I think you did a good job w/ the sponsorship. Kept it on task and honest. Like any sponsorship, I don’t really like them, but hey, someone’s gotta pay the bills.

I think your comment on iMovie 08 should be in your next brief.. to get more exposure. I haven’t tried it, but from what I hear, Apple was smokin something good when they made it.

I liked the show. I don’t mind the sponsor shows, find them interesting. You do a good job of making them fun to watch.
Have to get the Shure E2 Sound Isolating Earphones !!!!

Keep up the great work !!

Steve
:)

Great Show.

You seem to be talking slower than usual.

The content was great. I own some Shure E4 buds and they are fantastic.

These buds do have components that need to be replaced from time to time and it would be useful to find out if Kmart and anyone have a cost effective way of getting shure spares to you.

Thanks Again and Keep Smiling…oh and Enjoy your technology.

So you admit it’s an infomercial and the fans still say “good job”.

Interesting

If you center your show around a sponsor, then that’s going way overboard. If you cover a product and mention that it can be bought at this location…ok, but to make a decision that this podcast would be about kmart.com or any other business is just what you called it…an infomercial.

Got to go wash this taste out of my mouth.

Cali,
I don’t mind the sponsorship shows. I hate to shop, in life or on-line, so it helps me locate what I want with minimal effort.

I’m definitely putting the E4 buds on my wish list, and I am headed off to kmart.com to check them out.
Laura

Cali, I’d pay cash money to watch you read hog reports.

Sponsorship is a reality for podcasters like Cali and Neal. The best we can hope for is that it’s dealt with honestly (as Linh said) and sticks to something like Cali’s approach - came across as quite practical and not overly hyping kmart. I’d say it was a good job, I enjoyed the show - got some tech out of it. I’ve never even seen a kmart though (live in Asia) so that may devalue my ‘two cents’.

Hi Cali,

I appreciate it when you make it a point to introduce the sponsor. It’s very refreshing, and shows that you guys are being proactive and transparent.

So long as you guys are cool with the business practices of a sponsor then of course, go for it! We want to see you two do well both personally and $$-wise.

-Robert

I think you made a good job! The Brief was interesting as always. I liked the gadgets you showed. And, after all, it doesn’t matter to me if those are available at k-mart or whatever other shop.

While I don’t necessarily love your doing spots that are sponsored entirely by one product or company, I realize the necessity of paying the bills. With that in mind, this spot was well done and was clearly presented as a paid show. If you need to continue doing these kind of sponsorships, this serves as a good model to follow.

Thanks for a consistently excellent show.

btw, I forgot to mention audible.com. I signed in for the trial and enjoyed it a lot. I got a Isaac Asimov book and I will start listening to it on the way to work tomorrow. Although English is not my mother language, I am planing to keep the subscription if I like the trial/free book I got.

The point: if you can make the sponsored brief interesting, and give some benefits to the viewers, I have only one thing to say: Go for it!

Liked the sponsorship idea. I’m cool with it as long as it is honest, and you kept the show interesting and informing as you always do. Most advertisers don’t give the consumer the time of day. If you guys want to keep doing them, as long as they follow this model, I will be glad to watch it!

No problem with ads at all. They pay the bills and as long as you are up front about the advertiser, no one should have a problem.

Thought you might like this. IT and women.

http://www.jroller.com/obie/date/20070816

Keep up the good work!

I didn’t mind the infomercial, you kept it light and shiny :)

I also liked, what we’ll now call a Calism

Users + Owners = Uwners

I didn’t mind the sponsorship.

It was basically, here are some back to school gadgets that are available at our sponsor.

It was much less of an infomercial that when you covered you getting your iphone at the apple store.

Cali -
IMHO, you did a superb job of balancing the realities of sponsor interests with the brief. As usual, the show was primarily about the tech & gadgets with an aside that you can get them from kmart.
This “placement” was great - and I encourage you to explore on-going sponsorships like that. Maybe soften it a bit by skipping the apology - after all you are making a living out of podcasting your great shows.

Keep up the excellent work!

Radi

Oddly enough, when you said it was a show about school supplies, I thought you meant school supplies.

Yes, I realize your Intern is of college age. But they still need the basics, along with gadgets.

I don’t think of the items you showed as school supplies. I think of them as Christmas presents. Out of the selection you offered, the USB reader was the closest to an actual school supply IMHO.

I mean, $200 is a windfall for actual school supplies. It’s kind of disappointing that the budget was put toward only a few gadgets.

Given that, in “actual” school supplies, you could have shown:

The Mead 5-Star sound binder and laptop-friendly backpack that have self-powered speakers (AAA batteries) for the iPod and storage for all the other gadgets. I know you can get Mead products at KMart.

The Sharp Advanced D.A.L. Scientific Calculator and/or the Texas Instruments Graphing Calculator, 83 Plus — both of which are on Kmart.com

Or even those $5 pens that contain a pen point, a pencil and a stylus for the PDA all-in-one. Geeks are very picky about their writing implements, no pocket-protector joke intended.

Maybe you’d have to go to a KMart for these, they might not be available online. I have no idea, as I don’t shop at KMart often. I wasn’t really clear as to whether you had to shop online or could go to a Kmart store.

I see what you mean about navigating their site. Most of the school supplies I looked at went unnoticed, because they all had the same photo of a bottle of “envelope moistener” (and everyone knows Geeks only use peel-and-stick envelopes).

From the forum, many of your viewers are of the age where they’re either purchasing school supplies for themselves, or the age where they purchase for their kids (kind of a big arc you have there). So I’m sure there’s interest in this topic, I’m just not certain the outcome was what KMart wanted.

BTW, I have no problem with the infomercial thing, or sponsorships in general. You need to get paid too. And your presentation of this was very forthright.

But you might want to consider closing the curtain if you plan to film near that window again. The headlights going by were distracting. :)

I see nothing wrong at all with this type of episode,you were very upfront about it, and that is what matters.
as many others have said…somebody has to pays the bills

DAK

I belive that the show was put to gether in a manner that was acceptable to all. I pesronaly liked the show, and when you first said school supplys i thought pens and pencils, and things of that nature. never thought that earbuds were for school. But that is neither here nor there, the show was great being forthright in the beginning about the shows intention was good. Unforutnaly this world doesnt work on buttons and dreams, so wee all need to get paid, so that we may enjoy life and get the grocies.

The road trip is nice, the fact that you are going around and changing your shoot location is great, i have liked each one that you have shot in, however the last one was not my most favorite.

i have been watching since the beginning and its nice to see you guys grow and being able to do the thing you love.

Lots of Blessings in the Future,

Anthony

Very nicely done!

Having a sponsor for an episode is not bad as a concept. Some radio shows do it regularly. However, the trick is to do it right.

Your approach was excellent and balanced *applause*. It was mainly about the tech, but with a sponsor theme. If you simply ignore the fact that there is a sponsor, it becomes a typical brief. Though I imagine it will be tricky to get it right for each different sponsor. Good luck with that.

I have been thinking about the sustainability of (video) podcasting. It seems to be mainly powered by the sheer enthusiasm of interested pioneers. However, the buzz will not last for long and people will move on sooner or later. Unless a sustainable model is developed by then, it may become (perish the thought) just a fad of the past! This is why I think what you are trying to do with this episode is so interesting.

Keep up the good work!
Sam

Thanks for all the comments, guys!! I appreciate the honest feedback.

Hey guys just watched ep 216. I have no problem with a sponsored show as long as everyone know it is a “pay for play” episode. I was not aware of kmart.com, and immediately went and checked it out, and was rather surprised. I think the episode was a success and I hope kmart gets lost of traffic and comes back to reup its sponsorship. Keep up the good work.

A trip to KMart was what I lived for growing up. I have to agree with the school supplies comment, though. These items aren’t school supplies.

Otherwise, keep it up.

I thought you did a great job of balancing the KMart sponsorship and your viewers’ tastes. Did that make sense? You idea of the intern shopping spree was definitely the way to do it! That’s why you do podcasts and I don’t. :-)

BTW, I think all the KMart’s in Texas closed. I was surprised to see them in other parts of the country too.

Wow - three cheers for K Mart being savvy enough to know that advertising on GBTV would be a smart thing to do. Makes me think more highly of them than I did before I watched the brief.

I go back to the Golden Days of Radio when ALL the shows were sponsored by manufacturers. It was a fact of life in the early years of radio and it looks like it could be a fact of life in the early days of Podcasting -

I agree with most of the others - you did a good job of drawing the line between commercial and content. I was pleasantly surprised that K Mart allowed the little dig at the start.

I enjoyed the show. However I couldn’t have passed up the Futurama. Keep up the great work.

You have no idea what a $200 you can get here in the Philippines. Check out http://www.cdrking.com/.

You do the math (conversion) :D It’s in Philippine Peso. $1.00 = P45.00 i think.

I’ve been a fan since your first episode, just don’t have the time to comment :P

Nice show, don’t mind the sponsorship themed show as long as they are few and far between the regular shows. It was upfront and honest and as long as I get to see the bloopers of Cali laughing and giggling I’m pretty sure you could probably show me anything before that and I’d end up happy ;)

Hooray Capitalism!!!

Add me to the list of those that don’t mind the occasional sponsorship show.. I think it’s simply a sign that big brick and mortar companies are starting to see digital as a valid means of promoting their businesses.. And yes, a lot of people still don’t get it..

Great way to handle the sponsorship!

Anything to give you another excuse to put out another show :D

Seriously tho, as long as you keep it geeky, I don’t mind.

cali,

i echo what others are saying here — not a big fan of the blue light special, but hey, it worked on your show. you told both positives and negatives of the experience, so your journalistic street cred is still intact. plus, who knew so much cool geeky stuff was there? i thought mainly just shower curtains and plastic kitchen ware. if they show up as a low price in my froogle.com search, heck, even i might by.

i really want to encourage you, as others have said and as i said to you on twitter, that you really ought to put it out there what you’re finding with the problems with iMovie. sounds like a huge bug, the rendering time, that needs to be addressed and an update/fix posted by apple through software update, pretty durn quick.

— faddah

Well, for me, as an international viewer this brief was not very entertaining and usefull. But I love the other shows and that, of course, will keep me subscribed :)

Best regards

Markus

@R Pyle. William picked out dorm room stuff. He has the basic, practical stuff covered. Since the Brief is usually more about “nice to haves” rather than “need to haves”, I’m glad he was able to score something he wouldn’t have otherwise purchased.

[...] I sent over. I’ve been a big fan of the Brief since the beginning, so seeing Hide-a-Pod on yesterday’s episode (#0216) was a huge honor. Thanks Cali and [...]

Hi Cali,
I appreciate shows like this. They remind folks like me that place like Kmart still even exist. Who would have known they offered pretty cool gadgets at decent prices. I don’t think you should be concerned about doing shows like this from time to time. Keep up the good work.

The K-mart student shopping theme was fine, didn’t mind it at all.

What I would like is more actual use reviews of the web site experience, and products, and refund policies.

This one worked for me and I am a bit surprised. KMART is not a brand with panache so I was a bit skeptical when you said they were sponsoring the episode but I thought you both pulled off a nice balancing act as well as made me think about giving kmart.com a try. Nice work.

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