WGA Strike Update and Tokyopop Marketing Madness

[alanajoli]

So, the WGA has organized something brilliant for the fans to do. Some of you may have heard about how fans sent nuts to producers to keep Jericho on television. The folks at United Hollywood developed a similar plan: send pencils to the producers in support of the strike. Joss wrote about it here, and you can get your pencils from United Hollywood here. They're environmentally friendly pencils, no less, and these folks are coordinating the effort to have an overflow of pencils (much like the potatoes that Murphy Brown dumped on Dan Quayle's lawn, if you remember that far back in TV history).

In other news, Tokyopop is doing some brilliant marketing: they're running a contest to advertise their Tokyopop TV, which puts some of their manga into flash. In this contest, they're asking all of their readers to post certain clips of episodes on their blogs, MySpace pages--anywhere that it can be seen by the public. So they're enlisting the fans (much like the WGA above) to get the word out. The clips look like this:

Now, there are two ways to read the fact that I, too, am posting one of these clips. One is that I have been taken in by Tokyopop's clever marketing (which isn't entirely untrue: they are offering a Wii as a top prize, and I'd love one of those machines). But it's also true that I'm fascinated by viral marketing, and thus must blog about it. And with that, I'm back to work.

Comments

[dmoonfire.livejournal.com]

Heh, some time ago I decided I wanted a Wii. In specific, I wanted darkfluffy to have a Wii and since we live together (that whole married thing), I wanted a Wii. So, I went to go find a Wii. My local Game Stop didn't have one, but they told me to keep checking every Thursday to see if one came in. Every Thursday and sometimes on Tuesdays, I would call them up and they would say "Sorry, we just sold out again, almost an hour this time." I also started wandering on into the store, just in case. They would joke and send me on my way.

Then, one day, on a Sunday of all times, four days after their shipment came in, I asked if they had Wii's.

"Yes."

I actually made him repeat it. He told me it was a strange thing, four days without selling a single one. They were all in the box but no one wanted one. So, I bought a Wii.

And it was good.

Eight hours later, as we had the thing spread out and playing our new favorite game (Raymen Raving Rabbid, damn funny game), my mother called.

"I know I didn't ask, but I saw they had Wii's in stock, so I bought you one."

...

When it rains, it pours. I thanked her very much for the lovely gift, didn't tell her I just bought one (she was so proud of herself and I didn't want to discourage that), and got my second Wii in less than 24 hours. Then I called up fightertype and told her "you just bought a Wii." "I did?" "Yep, and I'm delivering it in about an hour." Fightertype had been trying for three months to get a Wii, doing the exact same thing I was. (She didn't answer her cell when I called as I bought my own.)

Ever since thing, Game Stop has yet to have them in stock again. It was a fluke, but a happy fluke for me.

So, um, I love the Wii. I highly recommend the Ravin Rabbin's for a silly-like party game. Mario Smooth Movies is good, but Monkey Ball and the Sports game kind of suck.

I also love ToykoPop, but that might be shown by I have three bookcases worth of their books.

[alanajoli.livejournal.com]

Ha! That's a great story. I'm glad you got your Wii. I played Ravin Rabbins (I think--that's the one with the crazy rabbits that involves tossing cows?) on a friend's Wii and thought it was great. It's also awesome for exercising--tennis and boxing totally busted my arms without my even realizing it! So yeah, I'm pretty excited about getting one one of these days. Once we have the budget for it, I'm sure I'll do the same pattern you're talking about.