I hear all the time people talking about how they have the next million dollar business idea. Most of the time it’s in a casual environment over drinks, dinner, or random social gathering. Obviously this person doesn’t have their business plan sitting there in front of them. Most likely they aren’t going to crunch numbers and give detailed projections on the first and second years in the business. What people may not realize, is this casual conversation may be the best test ... Read Full Story

Branded entertainment has quickly become one of the most successful advertising units money can buy.  When executed correctly, it can not only increase sales, but it can brand/rebrand a company or product and take it to new heights. The biggest example of branded entertainment producing monstrous results is in the film industry.  The comic book movies started it all.  In 1966, “Batman: The Movie” was released.  But since that was based more on the hit TV series... Read Full Story

I went up to San Francisco this past weekend to support my sister in her event “dine for a change” - A benefit for the San Francisco Women Against Rape which provides free services to victims of rape.  She worked really hard, and from what I was hearing from initial reports around the city, it seemed to be a success. She was able to bring Yelp on board as a marketing partner.  They donated a newsletter sponsorship that went out to San Francisco yelp members to SFWAR.&nbs... Read Full Story

Anytime I get to watch good music, be it at a concert hall, Hollywood club, or private party, it’s always a treat.  This past Friday was much more than a treat.  In front of barely a few hundred people, Tiesto took the stage at DJ Val Kolton’s VMODA House high atop the Hollywood Hills.  The theme was set as a white party and everybody, I mean everybody, was dressed in white.  The house was decked in white sheets stretched to the top of the 30 ft ceilings of Va... Read Full Story

  For those of us who closely follow the NBA Playoffs, we all have definitely seen it:  The Nike muppet Kobe and Lebron commericial and the Vitamin Water commercial are being shoved down our throats every TV timeout.  Add in the individual Kobe and Lebron commercials on top of those, and you feel like your in the middle of a tight presidential race. Think of the amount of money invested in this showdown that the whole industry is pushing for…not only does it guarantee so... Read Full Story

Twitter is still in its infancy stages of growth.  People are still discovering it; and a new way to utilize Twitter pops up daily.  The most recent newly discovered function for me is Twitter as a media source.  The AP is quick in releasing breaking stories from the scene of the news all the way to getting stories written, but there is lag time.  The news needs to be released, read, written about, edited, then publish on the web.  Although the internet allows for thi... Read Full Story

There is a big disconnect with nightlife and event marketing and the online world. Sure…Facebook and Myspace have event pages you can set up…and there’s sites like clubplanet.com and metromix.com (wait…they’re going under) that exist. But let’s be honest, few of us ever go to those sites and if you have, you probably don’t go back there often.Teaming up with TheScene.com, we have devised a solution that literally “connects” events with th... Read Full Story

Los Angeles is a ridiculously big town with way too many different industries for me to even begin to mention.  Regardless, being here 5 years, I’ve been around the business block and seen some sights.  Last week I attended two ‘mixers’ that had absolutely nothing to do with each other, yet had lots to do with each other.  I saw a lot of the same faces at both places.  Let me explain… The LA Tech Crew LA in all it’s glitz and glamour has been ... Read Full Story

If you clicked expecting to read about God’s word on the solution to surviving this economic decline, then you might be a little bit disappointed.  In this post, I will be outlining a few channels in which I manage to strum up business, but the bottom line is:  Regardless of what ideas I give you, it still takes consistent hard work on your part to take advantage of what I’m about to share with you.  You control your own destiny.  Remember that. With that, I gi... Read Full Story

This headline isn’t a joke.  A state representative for Texas actually proposed during House testimony on voter identification legislation, “Rather than everyone here having to learn Chinese — I understand it’s a rather difficult language — do you think that it would behoove you and your citizens [Chinese] to adopt a name that we could deal with more readily here?”  As a person of ethnic heritage, although I have assimilated to the American cultur... Read Full Story