Boom! Cleveland Cavaliers Browser Launches with Two Looks by Kevin Dwinnell

The Cleveland Cavaliers are the first NBA team to launch with a Brand Thunder Boom (branded browser) and they’re doing it with their fans in mind.

The Boom has two views: one focused on the team and Cavs.com, the other focused on CavFanatic.com – the official social network of the Cavs. And it’s more than just the look changing. All the toolbar buttons change to meet the needs of each user. You can check it out on their site here, or download from Brand Thunder here.

Brand Thunder’s Boom technology, which allows the real-time switching between the different browser customizations, helped make this happen. Our first two clients to utilize this capability, the Cavs and JOCKlife.com, both recognize the transient nature of the consumer and the desire to optimize the experience for their audience.

By transient consumer, I mean focus and attention is going to ebb and flow for each of us. Even diehard fans take a breather during the off-season or have a temporary shift of attention. JOCKlife.com, a sports site that offers the “voice of the athlete” with its list of notable athletes blogging on its site, launched its Boom with four views: a general JOCKlife.com look, and ones focused on baseball, basketball and football (you can get it here). This allows them to meet the need of the fan that wants it all, or the fan that wants to focus on the sport that’s in season.

The Cavs are no different. They just split their focus between the Cavs fan and the CavsFanatic. It’s a natural extension of the push this season to recognize members of their fan social network – CavFanatic.com. This focus has included game-night dedications and receptions for the community – and now a special view in the Cavaliers Boom.

When you really think about and act in the interest of your fans, transient isn’t much of a concern. You know they’ll be coming back.

Posted in Commentary | Tags: athlete, basketball, brand thunder, Branded Browser, Cleveland Cavaliers, custom browser, jocklife, National Basketball Association, NBA | 1 Comment »

Why Brands are Still Afraid of the Social Web by Kevin Dwinnell

Skittles made a daring move a couple weeks back and illustrated beautifully why, despite a strong willingness, brands can’t open themselves up from a social web standpoint. Brands are built on trust, and consumers and fans have an expectation of how that brand will treat them. It’s no different than personal relationships.

The web is an accelerator of information, sharing, connecting and lends itself to relationship building. With the rise of social media, why can’t brands insert themselves or leverage the discussions that are occurring? They can, but it has to be restrained because there’s a fundamental piece that remains unsolved about how communication occurs on the web – and communication is key to relationship building.

The anonymity and the lack of physical queues on the web create a significant break in the norms of communication. You don’t see someone’s feelings getting hurt if you write a flaming comment. You don’t have to take personal responsibility because no one knows it’s you (in many cases). This makes it too easy for communication to deteriorate. You’re no longer in a place of trust but somewhere that feels unsafe – a breach of trust.

There are ways to minimize this risk, and that’s why you see moderated discussions, the ability to report “inappropriate” behavior and so on. Some level of oversight can help guide community behavior, but usually aren’t real time so you’ll see inappropriate comments or events surface. That’s why it’s not a good idea to put an open, unmoderated discussion on your homepage if you’re a family friendly brand.

As a result, brands need to manage when and where dialogue occurs. And that’s why we tout we’re the “official” Boom (branded browser). The look, the tone, the message is all sanctioned and controlled by the brand. This doesn’t mean it’s a mechanism to talk “at” the consumer. It’s just a more controlled environment.

Controlled can also be very valuable. The real-time, communication news and content integrated into the browser is a powerful tool. There’s an honor to be on the “first-to-know” list, and brands that make an effort to get the latest news (emphasis intended) to their audience can create a stronger bond and a more engaged fan.

There’s never a single solution that’s right for everyone. The trust/relationship structure will change with brand and audience. But, there’s usually a sweet spot where the odds are in your favor. And when it comes to finding an engaging means to communicate with your consumer, we can deliver a very sweet Boom.

Posted in Commentary | Tags: brand, brand thunder, Branded Browser, communication, custom browser, Social media, Social network, Social web | No Comments »

Brand Thunder Drafted by JOCKlife.com to Bring “The Voice of the Athlete” to Custom Browsers by Patrick Murphy

Brand Thunder, the branded browser specialists, announced today an agreement with JOCKlife, LLC to build a browser enhanced to meet the needs of sports fans everywhere.

Columbus, OH (PRWEB) March 19, 2009 — Brand Thunder LLC, the branded browser specialists, announced today an agreement with JOCKlife, LLC to build a browser enhanced to meet the needs of sports fans everywhere.

The exclusive voice of the athlete is coming to a sports fan’s web browser. For the first time, sports fans can enhance their web browser with the JOCKlife look and feel, which will include streaming sports news headlines, scores, videos and commentary across the sports landscape, amateur to professional. Additionally, JOCKlife browser users will be able to move seamlessly between versions of the browser that match their specific sport of choice. Users can choose between four distinct views with each designed to meet the needs of the general sports fan and/or diehard baseball, basketball or football followers. With any selection, users will enjoy news, information and scores tailored to their customized choice.

“JOCKlife.com is a growing and avid community of sports fans, and Brand Thunder’s Booms are a natural fit to keep them connected to their favorite sports, and of course, the athletes themselves,” stated Patrick Brougham, Sponsorship Director. “This is another important step in assisting the sports fan to stay connected to their favorite sport, team and athletes through a creative and exciting application.”

“JOCKlife.com has a unique approach with professional athletes from professional and amateur teams taking an active role on the site,” said Patrick Murphy, founder and CEO of Brand Thunder. “We’re excited at the prospect of merging their exclusive news, editorials, videos and blogs into a customized browser experience for the sports fan.”

Brand Thunder’s browser Booms are free, lightweight active customizations that can include themes, toolbars, sidebars and other content or functionality. Users can dynamically switch between JOCKlife’s Booms without restarting their browser.

About Brand Thunder:

Formed in April 2007, Brand Thunder creates a more persistent presence between corporate brands and their Internet consumer through its branded-browser customization, which leads to increased website visits and revenue. Through a software installation, end users change the look and feel of their Internet browser into an immersive experience from their favorite sports team, entertainment franchise or Internet site. The customized browsers feature official logos, colors, content and functionality, but can also extend capabilities including video, music players or other Internet widgets. Current business partners and clients include the Huffington Post, Major League Soccer, NASCAR, NCAA, NHL, Starpulse.com, Universal Music and Yahoo!. Samples found at http://brandthunder.com/gallery/.

About JOCKlife.com:

JOCKlife.com is “The Voice of the Athlete.” Acting as an unfiltered source, JOCKlife.com vows to truly be the voice of the athlete allowing the viewer, to get a broader and greater sense of who their favorite athlete really is by allowing the athlete to speak without fear of misquotes and out of context interpretations. JOCKlife.com tells the real story from the athlete’s perspective without bias. Get it all directly through athlete blogs, exclusive interviews and videos, and get it from the top players from the best teams, amateur to professional.

Contact:

Patrick Murphy, CEO
Brand Thunder, LLC
614-408-8202

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The Whole Fam Damily and The Drive to Succeed by Ryan D Miller

Work and Family.  Family and Work.  I could write about the importance of “balancing work and family” but that would be way too cliché, overdone, and well, a little boring for my taste.  And I figure if I’m going to bore you along the way, I might as well do it with a new concept and content that I find less overcooked.  So I won’t tell you how or why you need to “balance work and family” but I’ll let you in on what that means to me, Ryan D. Miller, the Business Development Manager of the fastest growing branded browser company in the world, Brand Thunder.

Before I fill your cup with my exciting revelation, there some significant items I should point out.  I’m not married, I don’t have kids, and my idea of family may be different than yours, but Family is Family.  The truth is, if I don’t figure out how to “balance work and family,” I probably won’t have either any time soon.  I do however plan on being married to my significant other soon, find myself raising a needy Labradoodle, continue to be involved in my lovely nieces’ lives (one turns 13 today, and the other turns 15 ten days later), stay close to my brothers and sister, and of course honor my mother and father, who deserve to be parents of the year, every year.

It’s the friends and family that keep me happy with my home life.  It’s my happy home life that gives me a drive to succeed.  It’s the drive for success that allows me to pour my sweat and tears into the growth of the company.  I have found that a “balance of work and family” isn’t a 50/50 split (or any other split for that matter) where you completely separate the two.  It’s revelation time.  I have learned that a “balance of work and family” is managing the overlap between the two.  It’s that little gray area that so many try to avoid seeing and push the two as far from each other as possible, it’s that area that I embrace.

First from the side of Family.  It’s inevitable that I’m going to talk about work outside of work hours, pick and choose your battles (great advice Mom), and that’s not a battle I’m going to fight with myself.  I share my success stories and my war stories, when appropriate and in moderation of course, with my family.  They become my mentors, my sounding board, my career coaches, and a great source for leads.  Yeah, leads, who would have thought?

Brand Thunder builds custom themes or skins for your web browser, bringing your favorite brands to the bland gray area above this web page.  I spend hours strategizing and uncovering as many of the thousands of top brands we approach including professional sports teams, universities, social networks, and online gaming to name a few.  In a recent conversation about some potential targets, they brought to my attention that I needed to approach Cosmopolitan and People Magazine, Oprah, Food Network, and others.  You would think these are no brainer brands to approach, but none of them have been on my radar until now.  My family, the consumer, the end user, a voice from our target audience.  It’s this kind of positive mesh between my work and family that aids in my success.

Now from the side of work.  I’m with a start up company, boasting under ten employees, and we all eat, sleep, and live the colors of Brand Thunder.  We have very different roles, but ultimately the same goal.  It would be hard to argue that a family isn’t the same, a group with very different roles, but ultimately the same goal.  Like any other company, I spend the majority of the hours I am awake interfacing with the team.  The team at Brand Thunder isn’t just a group of colleagues, they’re Family.  I’m not 100% business; I talk about my home life with my team just as much as I talk to my Family at home about work.  This is my “balance of work and Family.”

Everyone knows how important my family is to me, whether it be a Family determined by blood or by common business cards.  This is what I’ve learned to be a “balance of work and Family” and Family is the basis for my drive to succeed.

You can now follow my Brand Thunder progress on Twitter! @RyanDouglas24

Posted in Commentary | 1 Comment »

Eliminating Single Points of Failure in Start Ups by Kevin Dwinnell

Back when I worked for an ISO 9000 certified company and was feeling overwhelmed at the extensive documentation and process, I learned that writing the requirements avoided “bus-terminated projects.” If all the requirements are in the head of a product manager, there’s a huge amount of risk. Putting it all down on paper ensured the continuity of the project.

There’s a lot to be learned from that message for a start up. If you’re like us, money is tight and staff is lean. With little or no depth on the team for any given position, however, risk is considerably high with all those single points of failure.

That same ISO 9000 company was in the uninterruptible power supply business helping network administrators maintain uptime, and from that I also learned how redundancy exponentially reduces your risk.

Now, we’re not in the position to hire a second head count for every position. We have, however, used this as motivation to be purposeful about using contractors. We seek additional help, and line up contractors, in key areas so we’re able to weather a catastrophic event.

The additional bonus to this strategy is we have trained resources to help us load balance when our client list grows suddenly (and we see our fair share of that). With major brands using our Booms (custom browsers) as a means to stay connected to their consumers and fans, we’re often trying to meet deadlines whether it’s the season opener for a sports team or a new tour for a music artist. Having this small level of redundancy built into our team is ensuring we’re meeting immediate demands in addition to protecting our future.

Posted in Commentary | Tags: Branded Browser, business, custom browser, Redundancy, start-up, Uptime | No Comments »

Put Forward Thinking Toward Relevancy – Objectives for SXSW by Kevin Dwinnell

South by Southwest 2009 starts next week. A lot of people will see a lot of cool things. The question afterward will be “what is actionable?”

If you’re going there to see what next cool thing will help your business, take a quick read of an article at Online Media Daily featuring Google’s Analytics Evangelist, Avinash Kaushik, discussing appropriate measures of success. While I’m not a fan of how he says it, what he says resonates.

My quick summary is “You get the behavior you measure” and the standard of measurement on the web is the click. Clicks may not make your business successful. Be sure you know what does, and at some point during your sense of awe at SXSW, apply that lens and follow up with the companies you see as beneficial to your success.

In the article, Kaushik concludes Web sites need to more effectively generate “irrational loyalty, at scale.” If this is your goal, Brand Thunder’s Booms (custom branded browsers) can help. And if you’re going to SXSW, we’re sending the perfect person for you to meet. Mike Kaply has both a strong business sense and incredible technical knowledge. Regardless of your question, if it relates to how Brand Thunder can help your business, he should be able to address it. To arrange a meeting during the show, email us here.

Posted in Commentary | Tags: Avinash Kaushik, brand thunder, Branded Browser, browser skin, browser theme, custom browser, Google, sxsw, web analytics | No Comments »

Brand Thunder Nets Deal with NBA’s Cleveland Cavaliers for a Team-Branded Internet Browser by Patrick Murphy

COLUMBUS (March 4, 2009) — Brand Thunder LLC (http://www.brandthunder.com), the branded browser specialists, announced today an agreement with the Cleveland Cavaliers to bring the first NBA custom browser to Cavaliers fans.

Cavaliers fans will enjoy an Internet experience where the browser is immersed in the look, feel and content of Cavaliers basketball. The customization is delivered through a small download, called a Boom, and since it becomes part of the browser it stays with the user regardless of the website being visited. Once installed, fans will be able to switch seamlessly between a version featuring the colors, logo and news from the Cavaliers team, or one that includes elements of CavFanatic.com, the team’s official social network site.

“We’ve had a record breaking season in many areas, both on and off the court. Our websites are no different. Just like so many fans like to wear our colors and logos on clothing and decorate their walls at the office and at home, Brand Thunder has created a way for our fans to now outfit their web browsers too.’” said Jeff Lillibridge, Director of Web Services of the Cleveland Cavaliers. “Our work with Brand Thunder will help us connect with our fans in a fun and convenient way whenever they are online. Bring on the Boom!”

“It’s hard to find another team that has as much energy around it as the Cavaliers,” said Patrick Murphy, founder and CEO of Brand Thunder. “This is a great way for the team to stay connected to those fans. And being an Ohio-based company, we’re thrilled the Cavs will have the first NBA Boom.”

Booms are lightweight active customizations that can include themes, toolbars, sidebars and other content or functionality. Users can dynamically switch between Booms without restarting their browser.

About Brand Thunder:

Formed in April 2007, Brand Thunder creates a more persistent presence between corporate brands and their Internet consumer through its branded-browser customization, which leads to increased website visits and revenue. Through a software installation, end users change the look and feel of their Internet browser into an immersive experience from their favorite sports team, entertainment franchise or internet site. The customized browsers feature official logos, colors, content and functionality, but can also extend capabilities including video, music players or other Internet widgets. Current business partners and clients include the Huffington Post, Major League Soccer, NASCAR, NCAA, NHL, Starpulse.com, Universal Music and Yahoo!. Samples found at http://brandthunder.com/gallery/.

Posted in Press Releases | Tags: firefox, Mozilla, NBA, themes | No Comments »