SPL Champs Rangers FC Launch Interactive Browser Theme by Kevin Dwinnell

Brand Thunder has just entered UK football with its custom browser experiences and we’re doing it with the Soccer Premier League Champions Glasgow Rangers. It’s great company to have for visibility on the world stage.

Fans can immediately update their Firefox browser with the markings of the Light Blues plus enjoy the rich content from the Rangers like videos, news, scores, Twitter feeds and more.

When you have the history and traditions of such a storied team, you know the expectations of the fans are high. The first hurdle to clear was Brand Thunder’s color scheme which was too close to the rivals of the Light Blues. We gladly switched to a black & white rendition of our logo. We love the fanaticism. It’s what we count on with the visual impact of the browser Boom! We think it helps create a better product. To see what the Rangers fans will be enjoying, click here.

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Brand Thunder Capitalizes on Its First Vator.tv Competition by Kevin Dwinnell

Brand Thunder’s heading to New York at the end of January to participate in a forum for leaders in the digital content industry. During the Software & Information Industry Association’s Information Summit nine start ups will be given the stage to present their capabilities. We earned our slot through a Vator.tv competition.

Vator (short for innovator) is a community and resource for entrepreneurs. While Brand Thunder created a presence months ago, it’s been more recent that we’ve become active on the site. Vator helps entrepreneurs and innovators connect with the entrepreneur and innovator community. It has a roll in the ongoing communication a company like ours undertakes, and the competitions it offers are a serious perk for any entrepreneur.

The SIIA Information Summit will be an ideal audience for Brand Thunder to reach. If you think of our product as an interactive browser theme, it’s the visual strength that grabs a user’s attention, but the integrated content makes it compelling. That value isn’t lost on companies who’ve poured a lot of money into their site and are looking for ways to keep their audience coming back. Once the content is integrated into the browser, that high-level exposure is vital.

We’re happy the judges saw that connection as well and invited us to attend. It was a wonderful gift for this holiday season.

Follow Brand Thunder on Vator.tv

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Brand Thunder at Add-on-Con by Kevin Dwinnell

We’re excited to be attending Add-on-Con again this year, and we’re adding panel participation to our itinerary. Patrick Murphy will be participating in the Business Marketing track discussion “Using your Add-On to help publishers, OEMs, carriers, and others create value.” You’ll find other members of the team attending as well.

It’s a conference focused on people who build and market browser add-ons. As a result, you get an eclectic mix of the browser community from ingenious independent to the major players behind each of the leading browsers. We’re happy to be in such good company.

I also expect growing attention to be placed on this conference. Add-ons live in an interesting eco-system. The add-on sites for each browser offer a distribution point that provides an audience and exposure for the product, but also immediate community feedback with ratings and comments. It’s a built-in business loop that websites have to solve for separately. It’s a great proving ground for products and businesses trying to get a product to market. Likewise, I think this conference offers fertile ground for rising stars – whether it’s the product, the company or the developer talent.

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Promotion Power – Sugarland Christmas Theme by Kevin Dwinnell

It’s great to work with the well-known brands that Brand Thunder counts as its clients. It’s fantastic when one of our browser Booms! goes along for the ride during a big promotional push. For companies that need to promote their own goods, there’s a lot to model from the promotional efforts of the Grammy-winning, American country music duo Sugarland.

Be everywhere.

Sugarland’s first CD of Christmas music, Gold and Green, released this week and it’s been hard to miss them. On Monday, they made an appearance on Oprah, and that was just the start.

They’ve been appearing on talk shows, online interviews, special concerts and appearing together and individually. They are making their presence known.

Do more for your fans.

We like to think our custom browser themes are one of those value-adds that can really connect a brand to its fan base. Sugarland seems to offer extras to their fans on a regular basis. When we built their first browser theme during the release of Love on the Inside, I was impressed with the Deluxe Fan Edition, which took extra steps to address the desires of their most loyal fans.

Gold and Green continues this tradition with unlock codes accompanying the CD or iTunes download and offering fans downloads, content and a sweepstakes. You can see the registration page at Sugarlandholiday.com.

Be where your fans are.

This is the big lesson of social media. You’ve got to be where your fans are, and that’s not always your web site. Sugarland has their Universal Music Nashville page and Sugarlandmusic.com, both of which feature the holiday browser theme. However, they also have their MySpace and Facebook pages, where you may have seen news of the theme. They are also on other fan sites like MOG and iLike.

It’s a great example of Sugarland’s tenacity to reach out to their fans and forge a relationship of mutual respect. Sugarland goes out of their way to connect with their fans. That’s a message every business can follow.

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