This weekend, droves of race fans made their way to Indianapolis for the 90th running of the Indy 500 race. Mingling with the millions of race fans were countless celebrities, all in town to catch the world’s largest single-day sporting event. The BLASTmedia team spent the weekend hitting up various parties, tailgates and media events, and had a great weekend soaking up all of the activities.

Using our connections (both personal and client-related), we made an appearance at the Gelo Ultra Lounge Pure Rush party, Carburetion Day, and even got access to the "pit" to talk to members of the Chip Ganassi racing team. Wherever we went, we managed to get up-close-and-personal with all of the VIPs...

As professional "bloggers," Lindsey and Sabrina scored press passes to the Gelo Pure Rush party, along with Rupert from Survivor, IRL driver Scott Dixon, Edward Herrmann from Gilmore Girls, and various Colts players.

Heidi went to Carb Day and got cozy with Greg Vaughan and Jason Thompson from General Hospital, and also caught the "Pit Stop Challenge" with the Chip Ganassi pit crew.

Finally, we put together a BLASTmedia tailgate on race day and enjoyed the sun (although it was a brutal 90 degrees), people-watching and a few serious Cornhole matches...

Posted by lindsey at 06:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

22 oz. of pure beef in one hamburger. Bring it on.

Some of BLASTmedia’s bravest participated in a “1 lb. burger challenge” last night at Bub’s Burgers in Carmel. Why you ask? We’re not sure why we decided to do such a gluttonous challenge, but we sure got some good laughs trying to conquer Bub’s “Big Ugly.” Sabrina, Brad (a.k.a. Mr. Heidi Monroe Kroft), and I were the three participants, and we began at 8:30 p.m.

Brad was monster and was finished in 11 minutes. Then ate onion rings and a milkshake - holy appetite Batman.

Sabrina gave a valiant effort and finished well over half of her burger. I was able to finish my burger off in about an hour, and started saying my last good-bye’s as I thought I might kick-it right there. It was a good showing in the end, and we couldn’t have done it without the rest of the BLASTmedia crew cheering us on (and sometimes giving us tough love in the form of yelling and belittling). This is one of many BLAST challenges for which we will volunteer this year, so look for more to come. Enjoy the photos – it may inspire you to head over to Bub’s to take on “The Big Ugly” yourself….

Posted by lindsey at 11:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

Emerging forms of media like podcasts, RSS, blogs and social networking may not be on everyone’s radar – but they’re on the rise, and the media relations world needs to take notice.

One of the biggest things that we’ve learned through interacting with these emerging media outlets is the importance of participation.

You don’t talk about it. You do it.

And the more you do it, the more you understand it.

As these forms of media continue to grow, we see the emergence of new thought leaders, new evangelists, new critics. It’s a fascinating phenomenon.

With those things in mind, we just launched an experiment that was designed to help us better understand user generated content – the material produced by (and made available to) the masses by sites like YouTube, MySpace, and the rest of the Blogosphere.

The experiment is in the form of a video parody of Fox’s hit TV show 24. (Apologies to those unfamiliar with the show – the piece’s “humor” comes from lampooning some of the signature elements of the show.) We produced it and launched it on YouTube.com the day after the show’s season finale. You can see it by clicking the link below (some may be able to access at the bottom of this post as well):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFTTDz-HH8g

So far, in the first 24 hours, there have been over 1300 views of the 90-second clip. That’s over 30 hours of viewing in total.

It seems significant (not necessarily by itself). But when you consider the number of videos that are posted to the site each day (multiplied by the number of viewings of each one), you start to realize that user generated content is worth paying attention to.

Stay tuned for more as this experiment continues to unfold.

Posted by cmh at 12:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

BLASTmedia spent some time at E3 last week to check out what was new in the gaming world. What a crazy show! It was true sensory overload with costumes, flashing lights and pumping music. In addition to the long lines for new games and interesting characters, we also took notice of a few small companies making big waves. Some of our favorites…. Phantom EFX showed off their latest casino simulation PC games, GestureTek allowed us to jump right into a game and Novint brought 3D touch to gaming.

More E3 Photos

                   

Posted by cmh at 01:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

BLASTmedia traveled to Irvine, CA to meet with our client Sonnet Technologies. We shared some of our recent media successes (more than 60!) and they demoed some of their cool new products. We can’t wait to share these new products with the media!

Posted by cmh at 11:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

In a recent Forbes list, Indianapolis came in at #10 as one of the best places to work and live. The "Circle City" has living costs 16% below the national average, which allows residents to have a high purchasing power. Eli Lilly, which is headquartered in Indianapolis, is planning to create more jobs, and construction of the new Colts stadium will allow for an increase of construction jobs.

BLASTmedia is located just outside of Indianapolis, and we couldn’t agree more! The Indy metro area continues to keep growing. The month of May especially adds excitement with the Indy 500 -- the largest single day sporting event in the world!

Posted by cmh at 03:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

At BLASTmedia, we see plenty of interesting products, but we’re especially excited about the latest offering from our new client, CYS Communications.

Our very own Heidi Monroe Kroft pulled together a bunch of photos from her wedding that were filed away on her PC. A quick download of the CYS software and within a few minutes, she had created her own customized Photobook. She just received the finished product and her family members are now hounding her for copies.

You can visit CYS here.

Posted by cmh at 10:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

ad:tech has come and gone but the memories remain. ad tech is the industry leading exhibit and forum for the latest and greatest for online and interactive marketing.

Blast Media was there in support of our client TrueLocal and the launch of their new local traffic estimator tool. We were able to set up media appointments with members of the press and met with many interesting attendees, many of whom are on the forefront when it comes to interactive marketing.

Be sure to check out TrueLocal's Jake Baillie and his conversation with Peter over at LocalOnliner.

While much of the show floor had many of the typical trinkets and giveaways, I did see some interesting customer aquisition strategies, including the "Truth Booth" from Atlas which had users go in a booth and tell thier dirty web secrets - all for a t-shirt or shot glass. They are set to post the most humorous on their blog/podcast - as of today nothing is posted but stay tuned.

I only wish I was able to hit some of the sessions as the floor buzzed with the different topics including The Future of Search.

We had a great time in a great city and look forward to next year.

Posted by cmh at 10:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)