Dan Harbison resides in Portland, dreams of Scotland and lives here.

Amidst everything...

Friday, February 23, 2007


Yes, a lot is going on. Launching social network (we're at half our goal for fan sign-ups in 10 days), a win streak (2 games, trying to make it 3 tonight, does that constitute a streak?), a trade (former Duck Freddie Jones for Juan Dixon) and the normal game stuff we have going on... it's Friday and time for Portland Coffee.

Stephen Landau started this up here in Portland (I understand Russell Davies gave Stephen the idea to start this up)...
Stephen usually hosts, myself and Shannon will be hosting this week, as Stephen will be at the traveling with his family. We'll be at Tiny's from 8:30am until whenever really. I usually have to bail due to a weekly meeting at 9:30am, but people mingle, debate, inspire and get cracked out on Tiny's Coffee.
Hope to see you guys at this coffee or a future one. Fridays, 8:30am.

posted by DanHarbison at 8:41 AM 0 Comments

Review from Pat Coyle

Tuesday, February 13, 2007

Check out this great Sports Marketing Blog from Pat Coyle (Director of Database Marketing & E Commerce for the Indianapolis Colts), shares the observations, research and results that will inform the Colts digital strategies.

He recently reviewed IAmATrailBlazersFan.com. He has some great insight as he is going through a similar adventure as we did with the Trail Blazers. The Colts have been working on a social network for some time now. I'm eager to see some of the features they roll out with. The name is My Colts Network

One thing that seems that they will be focusing on Colts Fans around the world. I think that's great to look outside of their normal geographic territory. One thing that the Colts have to their advantage is that their team has been performing well. That is something that you need to focus on... if you can't sell any more tickets, but still need to bring in revenue, you can A) sell more sponsorships B) sell merchandise. That is where I think focusing on a world wide marketing (especially after winning the Super Bowl) is so key for them. They'll sell out next season, but where can they go beyond that.



Mock-ups of mycolts.net



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posted by DanHarbison at 8:42 PM 0 Comments

AMA Luncheon

Thanks so much to everyone that came to the American Marketing Association's February luncheon today. I really enjoyed a lot of the questions that people asked and it always inspires me when you get a room full of people in the conversations you can have.

One of the questions had to do with culture. This is something that we continue to work on. Your company's culture can A) Help or hinder productivity B) Help or hinder creativity C) Help dictate on how you are perceived (in other words, shape your brand). Some of the people we have had talk or I have seen speak recently include:
Patrick Lencioni, phenomenal speaker about building team and creating a healthy working environment.
Doug Mendenhall, who help build teamwork from the inside out.

I will be blogging often about this topic as I think this is one of the most important aspects of a business. For example, if you manufacture toilet plungers (and my apologizing for singling out manufacturers of toilet plungers) and your work environment is fun, engaging and rewarding. Your employees will rave these are the best "damn toilet plungers in the world". Your turnover will be low and you will continue to be efficient and productive. If you have a crappy work environment and people are always looking for a way out... your business will fail due to turn-over and lack of passion.

For the presentation I did today, you can click here.

To get a sweetheart of a deal on tickets go to:
http:tickets.trailblazers.com/deals
promocode: danismyfriend
Or, click here

Once again, thank you Tara and the rest of the crew at the American Marketing Associationama.ppt

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posted by DanHarbison at 2:48 PM 1 Comments

Toyota's Social Network

I live in Oregon. I walk to work sometimes (thankfully I live close enough). There is a problem with pollution (anyone see An Inconveniet Truth?)... so I'm seriously considering a hybrid for my next car. One drawback, and this is the superficial side of me coming into play, but the Prius is really not that attractive.

I'm not here to bag on the Prius... I wanted to talk about the social network that Toyota and multimedia firm Firstborn and ad firm Saatchi & Saatchi LA and Enjoy User Experience launched Toyota's Hybrid Owner Site.

It's a great place for people to showcase, in a stunning visual way, why they bought a hybrid. This is a great way for the Toyota customer to wave the flag on something they are passionate about and give the customer endorsement in an authentic way. This is stuff that brands thrive on. Kudos to everyone involved to bring social networking wrapped together to help the environment in such a stunning way... all in flash mind you.

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posted by DanHarbison at 9:02 AM 0 Comments

I Am A Trail Blazers Fan LAUNCHED!

That's right... after many many months... 8 months to be exact, we have finally gone public with IAmATrailBlazersFan.com. This is the first social networking site for a single sports team.

The NHL launched NHL Connect in late October. It is one social network for the full league. One reason I don't like it is it each team's brand is watered down to be more generic. I applaud them though for the feature set they rolled out with and being the first.

Our social network was developed by the guys at Affinity Circles in Mountain View, California. They had done social networks for university alumni associations (I found out about them when they did the "Duck Pond" for University of Oregon). We will continue to partner with them to help build this network into something really special for the fans. By no means is the site a finished product. When people become complacent on the web, their site will fail. You must always be evolving your site to make it more usable and more relevant.

Feel free to give IAmATrailBlazersFan.com a spin, even if you're not a Trail Blazers Fan. You will see the passion of the fans there, a pretty solid design (thanks to opus:creative and a unique website for the Portland Trail Blazers.

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posted by DanHarbison at 8:34 AM 0 Comments