Cast of Community

Cast of Community

Sunday, January 22, 2012

Bullet Points for 2/9/12 International NBC Community Flashmob Day; OLD SCHOOL marketing

Hello Community Fans!

UPDATE (1/28/12): here's your tl;dr summary
  • We're buying NBC merchandise as a group on Thursday 2/2/12: The NEW Warhol-style Troy and Abed shirt has my name on it.
  • A bunch of us are on Twitter, so please consider signing up for it. The reach is instant and international, much like a conference call, and Twitter makes it easy when you sign up. Follow me @violincatherine and @EvilTroyAndAbed; we'll get you connected and involved quickly, OK?
  • Thursday 2/9/12 is International Save Community Day. As I told my cousins today, even if you make a video in your backyard and send it to that page, you are participating!
  • Here's the lovely LA flashmob writeup from Danielle Turchiano at the Examiner.
  • Current goal: 11 million Nielsen unicorns
  • I don't give a rat's behind what the rumors say. We're still fighting until we're told to stop, OK? So NOW, please don't be shy about NBC Community. Tell everyone you know and meet. Buy a gabby friend some food and drinks and ask them to tell all their friends. If you have far-away friends in exotic places in the US (South Dakota, Hawaii, etc), call them NOW and tell them to tell all their friends. Nielsen is everywhere, but WE can reach them.
  • I just emailed Zuckerberg for help with our MMORPG, and am reaching out to admen for help with a national fan-funded ad campaign. I could use the group's help on deciding what to do. So far, @supersarah33 has some slam dunk ideas, with biggest bang for the buck. (Print ads, billboards, and posters are up for discussion so far. We can raise money through www.kickstarter.com.)
  • Send letters to Steve Burke also, but mainly to Robert Greenblatt, NBC CEO, 100 Universal City Plaza, Universal City CA 91608. Hand write your letters and make them nice, OK? Other NBC Executive snail mail addresses are here. 
  • Our fellow fans for the Event put together an amazing blog with some things we should all read and consider, including Steve Burke's address: You guys rock, and I love you! I'll use your ideas too, OK? THANK YOU!
  • Bill Murray meme
  • Reaching all Nielsen households includes: some are of them have no computers. How do we reach ALL of them? I'm developing flyers and emails to post and share. Meme flyers in all grocery stores in the US would be amazing. Funny viral emails go far, and word of mouth would leak over off the computers. Dream: Bob Greenblatt and Steve Burke get viral emails (that have gone around the world twice already via the Internet) in their inbox.
The LA flashmob was a rousing success! I'm working out a wrap up now. Our future is more urgent; I heard the rumor that NBC Community returns to live broadcast in March. I have Old School marketing ideas to reach 11 Million Nielsen Unicorns (These go to ELEVEN!)

1) Thursday 2/9/12 (lovingly timed to coincide with Cougar Town's 2/14/12 return) is International NBC Community Flashmob Day! www.tinyurl.com/IntlSCD

a) All of you guys, POST THIS URL www.tinyurl.com/IntlSCD (Right click, Copy Link Location, then Right Click, Paste. Old School, click and drag to select select, Ctrl C, then Ctrl V elsewhere) on Facebook and Twitter NOW, OK? Say a line or two about your involvement in the mobs, and how everyone can watch on Hulu. If you have the resources to throw a DVD viewing party or build a blanket fort, do it! Make it potluck if you want!
b) All cities and all countries are invited to make their own mob. Don't worry about people coming. The Wall Street Journal may be more interested that it's international, OK? I'll be in the Philly mob. I made a darn fool of myself on a NYC street by myself. Your mob can be JUST YOU. Let the Disco Spider (Arana Discoteca) be a guide: NOT embarrassing AT ALL!
c) Make a flyer NOW. Take a funny picture from the show and make a graphic meme with funny show dialogue. Dream: Donde Esta La Biblioteca in Spanish neighborhoods. Big pictures of Donald Glover/Childish Gambino in EVERY neighborhood (Slogan: What would Childish Gambino do? Watch NBC Community on Hulu! Support two great black actors on NBC!) If there is a mob in your city (OK, please just say yes and do that), post about the mob. Put little tear off strips on the bottom with the mob details, and www.hulu.com/community, returning to NBC in March. If you're stuck for a tagline or meme, use the group NBC Community photo and say, "You want funny? WE'VE GOT THE FUNNY!"

POST SEVERAL flyers in every language, neighborhood, grocery store, YMCA, community center, liquor store, dentist's office, train station. Post as a jpeg on Facebook and Twitter. If you are in college, post in every college building. Make the funniest meme you can, that your local community will laugh at. Make some Korean ones for Ken, and some Polish ones for Danny. Send the flyers via Facebook and email to your friends in the next town over, and ask them to post them in the grocery store and elsewhere. I want this country flooded with NBC Community meme posters NOW to reach all the Nielsen unicorns, OK?

If you have a singing flashmob, you will need a track on an ipod, connected to the largest ipod docking station or amplifier you can find. I can help you with music and PR. You have a LOT of support from all of us, and the fastest way to reach us is on twitter: @violincatherine, @EvilTroyAndAbed, and @SuperSarah33.

2) My Professor Friend James Fowler (we were Harvard undergrads together) gave this advice: "you should emphasize that people have the biggest effect on their real world friends, so a few focused messages to them will be more effective than a lot of broadcasts to strangers." Quote that and attribute him; he is a fancy schmancy professor!

a) So the biggest push is to your family, friends, and colleagues.
b) There are 500 secret Nielsen boxes in every state in the US (25K total; may be fewer in less populous states). These are real people with families, friends, jobs, hobbies. Some do not have computers, which is the reason for the flyers. They are from all races, income levels, and job types. Dream: a Flashmob flyer in Alaska that gets the loggers laughing over a beer, one that gets surfers yelling Yo Bra Funny in Hawaii, one that makes farmers laugh in a general store in South Dakota, finally a WSJ business article about us that makes high level executives mumble and laugh over coffee. Big stunts will eventually reach the mainstream media, but I want you all to brainstorm with me on how to reach the families in question.
c)  ANY ideas you have, please send them to me at www.twitter.com/violincatherine or to Evil Troy and Abed. We're both on Twitter and Facebook and we're on your side! If you're shy, you can send me a personal message on Facebook or ask me to follow you on Twitter to send me a DM (direct message), OK?

3) There are people saying, be careful, don't flood Greenblatt's office with letters. When I hear that, you understand that I think they're from CBS, right? OK, maybe I'm paranoid, but we have a short window here to pull the tide in our favor (goal, 11 million Nielsen unicorns by March). I think they're actually from CBS, to be honest. @SuperSarah33 and I say, please send some nice, hand-written letters to Uncle Bob! Have you got this address memorized yet?

Robert Greenblatt, NBC CEO, 100 Universal City Plaza, Universal City CA 91608.

4) This one's from @NannySox. Everyone, buy some @YoplaitYogurt on Tuesday 1/24/12 and tweet/Facebook it! Evil Troy and Abed, do you have a page for this yet? If you want to run an impromptu MOB on this topic, goateed people (or just yourself) buying it at the store, fixing a nice meal, eating it, or juggling Yoplait containers in the backyard, videotape it and send it over! We love the parent company @GeneralMills too. You can buy a lot of Cheerios, Yoplait, Muir Glen pasta sauce, and use or donate it!

5) You've seen Dean Pelton on the Facebook and twitter Greendale Community College (@Greendale_CC) pages, right? There's an attempt at an Old School MMORPG paintball/blanket fort/message board style parkour/panty raid across Facebook and twitter. If anybody wants to set up these Facebook pages/twitter handles and start shooting me with paintballs, I would be happy: LEDGE, BIGTREE, City College cafeteria, Drainage Ditch, Garbage Dumpster, Study Room, Study Room Window, Hedges.
a) paintball: *shoots red paintball @violincatherine* #NBCpaintball #MorePig #SaveCommunity
b) blanketfort: *runs into (name silly wing of blanket fort), sees (youtube video of silly thing)*
c) parkour: *exits #StudyRoomWindow, runs along #Ledge, runs 1/2 mile, hides behind #GarbageDumpster*
d) panty raid: *runs (name wild type of panty or boxer design) of @DanHarmon up the flagpole*
e) I'm writing to Zuckerberg to see if anyone wants to develop this. Hi, Sony, I'll pay you money to enter this world online, OK? It's all yours! Any fans who want to change these rules, make them better, work with me on developing something funny, please be my guest! PLEASE heckle Dean Pelton and shoot him with paintballs, OK? Heavy is the head that wears the crown, but paintball makes the crown colorful!
f) Resurrect from paintball shot with one of five statements (honor system): #GreenblattLoveLetter, #MediaContact, #MediaResearch, #ILoveNBCCommunity, #NBCFlashmobPR

6) Let's all go on the NBC Store Facebook page and say hi to Glenn, OK? http://www.facebook.com/NBCUniversalStore They made a NEW SHIRT for us. Scroll down to see it. Can we pick a Thursday, as a group, to buy something? Ideas? http://www.nbcuniversalstore.com/?v=nbc_community

7) @CommunityFolow had a really great idea, connecting with NBC local affililates. @jtabrys mentioned the NBC affiliate list, from their website: www.nbc.com/local-stations. How can we connect with them, show them our love and support, and see if there's anything we can do for them? We love you, NBC!

My money is on the NBC Community fan horse! We have all the smarts, love, talent, and numbers to make ANYTHING happen. I mean, hot tamales, we got an International Flashmob going in one day!

Love,
@violincatherine

2 comments:

  1. wow. the "day" was not the biggest success: I didn't even hear of it, nor was I aware there was a blog. And here I have been looking for a place to rally. The only suggestion I was given was a rewatch on Reddit. :-(
    I'm pretty drained after Chuck (and so are my friends and followers) but I do agree if you are saying that fans should carry on fighting for the show even though NBC says it's safe. We were fighting for Enterprise when no one knew it was in danger. And I didn't even like Enterprise! (my favorite actor was Captain, though).

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    1. Dear Pamela,

      We're changing tactics. I hear you are worn out from Chuck. I could use advice from the Chuck campaign. You guys were successful, and I respect and love all of you. I'm pretty fried after 3 sleepless months. If you tweet me at @violincatherine or email me at nayacat@yahoo.com I can send you the latest. Even a RT from one of you guys would really help a lot; @eviltroyandabed sends out vital info also and is a good person to follow.

      Thank you for the constructive criticism. If the plans we've been tossing around launch, it will be a pretty big splash.

      Xoxo,
      Catherine

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