“Brand Thunder browser themes have always attracted global attention,” said Patrick Murphy, founder and CEO of Brand Thunder. “The breadth of appeal is easy to see with the visual nature of the theme, and the drag-and-drop ease of use makes allows anyone to create their own.”

BT:Engage allows users to select images from the library of graphics offered by Brand Thunder, or upload their own pictures and graphics to create the theme backgrounds. Adding buttons is as simple as typing a title and a URL. News feeds are added by copying a URL for an existing RSS feed, or using the included RSS feed generator. The combination of visual and interactive components lends itself to increased brand awareness and engagement between publisher and fan base.

Brand Thunder is the leading choice in official browser themes with more than 200 world-class brands and thousands of web publishers. 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:

Brand Thunder is the world leader in browser themes and custom interactive browser themes for Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Chrome. Brand Thunder formed in April 2007 to leverage the power of customization within the web browser and offer companies a compelling, patent-pending solution for creating a more persistent presence with their Internet consumer. Brand Thunder has branded the browser and extended its functionality for some of the most recognizable brands in sports, music and the Internet including: Bob Marley, CBSSports.com College Network, CollegeHumor, The Huffington Post, IGN, MLB.com, NASCAR, NBA, NFL, SONY Music, Universal Music, WeatherBug and many more. Create, find or have us build your browser theme at http://brandthunder.com.

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

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Jason Calacanis recently wrote an editorial called “The Age of Excellence” and he raises a lot of good points. His visual of a ratings gun and it’s effect on the future of business is compelling. Those of us who are fans also know Jason can be a little over the top, and he is with his passion for excellence. I don’t take issue with the goal of excellence. It’s important, however, to realize what excellent isn’t, and to know we can’t be great at everything.

Excellence is Not Perfection

The folly of perfection was planted as an idea in my first economics course. If 90% is an A, stop when you reach 90%. Shooting for 100% is wasted effort. It has taken me far too long to recognize the significance of this. I held the ideal of perfection for too long with too high a cost. This is a nuance that I think is lost in Jason’s appeal for excellence.

If you’re working toward perfection, you’re working too much on something that has exceeded its value. As Jason says, good will not cut it in today’s environment. But there’s a big gap between good and perfect and the sweet spot for business  – what Jason calls excellence – I suggest is in the realm of good enough.

Good Is Not Good Enough

Jason uses Steve Jobs and Apple as an example of achieving excellence with their products. But notice that Apple often does not deliver more than what those products need to be. Remember how lacking version one of the iPad was? Front and back facing camera? No. USB port? No. Printing options?!? NO! Printing is a given, right? Wrong.

We forget all that after the fact. At that moment in time, the iPad was good enough. It wasn’t perfect, yet, it changed the world.

Be Great Where You Can

We’re all in awe of Einstein’s brilliance, but he was a horrible father. LeBron James is letting his three-point game go so he can focus on his inside game. “Good at less, great at more.” Great is a very limited commodity and requires a lot of time and energy to get there. Find the thing(s) you can be great at and give it the necessary effort. There’s just not enough time for you to be all things.

Jason acknowledged that he’s letting some things go, but it was such a passing comment that it’s easy to miss. As the leader, he’s the champion of excellence. That doesn’t mean he is excellent at everything. And in this Age of Excellence, we can’t afford the misstep of focusing too much effort and energy where we shouldn’t.

That’s why startups and companies are teams. One person won’t be good at all things. You’ll see this message amplified in the blockbuster that opened today. “Avengers assemble!” shows that even superheroes have their limits and perform better as a team.

Related articles

• The Age of Excellence (launch.co)

Fathead

That’s what fan marketing is about. Connecting with a group of passionate users in a way that taps the affinity they have for that thing they love. So, what’s it take to connect with your fans in this way? It’s a three step plan. Let’s take a look.

When you think of over-the-top fans, it’s easy to think of sports. On any given day, turn on a game on your favorite sports channel and you’ll see your share rabid supporters. While not every fan wants to be “that guy,” every fan respects that guy (unless his hair is blocking your view of the game, but that’s a different point).

This football (soccer) fan shows us step one.

Show Your Colors

What the soccer fan clearly gets is that color is key and marketers had better get it right. If you’re a fan of the Atlanta Braves, you show your Navy and Scarlet colors. It’s not blue and red. Michigan fans don their Maize and Blue, while Ohio State fans show up in their Scarlet and Gray. Get it right to be one of the fans. If not, you’re just a poser.

When fans are involved, you don’t always have to tone it down. Sure, you’ll find logo wear on neutral colors, but you’ll also find most of it in the unapologetic original colors – loud and proud.

Show Some Class

Clean and elegant never go out of style. That’s why the Nike Swoosh is easily adorned to hats, shirts, shoes, even electronic gadgets and people flock to the brand. One simple swoosh captures product quality, a statement of lifestyle and communal pride. It’s clean lines have allowed it to persist, unadulterated for decades (though some less elegant designs can also make that same claim).

Coca-Cola is the most recognizable brand in the world. I credit a portion of that to purposeful and consistent fusion of the logo and product.  The Coke bottle was designed to contour the human hand, arguably a perfect design for the purpose it held. Then the bottle’s shape was evoked in the Coke wave to reflect the lines of the bottle. You have physical as well as visual cues that connect you with the brand. That’s a class by itself.

 Show the Brand

Brands help us associate positive values and experiences with the products they represent. This association can be so powerful, it can survive three horrible prequels and still be as powerful as ever. It’s also a powerful identifier for fans to identify with and gather around. So leverage that power by including it in the products being offered for your fans.

When you look at the brand/fan connection, it’s easy to see it’s a visual one. So, leverage it to the fullest. You don’t have to be timid, you can be bold. And elegance doesn’t necessarily mean understated. These are your fans. Give them what they want. Loud and proud.

A cosplayer portraying Ezio from Assassin's Creed II at Sac-Anime in Sacramento, California. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

When Brand Thunder turned over the keys to browser theme builders with BT:Engage, we knew lots of different communities would be attracted to it. We recognize some of the best in our weekly browser theme of the week contest. Others seem to stand out when you look at the full collection of themes that are built and offered in Brand Thunder’s Theme Gallery. (You know you can publish the themes you build to Brand Thunder’s Gallery, right?)

The following represents some of the themes we’ve discovered in the gallery devoted to popular computer and video games. I’m not sure if these were created by gamers turned artists, or artists with an affinity toward games. All I know is some of these are pretty cool themes of upcoming, current and classic games.

Take a look and tell us your favorites in the comments.

Assassin’s Creed III Theme

The Assassin’s Creed series  rewrote the book from first-person shooter to first person stalker. Cunning is as important as a quick trigger finger.

Assassin’s Creed III

Battlefield 3

BF3 is an award-winning first person shooter which garnered a lot of attention for its graphics and multi-player mode.

Battlefield 3

Battlefield 3 Smoke

Battlefield 3 City

Deus Ex: Human Revolution

Montreal must do something for the creative juices as it’s the playground of a killer gaming community. Deus Ex: Human Revolution is a cyber-punk thriller with an exceptional storyline and great game play.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution

Diablo III

Evil is apparently back with the Diablo franchise. Diablo III has fans eagerly awaiting its May 15, 2012 release – almost four years since its announcement.

Diablo III

Diablo III Game Pics

L.A. Noire

L.A. Noire brings elegant story telling and a detailed version of 1940s Los Angeles. Not the fastest pace game on the market, but one that has real depth.

L.A. Noire

Pac-man

The arcade game that defined video gaming. What more can you say about Pac-Man?

Pac-man

Mario Bros.

If Pac-Man launched the arcade video game, Mario Bros. brought it home to stay. It’s the franchise that built Nintendo.

Mario Bros. 

The Legend of Zelda

Zelda is another important franchise to Nintendo finding an avid following for this fantasy game.

Zelda Lost Woods

Related articles

• Brand Thunder’s “Theme of the Week” Contest (brandthunder.com)

Image via Wikipedia

Mozilla is showing it has the naming skills of George Forman and using the same name for a second product. After years of Personas representing easy-to-use, lightweight themes that let you personalize the look of your Firefox, it’s now your name. Or, to be more accurate, your online identification. Mozilla is stepping away from how your browser represents you to you, and toward how your browser represents you to others. Confused? Exactly.

Prince (Image via RottenTomatoes.com)

But that’s not the first time the browser industry has stumbled over its naming.

For years, the navigation area of your browser was known as the browser chrome. And then Google came along and made the Chrome browser, forever cursing us with the additional baggage of saying “by browser chrome, I don’t mean the Chrome browser.” It’s like when the artist Prince became “the artist formerly known as Prince” there’s just no easy way to say it.

You don’t become the leader in the market by underachieving, so Google took the extra non-essential step of naming its new operating system Chrome OS. If the Chrome OS ever takes off, we’ll enjoy a nice round of “Who’s on First” whenever the topic comes up.

With this setup, you won’t be surprised to learn that, last summer, when we launched our build your own browser theme wizard, BT:Engage, we weren’t the first BT Engage. British Telecom has its own Engage offering. You’ll be even less surprised to know that Google also has its Engage.

The writer’s of Newhart had a great premonition about the future of naming.

Related articles

• Identity at Mozilla: Introducing Mozilla Persona (identity.mozilla.com)
• Mozilla unveils a new ‘Persona’ for its BrowserID easy login technology (thenextweb.com)

Please read both of them. We can really use your help with the first point. The second point is a much more subjective one. I won’t say which way to throw your support, but it’s an issue worth your time to have an informed opinion.

Share Your Blackout Details

As a small company, we test for as many scenarios as we can. There’s no way to prep for what we saw yesterday, and no way for us to understand it’s full impact. That’s why I’m asking for your help. I’ll outline some of the “known” issues or expected ones from a downed server, but if you want to share your experiences – especially if they’re not listed below – please email me directly at kevin – at – brandthunder – dot – com (substitute ” – at – ” with @ and ” – dot – ” with .). You can also make a comment in the Brand Thunder support forum.

Some things we know about:

• Toolbar buttons missing from themes – Many of the buttons are images that are pulled from our server. With the server down, the buttons won’t load. This is different from the theme image, which always has a locally saved version.
• Internet Explorer down in some instances – There was an early identification of a bug in an update that just released that required a server check. Oversight on our part that we quickly rolled back, but there may have been some instances where this was noticed.
• Installs not completing - Some of our themes are fully hosted on other sites. Examples include the Chrome Webstore and Addons.Mozilla.org. I know on Chrome, themes went through the install process fine, but the theme never loaded because of the blackout. If it’s not working now, I’d suggest uninstalling the first attempt then reinstalling. It should pull it up fine.
• Sidebar content missing – This may have been an artifact of the reconfiguration. I saw the outage today and is now working in some themes I’ve checked.

If there are other oddities, or issues you’ve identified, please share.

SOPA – The Long-Term Blackout

Good intentions don’t always make good policy. I’ll admit I’m not versed enough to talk to all aspects of the Stop Online Piracy Act, but for a company that has created an engine allowing anyone to instantly build a Firefox and Internet Explorer browser theme, and publish it to Brand Thunder’s browser theme gallery – it scares the heck out of me.

Despite the legal protections we put in place, like the user agreement stating a user has ownership of all images used in their theme, I’m sure there’s exposure somewhere. Just like with freedom of expression, there are those that will say things you don’t like. With a tool that allows you to express yourself via a browser theme and then share it out, expressions that approach the line of appropriate use will undoubtedly occur. Artistic license, satire or parody, we simply could not afford the legal costs of defending a series of challenges that can come our way.

Whether we willingly or accidentally participated in the SOPA blackout, we all got a taste of what may happen if it comes to reality.

The first desktop wallpaper, as used on the Xerox Star in 1975. -Image via Wikipedia

Community toolbars have been around for years helping online publishers build engagement with their fans and online community. The power of this tool has helped build Conduit, the leader in this space, into what some say is a billion dollar company. Engagement is a powerful tool.

For many years more, desktop wallpapers were the path to customization and personalization for the personal computer – from family photos to wonderful waterfalls – we’ve either seen or tried them. They are easy to install and change. There is no way to interact with the wallpaper, they exist simply for the visual enhancement they offer. The only real downside? Wallpapers spend the majority of time covered by the applications running on the computer. You get to enjoy that beautiful graphic when you start up and shut down your computer – hello and goodbye.

So, what’s it like to take two great ideas and merge them into one. It’s like asking the question, can you get two great tastes to taste great together?

Your Web Site on a Custom Community Toolbar

Conduit Platform gives all web publishers, regardless of size, the ability to create and publish a branded, customized Community Toolbar. Anything you can put on a website can also be deployed on a Community Toolbar including: applications, content, gadgets, feeds, social media tools, personal account data, games, services, links, and more.

With over 230 million publishers taking advantage of the Conduit platform, there’s no shortage of people that see the value of extending their web presence to the platform with the most Internet engagement – the Internet browser. There’s great upside to putting your content in the browser and creating a persistent presence whenever a user is online.

While toolbars are still core to their offering, Conduit has extended their approach of simplifying the build process of technical marketing tools and branching into the very hot category of mobile and browser apps.

Your Favorite Image on Your Computer

Your computer monitor is an elaborate picture frame. Picking the image is probably the hardest part of deciding how to customize your computer desktop. On my computer, I can literally right click on any image and “Set as Desktop Background.” It can be a bit overwhelming if you think about it. Every image you encounter is an option for you.

That’s where sites like Desktop Nexus come in. Between the site and their very active communities, they curate the visual selection for you. Landing on the web site gives you an immediate view into “Recently Popular Wallpapers – By Member Votes” so you can grasp what people like. They also offer Galleries, tags, sorting, creators and just about any other navigation method you may prefer. Really well done. And they’re well on their way to meeting their goal of the household brand-name to answer the endless demand for computer wallpapers.

Desktop Nexus provides a medium for members to share their desktop creations with the world. For designers, it’s a great showcase for their work and opportunity build their following. You’ll even find some designers using a site like this to cross-promote their work on other services. Like this 2012 Seasons wallpaper with links to browser theme options.

Toolbar + Wallpaper = Browser Theme

Whether you’re looking for the latest Chrome browser theme from Kelly Clarkson, the Firefox theme for BCS National Champion contender Alabama Crimson Tide, or an Internet Explorer theme featuring a favorite coupon and deals site like Presto Savings – Brand Thunder has been the place for online marketers to turn. What each one of these offers is a combination of community toolbar and desktop wallpaper.

While a browser theme can’t match the visual real estate of the desktop wallpaper, it is assured exposure whenever consumers are online – often hours a day. So no matter how many hours someone is spending on Facebook, they can be spending every minute of it in an experience you designed.

As for toolbars, there’s little in terms of functionality advantages that one product has over the other. Community toolbars and interactive browser themes each have the highly desired presence when someone is online, and enjoy the benefit of a persistent communication channel to the end user – and hence the ability to engage those users.

Following the lead Conduit established for its toolbars, Brand Thunder launched BT:Engage and put the power of creating interactive browser themes into the hands of any online publisher. Now any web site, online community or individual can build their own custom browser theme by simply uploading any images they want into BT:Engage and then dragging and dropping them into the theme. It’s just as simple to add buttons and content feeds.

When you combine the two great ideas of community toolbars and desktop wallpapers – you get interactive browser themes, the Reese’s cup of the Internet.

Related articles

• Conduit Community Toolbar vs. Browser Theme (brandthunder.com)
• Using Browser Themes to Create Free Desktop Backgrounds (brandthunder.com)
• Theme Spotlight: Digital Blasphemy Wallpapers & Background Themes (brandthunder.com)

This is an added bonus to the redesigned browser theme gallery for anyone seeking Chrome themes, Firefox themes and IE themes.

Theme Gallery

Brand Thunder browser themes were usually found on the websites of their clients. With the increase in demand for browser themes driven by the customization available in Chrome and Firefox, Brand Thunder is giving users a destination site to find the best themes for Chrome, Firefox and Internet Explorer.

And why not? What we’ve seen over the years is users move across themes sometimes based on mood, other times by season, sometimes just for a change. Personalization is so easy with Brand Thunder. Whether you want a theme from the Buffalo Bills, Greyson Chance or something for the latest holiday, you’ll find something to enjoy. And once you’ve installed more than one theme, you can cycle through the convenient theme selector to choose the theme you want at that precise moment.

User Generated Themes

When Brand Thunder released BT:Engage, we offered a Share page giving the URL and quick access to sharing across Facebook, Twitter and more. Well, we’ve finally remedied one of the omissions – BT:Engage users can now publish their themes to the Brand Thunder Gallery.

It’s a simple as clicking the Publish to Gallery button. Once you do, it’s immediately pushed to the Gallery. Unless you publish to the gallery, the themes are kept private and only viewable by users with whom you share the URL for the download page.

Free Publicity

Who doesn’t like a little free publicity? With placement on our Gallery, it’s additional exposure for the theme and the designer behind them. We’re also using the Gallery homepage to feature some of the best themes we find. It’s our way of showcasing the amazing browser themes being generated from the community of Brand Thunder clients, designers and users.

Explore the Brand Thunder Gallery yourself to see the full range of styles your browser can enjoy. If you don’t see what you want, create your own at BT:Engage.

Now that we’ve released BT:Engage, the world’s first DIY browser theme creator for Firefox and IE, it’s interesting to see what small and medium businesses choose when they build a theme. The following are a few browser themes create by SMBs. Take a look and see if there are ideas that you can use for your own SMB marketing efforts.

SMB Marketing

Priv8teer

“I bleed for speed.” The Priv8teer is synonymous with a racing inspired lifestyle. They love that pit-in-your-stomach excitement you feel when you walk into the racing arena.  That’s the way they want you to feel about Priv8teer and they deliver it in all their efforts. The Priv8teer browser theme is no exception.

And it’s more than a selection of links to their brand of apparel and other racing inspired merchandise. Sure, they’ll get you to the store, but they honor the roots of the most passionate racers on the starting grid; the privateers. The Priv8teer browser theme delivers not just the essence of the track but gets you to the latest in motorsports and cycle news. It’s an excellent example of delivering a complete experience to your user base – if you know your user, you don’t have to lock them into links back to just your site.

94Fifty Sports Technologies

94Fifty helps improve the fundamental skill of any basketball player by using information to make skill development measurable. Whether an elite player or youth level, it’s a sophisticated product made accessible and cost effective. Cost effective can still offer superior service, especially when the team is discovering and exploiting free web-marketing tools like BT:Engage.

The 94Fifty browser theme is one component of the free offerings 94Fifty offers to players. The Member Login takes users directly to the free online community where they will find more than 75 ball-handling and shooting drills. It’s a great use of technology both on and off the court. And the Member Login is a great way to build a sense of belonging with your community.

SloDive Graphics & WebDesign Blog

SloDive is like a number of Brand Thunder’s clients in that it’s purely an online community. It might not be what you think of with small and medium businesses, but it’s definitely a growing segment of the SMB market.

The SloDive browser theme captures the look and feel of the community site, and helps get users to key areas for participation. When you’re dealing with a community, make sure you get them back to the interactive areas of your site. And like SloDive did, include a feed reader of your latest news. Giving your community easy access to breaking news is a great way to strengthen your relationship.

These are a few of the SMB browser themes made available with BT:Engage. Tell us about your company and browser theme in the comments below.

Image by zhouxuan12345678 via Flickr

We should have known how popular BT:Engage would be with the gamer community based on our official browser themes for IGN and Major League Gaming.

Especially for Gamers

The IGN and MLG browser themes are among our most popular, and just like many of our browser themes from our professional clients – they’re available for Google Chrome, Firefox or Internet Explorer.

Launching our DIY browser theme creator, BT:Engage, we’re starting to see the range of offerings from game fans and the supporting community. Here’s a quick look at what some of the game forums and fans of a game are building for their browser themes.

Game Forum Browser Themes

GoW Nation

Gears of War sold over 5 million copies and currently stands as the 5th best selling XBOX 360 game of all time. So, why shouldn’t it have it’s own browser theme? It does. It’s sleek, dark and gets you quickly to the best of GearsNation. Check out the GoW Nation browser theme.

Halo 3 Clan – Dropshock Brigade

If I’m spilling military secrets here, I think my posting days may be limited. The Brigade might claim to be the best trained, best equipped, and craziest outfit in the collection of colonies called the UNSC. I can attest that the DSB browser theme is the only theme that’ll take you “Feet First Into Hell!”

Game Dragoon

Game Dragoon is a place for all kinds of gamers to come and have a banter and relax. It’s a growing community and is sparking engagement across different games and genres. If you like to help create the personality of a site, it’d be a good place to frequent and the Game Dragoon browser theme is the point of entry to your participation.

Browser Theme for a Game

Aleris RPG

Aleris RPG, a Medieval fantasy-themed RPG, explores the ancient line of Kings who ruled the land of Aleris and the great sacrifice through which the Kings obtained their immortality. The Aleris RPG browser theme is optimized for Internet Explorer. So, while you may encounter a dragon in this realm, you won’t likely find a Firefox.

How are you using browser themes to meet the needs of your community? Let us know in the comments.