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Wearing my writing and editing hats, I’ve recently completed these pieces for The Kenwood Group<\/a>, for their blog.<\/em><\/p>\n Starting Friday afternoon and 81 times in the next six months, the neighborhood around Kenwood will be transformed.<\/p>\n Thousands of people of all ages wearing Halloween colors and panda and giraffe hats will flood the streets around our office, their shirts bearing an odd collection of names which are common nouns like Posey, Pagan, Panda, Pence, Belt, Huff, Bonds, Snow, Mays, the Beard, and the Freak, as well as unique three-syllable names like Bumgarner, Vogelsong, Marichal, Scutaro, McCovey, and Lincecum.<\/p>\n Baseball season starts this week. The World Champion San Francisco Giants will be defending their second title in three years at AT&T Park, two blocks from Kenwood’s headquarters on Varney Place.<\/p>\n The Giants’ success the past few years has fanned the flames of mega-fandom among several Kenwood staffers.<\/p>\n “My TV production professor told the class that some of his best students were the women. But we’d never get hired \u2014 men just felt too uncomfortable swearing around women.”\u009d<\/em><\/p>\n The power of social media!<\/p>\n The morning started off quietly at Kenwood’s office. Then congratulations began to pour in. President and CEO Christina Crowley received kudos from friends, colleagues, and clients on the anniversary of her employment at Kenwood.<\/p>\n She was puzzled. Then she discovered that, 27 years from the day she started at Kenwood, LinkedIn had sent celebratory anniversary messages to all her contacts. Nearly 400 of them!<\/p>\n Despite the nontraditional number of years, the 27th<\/sup>\u00a0anniversary prompted her to reflect on her career. A graduate of an all-girl’s school in Michigan and a women’s college in Boston, Christina first moved to the Bay Area in the late sixties.<\/p>\n “San Francisco was the epicenter of the cultural revolution. In spite of, or maybe because of the very protected life I’d led, the energy of the City drew me like a magnet.”<\/p>\n A Kenwood-produced, high-tech contest based on QR codes challenged attendees at the\u00a0Bazaarvoice Summit<\/a> user conference in early March.<\/p>\n The game, called Strive to the Summit<\/em>,\u009dpromoted friendly competition and interaction, encouraged users to utilize the\u00a0conference app<\/a>, and provided incentive to visit all of the key conference segments.\u00a0Bazaarvoice<\/a>\u00a0is a social-media-based marketing company headquartered in Austin.<\/p>\n The time has finally come: video game event viewership has surpassed that of many traditional sporting events.<\/p>\n This past year,\u00a0Major League Gaming’s “<\/a>Spring Championship Sunday”\u009devent in Dallas, a video game tournament, recorded more views than cable broadcasts of the Rose Bowl, the Fiesta Bowl, the NFL’s Draft Day, or the NBA All-Star Game \u2014 at least among males 18-24. In the coming year, MLG’s event is expected to broaden its reach into the 18-35 male demographic. \u00a0This phenomenon has a number of implications for the marketing tactics of companies trying to reach these age groups.<\/p>\n A near-record 150,000 people from over 170 countries packed into the 2013\u00a0Consumer Electronics Show<\/a>\u00a0earlier this month, one of the largest trade shows in North America.<\/p>\n This year, the Las Vegas show was “the biggest in its 45-year history in terms of square footage, with more than 1.92 million square feet of exhibit space, compared to 1.86 million a year ago (according to Venture Beat<\/a>).”\u009d<\/p>\n 35,000 of those in the crowd came from overseas, and over 3,250 companies exhibited 20,000 new products.<\/p>\n What’s your secret to success in 2013?<\/p>\n That’s the question posed by the Kenwood Group to thousands of friends in a holiday email greeting last month.<\/p>\n Some of the responses were priceless, like “Don’t confuse fame with success. Madonna is one; Helen Keller is the other.”\u009d And \u00a0“if at first you don’t succeed, skydiving is not for you.”<\/p>\nGiants Stadium: In the Shadow of Kenwood<\/a><\/h2>\n
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<\/p>\nChristina Crowley, A Long Career at the Epicenter<\/a><\/h2>\n
<\/p>\nFun with QR Codes: Mobile Game Sparks Climb to the Summit<\/a><\/h2>\n
<\/p>\nThe Rise of eSports: Video Game Viewership Rivals Traditional Sports<\/a><\/h2>\n
<\/p>\nCES Report: FitBit, Beats, and Steam<\/a><\/h2>\n
<\/p>\nYour Secrets to Success: On Skydiving, and Picking Up Your Marbles<\/a><\/h2>\n
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