Stanley Cup Finals and the Maker of Champions by Kevin Dwinnell

The Breakfast of Champions is the well known slogan of Wheaties, or a Kurt Vonnegut novel, depending on the circles you swing in. Brand Thunder is laying its claim as “the Maker of Champions.” It’s an easy claim when you create your own moniker, and sounds better than reality – “the official new media, affinity marketing tool of the team that wins out.”

Last year, the Stanley Cup Finals pitted the toolbar offering Detroit Redwings with the browser theme supporting Pittsburgh Penguins — and the Penguins prevailed. One W for the browser theme contingent. This year, the technology drama has been left behind as both teams, the Chicago Blackhawks and Philadelphia Flyers, are Brand Thunder clients and their fans are avid users of each team’s interactive browser theme. For two consecutive years, Brand Thunder will be a proud partner of the Stanley Cup Champions.

Sure, you can point and say, “well, you’ve not won it all in every sport.” True, but I like our odds. Just look at the past year in sports. One hundred percent of our clients from BCS schools wound up in a BCS Bowl Game (things are looking up for the Duke football team this season!). Brand Thunder clients made it to the NBA finals last year (Orlando Magic) and are contending again this year (Magic and Phoenix Suns). The Superbowl featured a Brand Thunder client (Indianapolis Colts) and the Major League Soccer Champions (Real Salt Lake) are clients as well.

I love pointing out how well our clients are doing. I think it’s great that we’re in such good company. Do I think there’s truth to the claim a Brand Thunder browser theme can make a sports team perform better? To borrow from Bull Durham: “A player on a streak has to respect the streak. If you believe you’re playing well because you’re getting laid, or because you’re not getting laid, or because you wear women’s underwear, then you are!”

Help us respect the streak. If you want to see how Brand Thunder and an interactive browser theme can keep you at the top of your game, give us a shout.

Posted in Commentary, News | Tags: affinity marketing, Breakfast of Champions, browser theme, Chicago Blackhawks, List of Stanley Cup champions, New Media, orlando magic, Philadelphia Flyers, Phoenix Suns, Pittsburgh Penguins | 2 Comments »

Browser Themes – New Media Choice of Champions by Kevin Dwinnell

As we kick-off Super Bowl week, I thought I’d take the less than humble approach of mentioning how, yet again, a team that has chosen an interactive browser theme from Brand Thunder is vying for the championship of its sport. The AFC champion Indianapolis Colts go for it all Sunday night. We’ve been here before.

During the Stanley Cup Playoffs last year, Brand Thunder clients had an outstanding representation. The Pittsburgh Penguins won a well played series and the Cup over a team that only offered their fans a toolbar. An interesting data point.

That celebration was extended to the MLS Cup where another Brand Thunder client, the Real Salt Lake, defeated the LA Galaxy – who also offer their fans an interactive browser theme. You might say we cheated, because we signed the entire MLS and we’d lay claim to any champion heralding from the soccer league. To that I’d say… you’re right.

Yet we also enjoyed having the Orlando Magic, the NBA Eastern Conference Champions, as a client. You see the trend here. It’s a pretty compelling story. Partner with Brand Thunder and find yourself competing among the elite of your league and playing for the championship.

That’s why on Super Bowl Sunday, we’ll be rooting for our favorite NFL client – the Indianapolis Colts. On Super Bowl Monday, we’ll be looking to help more teams. And for Major League Baseball teams getting geared up for Spring Training, we’d love to have our first MLB client. Give us a call.

Posted in Commentary | Tags: American Football Conference, browser theme, Indianapolis Colts, la galaxy, major league baseball, mlb, mls, National Football League, NFL, orlando magic, Pittsburgh Penguins, Real Salt Lake, Super Bowl | No Comments »

Congratulations to Stanley Cup Winning Pittsburgh Penguins! by Kevin Dwinnell

We’re thrilled that our clients, the Pittsburgh Penguins, have won the Stanley Cup. If you want to join us in celebrating, customize with your browser with the Pittsburgh Penguins browser Boom!, which you can download here. If you want to relive the highlights of the historic 7-game series, click the Media button in the Penguins Boom! or go to the Penguins TV Online here.

Way to go, Penguins!

Posted in Commentary, News | Tags: Brand Thunder Boom, Branded Browser, custom browser, National Hockey League, Pittsburgh Penguins, Stanley Cup | No Comments »

Brand Thunder Hits Cool Site of the Day by Kevin Dwinnell

The word “venerable” isn’t used to describe many web sites, but it certainly fits Cool Site of the Day. They’ve been surfacing a cool site on the Web every day since August 1994, which means they’ve look at a lot of sites for a long time. That made it all the more thrilling to find out Brand Thunder was going to be featured today.

Now that we made it past the editors, we get to hear from the Cool Site audience through their ratings. I hope we fare well. It’ll be interesting to see what reaction our product gets when we’re not leading with the strength of our partners.

Usually, a fan of site like Dogster.com or of a team like the Pittsburgh Penguins will see our custom browser Booms! promoted on the community or team web site. The user only becomes acquainted with Brand Thunder after the fact. In this case, Brand Thunder is being introduced directly to the user. It’ll be interesting to see how we do on a first impression.

Posted in Commentary, News | Tags: brand thunder, Brand Thunder Boom, cool site of the day, custom browser, Dogster, Pittsburgh Penguins | No Comments »