Radio and Podcast Readings.

KQED's Writer's Block invited us to read the Opium6 Bookmark Stories on-air, and then distributed them via iTunes. So cool.

I'd love to use reading our contest or short stories on-air as a tie-in to promoting the magazine.

Thought Leadership

We should look into awards opportunities for publishing and design. 

Awards = critical validation, important for gaining traction. Also free publicity. 

I'll do some research. 

Buttons Designed By Artists

Literary Death Match buttons designed by artists.

Instead of me designing them, we give artists the 1.25" template, let them know who's involved, and let them create images for us to make into full-colored buttons.

Selling point:
Promote artists on Facebook and live at LDM.

Bonuses:
Further associations with artists (eventually use them as part of OpiumStudio.com--our art-based website that's in need of a developer).

People we Can lean on:
Jessica Wallen, Opium Studio's Eventual Director
James J. Williams III, Opium board member, artist

Excellent article on viral marketing

Three secrets to make a message go viral

by Dan & Chip Heath

1) Emotional: people compulsively share emotional ideas

2) Public service: people who share feel as though they are doing a public service

3) Trigger: an environmental stimulus to continue talking about the idea

Commercial to Youtube Expansion

You can use youtube broadcasts as extended commercials, one of my fav examples is Cherry Chocolate Rain made by Dr. Pepper to promote their Cherry Chocolate Dr. Pepper.  If it is popular it would also be a good indicator that people would watch a tv show and could be used as valuable collateral when pitching to broadcast markets. 

An idea for an extended commercial:

A mock LDM between famous dead authors put on by improv comedians. Could start with a batch of fairly well-known famous comedians (andy samberg dear god please) and interchange with up-and-coming/unknowns.  It has the potential to add/interest a new audience for the LDM and verify Opium as a humor-based pub.  

We could suggest it to Scott Adsit on Thursday after the LDM and gauge his reaction, maybe see if some of his fellow 30 rock people or comedian friends would be interested. 

Opium Commercials

Commercials to promote Opium8 (and LDM?).

10-second commercials (4-8)
20-second commercials (3-4)
30-second commercials (1-2)

NYU interns to shoot/edit?

Schedule Opium Commercials Brainstorm Wine Party

Create a Contest!

Opium's known for our wacky contests: 500-Word Memoir, 250-Word Bookmark, 7-Line Story.

Annoyingly, we don't have a fourth, to make the cycle a bit rounder (or to consider doing two per issue, maybe).

The idea: we invite the Opium readers and the literati to create Opium's "next" contest.
Questions: What's the reward? (There's already the "Shya Scanlon 7-Line Story Contest.")
Do we name the contest after them? $50, and two free entries to any Opium contests? Something else? What's our strategy for monetizing (charge to enter seems a little silly)? Sponsors?

Handout Idea For LDM

You said something about having a handout to pass along at the matches with the web site, so i mocked this up quickly. We could print something out on card stock and then get a scrapbooking punch like this, or some other nifty shape.

You could have your designer do something awesome with the design, but i think the important info is pointing them to the new issue, the fb fan page we'll make and the web sites. Looking at it now the text would need to be a lot bigger, but the general idea is there. Youknowwhaimsayin'

Take a Hit for Opium

Literary-Inspired Dodgeball tournament/ water polo/ kick ball/ alternative sports--talk to New York Social Sports Club or similar venue.  Teams sign up for nominal fee and are assigned a name for a literary character or author and sports shirts with that person’s face and a quote.  Before each game team has to pick a quote from that character/author that inspires their game play for that round (or something along those lines). Could have famous people referee.  

New York Opium Wars

There is this thing in Raleigh that is basically a large underground water gun fight that goes on for about a month in August. You’re assigned a person to “kill” and they are assigned a person to “kill” and so on and so forth. You can’t kill the person assigned to kill you, only the person you are assigned to kill.  When you kill that person you take over their assignment. And then the last person standing is the winner!

 We could change the rules a bit to what we think is best, and would need to make set groups of like 50 people or so, divide up by neighborhood, something like that—but Raleigh folk get SUPER into it.  I had a few friends that it was all they talked about for a month. It was hellua annoying then, but could be an awesome idea for us.  We could try to figure out a way to tie in with literature, maybe award the winners at a death match or something.

Wild Ideas

Subscribers
PDF's, or something cool, to subscribers. The idea is: we send them something to make them feel cool, they send it to people to show how cool they are, then virally we get other eyes on us. A thought to consider.