Brand Thunder and CBSSports.com College Network Enter Agreement for University Browser Themes by Brand Thunder

COLUMBUS (August 25, 2010) — Brand Thunder LLC (http://www.brandthunder.com), the browser customization specialists, and CBSSports.com College Network, a leading provider of web sites for college athletics programs, announced an agreement to bring interactive browser themes for Firefox and Internet Explorer to approximately 60 colleges, universities and conferences.

Alumni, students and sports fans alike can now theme their Internet experience with their favorite school or conference. Each browser theme offers a multimedia sidebar of the latest athletics news, a toolbar for accessing content like videos and commerce for school apparel or event tickets.  There are also connections to the Facebook and Twitter pages of schools.  CBSSports.com College Network will provide the school branding, athletic content and previews ensuring an experience fans will love.

“The fan appeal of college athletics was the starting point of affinity-marketing products back when MBNA offered its first Georgetown University credit card,” says Patrick Murphy, founder and CEO of Brand Thunder.  “It’s a natural fit for our interactive browser themes and CBSSports.com College Network is the premiere provider in this space.  This will be an amazing browser experience for each participating school and their fans.”

Brand Thunder’s interactive themes provide an extreme makeover of the Internet browser.  They are free, lightweight active customizations that can include themes, toolbars, sidebars and other content or functionality.

About Brand Thunder:
Formed in April 2007, Brand Thunder creates extreme makeovers for the Internet browser.  Brands enjoy a persistent connection to their Internet consumer driving more website visits and increased revenue.  Through a software installation, end users change the drab Internet browser into an immersive experience from their favorite sports team, entertainment franchise or Internet site.  The interactive browser themes feature official logos, colors, content and functionality, and can also extend capabilities including video, music players or other Internet widgets. Current business partners and clients include Bing, The Daily Beast, Huffington Post, Major League Soccer, NASCAR, NBA, NCAA, NFL, NHL and Universal Music. Samples found at http://brandthunder.com/gallery/.

Contact:
Patrick Murphy, CEO
Brand Thunder, LLC
614-304-1316

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Posted in News, Press Releases | Tags: brand thunder, browser theme, CBSSports.com, CBSSports.com College Network, firefox, interactive browser theme, Internet Explorer | No Comments »

Creating Community for a Small Business by Kevin Dwinnell

I had the opportunity to speak with Owen McGab Enaohwo at Hire Your Virtual Assistant to discuss how to create an online community and how small businesses can get started using “community” to help their business.  You can see the full interview and an outline of the discussion at hireyourvirtualassistant.com/blog.  I don’t want to repeat that discussion here and detract from Owen’s efforts.

Still, it’s a great topic, because so much attention is on social media and the encouragement of brands to join the conversation with their consumers. The idea of online community goes back to the earliest days of the Internet, and the foundations of what works are not that different from what works in offline relationships.  Community is a powerful and persuasive communication channel and there’s no doubt companies need to have this as a part of their overall go-to-market strategy.  Yet, how, where and when you participate are all up for debate.

A small business is often resource constrained and the time commitment to building a community can be overwhelming.  There are better places to start and work toward the benefits without over committing. We go into those details in my discussion with Owen.

As much as I’m a believer in Brand Thunder’s interactive browser themes, it’s not the place I’d start – in fact, you still don’t see a Brand Thunder browser theme available (though you may notice www.ThunderThemes.com is a working URL and pointing to our gallery for an indicator of other efforts, but I digress).  While the browser theme is a powerful communication channel, it does well as an affinity marketing tool allowing brands to leverage the audience they’ve aggregated and deepen those relationships.  Small businesses need to be focused on creating those relationships and leveraging the platforms that can help with that, but in a manner that allows those community-building efforts to be inserted amongst the thousands of other necessary tasks for survival.

There are a lot a small steps a small business can take to make community building a part of their business building. Check out the discussion with Owen for those details, and there is a written outline if you don’t have time to watch the video.

Where do you think community falls in the priority of a small business and what are the best ways to leverage its power?

Posted in Commentary, News | Tags: brand thunder, browser theme, marketing, online community, Owen Mcgab Enaohwo, Small business, Social media | No Comments »

Perseid Meteor Shower and the NASA Browser Theme by Kevin Dwinnell

The top trending Twitter term, as I write this, is “meteor shower tonight.”  It’s a wonderful event to enjoy on a summer’s evening, and the timing this year is perfect for those of us on in the Eastern time zone.  A great memory from several years back was having a pre-dawn jog in an very open park during the Leonid meteor shower and being awed as meteors fell all around me.  It was truly stunning.

Thinking of space lends itself to that sense of awe.  When you get the bonus of the rare and infrequent events like a meteor shower or eclipse, it brings that mystique to you in a very close and personal way.  In a sense, we’ve tried to capture a bit of this with our latest NASA interactive browser theme.

Each week, we personally select a new background for the browser theme from NASA’s Image of Day and update the browser theme.  It’s an automatic change for you, giving you a fresh and exciting new browser experience every week.  Our goal is to deliver something beautiful and continually fresh without being too fleeting.

This coming week, while it’s not guaranteed, I would expect a stellar image of the Perseid meteor shower.  Unlike the real event, this one can’t be spoiled by clouds and you don’t have to get up in the middle of the night to enjoy it.  Try it out.

Posted in Commentary, News | Tags: brand thunder, browser theme, firefox, Meteor shower, Meteoroid, NASA, Perseids, Personas, Twitter | No Comments »