WhipperSnaPR

The other project that’s been keeping me on my toes lately is this new game for Protrade:

Mascot Kombat is a very cool flash game designed as a parody of Mortal Kombat! It features an assortment of mascot costume clichés that duke it out in the ultimate superfan smackdown. You can choose to be an Eagle, Viking, Tiger or Indian and you must fight all other mascots to win!

Update: please vote for this game at I am bored!

Work is definitely keeping me busy these days! One of the many projects I’m working on is the launch of the newest game for Tweeter Mobile called Go Boom!

I’ve yet to beat this game, but I’ve gotten closer with this one than I have on any other Pod Game. I’m getting better

Basically, players drive through these crazy scenes with aliens, robots and even wild monkeys. You have to “pimp out” you car with all the best sound equipment to fight them; blast them with your bass or track them with your sonar. You earch cash for every monster you shoot down and, at the end of each level, you can buy bigger and better equipment. Try it out for yourself!

Finally! My small-town, Midwestern upbringing actually came in handy! This is mostly exciting because I don’t know anybody in Boston who is from “back home” and most of the PR people I know and work with don’t share in my life experiences.

Pod is in the process of developing a new campaign; all I can say about it right now is that it involves a chicken. We’re actually issuing a casting call for chickens! My 4H and FFA (future farmers of america) friends would be so amused! Initially, my bosses thought one chicken would do it, so I mentioned that it might be a good idea to get several. You never know when one will want to lay an egg! Then, somebody actually said, “We’ll just shoot the video in the afternoon; then, she will be done with her eggs.”

I had to laugh. I grew up with a few chickens in the back yard. It wasn’t a huge operation; we kept them mostly as pets. My sister sold the eggs to neighbors - for pennies - out of a red flyer wagon But, we had enough chickens for me to learn early on that chickens will lay eggs whenever and wherever they darn-well feel like it. And they won’t be quiet about it, either.

So… finally, the same quaint, farm-town childhood that people usually laugh at actually did me some good as a big city PR professional.

Oh, and if you’re wondering, Roosters don’t just crow at dawn and the only kind of corn worth eating is grown east of the mississippi and west of Indiana

I’ve never played a game of sudoku till this morning; I didn’t even know what it really was. Initially, I thought, “numbers? umm…. no; not for me.” But we’ve built a soduku game for kids ages 9-13 at work. So, I figured I should at least play it once before trying to “sell” it to anybody. So, I played; and now, I’m hooked. It is a great game of logic! Try for yourself:

I’ve been playing this game for about a month now and I still haven’t won! We developed it for the digial magazine company, Zinio and all you have to do is find 10 differences in two seemingly identical magazine covers in under 30 seconds. Easy, right? Well, not for me. I find it so amusing that I work for an online gaming company when I am so bad at playing computer games!

This is really sad because there’s a limited number of magazine covers, so after you’ve played for a while, you start to see repeats. I’ve been playing/testing this game for a month; I’m definitely seeing duplicates! I’m just too slow I’m so addicted and I’m determined to win.

I only have till Monday, though. Then, we release a new game, a fighting game (check back for a link soon!). I totally suck at that one!

Here’s some things to do if you’re feeling bored (These are also all parts of campaigns I’m working on… how convenient). Let me know if you find something you particularly like or dislike!

Free game for your cell phone

Featuring the characters from the movie, The Ant Bully, the game is a classic whack-a-mole game, but instead of moles, you’ve got to smack down the slugs, bugs, and other enemies, and call off the exterminator. Whack them all, and progress through all 10 levels of increasing difficulty.

Play detective and “crack the case”

A murder mystery game allows you to play the part of lead detective. Collect evidence, interview key witnesses, and perform autopsies. This one is my personal favorite!

A battle of the bands taken in the most literal sense:

The Warped Masacre Game, part of Fuse TV’s promotion for the Warped Tour, is a parody of Mortal Combat and pits the lead singers from bands on the tour against each other in over-the-top action

By definition, according to my cool dictionary widget, a whippersnapper is:

whippersnapper |ˈ(h)wipərˌsnapər| noun informal

a young and inexperienced person considered to be presumptuous or overconfident.

yep, that’s me! Young, check; inexperienced, mostly; presumptuous, not too often; overconfident, more often than is probably healthy. But, there is an upside… I’m also smart enough to at least recognize my pipsqueak tendencies and I try (for the most part) to keep them in line.

My experiences in my first two weeks at Pod have allowed me to both embrace and manage my inner WhipperSnaPR. First, I LOVE MY JOB and I will tell everybody I meet all about it. I definitely have a youthful energy about this job and my co-workers don’t seem to mind at all. They give me free plenty of room to trot about and stretch my legs like a spring pony.

But, I’ve also come to realize that although they hired me for my specialization in internet communication, they also expect me to do much more than chat online all day. I have much to learn. Fortunately, I have great teachers. First, I have my two bosses, Steve and Liz. They make such a great team both personally and professionally. They are successful and have years of experience, but they are also laid back, relaxed and open minded and they show me respect that I never had the opportunity to enjoy at my previous job.

In addition to my great role models at Pod, I also have the opportunity to work quite closely with the director of marketing, Bobbie, at B*tween Productions (developer of the Beacon Street Girls), one of our clients. I’ve only met her once, so far, but I truly enjoyed our conversation and brainstorm and I can already tell that I can learn a lot from Bobbie. She’s a seasoned PR professional, she has loads of media connections, and she is very level headed when it comes to PR/business strategy. We will be running a PR campaign from August through October and I’m so excited about it!

I hope to write more about this and other cool work activities soon!

This weekend, Ari and I went to one of my favorite bars in Cambridge, Enormous Room. A friend introduced me to “enormous” over a year ago and I’ve been a loyal patron ever since. Although, I as I noticed during my last visit, the qualities that originally drew me to the bar so frequently have all begun to disappear or transform into traits that I don’t find as appealing. So, it got me thinking…

Enormous Room has done very little advertising (if any at all) and has relied on word of mouth to build its clientelle. They don’t even have a sign on the door; but they have earned some positive reviews in the past. Their approach worked out great at first. They were growing in popularity at a very manageable pace and they were attracting all the right people to fit their persona/genre/style. But recently, it seams the clientelle has changed. All of the people I used to see every weekend have stopped coming (and I stopped going every weekend, myself), the music has changed, and the drinks are more expensive. Why the change?

Now that I’m working in word of mouth marketing, these kinds of case studies have been catching my attention. The enormous room could present a very interesting case against word of mouth marketing: when you rely solely on word of mouth, you relinquish a considerable amount of control over the medium and the message. However, any good PR can quickly become bad PR if the buisness is not prepared to manage an increase in interest and attention.

I’d love to hear the perspective and strategy of the Enormous manager and I’m interested in seeing how they react to the recent changes in their business. I may have to continue my regular visits just to see how things progress…. plus, I have to feed my cravings for their pomegranate margaritas

I’m back in Boston after an 11-day trip to visit Josh in San Francisco. Although I spent some time working last week, my “new” life takes full speed this week.

My good friend Colin, founder and CEO of his own company, Mahoney Communications, has asked me to work with him on a potential account. So, yesterday morning, bright and early, we had a new business pitch. It went exceedingly well. Now, my weekend will be filled with drafting the formal proposal. I’m quite proud of myself, though; I was able to correctly and effectively identify her weaknesses in past PR efforts and offer my recommendations without offending her. In fact, she seemed shocked and excited that I was able to recognize the specific areas where she wanted help. I have high hopes for this project in the coming weeks.

Today is my first day at Pod Design. I’m absolutely loving it so far! The first thing Liz (one of my “bosses”… I only have two as opposed to the 4 before!) said to me was…”We’re pretty laid-back here, so there’s no reason to freak out about much.” I’ve been given my objectives for the next three months… they are ambitious, yet achievable and I’m so excited to get started. I also have high hopes for this position.

The combination of my long vacation away from the real world with all of this positive energy coming from my new work has been an effective detox from my previous situation, which ended only two short weeks ago… it feels like ages! At first, the transition was difficult for me. My last work environment drained me of my enthusiasm and gusto that had been my identifying traits… and the idea for the WhipperSnaPR blog title. I still don’t feel completely like my old self, but I finally feel like I’m headed in the right direction.

First, I have to disclose that this is part of a campaign managed by Pod Design, but I still have to rave about it because I’m totally addicted!

I’m not a huge fan of cops and lawyers TV shows… but this game has all the right elements

Here’s a little blurb about it from a recent article on Adotas:

Take a look at it! Play around and let me know what you think!