Day 7: The Neon Man (Slash Coleman & PBS): Gross Impressions

So, today my meetings continued. 

I spent most of my day thrift store shopping with my cousin, stylist, Josh Coleman, who gave me some advice about my wardrobe/storytelling costume. I confessed to him that although I'd chosen one outfit to wear when I performed from now on, during my last two unpublicized shows, I rebelled against myself and chose not to wear my outfit. It seemed like I was putting myself into a box  - like a 9 to 5 job. He said a lot of time that happens to him as well and situations, and emotions should dictate the wardrobe. He said if I settled on a tie, a vest and a shirt, then I could choose amongst many styles and colors of tie and vest and shirt to wear.


In the late afternoon, I met with Greg Kontos. This is a guy who writes about Lunar Radiation, Paranal Observatories in Chile, and Technovelgy on his blog www.aceize.com. Let's just say whenever we get together and talk our conversations are profound and world shaking. (Perhaps you felt the tremors move the sidewalks outside Ellwood Coffee Shop at 3:45 pm) We discussed my viral marketing campaign and more specifically the the idea of "gross impressions," and how to create them. 

Greg was trying to help me come up with ideas of what specifically I should send to each PBS station under certain conditions. Knowing that I needed to send things to 300 stations across the country and knowing that I didn't have much money - these things needed to be flat, cheap and small enough to put in an envelope. 

In the end, we decided on a couple things that I have yet to research:
1) I would spend the extra money on a priority mail envelope which would be more likely to get opened.


2) I would put a plastic, flat, neon colored, ginger-bread type man in the envelope with my contact info and "The Neon Man and Me," printed on it.


3) We tossed around the idea of including a saxophone reed since the show is about my late friend who played the saxophone, but we thought it might gross some people out with germs and stuff if they thought it was a used reed.

4) I would include a miniature version of my press kit  - maybe index card sized, so it wouldn't look like I was trying to pitch something traditional, but I would still be able to pass along important contact information to them.





5) I would write a very specific letter. I will reveal this on my  blog after the viral marketing campaign is complete so you can see how it worked. 

I'm shooting for my campaign to win over the support of at least 80% of the PBS stations nationwide.


For more info about "The Neon Man and Me" and other storytelling projects by me - Slash Coleman  - please visit slashcoleman.com