The Reebok Spartan Race is Sparta! This is Sparta!

danKruegerSuperSpartan 300x300 The Reebok Spartan Race is Sparta! This is Sparta!My former Director of Client Services, Dan Krueger, is a brick shithouse. He literally looks like a character from the movie 300. When I met him he was kind of a dump, a little bit of a schlub, like I am now. That’s him to the right: commando!

Now, he’s promoting the Reebok Spartan Race, one of those cool obstacle races that have become so fashionable and such an important part of the CrossFit obsession and lifestyle.

To be honest, I am single and not getting any younger so I am going to go for it myself! Work on my inner studmuffin — the lad I used to be when I rowed in college. And I want you to do it too — and as an incentive, I would like to give the first person to comment who can commit to a race in Chicago, Virginia, Wisconsin, Philly, or Nebraska a free race code as a giveaway.  Here’s a short movie that gives you some insight into what the Spartan Race is all about:

 

Make sure you’ll be able to make the race. Here’s all the cool information about the Reebok Spartan Race, about the events, and just about anything else you’ll need.

Continue reading

PinExt The Reebok Spartan Race is Sparta! This is Sparta!

The Online Community Is Inexorably Global: Are You?

s GLOBAL COMMUNITY large17 The Online Community Is Inexorably Global: Are You?
I think “realness” is what’s required in online communications, just realness according to protocol. One cannot be rude. One cannot be uncouth. One should be tonally perfect when it comes to communicating online but don’t let that stop you — making mistakes (and copping to them, acknowledging them, and accepting them) is normal. But “normalspeak” is essential. Online chat and conversation is not, no matter what anyone tries to sell you, is not formal written communication. It shouldn’t be. It cannot be. Being stiff and inaccessible is almost worst than being tone-deaf.
More on YouTube
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

 The Online Community Is Inexorably Global: Are You?
PinExt The Online Community Is Inexorably Global: Are You?

The Online Community Is Inexorably Global: Are You?

s GLOBAL COMMUNITY large18 The Online Community Is Inexorably Global: Are You?
Well, desirability breeds solution: JPOP have single-handedly driven many a Gaijin to learn Kanji, Kana, Hiragana, and Katakana in order to bridge the divide. And people want to — and not only because Japanese is awesome and has a right tradition and cool pop music. I grew up in Hawaii and know the Japanese culture very well, though only once-removed. Most of my relationships with the Japanese culture and with Japanese people were 1st and 2nd generation. That’s another issue: how close are you, really? I am pretty darn close to understanding the Japanese culture but I know nothing about culture in Japan. And the question is: how far down the rabbit hole does one go before one initiates a social media campaign?
More on YouTube
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

 The Online Community Is Inexorably Global: Are You?
PinExt The Online Community Is Inexorably Global: Are You?

The Online Community Is Inexorably Global: Are You?

s GLOBAL COMMUNITY large16 The Online Community Is Inexorably Global: Are You?You can spread your work and/or content over multiple platforms, languages, cultures, etc, but you’re going to need to customize it in the way your target market expects. Case-in-point: I saw WALL-E in a Berlin Cinema in Germany. The movie was made in “Hollywood,” right? Well, remember in WALL-E how many brands and billboards and all of that — all the signage — that was in the scenery of the movie? Well, Disney created a German-only or German-speaking-country-only version resplendent with German-language branding as well as all supporting aspects custom-tailored to German children, including a very close dub — not a heavy-handed dub… it might have even been mouthed to the German words. It was the first time I have seen this sort of customization. Germans HATE subtitles so there are a lot of very terrible dub-jobs going on on TV and the cinema and this wasn’t that.
More on YouTube
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

 The Online Community Is Inexorably Global: Are You?
PinExt The Online Community Is Inexorably Global: Are You?

The Online Community Is Inexorably Global: Are You?

s GLOBAL COMMUNITY large7 The Online Community Is Inexorably Global: Are You?Mind you, at the end of the day, America has gotten used to Indian outsources tech support — because Indians tend to be even more charming, thoughtful, patient and kind than the teams they run into here… do we adapted after 10-years. But, if you can’t wait around long enough to change an entire cultural norm, don’t.
More on YouTube
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

 The Online Community Is Inexorably Global: Are You?
PinExt The Online Community Is Inexorably Global: Are You?