CommuniCon Date: February 9-10, 2013

Hello Communies!

Listen, we were all losing our minds on twitter today, screaming from sheer joy in all caps for an hour when our dear @CommuniConNews announced the dates for CommuniCon. PLEASE follow this account on twitter. It's completely gonzo amazeballs and we're so happy.

Here's the FAQ, straight from @CommuniConNews: 

http://communicon.tumblr.com/post/36829180943/faq

A very lovely teaser poster:

http://justincrisostomo.com/communicon_teaser_01/

Listen, it doesn't matter if we do or don't get a Season 5 anymore. I mean, okay, it's stupid and horrible that this beautiful show gives us an attack of abdominal cramps and tears every six months from all the STRESS for no reason, WHATEVER.

But the fans, cast, crew, and writers have more than enough love to go around.

Here are the details from the AV Club via NBC Street Team on Pinterest, and YES I will update the UnstoppableCommunity website soon:

http://pinterest.com/pin/72479875224657522/

HOLY CHEESES! I LOVE EVERYBODY! SEE Y'ALL IN L.A. IN FEBRUARY!

Love,
Cat

How I feel right now:

"How long does peyote last? I'm asking for a friend."

Communitown (joint Community and Cougar Town Subway sandwich fan action); Spreadsheet

Dear Fans,


3/30/12 update: Current Subway hashtags on twitter: #ILoveYouSubway and #EatFresh. @brittanymackk mentioned #sixinchesandamovie today. Ha ha!


It's always nice to thank people for airing your show on TV. Please send some nice hand-written letters to NBC Executives. We have a lot to celebrate. Tell them about the Subway campaign, and that we're here for them. Addresses: http://bit.ly/ADqYLw


Also, PLEASE send a nice letter to:

• MR. FRED DELUCA
• PRESIDENT 
• SUBWAY CORPORATION
• 325 BIC DRIVE 
• MILFORD, CT 06460

UPDATE: http://savecougartown.blogspot.com Cougar Town fans are gathering money for a massive wine cork purchase to send to ABC. Also, I'm personally going to their (early morning, like 6:15am, ouch) gathering at ABC's Good Morning America broadcast in Times Square on Friday, 4/6. Anyone want to join? I just bought a Penny Can t-shirt and Cougar Town baseball cap.

URGENT, Summary of fan action:

1) Buy a Subway sandwich on Mondays
2) Fill out an in-store comment card that says "#savecommunity and #savecougartown! #Communitown thanks you for your ad sponsor and product placement support of BOTH shows!"

3) Fill out an online comment card: http://www.subway.com/ContactUs/frmCustomerService.aspx

4) Tweet the living daylights out of @SubwayFreshBuzz with #Communitown hastag.

5) Follow Cougar Town fan leaders @CougarTownRally, @loulzb, @JeffRaissle, and @CougarTownFTW.
6) Facebook event post: http://www.facebook.com/events/314790685252350/
7) From @MsDaisySteiner: Deanway! SubDean? http://t.co/dCefyRET
8) Paste this Penny Can label on a paint/coffee can; bring it with you to Subway! http://bit.ly/AvpBUa
9) Goatee pattern; cut one out of felt or construction paper, wear to Subway! http://twitpic.com/7rr0fu

Please vote in TV Guide Magazine Fan Favorite poll (2 categories, Comedy and Ensemble. We're NBC shippers too, so Debra Messing in the Comeback category is nice): http://on.fb.me/xOVLpY

tl;dr, scroll down to the final paragraph of this post for the overall summary in bold text. Subway fan action reasoning: http://www.twitlonger.com/show/g8h800. Thank you!

The one good thing about the hive mind is flexibility of ideas. Bees butt each other in the heads to get a better idea across. The bee who brought me the #Communitown idea appears to be shy, but she is Batman.

Also, the Community Paley Fest gave me hope that a 4th season is possible. We need to stay loud. I'm not shelving the World Record blanket fort and International Paintball Month, but I'm going to chat with Chuck fan organizers and @lightening__bug for event planning ideas. If we have a party in LA, we can invite the cast. Also, Comic Con is in June. We can do paintball when it's warm outside.

OK, there's a Subway sandwich display in the Greendale cafeteria, right? (Season 3 Jim Rash Has An Oscar promo). And Subway was featured in Abed's scene on Cougar Town, and is a current Cougar Town ad sponsor?

If we form one gigantic Community plus Cougar Town super group, and all start buying sub sandwiches on Mondays, we may be able to save BOTH shows. I'm willing to eat Subway sandwiches for 2-3 years if it gains us 2-3 more years. Let's feel it out; try it for one month and see what the response is like. I predict the media attention on this is going to be HUGE. I want Cougar Town to succeed; they weren't prepared for this timeline and need our help. Please follow her fan leaders, @CougarTownRally and @Loulzb. Use the hashtag #Communitown on Mondays, fill out comment cards in the store that say #SaveCougarTown and #SaveCommunity, and fill out this online form: http://www.subway.com/ContactUs/frmCustomerService.aspx.

Benefits:
1) Chuck already set up this habit, so it will be easy for us to use the same trail.
2) As opposed to courting a random ad sponsor, Subway is using product placement in BOTH shows.
3) Have you ever seen a combined fan action before? People are usually so terrified that they get tunnel vision and can't band together. I predict that this is going to be BIG news. Both shows desperately need a WSJ/NYTimes/CNN news story to draw wealthy Nielsen viewers. Cougar Town is listed as an underdog in the news, so the story will shift to the fighting underdog. The Scrubs staff is on both shows, and Abed appears on Cougar Town in a cameo. Bill Lawrence worked very hard on the marketing, so there is an existing story there as well. I think we have an 85% chance of landing in the business sections of big media.
4) ABED WOULD WANT THIS. Also, @CougarTownRally and @loulzb are super nice. That is all.
5) I'm calling for this fan action one day from today. If you buy a sandwich THIS WEEK, that's fine. Cougar Town need immediate assistance. Can you imagine being in their shoes, off for all those months, and then having this kind of trouble after one month?
6) Anybody want to help me tweet out the Cougar Town ad sponsors for Tuesday at 8:30pm? I've got the East Coast covered. I could use help with the midwest and west coast. Also, I'll do next day Hulu ads. I want to see what they have, and if there's any other overlap with NBC Community (scroll back to posts from late November and early December for the old lists).

So that's the update there. The $74K TV Guide Magazine fan ad is still a good idea. When I find a graphic design intern, I'll let them loose on it.

FUN IDEA. If you are a #Community fan going to #SXSW for either the Film or the Music festivals, please let me know, OK? I'm planning on sending a T-shirt order down for 10 Napoleon Dynamite style shirts (aka Vote for Pedro, but with show details on it), and post it on Craigslist in Austin. I can also send flyers and stickers to a Staples store in Austin. Any ideas or revisions? Is NBC going to be there (I'm assuming yes)? Cougar Town, my lovely sister show, I'm not Miss Moneybags or I'd naturally do the same for you. We can run parallel actions if you want. You have my email address. Anything you need, just ask, OK?

Also, to get some serious water cooler buzz going, let's post some funny Craigslist stunts. Include both shows and our Subway initiative (NBC Community, Thurs 3/15, 8pm. ABC Cougar Town, Tues 8:30pm. We're all buying Subway sandwiches on Mondays to save both shows, so Eat Fresh with us and watch our funny shows too!). It's FREE, you can make it say whatever you want, it's in most cities and regions of the US (hello Nielsen), and everybody reads craigslist. If they don't, they have friends who do, and they'll hear about us soon. And yes, @MetropoLois, go CRAZY with Annie's Boobs if you want.

EXPERIMENT: I asked twitter if anyone was on Pinterest. The demographics of that site are CRAZY, like 85% ladies, age 25-54, am I right? @MsDaisySteiner has a board there, #GreendaleIsWhereIBelong: http://t.co/LPAxGByK. I'm afraid of Google+ too, but I'm going to do my best to post about our #Communitown efforts on both sites. As usual, I'm an awkward nerd anyway, so please forgive my N00b ways! Whee!

OK, last thing. Please pass this link around, and feel free to add to it: http://bit.ly/wYEhxe.
The upper two left squares are URGENT matters.
1) Map link: http://bit.ly/xvEs8c  NEW IDEA: Post your local Subway store on this map; Cougar Town, you are officially part of this map now, too. Cougar Town flyer: http://twitpic.com/8seygp. Quick reasoning: we have dropped in dratted Nielsen viewership over 2 years, which is why NBC Community is in a precarious position. If you could please post some flyers/graffiti chalk art/posters in your neighborhood, take a picture of where/what you posted (optional), and drag a blue pin onto your city (type your city in the top, a pin comes up, then drag the blue pin to it; use the rich text button to post a weblink), we could get some inroad on the Nielsen problem.

If Nielsen is truly a representative sample of the US, then maybe 45% have no computer. Flyers and street art are necessary to reach them. Also, my estimate is that 30-40% are religious, so go easy on Jim Rash in tights on the flyers, but go heavy on his Oscar win, particularly in the South and Midwest. Please mention Thurs, 3/15, 8pm, watch NBC Community. This lovely idea comes from @Mayh___, who found  Sherlock fans' street art. When the Harvard administration leaves Sherlock chalk graffiti from students on its brick walls and it's news, you know it's a good idea.

2) Please write some letters, as outlined in @supersarah33's lovely post (http://www.twitlonger.com/show/g34qol). If you buy one Subway sandwich this week, place one flyer with a corresponding blue pin on the map (OR link to your local Subway store), write a funny craigslist post, and write one letter to Bob Greenblatt, you are officially Batman to me.

Love,
Catherine
@violincatherine

(P.S. - The lovely genius who came up with the Subway idea is shy, but she is Batman. I have a deep gut feeling of joy about this idea. I really think it's going to take off. I'm not abandoning our other ideas, but we HAVE to save Cougar Town. Think of Abed! -CB)
(P.P.S. - Cougar Town, we are officially one team and one hive now. Don't feel shy or like you'll offend me if you use my ideas. You may need to act quickly on something right now, so do what you need to do, and we've got your back. As soon as you have a Facebook post, please let me know and I'll include it here. There are a million Cougar Town fans listed on Facebook. I'm cool posting in all the comments of all the posts on the main page. Let's go, OK? We've got this. We're officially in Mayday mode to defend and protect you. I'm here for you. xoxo -CB)

Letter Writing Prizes, Where to Find Us, Secret Initiatives, We LOVE Yoplait

Dear NBC Community Fans,

Before I forget, please vote in two polls:
1) Zap2it, for Alison and Ben (I'm a Parks and Rec fan too!)
2) Hulu, for Annie and Troy (tell everyone to watch the show on Hulu!)

Two of us, and possibly more later, are offering prizes this week for NBC Executive letters. Tweet either me (@violincatherine) or @supersarah33 on Thursday, 8pm EST, saying "I sent (x number) of @nbccommunity letters this week." Super Sarah has a set of beautiful magnetic letters, and I will give 5 random people an itunes copy of NBC Community.

Details: Abed4President on Facebook

Up now are English and Portugese flyers, text of an email that you can copy/paste/send to all your email contacts, a google docs spreadsheet of various fans and how to contact them, and some beautiful fan art.

We have a couple of super secret initiatives that we are working on right now in the background while we write letters for the next week or two. If you are interested in details, and are an NBC Community fan, please email me at nayacat@yahoo.com and I'll send it to you. We need all fans on board.

OK, thank you! Please get your pens out and start writing tonight. If you tweet me with a large number of letters written on Thursday, I'm in a generous mood and will probably send you an itunes copy of the show anyway!

Also, based on Yoplait's Valentine to us, I'll buy some @YoplaitYogurt and @GeneralMills food (http://www.generalmills.com/brands) and tweet about it this week. Wow, right?

Love,
Catherine

(P.S. - I'm not kidding. Bill Murray turns up at random places and is very cool with everybody. If you see him, please tell him about this, OK? Thank you! http://twitpic.com/7zz3xo -CB)

International Save Community Week press release

--For Immediate Release—

Contact: Catherine Boyd
Twitter: @violincatherine
Email: nayacat@yahoo.com
International Save Community Flashmob Week
www.tinyurl.com/IntlSCD
http://savecommunitynow.blogspot.com
February 7-February 11, 2012 (various locations and times: www.tinyurl.com/IntlSCD)

International Save NBC Community Fans Nominate Abed Nadir for President

Starting Tuesday, February 7th, 2012 in Austin, Texas, fans across the country are throwing flashmobs this week in support of NBC Community. In Boston, MA, on February 11th, the theme is Abed for President, complete with “Hail to the Chief” played on kazoos.

The Save Community movement would like the world, particularly Nielsen households, to know about the existence of the humorous and critically-acclaimed show, NBC Community. To that end, organizers of the movement are currently scheming to create national print ads, billboards, and flyers for distribution throughout the USA.

“We feel that Abed Nadir, fictional character on NBC Community as portrayed by Chicago native (site of one of the flashmobs) Danny Pudi, should run for president. He IS Batman, well, he dresses up as Batman and THINKS he is Batman, so we have good faith in his ability to fix the problems which currently bedevil the US,” says accidental NBC Community organizer, Catherine Boyd. “At many of the flashmobs listed at www.tinyurl.com/IntlSCD, we will sing awkward songs in public (Atlanta is crunking, which is VERY advanced and cool), but in Boston, we will play “Hail to the Chief” on kazoos, representing our hope in the laughter-filled future that Presidential Candidate Abed Nadir and NBC Community represent.”

We the fans of NBC Community are hoping to reach 11 million Nielsen households by March. We’ve been deriving the Nielsen statistical formula, so we have a pretty good sense of what we need to do. We ask everyone to please watch NBC Community at www.hulu.com/community, and then as live broadcast when the show returns to the air. In the meanwhile, we are promoting currently airing shows on NBC.

One last note: NBC Community and ABC Cougar Town have many friends in common on their respective staffs. Our Presidential Candidate Abed performed a cameo on Cougar Town and showed a great deal of love for the show in NBC Community plotlines. Therefore, our efforts are timed to coincide with Cougar Town’s return to ABC on Tuesday, February 14th at 8:30pm.

P.S. - Here’s a Bill Murray meme, urging Mr. Murray to call Dan Harmon for a role on the show: http://twitpic.com/7zz3xo




An online magazine, www.TeamAsunder.com (@teamAsunder) posted this image on the Abed4President Facebook page as a submission for fan buttons to wear at events. Many of us are using it as our twitter profile pictures, and will roate the image with other submissions on a weekly basis. Thank you, Team Asunder!
Participants at NBC Community 30 Rockefeller Center flashmob, December 22, 2011

----------End Press Release----------------------

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

COMEDY CENTRAL, CAN I KISS YOU? and other news!

Hello, fellow Community fans! For you fine folks in LA, scroll down to the first numbered list for clues. #4 is the Bill Murray meme, and #9 is the Uproxx #PierceOrChevy game. Fun, right? I told you! xoxo

Our main focus this week is on creative and funny ways to support the efforts of the LA flashmob. I'm a newbie at PR, but here's the January 2012 Save Community press release!

UPDATE: Based on TV critic (mainly the owl who is often a pussycat) and fellow fan input, we are currently adding in a letter writing campaign to all fan initiatives. Please send hand-written, polite #GreenblattLoveLetters to Uncle Bob: Robert Greenblatt, CEO, NBC Universal, 100 Universal City Plaza, Universal City CA 91608. FB letters writing parties page. The NBC Britta'd gal on Facebook has addresses on her page's info section. Ad sponsors (Yoplait/General Mills are the main ones, but we should add other friendly tweeting companies, OMG General Mills and Yoplait are REALLY GOOD at social media and send us merch!), other executives, and Sony are other good places, but let's shine most of our love on Uncle Bob, OK? There are now weekly prizes on offer, so get cracking and do us proud!

We're trying our best to incorporate letter-writing parties after each flashmob, as local events tied in with viewing parties and #blanketforts, and as a fan initiative to win prizes!

We have a fun #GreenblattPrank going now. @ImAmandaJulius started this, so please tweet her for details. It's a group letter, where we explain how Season 4 saves the world, and each person writes a numbered page. I feel a little sorry for the secretary, but we'll have instructions included on how to read the entire thing online.

2012, for many of my friends and for me, is already a radiant and beautiful year. Yeah, yeah, ask me in a week or two. OK, fine! Here's the proof that it's a good year:

1. (click to go to link) According to Meg James at the LA times, COMEDY CENTRAL may end up syndicating NBC Community!
2. Alex Zelben at MTV documented my fanatic madness, and I love him for it.
3. Curt Wagner (Chicago Tribune) interviewed Danny Pudi and shouted out this humble blog; what is this timeline, people? Whee!
4. If you see Bill Murray, please tell him to call Dan Harmon. This is a sincere Bill Murray AND Community fan's deepest wish; thank you! 
5. There are SO MANY cool pages on Facebook now: LA flashmob, Save NBC Community brainstorming, Abed4President (place for button design submission, remote fan mob goatees, polls for event wishes).
6. You already know about the LA Flashmob, right? Craigslist post for LA flashmob 
7. Perez Hilton, I LOVE YOU! 
8. "Lost" Hiatus, Inspector Spacetime, Abed4President, @notajenny writes a darn cool blog!
9. You saw the #PierceOrChevy game, right?
10. The NYC Silent Disco is my humble, maybe awkward, but heartfelt, PR support for the LA mob and for Comedy Central/Sony: NYC Silent Disco

There are 10 million ideas on the next post, plus a wrapup of the NYC flash mob. Feel free to scroll down to catch up, and please consider this a dialogue and work in progress, OK?

OK, so the Comedy Central syndication is not a done deal yet. It is a good idea to keep all other initiatives in the fire simultaneously so our show has as many cannonballs for its press leverage and fan revenue cannons as possible. It's some stupid hour in the morning, so please scroll down to previous posts to catch up on all the previous initiatives (plus NYC mob wrapup), and I will add the ideas back in when it's a humane hour. But here are the things we are discussing NOW, and what you can do to help:

1. The Comedy Central deal is bliss on a stick. Period. NYC Silent Disco.
2. @maxkimble said all NBC Community fans should kiss a Comedy Central executive. I said: only if they're clean! I like the Comedy Central Kissing Booth idea.
3. @foreverhuddyfan likes the idea of an #Abed4President election style party near Comedy Central headquarters. This could include a blanket fort. I like doing the silent disco as a quick and dirty first event, then planning out the #Abed4President party soon! Fun, right? Comedy Central and Viacom: legalese legalese blah blah blah. We love you, use ALL THESE FAN IDEAS IF YOU LIKE THEM! We will sign waivers and attend any party in droves. It's not stealing when someone loves you and rants at you like a madwoman on a blog at 2:45am, saying, YES! We are RABID, SERIOUS FANS. Seriously, you want us. We're not Nielsen; we're techie kids on laptops. We will follow you like bloodhounds and BUY ALL YOUR SHIZ. Like, who doesn't want all the comedy standup DVDs? What the heck do you think all my friends and relatives will be getting for presents? How many friends and relatives will I have left in a year at this rate? I just don't care; I love this show all the way to my bones; I added a Hulu Plus subscription with pride and am happy to pull Comedy Central properties on board in any way I can. For real. Love you. Kissing booth?
4. If you click on this link, you can submit button designs for Abed4President buttons to wear at mobs/events/Comedy Central pranks (fan art preferred), vote on blanket fort locations and structure, connect with other fans to submit goatees or other items that fans can wear for you at mobs/events.
5. If you click on this link, you can brainstorm with us about anything you want: big mobs, little mobs, events, blanket forts, Yoplait Yogurt/General Mills (yes, this is still DEFINITELY a thing, and I bought a Cherry Original yogurt as a sign of solidarity when I was out with my peeps tonight), ways to keep selling out the NBC Store, showing love to Sony Pictures, you name it! Currently up for discussion, and please use the Facebook search box to search for extra pages and topics: Universal Orlando mob to sing Somewhere Out There, Satellite vs Central blanket forts (see also Abed4President for a poll), where to do a Guinness Book of World Records fort (@CommunityFolow, I love you, and there's no reason we can't have big AND little forts, right?! Whee!), International Collage of Blanket Forts (led by the charming Spaniard @be_cooky), and the Greendale Community College facebook page (led by Belgian @GuillaumeElleb; I am now a violin professor in our own personal Greendale).
6. If Comedy Central picks up Community for a 4th year and syndication, I strongly vote for a Blanket Fort celebration at Comic Con. 
7. We have the most beautiful cast in the world. Any media person I talk to says the same thing: they are SO nice, and SO sweet. It's not always like this in Hollyweird, folks. It makes me so happy to know that good words and deeds are coming back to the cast now in the form of fervent fan AND media support!
8. We won a bunch of stuff in the TV.com's online poll. To be honest, the poll was a helluva lot easier than @showpatrol Curt Wagner's Chicago Tribune thing, against the zombies (aka Walking Dead fans voting for Daryl, led by @TeamReedus). I mean, REALLY. But we're extremely happy to earn our show the representation in the media that they deserve. They work so hard, and we love them.

OK, really the first priority here should be PR for the LA Flashmob, and here I am threatening to dance awkward dances and to build a kissing booth for Comedy Central. OK, I got carried away again; shoot! I'm doing my best to learn how to delegate and to spread the ideas over several people and groups of people. It's so much more fun when there's a lot of us working together. So, please feel free to Facebook hash out any good PR ideas to us, or tweet them either to me at @violincatherine or to @EvilTroyAndAbed. I don't know how many tricks I have up my sleeve, really. Love drives me, love propels me, making the cast and Dan Harmon happy and getting them AT LEAST another season gives me the ability to do stuff I was never able to do before.

Yours,
@violincatherine

(P.S. - Translation of  "That's a beautiful lady in a fantastic blanket fort" got translated today into several languages.
Portugese (@Mayh___):  In portuguese, it's something like "Uma linda moça em um fantástico forte de cobertor"
French (@GuillaumeElleb): Something like "C'est une femme magnifique dans un fantastique fort (ou château) en couvertures"
Spanish: (the Spaniards were too busy teaching me swear words in Spanish)
Russian (from me): Weirdly, I know Russian! Eto krasavitza v fantasticheskom obshchem forte! Dolgosrochnoi sloozhhbui @nbccommunity and @ComedyCentral! -CB)
(P.P.S. - Happy Birthday, Feliz Cumpleanos, to Dan Harmon. -CB)
(P.P.P.S. - I heartily welcome anyone of any language to teach me how to be polite in their language (ahem, SPAIN!), or to talk about blanket forts. I also welcome any and all ideas to help promote Community. If you have media, event planning, translation, or design experience, there is PLENTY for you to do, and the fan community will support and love you! -CB)
(P.P.P.P.S. - @GungaJason is running a hunger strike at http://communityhungerstrike.blogspot.com/. Two fans immediately chimed in, re: ick no. The strike has medical supervision. But still, here's person even more fanatic than me for once. Is it gross to say that's a relief? Anyway, I imagine a Daily Show interview with the lone NBC Community Hunger Striker, and I have to say, it's pretty funny. Comedy Central, he's ALL YOURS! xoxo where's the kissing booth? -CB)

Flashmob, Blanket Fort Ideas, Yoplait/General Mills campaign, NBC and ad sponsor addresses, other ideas

Hello Community fans!

UPDATE (12/21/11, 11:15pm EST):
Flashmob, Thursday 12/22, 1pm, 30 Rock Tree: http://newyork.craigslist.org/mnh/eve/2758910778.html
Live Tweet/Facebook with us: Use #OChristmasTroy hashtag and Facebook event page http://www.facebook.com/events/263523627036650/, and feel free to send pictures and videos of yourselves! This IS an INTERNATIONAL fanbase. All of you count! If you are tweeting and posting with us, I consider that you are actually part of the mob. The next flashmob/event could be in YOUR town, right? 
VOTE in ALL the polls: http://www.twitlonger.com/show/equelg

TL;DR, 1) Buy a bunch of @GeneralMills and @YoplaitYogurt food and donate it for the holidays.
2) Buy some Community merch. Mgr Glenn offered a 25% discount; store is by the tree in 30 rock.
Online: http://www.nbcuniversalstore.com/?v=nbc_community
3) Have a 30 second elevator speech about why you love the show, ready to go. That takes priority over singing, right? I hate to sound culty, but conversion and press are our jobs tomorrow.
4) Keep it light, and don't get arrested. Scroll down six paragraphs until you see bold text to move quickly through this stuff, OK? Thanks!

I bought and donated $60 worth of @GeneralMills and @YoplaitYogurt food today, and donated it to www.serenityhousenj.org. They needed cereal, soup, and pasta. I got Cheerios, Yoplait, Progresso Soup, and some milk/other items. Any Community fan, it doesn't matter if you follow this lead or just buy one @YoplaitYogurt for yourself right now; THIS is the actual one-two punch, riding the wave of the flashmob. Please go and do it, tweet it and put it on Facebook. Reasoning: Yoplait is an ad sponsor, and they are VERY responsive to us on twitter and facebook. They're sending swag to us! General Mills is their parent company. If we can show our support to them, they may be convinced to help our show with product placement, or some other fun marketing strategies. It happened to Chuck and Subway! Donations involve a higher dollar amount than other fan "Save the Show" ideas I've seen, get good press for the places to whom we donate food, and are all-around good karma. Let's go!

Also, BUY ALL THE COMMUNITY MERCHANDISE. I will be at the NBC Universal store, 30Rock, entrance by the tree, before and after. Manager Glenn is offering 25% for Community fans. He is very excited about what we are doing! I will be in NYC super early. Tweet me at @violincatherine if you'd like to photobomb the Today show, do a silent disco (see below), or get some snacks, OK? Obviously, any card carrying press member will get a funny sound bite from me too, I promise! My personal goal: to show the world a fun time with one silly stunt. For real!

My best friend just bought me a Duran Duran CD (I actually smacked myself in the head with it 20 times when I unwrapped it), so I'm perfectly happy doing silent disco somewhere with some of you (maybe I'll put my headphones on and rock out to Notorious in the subway).

Also, some people want to sing for 30 minutes, but it would be better to chat with the others and the press maybe, right? I vote to leave them wanting more. BUT, as my friends tell me, it's a mob and I can't control a mob. So I'll exit stage left and go run around. Love you guys. Don't get yourselves arrested, pretty please? We are representing a TV comedy (not Walking Dead or something like that) and need to keep things fun. We have NOTHING to do with the Occupy movement (I mean, we are buying stuff, OK?); all love and respect to them. I'm personally too frail for jail. Let's try to keep our Shawshank experiences to a minimum, like zero.

Have your 30 second spiel about why you love the show, ready to go. There will probably be singers there from all over NYC, and they and any press might ask you about the show. People want to know why we're doing this, why we love the show so much, and if we're doing this to be uppity with NBC. I love NBC. I want them to be the #1 network again, because they take risks with beautifully-written shows. So let NBC ride the happy wave with us, OK? And PLEASE don't badmouth other shows.

Also, don't worry about celebrities joining us or chiming in. WE ARE ENOUGH, and we are good enough. Please don't ask me what Dan Harmon thinks of this. He is my Justin Beiber, but right now THE FANS are saving the show. The fans are Batman!

Two big ideas for this week:
1) Please join us for a Community flashmob on Thursday, 12/22/11, 1pm. Bring a tiny tree or picture of a tree to the BIG tree at 30 Rockefeller Center, and sing "O Christmas Tree" /"O Christmas Troy" with us!
Craigslist posting: http://newyork.craigslist.org/mnh/eve/2758910778.html
Facebook event page: http://www.facebook.com/events/263523627036650/
Historically, flashmobs are short and sweet. If security/cops ask us to disperse after a couple of minutes, let's go get hot chocolate and plan...
2) The BIG MOTHER OF ALL BLANKET FORTS! Here's the Guinness Book of World Records link to start a new category: http://member.guinnessworldrecords.com/member/is_it_a_record.aspx
I confess: I see us partnering with someone with a dairy farm in Upstate New York. Oh wait... Or hey, make it a worldwide thing, see how many blanket forts can be made within 24 hours across the world! All ideas, please tweet them over to @violincatherine or post on the Facebook page, Evil Troy and Abed, OK?

Last week's pile of ideas. TL;DR, buy a bunch of Yoplait Yogurt, or donate General Mills food to a homeless shelter/food bank. Write handwritten, nice letters to Bob Greenblatt. Buy ALL THE MERCH; be like the Bieber Army. iTunes, DVDs, collectibles, hulu plus subscriptions. You can send itunes copies of episodes and hulu plus subscriptions as gifts to other people, too!

• @YoplaitYogurt, aka @YoplaitLove, has been very responsive to us on twitter. With the blessing of @EvilTroyAndAbed and @Greendale_Love, we're starting a two-pronged Save the Show campaign, taking inspiration from Chuck et al.
• 1) EITHER: Buy 7 Yoplait Yogurts a week, accompanied by in-store comment cards with the #savecommunity hashtag, plus tweets, FB postings (www.facebook.com/Yoplait), and letters sent mentioning @YoplaitYogurt, @YoplaitLove, and #savecommunity.  
• 2) OR: Using the @GeneralMills (Yoplait parent company) brand website (www.generalmills.com/brands), reach out to local homeless shelters/women's shelters/food banks/orphanages, use your imagination, and offer to make a donation of food on behalf of General Mills and the #savecommunity campaign. Get your family/friends/coworkers involved; get other fans in your area to work with you to get higher dollar amounts involved. If you are in South Jersey or Philadelphia, please contact me; I will be happy to work with you, OK? The Chuck campaign had several good donation efforts, which I applaud, and this time of year is especially cold and brutal. Let's do this! General Mills mailing address/phone: 3007 Stephens Boulevard  Joplin, MO 64804-3368, (417) 782-0300 (can address to Yoplait Yogurt, c/o General Mills, also)
• @SonyPictures, @Wired, and @Vudu recently ran a sweepstakes on behalf of @NBCcommunity. Sony, in particular, maybe has a vested interest in a fourth season for syndication. Any ideas on how to show the love to Sony, Wired, or Vudu are most welcome. I went to see Hugo (Sony Pictures movie in 3D) and would like to encourage everyone to see it. The movie is enchanting, uses 3D in stunning and unique ways, is (ironically) a full-out Marty Scorcese masterpiece, is a must-see for film history buffs, and is suitable for all ages.
• I am personally offering 20 (10 Twitter, 10 Facebook) iTunes copies of S3E10 of NBC's Community (Holiday Regional Music, a glorious musical episode) on a first come, first serve basis. You can send me a direct message on twitter at @violincatherine with your email address, or post it on my business FB page (http://on.fb.me/lOtMEZ). All are welcome, but please be honest and don't try to grab more than one copy, OK? This is coming from ME, as my heart-donation to the show and its fans.
• If you are dying to see the entire NBC Community series on Hulu plus, you can sign up for a free one-week trial here: http://www.hulu.com/plus?src=topnav. If you've never seen the show and would like a month to view it from the beginning, please contact me and I'll give you a free month. Only one available; first come, first serve!
• Legalese, legalese, blah blah blah. I don't know if the offers are good outside the US, but we can try, OK? iTunes shows are worth $1.99 apiece, and the month of Hulu plus is worth $7.99. I'm a big spender, I know! :) I LOVE the Justin Bieber Beliebers, buying out all the CDs in every city and giving them away to charity. Let's buy everything: merchandise, DVDs, itunes, Hulu. We can do this!
• VOTE! We've got 20 days to dominate BBT, OK? http://www.tv.com/features/best-of-2011 @EvilTroyAndAbed is on a personal quest here; who am I to say no? We're listed in several categories: Comedy/Underrated/Best of 2011/Guest Star (Josh Holloway)/Comedic Actor (Donald Glover)/Exciting Cast Addition (John Goodman). If I missed anything, tweet me and tell me.

Let's send letters to the CEO of NBC (Robert Greenblatt, c/o NBC Universal, 100 Universal City Plaza, Universal City CA 91608). Please handwrite them and make them nice. Please try not to whine or to mention other shows, OK? Many are suggesting sending felt goatees with all NBC correspondence. I prefer black construction paper, as it's easier to find/cheaper/easier to mail. Rough visual template of a goatee folded in half vertically: http://twitpic.com/7rr0fu

Please show some love to the advertisers! We're tweeting them, and please find them on Facebook and on the web. This week is a good time to start writing letters (Greenblatt, advertisers, NBC executives).

UPDATE:

Ad Sponsors for 12/15/11 broadcast: http://www.twitlonger.com/show/eodcik Courtesy @Greendale_Love

West Coast ad list (4 additional sponsors), 12/8/11: http://bit.ly/rUGexa courtesy @Anthonyjwu
(Also, @AnthonyJWu is finding tweet handles I missed: @TargetRedCard, @cutiescitrus, @TinTinMovie, @AskCapitalOne, @MmMmmGooood. He is officially a Community Twitter God. I'll try to keep up with you, Mr. Wu!)

Current week's ad sponsor lists (Thursday, 12/8/11, Please use @Kohls_Official for Kohl's, I made an error on the @violincatherine list. Thanks!): http://bit.ly/uvPWka and http://bit.ly/tqwTdV and http://bit.ly/uqhqhD  Courtesy @Greendale_Love and @SaveCommunity3

NOTE: @YoplaitYogurt has been AMAZING on twitter (http://twitpic.com/7omky7); @OldNavy broadcast SEVERAL ads throughout the rest of the NBC schedule tonight, and I'm planning on making a @PizzaHut video (a la Leonard) this week.

NBC executive mailing list: http://bit.ly/ud34hU, courtesy @SaveCommunity3. I've got my stamps, how about you? I'm handwriting them, too, which is the current general advice.

Snail mail general list; ad sponsors: http://savegreendale.com/?p=36#more-36

If anyone feels that another link is good to have here for reference, please tweet it to me at @violincatherine.

Okay, so what do we do now? I had a massive amount of brainstorming last week; please scroll down to the next post if you'd like to see all those ideas.

1) Abed's Uncontrollable Christmas repeats next Thursday, 12/15 on NBC at 8pm. It's a beautiful episode, and I'll spread the word and tweet the advertisers like normal. Parks and Recreation AND Up All Night are getting my full support during the hiatus. I'm also treating Danny Pudi's appearance on Chuck, since it's ABED (but not really, I know), like a Community show. 

2) I want NBC and Sony to find other ways to monetize the show:

• S3E10 Holiday Regional Music soundtrack on itunes.  (@Greendale_Love and @JHeaton416)
• Sheet music sent out for paid digital download from S3E10
• Dean/Chang/Starburns/Magnitude/Leonard Christmas ornaments. 
• DVD sales (also, can be used as prize incentive ANYWHERE for data mining).
• Greendale comic books. 
• Sexy v-neck shirts from American Apparel, that my female friends would wear, with Greendale logos.
• Or give me iron-on patches and I'll make the shirts myself.
• Santa Annie costumes, STAT
• Hulu+ conversion from Netflix; incentives/contests/prizes
• 12 days of Greendale Christmas twitter contest, with trivia questions and prizes (NO cost to run twitter contest except your legal fees and website setup for data mining on splash page to enter, FYI)
• Action figures (I LOVE the set you already did for last Christmas, too)
• Coffee table book of the show, with full-color pictures and quotes. I WOULD BUY in a heartbeat.
• All-purpose joke book, divided by categories, from character's perspectives
• Anything about Chevy Chase, #pierceorchevy, or Pierce Hawthorne
• I would like to read Dean Pelton's novel, or see a Day in the Life as video/story
• ***tweet me at @violincatherine and I will include your idea on this list***

 3) As fans, WE have collective powers. Keep talking about the show with your friends. We only had a couple of weeks to try to get viral awareness of the show. Both with friends and with mass media, we can bring people to the hulu website, show them DVDs, show them the brilliant cast stunts this week (College Humor: http://bit.ly/tA2lBG, #PierceOrChevy: http://bit.ly/rYf1fk), and show them  clips on NBC or Hulu.

4) I like the idea of viral videos, crazy stunts, etc (see the next post for ideas). Would any of you like to do a Flash Mob at 30 Rock, crash the Today Show, or try to go ice skating near the tree as a group? Do you have ideas for some crazy stunt? Blanket Fort? Paintball War? If we make it goofy enough and film it, it's REALLY good for the show, too. It's up to us. If any of you can find a way to get the show and cast stunts into high-ranking newspapers, radio, and magazines, please send that email or make that call now.

5) I'm hoping NBC will see the hiatus the way Netflix saw Qwikster: reversible and stupid. If we can organize to help monetize, we can help with NBC's cash flow problem too. If we all donated $10 to a "Save the Show" campaign, we'd have $30-$100 million FAST. We could all get a Troy and Abed in the Morning sticker. I don't care how it's monetized, NBC and Sony. We'll buy whatever you're selling if you say it will save the show! Also, I'm aware that Sony may roll out a 4th season to give a full 88 episodes for syndication. Still, any way I can pitch in to make CERTAIN this happens is better than sitting idly by and worrying.

Yours,
Catherine
@violincatherine

(PS - This is a lovely summary of last night's show: http://avc.lu/t599in)

NBC Community ad sponsor list, and what to do now

Hello Community fans!

Let's send letters to the CEO of NBC (Robert Greenblatt, c/o NBC Universal, 100 Universal City Plaza, Universal City CA 91608). Please handwrite them and make them nice. Please try not to whine or to mention other shows, OK?

Please show some love to the advertisers! We're tweeting them, and please find them on Facebook and on the web. This week is a good time to start writing letters (Greenblatt, advertisers, NBC executives).

UPDATE: West Coast ad list (4 additional sponsors), 12/8/11: http://bit.ly/rUGexa courtesy @Anthonyjwu
(Also, @AnthonyJWu is finding tweet handles I missed: @TargetRedCard, @cutiescitrus, @TinTinMovie, @AskCapitalOne, @MmMmmGooood. He is officially a Community Twitter God. I'll try to keep up with you, Mr. Wu!)

Current week's ad sponsor lists (Thursday, 12/8/11, Please use @Kohls_Official for Kohl's, I made an error on the @violincatherine list. Thanks!): http://bit.ly/uvPWka and http://bit.ly/tqwTdV and http://bit.ly/uqhqhD  Courtesy @Greendale_Love and @SaveCommunity3

NOTE: @YoplaitYogurt has been AMAZING on twitter (http://twitpic.com/7omky7); @OldNavy broadcast SEVERAL ads throughout the rest of the NBC schedule tonight, and I'm planning on making a @PizzaHut video (a la Leonard) this week.

NBC executive mailing list: http://bit.ly/ud34hU, courtesy @SaveCommunity3. I've got my stamps, how about you? I'm handwriting them, too, which is the current general advice.

Snail mail general list; ad sponsors: http://savegreendale.com/?p=36#more-36

If anyone feels that another link is good to have here for reference, please tweet it to me at @violincatherine.

Okay, so what do we do now? I had a massive amount of brainstorming last week; please scroll down to the next post if you'd like to see all those ideas.

1) Abed's Uncontrollable Christmas repeats next Thursday, 12/15 on NBC at 8pm. It's a beautiful episode, and I'll spread the word and tweet the advertisers like normal. Parks and Recreation AND Up All Night are getting my full support during the hiatus. I'm also treating Danny Pudi's appearance on Chuck, since it's ABED (but not really, I know), like a Community show. 

2) I want NBC and Sony to find other ways to monetize the show:

• S3E10 Holiday Regional Music soundtrack on itunes.  (@Greendale_Love and @JHeaton416)
• Sheet music sent out for paid digital download from S3E10
• Dean/Chang/Starburns/Magnitude/Leonard Christmas ornaments. 
• DVD sales (also, can be used as prize incentive ANYWHERE for data mining).
• Greendale comic books. 
• Sexy v-neck shirts from American Apparel, that my female friends would wear, with Greendale logos.
• Or give me iron-on patches and I'll make the shirts myself.
• Santa Annie costumes, STAT
• Hulu+ conversion from Netflix; incentives/contests/prizes
• 12 days of Greendale Christmas twitter contest, with trivia questions and prizes (NO cost to run twitter contest except your legal fees and website setup for data mining on splash page to enter, FYI)
• Action figures (I LOVE the set you already did for last Christmas, too)
• Coffee table book of the show, with full-color pictures and quotes. I WOULD BUY in a heartbeat.
• All-purpose joke book, divided by categories, from character's perspectives
• Anything about Chevy Chase, #pierceorchevy, or Pierce Hawthorne
• I would like to read Dean Pelton's novel, or see a Day in the Life as video/story
• ***tweet me at @violincatherine and I will include your idea on this list***

 3) As fans, WE have collective powers. Keep talking about the show with your friends. We only had a couple of weeks to try to get viral awareness of the show. Both with friends and with mass media, we can bring people to the hulu website, show them DVDs, show them the brilliant cast stunts this week (College Humor: http://bit.ly/tA2lBG, #PierceOrChevy: http://bit.ly/rYf1fk), and show them  clips on NBC or Hulu.

4) I like the idea of viral videos, crazy stunts, etc (see the next post for ideas). Would any of you like to do a Flash Mob at 30 Rock, crash the Today Show, or try to go ice skating near the tree as a group? Do you have ideas for some crazy stunt? Blanket Fort? Paintball War? If we make it goofy enough and film it, it's REALLY good for the show, too. It's up to us. If any of you can find a way to get the show and cast stunts into high-ranking newspapers, radio, and magazines, please send that email or make that call now.

5) I'm hoping NBC will see the hiatus the way Netflix saw Qwikster: reversible and stupid. If we can organize to help monetize, we can help with NBC's cash flow problem too. If we all donated $10 to a "Save the Show" campaign, we'd have $30-$100 million FAST. We could all get a Troy and Abed in the Morning sticker. I don't care how it's monetized, NBC and Sony. We'll buy whatever you're selling if you say it will save the show! Also, I'm aware that Sony may roll out a 4th season to give a full 88 episodes for syndication. Still, any way I can pitch in to make CERTAIN this happens is better than sitting idly by and worrying.

Yours,
Catherine
@violincatherine

(PS - This is a lovely summary of last night's show: http://avc.lu/t599in)

Ad sponsor list for NBC community, NBC exec mailing addresses, viral marketing ideas

Hello Community fans!

UPDATE: West Coast ad list (4 additional sponsors), 12/8/11: http://bit.ly/rUGexa courtesy @Anthonyjwu
(Also, @AnthonyJWu is finding tweet handles I missed: @TargetRedCard, @cutiescitrus, @TinTinMovie, @AskCapitalOne, @MmMmmGooood. He is officially a Community Twitter God. I'll try to keep up with you, Mr. Wu!)

Current week's ad sponsor lists (Thursday, 12/8/11, Please use @Kohls_Official for Kohl's, I made an error on the @violincatherine list. Thanks!): http://bit.ly/uvPWka and http://bit.ly/tqwTdV and http://bit.ly/uqhqhD  Courtesy @Greendale_Love and @SaveCommunity3

NOTE: @YoplaitYogurt has been AMAZING on twitter (http://twitpic.com/7omky7); @OldNavy broadcast SEVERAL ads throughout the rest of the NBC schedule tonight, and I'm planning on making a @PizzaHut video (a la Leonard) this week.

Last week's tweetlist (Thursday, 12/1/11) of show ad sponsors: http://www.twitlonger.com/show/eg7430, courtesy @Greendale_Love.

NBC executive mailing list: http://bit.ly/ud34hU, courtesy @SaveCommunity3. I've got my stamps, how about you? I'm handwriting them, too, which is the current general advice.

Hulu sponsor list, 12/2/11: http://www.twitlonger.com/show/egj9f4

Snail mail general list; ad sponsors: http://savegreendale.com/?p=36#more-36

If anyone feels that another link is good to have here for reference, please tweet it to me at @violincatherine.

It's time to roll up our sleeves again this week. Ready? Here goes:

1) Please tell everyone you know about next week's episode, Thursday 12/8/11:
Link with promo pictures: http://t.co/NVJJftax
Plot synopsis: http://t.co/FOyInOBb
NBC promo: http://bit.ly/tTPxGU

a) Summary of this post for time-challenged fans: 1) Tell EVERYONE about next Thursday's episode, NBC 8pm. 2) Make and post a funny/surreal video. 3) Reach out to magazines/newspapers. 4) @YoplaitYogurt (http://twitpic.com/7omky7) and all ad sponsors are rockstars; show them support right back. 5) @rerorerocandy said: Has your movement considered creating a tumblr intro to Community w/ clips and then real-world posting QR code links to it? (This is Greek to me. I love you, @rerorerocandy, and I don't even understand what you're saying! I have to look into this. Does anyone have an operational version of this already? Thx!)

2) All right, guys, I think viral videos, connection with ad sponsors, and absolutely bat-crazy INSANE numbers of postings to watch the show are the best way to go here. Viral videos are #1 on my list. Here's the deductive reasoning; please note that many of these things are fixed and cannot currently be changed, so it's best to focus on what we CAN do.

• First point: if you are an improv troupe, filmmaker, standup comedian, comedy writer, marketing whiz, tumblr whiz, professor, social media maven, or ad sponsor with any ideas for ways to help us get a ratings bump and to try to bring in a 4th season, please send me a tweet at @violincatherine or send me an email at my personal email account. Any of you have a built-in rabid fanbase; if you create a funny film that gains us Nielsen viewers, you will be our hero FOR LIFE. Same goes with the other categories of expertise. I'm not joking here. 
• OK, you know those donation websites? If you say there are 3 million of us (5 million Nielsen 2 years ago, and I think it's really twice that number now), you could test us out. If we each gave $10 towards a "Save the Show" initiative, that's $30 million. Make it an ad sponsor corporate matching donation program to push it over the top. I don't even care; you can send me a thank you letter with a Troy and Abed in the Morning sticker. Rabid, die-hard fans think alike. Not all of us will want to do this, of course, but I think most of us would jump at the chance to save the show.
• Our demographic is strong, and we can extrapolate our potential fanbase by looking at ourselves. Comic Con participation was a brilliant move by NBC. Think of Monty Python/Eddie Izzard fans. Reach out to Ivy League schools, Cal Tech, employees in Silicon Valley. Can the cast be nominees for Harvard's Hasty Pudding awards? I sent tweets to gaming companies. Dan Harmon is a Skyrim player; gaming is HUGE and there is BIG MONEY there. Collaboration w/Skyrim, BBC, Pythons, Izzard? Has Eddie Izzard said anything publicly about Community? We CAN find and recruit fans.
• Does anyone know the hard figures or metrics which would save the show: money, viewers, product placement? How much does it cost to run the show per year? I don't mind the product placement when it's saving a good show, personally.
• NBC is currently #4 in the ratings. I did not know that until my favorite show, NBC's Community, went on hiatus. It's amazing how you don't know how much you love something until you're in danger of losing it.
• 25,000 Nielsen boxes, kept in secret on TVs across the country (and supposedly meant to be a true statistical snapshot of the nation), are extrapolated to 119 million households. Sometimes DVR viewing is also counted, but not always. The viewing numbers from these set boxes are what ad agencies use to purchase ads from the networks. Community's ads go from $93-98K. This is a VERY low figure.
• I know no one who actually BUYS the ads in the agencies really cares, but there are over a million users on FB and 25K active in Twitter on the #savecommunity hashtag. I offered us up for demographic study, and offered my laptop (where I watch everything) for tracking. My hypothesis is that viewers of this show likely opted out of Nielsen ratings because they are too busy. Being affluent, working late hours, and watching on laptops, that is. Scroll down if you want the demos; I know it doesn't matter. I'll work on viral videos this week and I'll send pleading emails to BBDO/Young Rubicam next week. I don't want to rail against the machine this week when we need eyeballs (Nielsen viewers next Thursday night) NOW. 
• NBC needs more viewers overall. Period. A professor friend said the quickest way to make an idea go viral is through actual, real life friends. So please mention the holiday show next Thursday, 8pm on NBC, to everyone you know, OK?
• Guys, it's hard to see the bigger picture or to be innovative when you're bogged down like this. Can you imagine trying to work at NBC, or on this show? We are new to this problem, so we can bring a fresh set of eyes to it. Please send a polite hand-written letter to the executives at NBC, but realize that anything whiny is like a kid begging for more allowance money when the parent is having problems paying the mortgage.
• Last week, I had a HARD time finding the plot synopsis. I personally sent the synopsis to all my favorite online magazines, then tweeted about 350 mainstream newspapers/magazines/organizations across the country on the airdate, near the airtime (papers: http://bit.ly/kbcgL. Magazines: http://bit.ly/14v6Lz; I will repeat this week). Logic: high circulation=more potential Nielsen viewers. Also, there was also a lack of promo from NBC, in addition to numerous bizarre cable outages/delays across the country (hello, where did Pittsburgh go). This week, we have S3E10 advance promo pictures, the TV Guide Fan Favorite magazine cover (it came out on Friday, giving us a week of PR on a high-circulation magazine cover), genuine critical support across the board, and time to work out a viral marketing campaign.
• Interesting article on marketing Red Bull to gamers: http://bit.ly/sOAaVp. All this information applies to our current situation, so I'm looking for ways to reverse engineer the ideas and present them back to the agencies.
• Given the Nielsen system, 210 people=1 million viewers. We need to treat this like a military campaign. Dead simple. Let's think of a Don Quixote, impossible dream. How about trying for 2 million extra viewers, or 420 extra Nielsen households? 
• This is where the viral phenomenon is in our favor, OK? On www.youtube.com's home page, the top video of all time (by Bieber, naturally) has 669 million views. This is a crazy number. OK, if we can come up with ideas that are funny enough, tied to the show, we can draw these 420 Nielsen unicorns. It has to be FUNNY. I reached out to an improv troupe today, who specializes in big stunts. For example, my husband and I think it's a funny idea to take a small Christmas tree for a ride on the back of a bicycle, and to talk to it like it's a person. My favorite two viral videos are (both NSFW, so I hesitate to post links) "Acid Can do Some Messed up Things" and "Happy in Paraguay". Please note that the top viral videos GENERALLY involve surreal humor, children, pets, or are from a top current pop star. I'm going to do my best to record some this week. Any ideas to start a flash mob? Should we emulate the Bieber Army and all buy something in unison? I personally switched to Hulu from Netflix today, and told Sony I would buy their products the rest of my life if they would be so kind as to give us Season 4. Is there anything else we can do? Do you guys have any other ideas for viral videos/mass action? What makes sense? Also, straight fan videos are a beautiful thing, so please send them around also. @rerorerocandy mentioned a Rube Goldberg-type video (direct twitter quote: Here are a couple examples http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qybUFnY7Y8w http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2C-PWHpPoI Both use their name in the machine). I'm personally thinking of Diet Coke and Mentos: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKoB0MHVBvM. He says this would draw in Big Bang Theory fans. Does anyone know a Community fan at a major engineering school with cool experiments? This would be a chance to promote their work also. Rube Goldberg-type things, really fancy robots, anything like that would be good. I'll post to MIT, Cal Tech, and everywhere else. I think Jacka$$ style stunts would be good, too.
• The show is super funny, and please share videos from the show, but what I'm referring to specifically are ways to reach the maximum number of viewers in the shortest time period. So we have to think outside the box, and go into crazy zones. 
• But, yes, please share the show videos at the same time. My top picks: Levar Burton (http://bit.ly/hiFh7P), La Biblioteca (http://bit.ly/18tjbG), Chang as gonzo Spanish teacher (http://bit.ly/1ilXKu), Jeff playing naked pool (http://bit.ly/dENGcV), the holiday claymation episode S2E11 (http://bit.ly/m5qH35), Season 2 (http://bit.ly/s50pzH) AND DJ Steve Porter (http://bit.ly/107XzJ) remixes, www.greendalecommunitycollege.com. Please feel free to send these links to your email contacts/post them on Facebook, with a personal note to pass the video along and to watch the show to try to save it. Note that I'm including things that are surreal and that don't involve long punch lines. Also, to NBC/Universal/Sony assets department: 3 of these videos are youtubes. They are not full episodes in the back catalog; they are short clips. I will remove the youtube links in one month (i.e., by 1/4/12). I would like to encourage viral growth of your viewership; that is the only purpose in posting these links. Thank you!
• I've said this over and over on my twitter feed. Please do a google search for Chuck and Subway (and now Cougartown) to understand the power of fans to save a show w/product placement (example: http://bit.ly/uZPS5u). @YoplaitYogurt has been VERY nice to me on Twitter and Facebook. They asked me to spread the word about www.Greek4Good.com, which gives 25K to a local food bank. Please reach out to them. I am working out a meme with my cat: : "Who ate my Yoplait Yogurt?" with the picture of my cat in a goatee. She may not like the goatee, so it may just be a picture of my cat, looking guilty and mischievous as usual. I'm also buying a ton of Yoplait, every week. If you like the cat/pet/other creature/child/husband ate your yogurt idea, PLEASE use it, OK? Like I said, this is a military campaign now and we have to move FAST. Use ALL my ideas if they make sense to you and if they can help NBC. I've been buying things from every sponsor that I can, though. I got my Christmas shopping done at Old Navy already. We love them all!
• My favorite character in Community this week is Leonard (http://bit.ly/vAzD0d). He reviews frozen pizza on youtube as the end tag for S3E9. We can do the same for any of our sponsors, right? We can interact with the product in a silly, goofy way like this. I'm personally thinking to do a pizza review from inside a @PizzaHut this week.
• Let's go back to Marketing 101 in our minds. I don't know how NBC got to be #4 - it's weird to me too - but let's pretend we're starting from scratch. What makes our show hip/cool/funny? Why do you enjoy watching it? What does it give you that no other show gives you? Then twist that idea around, flip it, magnify it or make it the opposite, add another twist, make it SUPER funny/surreal and take a video of it. 
• Straight Marketing: STRONG CAST. Joel McHale (E!s Soup and a hottie), Chevy Chase (the LEGEND, playing against type as a lonely, crabby, racist mess), Ken Jeong (Hangover), Alison Brie (Mad Men), Jim Rash (Groundling who freaking co-wrote The Descendants and will one day OWN us all), Donald Glover (Comedy Central stand-up comedian and rapper aka Childish Gambino), Gillian Jacobs (bright shining Juilliard star, praised by NY Times for legit theater work), Danny Pudi (Second City alum), and Yvette Nicole Brown (Drake & Josh). (If I left anyone out, it's because it's 4:30am; please bring it to my attention, OK?) All members of the cast have great chemistry and work well together. The writing is cutting edge and deserves a chance to breathe and develop. There is NOTHING else like it on TV; the only thing that comes close is Monthy Python crossed with Cheers, but in a community college instead of in a bar. The cast is multiracial, and the characters are portrayed as human beings, not caricatures. A gang of misfits finds a sense of belonging in a Community College. Dan Harmon uses a unique "embryo" writing style, grounded in the work of myth-explainer/mystic Joseph Campbell: http://bit.ly/mT6zVd. In a dorm, we have: paintball/STD fairs/a SPACE BUS/blanket forts. John Goodman plays a power crazy HVAC dean. AMAZING guest stars include: Bette White, Luis Guzman, Dan Harmon (creator), Nick Kroll, Taran Killam, et al. 
• I LOVE the CBS shows too. Remember, though, this is a military campaign. If one of their shows was in trouble, we'd watch it to help them out if our friends asked us. So ask CBS viewers sweetly, but please ask them to watch NBC for a little while, OK? All's fair in love and war. This is both.

I wrote a bluegrass song last week in support of the show, and I enlisted my husband and cat as actors. It's pretty terrifying to do this, really, and I'm procrastinating on filming because I'm not sure what great actors I and my humble family will be (we are normal people, not hand-picked-for-sexiness-and-talent actors), but I'm aware that we have to do SOMETHING. We can do surreal things, off-the-cuff videos, that a straight TV network can't do. Plus, we are internet-savvy people: young, gutsy, funny, energetic, and bright. Let's reach those 420 unicorns, shall we? Tell the world why our show is funny, and why they need to watch it. Let's go!

Love to all you guys,
Catherine
@violincatherine

(P.S. - Universal, parent company of NBC, also owns Hulu, right? So I'm VERY happy to switch from Netflix to Hulu, personally. I don't care if there are ads; I can watch all the current shows and help my own. Also, my favorite actor is Colin Firth, and Netflix had some mothballed B movies of his on tap. I actually bought the Firth "Pride and Prejudice" because I was DYING. No drama here to switch. Qwikster; raise my fees 100%; whee! -CB)
(P.P.S. - Anyone who is being a jerk on the Internet, trying to tear down our "Save the Show" initiative, is a dill weed trolling for eyeballs. Don't even bother taking the time to reply; we need you to spend your energy writing a silly song/skit about the show and posting in on youtube. Also consider sending emails/tweets to your favorite media/products/ad sponsors/organizations. Since we have a limited time frame until the hiatus, we need to use the time wisely this week. We'll deal with the haters with a proper "Up your nose with a rubber hose" when we get a 4th season. Thank you! xoxo CB)
(P.P.P.S. - I know this is wordy. I do apologize. Also, I'm sure I forgot something tonight, so I'll add it when I've had some sleep. I keep joking, saying I'm like a Twilight girl, or it's like I'm in some kind of mindless cult. Differences: I have no Kool Aid. If I meet the cast, I'll act like a normal person, because I see them as happily employed actors. It's the writers I idolize, but if I ever meet them, I will run and hide and I will NOT scream. (NBC, I ask nothing of you, except please don't lay anybody off, OK? I read that you laid a show writer off today and I'm still in the shock/denial phase. Just don't! Give us this one chance to make a big Don Quixote tilt at the windmills, OK? Gosh!) I will not camp in a tent to see the cast/writers. I LOVE DVD commentary and eat it up like fancy limited-edition holiday chocolate. The writing work is actual quality work. I crunch Nielsen numbers while driving. xoxo CB)