Chapter Two; pages 32-35

During the first week of a three week tour to Costa Rica I met another non-employee like myself. His name was Sting, a journalist for his own online website called www.gambling911.com. I was very cordial with Sting upon that first visit and really didn’t know anything about what he did. After years of following his website, I would have to conclude, you don’t have to like the guy cause he will print everything you say but the guy gets good press. I have followed his site, advertised on his site, and read his columns. There is no doubt in my mind that there are some online gaming companies that certainly benefited from Sting’s online media. Also over the years I have seen Sting make a few appearances on national television as a source for online gaming information and you might know him better as Christopher Costigan. Recently I consulted for an online gaming firm and the marketing director for the company did not like the way Sting wrote and refused to advertise on his site. Fact is I never really like everything top sports radio, talk show host, Jim Rome has to say but the fact is he has a loyal audience and will get results whether its Lays potato chips, Bose stereo systems, online gaming, Viagra, or any other advertiser that is male focused on his show. If adult stores were allowed to advertise blow up dolls on Rome I am convinced a few thousand more blow up dolls would be sold on a regular basis to frequent jungle dwellers.

You can hate a person in business but they can still get you results. You can like a person and they can be your worst liability.

The setting for BOS was filled with wonderful people, beautiful, raw, second world settings that were all brought back down to earth by the Ripner family. The latter really made for a sour experience in what was a life I enjoyed.

As for business I was brought in to bring some order to the advertising as everything was being placed by Claude and his assistant Caroline. Shaun seemed to be just getting his feet wet and needed some tutoring while he was barely able to get a handle on the print advertising. One of the major complaints that disturbed Claude during the fall of 2000 was why his radio wasn’t getting results. He had invested in excess of $500,000 and was short on results. He called me into his office and asked me to identify the problem, get my insight on what I knew about radio and to correspond more with the radio stations.

Admittedly, I was nervous the first day I dealt with Claude when he summoned me to his office to inquire what I knew about radio. I was excited, confident, and nervous because this was a big opportunity. I was sitting in the classic low chair on the other side of the desk where most people would have to look up to him; luckily my height offset this position a bit. It’s normal for most executives to have their seat higher than the ones on the other side of the desk; it gives a psychological negotiating advantage. Take notice the next time you go into a car dealership and end up in the General Sales Manager’s office. My only worry was being able to get him to understand my strategies and have the confidence to spend money which was my greatest challenge. As a professional advertiser you live advertising every day and take for granted the reasons that you do certain things and translating that to someone like Claude was difficult. He was accomplished so you it was tough to tell him there was a better way based on experience without coming right out and critiquing his methods.

There is an old saying, “Those that can, do. Those that can’t, teach”. I could certainly do and I would eventually be summoned to teach. I tried my best but lacked patience and look where my first pupil Pete Wilson ended up? I also backed off on the teaching with Pete because too much information and BOS could replace me for cheaper labor. In advertising I have ran into a lot of businesses that try to pick your brain for free ideas and then they try to run with the plan only to end up mired in eventual problems because problem solving cannot be taught, only dealt with.

One on One Sports Radio was a major syndicated radio show that was being run and per Claude’s request I would get one of our spokesmen from the Jim Feist Group to do weekly radio interviews with Papa Joe Chevallier. As for the lack of results, there were no immediate answers as I had no idea about content or schedules of the radio campaign. I informed Claude that making improvements was a matter of me listening to the spots which he got me a recorded spot; then I dissected the problems of the media plan and ad creative.

Identifying the problem was advertising 101 and easy for me since I concentrated on advertising as a profession. The spots were horrible and not appropriate. The voice on the radio spot in my opinion was very dry, sorry Lee Klein (XTRA Sports 1150 Los Angeles). The ad copy was written with the intent to sell how trustworthy BOS was with their Lloyd’s of London insurance policies on each account, which was non-existent. The spots were also not appropriate as a nighttime sports talk show host in Los Angeles was doing spots on the San Diego station. At the time San Diego’s XTRA Sports 690 was the king of local radio on the west coast. It was created by media legend Chet Forte of ABC Sports and Monday Night Football and also is the station that launched the career of the top sports talk show host for what seems forever, Jim Rome. More people listened to the San Diego station with its booming 70,000 watt antenna on the hillside of Tijuana that reached the great northwest on a clear night. So having Lee Klein as the voice of the commercial made no sense. Our first choice to replace him was Arnie Spandier; although Arnie was from the Los Angeles station he was a very excitable person and spoke passionately about sports betting. Unfortunately Arnie’s services were already locked up by my good friend Robert Elkman in the San Fernando Valley just north of Los Angeles for Jaguar Sports which was cleaning up with hundreds of new accounts from radio.

The creative was non-existent in the radio commercials also. Claude had no clue on radio advertising he wanted to sell facts and figures on the air which I confirmed with the representing agency. I was convinced the spots just needed some excitement to entice the audience to call in or log onto the internet at BOS to find out about betting on a game. My analogy would prove to be correct and the pending changes made radio very successful. Claude once said if he could he would say gamble, bet, gamble, bet, wager, 888-999-BETS, and 888-999-BETS for the entire 60 second commercial if he could. After 10 seconds of that I am sure the audience would be getting a headache and turning the channel; If not 10 seconds then 30 seconds of it for sure.