Gary Busey Voices GPS Navigation App

Friday, March 18, 2011

Would you pay to have Gary Busey drive you home? A company is Los Angeles thinks your will. NavTones.com has announced that actor Gary Busey has lent his unique personality and navigational in-sights to users of Garmin GPS devices. The actor has recorded over 60 audio clips, imploring drivers to “honk at geese”, to “not pet the lions or the gorillas”, and my personal favorite, to “not look in to the rear-view mirror to clean your teeth, or you could rear end a log truck in Oregon and remove your teeth forever.” Sage advice, indeed.

The company NavTones and its parent company Wanderlust Media have done other deals with such geo-spacial luminaries as Mr. T and Dennis Hopper. I speculate that this is the dawning of the Golden Age of Navigation Voiceovers. Bob Dylan’s done it. Charlie Sheen will realize its monetary potential.

But it’s now Gary Busey making mortgage payments with his new contract with NavTones. The fact that Gary Busey is telling you “chuck a U-bee” (perform a U-turn) that speaks volumes about the demographic for in-car navigation devices. GPS users fork over cold, hard cash for insanity. Fact. Combine this with the push for long-tail, local content and it is only a matter of time before recordings of your neighborhood’s hobos and homeless men become available for download.

The Golden Age of Navigation Voiceovers

Sherpas Through the Storm: Is this man the future of the multi-billion dollar in-car navigation industry?

Straightforward and logical, isn’t it? Or are you still not sold on the convergence of Z-list celebrities (read: the homeless) and the insatiable demand for voice-over navigation talent. Well then, come with me. Imagine you are driving through a rough neighborhood in your shiny, silver 3 Series BMW. You’re lost. With your Garmin or Tom Tom GPS unit blandly calling out unfamiliar street names, you search for a local guide to take charge. At your fingertips, your in-car navigation device offers up the street sense and husky voice of “Jimmy the Crackhead” or the mumbling cadence of “Derelict with Tinfoil Helmet”. Available for just a micro-payment through an app store. In a stressful time like this, hearing “Twist a Louie at the ‘ho house” would be helpful advice. I’d pay for that. You’d pay for it. It’s cheaper than getting mugged.

Faced with such a rational financial decision, the choice between a monotone generalist or a curb-hardened local is an easy one.

Mark my word: Today’s announcement of Gary Busey as a navigational steward is Day One, the beginning of new industry. In anticipation of the wave of what’s to come, smart entrepreneurs and the major GPS device manufacturers would be wise to lock-up street corner talent now.

Before the going rate for “Street Urchin #4” goes beyond a 40-ouncer and a lozenge.

Posted by Oddtoe in • Communication • Celebrity Endorsements | Permalink

Guerrilla Lobbying: Future Uses for Taxidermy

Monday, February 28, 2011

What could you use this cow head for? Think creatively. The first thoughts that come to my mind are of the Don Corleone-variety: mob intimidation. Since one of my central tenants since starting Oddtoe is’ Don’t Extort’, I quickly brainstormed legal uses for this Geza Szollosi taxidermy piece.

The subject matter, in a business sense, would have to revolve around dairy — cows, cheese, milk, beef, & hormones. The final advertising promotion or public relations campaign promotion would depend on which path you choose. The “cow, cheese, milk” path lends itself to a product launch or to commercial advertising. But a decapitated cow doesn’t give off the warm-and-fuzzies. Promoting beef with taxidermy might reach a certain demographic, like teenage males who like their band names with lots of umlauts. But milk is a commodity; it would need a broader reach than say, an energy drink.

Which leaves us talking about hormones. An ideal use of Szollosi cow heads, given their bulbous construction, would be to lobby against the introduction of bovine hormones into the food supply. Having a cow head like this appear on the door step of a politician would send a certain message, and that message would be clear: hormones are bad. As the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words; and a hundred taxidermy heads would sway a hundred talking heads.

Forget lobbying with full page newspaper ads. Those days are over. Public relations and the battle for the hearts and minds of policy makers, the electorate, and industry chiefs would be best won with a bit of creative thinking (and a few good heads).

Here’s to the future of guerrilla lobbying!

Posted by Oddtoe in • Communication • Guerilla Marketing | Permalink

Adobe Museum of Digital Media

Wednesday, February 02, 2011

I stumbled upon Adobe’s virtual museum for digital media when I was searching for information on Tony Oursler, a favorite artist of mine.

Tony Oursler’s collaboration art piece with David Bowie

Both seeing Tony’s art again and seeing the richness of the Museum’s Web site made me realize that even through the years have advanced, the Web has become more boring. In my opinion, Nielsen’s design principles and Google optimization have taken out a layer of visual creativity that I remember from the Internet of the early 2000s.

Check out Tony’s virtual piece called ‘Valley’, the museum’s first exhibit: Adobe Museum of Digital Media.

Posted by Oddtoe in • Communication • Museums | Permalink

The Communication Skills of the Mutter Museum

Wednesday, January 05, 2011

My favorite museum, the College of Physician of Philadelphia’s Mutter Museum, impresses me with their digital communication strategy. The museum specializes in medical specimens, but is probably more well known by its fans for its array of freakish objects. The museum has not shied away from its strength, however. It has chose to embrace the freakishness and boldly showcases its mission on social networks, on iPhone apps, and through the use of video platforms such as YouTube and uStream. Brilliant stuff.

Nothing says confidence more than having an eCommerce wing and the museum has taste enough to have tasteless products for sale. The online store features calendars of dwarf skeletons, cookie cutters shaped like conjoined twins, and sets of human organ magnets.

But the most impressive part, from a business and a communication sense, is the museum’s use of social media to further its cause. 3,000 followers on Twitter and over 9,000 fans on Facebook. And hign-res videos are made of the collections and the museum staff.

Check out The Mutter Museum on YouTube

Posted by Oddtoe in • Communication • Museums • Social Media | Permalink