character in the movie I, Robot: “THAT, detective, is the right question.” Some big (and small) players are making important things happen that are building the foundation for that promised market growth.

Transverse is a unique open systems OSS/BSS provider that offers solutions via open source GPL license with no license fees, and users pay if they engage the firm for advanced functionality, proserv, training and product extensions. Transverse offers a product module called Customer Asset Management that, simply put, offers a way for wireless operators to monetize their subscriber bases by offering them as an audience to advertisers. The success of that approach, of course, hinges on persuading them to opt in for ads on their mobile devices, usually by offering discounted service rates or promotional affinity programs. To that end Transverse commissioned a survey conducted by iGR, a market strategy consultancy focused on the wireless and mobile industry, which interviewed 810 wireless subscribers ages 18 to 65. The study found that 56% of the mobile users who responded to the survey would view ads on their phones in exchange for a 25-50 percent discount on their monthly bill.

At Microsoft, the mobile advertising team is led by GM Charles Johnson and New York-based Marc-Henri Magdelénat, one of the three founders of ScreenTonic, the mobile advertising pioneer acquired by Microsoft in 2007. Magdelénat and ScreenTonic built the largest European mobile advertising network by partnering with tier 1 operators such as Orange and sold more than 2,000 mobile ad campaigns to advertisers such as Coca-Cola, Nike, Reebok, HP and Peugeot. Microsoft is showing signs of life in that regard: In early 2009 it beat out Yahoo! and Google for the half-billion-dollar contract to provide Verizon Wireless with portal, local, web search and mobile advertising services. More recently Microsoft and Verizon launched a mobile ad campaign for Global Hyatt Corporation designed to boost membership in the Hyatt Gold Passport frequent guest rewards program and drive traffic to Hyatt’s mobile website.

Then in September 2009 Microsoft Advertising launched its Behavioral Targeting initiative, which works by anonymously tracking behaviors of users and classifying them into unique segments using web keyword search behavior from Bing, visits to Microsoft sites, Hotmail newsletters, Xbox subscriptions and Windows Live profiles. [So exciting to know that by virtue of just about every move we make online, we are all now part of Microsoft’s own CAM-like monetized audience.]

The Microsoft and Transverse strategies are conceptually (if not actually, yet) related because the big money really starts to flow if Microsoft can offer advertisers access not only to its own growing mobile advertising network but to legions of subscribers from multiple large Verizon-like operators, and a solution such as Transverse’s CAM could accelerate that business model.

A New Year's resolution for Verizon and AT&T

2009-12-26T13:42:00.001-08:00

It's a simple one, really: Spend a few zillion less on attack ads against each other and more on building out and resolving issues in your networks and with your handsets. That way the vast majority of the U.S. that uses one of the two services, AT&T and Verizon top executives and their multimillion-dollar Madison Avenue pitchmen and women included, can endure fewer dropped calls and enjoy more actual coverage in more areas, not just on those cute little red/orange/blue-splotched "coverage maps" in the TV spots but in real life. I've long contended that the bespectacled field tester Verizon still features in some of its advertising, the one who keeps asking, "Can you hear me now," is not really a tester at all but a Verizon customer. The bottom line for my good friends in the wireless world: Whichever mobile operator it is who actually, finally transcends the "best efforts" mobile service most of us receive now and delivers the industry's Holy Grail--a level of mobile service that truly provides what can be called with a straight face a landline replacement--will lock up the vast majority of the U.S. mobile services market without having to run even one more smarmy, nyah-nyah-they're-worse-than-us ad.

Here's the funny part: It might not even be one of the U.S. wireless Big Two who takes us to the promised land first. Sprint (which has now assimilated Nextel); T-Mobile; up-and-comers such as Clearwire and Cellular South; the various companies that compete as Cellular One; or even one of the Latin American operators such as Grupo Carso's Claro, Telecom Italia Mobile (TIM), or one of the Telmex or Telefonica properties might show AT&T and Verizon the way.

The AT&T-Verizon clash reminds me of the long-running, overhyped "cola wars" between Coca-Cola and Pepsi, but at least those battling bottlers never fail to deliver the goods. When's the last time you tipped up a cool, refreshing container of either one and got a "beverage outage" message?

Upon further review, maybe using mobile services in the U.S. today is like drinking out of a can when what we really need is a bottle or a glass: At least with a clear container you can see whether the service [beverage] is available before you try to use your mobile device [have a drink]. When is the last time your handset and that of the person on the other end both showed "full bars" right as your call dropped? Probably not long ago. Not that I am bitter.

OK, so let's just say the mobile advertising onslaught works on some level and you decide to switch from one of the mobile giants to the other, bringing your mobile number with you? Well, as we head into the 2009-10 holiday season here's hoping you and yours have an easier time trying to make it across the mobile divide than our household did a year ago ["Verizon (and AT&T), We've Got a Problem"].

Maybe the answer to this question of ad-fueled style vs. service delivery substance lies with a company like Keynote that provides user-specific web and mobile testing to assess actual user experience with apps and ads and downloads, and yes, basic wireless connectivity and performance, at various locations around the globe. As it says on Keynote's website, "Connected companies will know precisely how their Web sites, content, and applications will perform on actual browsers, networks, and mobile devices long before their customers and business are impacted." I'd love to be able to make Keynote's service performance test results publicly available to everyone, not just to the service providers who are its main customers, because what Keynote does gets to the heart of the buying decision that faces every residential or corporate mobile purchaser: If I commit to this contract, what is the service going to be like, not in that it "covers 97% of all residents" but specifically for me, and/or my company?

Or maybe Sprint will offer answers by looking outward. In July 2009 it agreed to pay up to $5 billion over the next seven years to Telefon AB L.M. Ericsson, turning over day-to-day operations of its network to the Swedish telecom company as Sprint focuses on new products and customer retention. It is the first time one of the major U.S. carriers, who are infamous for exercising tight control over assets, has fully outsourced core network functions to a third-party vendor. Maybe Sprint (er, Ericsson) will lead the charge that guides U.S. mobile operators from best efforts to best practices.

Pour more money into delivering the service. Pour less (with all apologies to Luke Wilson) into ads trying to convince everyone the other mobile telecom titan is worse than you are. It's a crazy (holiday) dream...

MarketPOWER, LLC tops 2,000-follower mark on Twitter

2009-11-24T16:53:00.000-08:00

MarketPOWER™, LLC added its 2,000th follower today on Twitter, having added its 150 newest followers in less than a month. Our Twitter site’s Google PageRank of 5 has proven unattainable even for many larger firms’ sites, and my XeeSM page (all social media links, one click) earns a PageRank of 3. We continue to grow our follower base 100% organically by delivering information and business value, and without using any of the get-followers-quick or ‘train’ systems making the rounds on Twitter. We deploy a myriad of interactive techniques and best practices for our clients and ourselves, but it’s all designed around two core objectives: Reducing outbound sales "push" while creating maximum "pull;" and engaging in comfortable dialogues in optimal venues with prospects, customers and opinion leaders instead of marketing "at" them.

Single sign-on to your online world…

2009-08-15T17:44:00.001-07:00

…with one page that closes the book on link clutter.

It was probably a dozen years ago when I first added a company logo to an email signature. More recently we all started receiving emails with an ever-more-impressive lineup of logos in signatures linking you to the senders’ company websites, LinkedIN and Twitter pages and more. When it became clear that vast stretches of the business world had been conquered by PDA, most of us took the hint and migrated our mindset to the small screen. We dropped the logos in favor of links…and more links…until some email signatures including my own, plus ads, TV spots, web listings, resumes and more began to resemble a runaway train of link largesse.

Something had to be done. Now someone has done it. Several someones, in fact.

Axel Schultze, Rob Stevenson, Marita Roebkes and the team at Xeequa, who earlier brought us the Social Media Academy, have launched a new service called XeeSM. If you haven’t already heard, XeeSM is a place—one place, a single URL—where you can post links to all of your own social media pages and sites. To see it in action, click here.

I love it. Instead of trying to pick the right combination of links to share, you can now cover all your online bases with just one. One-stop shopping. "One-click convenience." As a bonus, replacing the logo-link parade on your site(s) with just one logo speeds page-loading. More broadly, I think Axel and the team are onto something big, a new crossroads of global networking. Why? The social media world is stratifying into functional franchises: I’ll bet virtually everyone reading this has looked up people for business purposes on LinkedIN and Twitter, and possibly on other sites such as Xing, Spoke, WhoHub, ZoomInfo or iMedia Connection. From workstyle to lifestyle, you’ve probably found friends and family on Facebook and hooked up with friends, favorite musical artists and other entertainers on MySpace. You’ve probably searched WordPress, Blogger or TypePad to find interesting blogs (and bloggers). Web denizens the world over are sharing sites, photos, info and interests on social bookmarking sites from Digg to Del.icio.us, from (Google) Flickr to Furl, from Slashdot to Squidoo to StumbleUpon and hundreds more.

Now imagine being able to find a person, company, band, industry association or any other entity on all of these sites by doing just ONE search. Like other networking/social media services, XeeSM lets you run open searches on its user base, so if XeeSM achieves LinkedIN- or Facebook-style near-ubiquity in the global web user community…you can. For each of us as users, it would be nothing short of a single sign-on for social media, and since XeeSM also lets you post your core website(s), potentially a de facto directory for the interactive world.

Whew.

I’ve already incorporated XeeSM into my online presence. Yet the devil’s advocate in me asks: Why not just go it alone? I already own 10 domains, part of protecting a brand in the digital age. I could post links to my most important social media pages and sites, XeeSM-style, on any one of the unused pages on those domains, then insert that single URL in my email signature and everywhere else.

Here’s why: By going with XeeSM I’m getting in on the ground floor of a branded global community that I am confident will offer useful capabilities and connectivity I simply cannot capture alone. Then, if enough of us get on board, we all reap the almost incalculable benefits of one search to quickly find anyone in all their web venues.

OK, but maybe the devil’s in the details. To add each link to your XeeSM lineup you choose from a pulldown menu of preset sites/logos (e.g., Twitter) or general site types such as Blog, Email and Website. The system puts them in alpha order by type, so Blog is near the top and Website is near the bottom. I have an extensive online presence, and within site type listings the system places links in order by an algorithm I have yet to decipher. So while I want my core site to appear at the very top of my XeeSM page, if posted under Website it falls in with the great unwashed masses of sites that do not currently appear in the preset pulldown menu and might not even achieve first-screen display for many users. I “fixed” that by classifying my core site as an Event Site, but I felt so cheap…

To arrange things so Xeequa does not find itself perpetually updating those pulldowns, XeeSM could give users the option of entering their own site names into a free-form field in the site type column. Yet I am sure the team fears that would open the door to misuse of the service with site type labels like “Really Smokin’ Site” followed by some obscure URL. So maybe the best way around it is to keep the existing pulldown structure but tweak the system to let users place their links in any order they like. If that capability exists today in XeeSM, I have yet to find it. (OK, XeeSM is just out in public beta, so I need to cut it some slack. "Small moves, Ellie. Small moves…")

To become the single sign-on for the interactive world, XeeSM must achieve substantial market penetration in the global user community. To get there, XeeSM must offer high value on a user-by-user basis, and it is doing that by giving users the convenience of sharing their total online presence with anyone via a single URL. If it succeeds, we may be witnessing the birth of the next great online powerhouse.

For now I'm just happy to offer one-page at-a-glance convenience to the most important addresses in my web world. Did I mention my XeeSM URL is http://xeesm.com/JEFF? Just making sure.