Like a lot of people in Toronto I get bombarded by flyers from Extreme Fitness that usually say: $8 per month, no contract, no execuses etc… I think I receive at least 2 flyers per month from them.  My buddy and I decided to finally check it out, plus we heard they have an MMA program as well. The assumption was to check out the gym see the real costs and what kind of teachers they have for MMA. The conclusion was that it costs way more, they push the sale worse than a used car salesman and their MMA intstructors have more attitude than young Mike Tyson.

The experience started from us filling out some crazy amount of paperwork. After around 10 min a nice guy ( he was actually nice) said that he will show us the gym. He asked us both another 20 or 30 questions about our fitness goals etc… I tried to tell him that we are pretty experienced people and just want to see the gym, get the costs and the schedule for classes. It didn’t matter as he continued the same line of questioning, later I understood that was in order to sell their private lessons. I asked couple of times how much MMA classes costs and he said he doesn’t know “they need to asses my fitness level.” I asked a pretty reasonable question how is the price related to my fitness level? He said don’t worry lets just talk to one of our 2 MMA trainers they both fought in Pride.

So we went to check out the gym which was not bad at all in itself. Then we finally reached George K (couldn’t find his last name anywhere) who is supposed to be the ex Pride fighter. He was leaning back on his chair when he saw us, didn’t even stand-up to shake our hand. Once I explained that I take Muya Thai and Aikido and was just wondering how much MMA would cost here he said “We did you ever see free MMA in this city?.” I said no and I don’t expect it to be free, but I want to know how much does it cost – he still didn’t respond and just wanted to sign us up for a free demo. I can’t explain his attitude in writting, but he acted like he is some undefeated champion of the world and I am kid who wants to get an interview. If I might say quite an asshole attitude.

I finally asked the guy about the prices for the gym itself they are : $66 if you want to use one gym and $74 if you want to use multiple gyms. This price is valid only with long term contract, go figure after all their flyers saying that their is no contract. He still didn’t tell me the price for MMA. Once we were about to leave the manager came and tried to push their sale on us again. He even tried to close the doors till we buy the membership. After we finally left the place I decided to never go back to Extreme Fitness again! Last thing I need in my life are pushy sales and crappy attitude.

When I went home I checked out a bio of the second MMA trainer George Kiriakou their had over there and turns out he is not that nice of a guy either. Check out the video and comments bellow. BTW I didn’t find any single mention of him or his buddy being in Pride. Also as somewhat experience martial artist I can tell you that there is no way two teachers can give you an adequate training in Muya Thai, BJJ, Wrestling, Boxing and Conditioning.

So overall I figured out that Extreme Fitness spends a lot of money on marketing to you, pushing their sales onto to you and then sign you in a long contract. I doubt really that after that they have a good customer service. This is a no for me.

Finally, Russian wrestler tenders apology

]]> http://romanz.org/extremely-negative-experience-with-extreme-fitness-in-toronto/feed 9 http://romanz.org/ama-networking-series-in-spoke-club-toronto http://romanz.org/ama-networking-series-in-spoke-club-toronto#comments Mon, 27 Oct 2008 18:13:16 +0000 Roman http://romanz.org/?p=148

Quick note that I attended a networking event organized by AMA Toronto chapter and Craig Lund. This part Thursday.

The location and the events itself was pretty cool. The crowd was a mix of glamour, professional and anti-corporate lifestyle professionals.

I came with a goal to find some potential sales reps, writers and designers. I did get couple of leads from there and working on it.

At the same time it amazes me how a lot of marketers don’t know by themselfes how to market. Some ideas that came in mind after this event:

• -be nice to everybody, i saw some people that changed the attitutde when they realized they can’t sell anything to a person. The person might know somebody or need your services in the future
• -if you come to the networking event – bring your business cards. Some people “ran out” it is such a simple thing, yet it has a good impact
• -if you are doing a presentation – don’t read from your power point especially when you are presenting to marketers who earn their living my doing presentations
• -don’t drink too much. While it is ok to drink to some, to relax and be laid back. Being drunk won’t help you to get that next gig.

Overall it was a usefull event I will atend it again. I woudl reccomend it to anybody who is looking for a work or business opportunities in marketing industry in Toronto.

This was probably the first casual yet business event I went to in my life. Coming from traditional media I am used to black suites,politically correct speeches that are usually held in conference halls or hotels.

Needless to say that the crowd that attended the Casecamp was very different and very diverse. More than 500 people attended and I saw some people in suites and some in converse sneakers. I think the uniting factor was similar to Web 2.0 itself – transparency. It felt like everyone is just who they want to be without the need to put a facade so needed at a corporate job. Even the venue Circa itself was one of trendiest clubs I saw in Toronto and I am sure I will visit it again on a regular night.

The bottom line is the contrast between tradional media and new media was evident. I decided that I am finally where I want to be. Thanks a lot to Eli Singer for organizing it and lowering barriers so everyone can parcipate.

Bits of pieces I gathered from 15 minutes presentations:
Brian Segal from ComScore:

• Canadian spend the most time in the world visiting social media websites. It correlates to what I heard at the conference from Yahoo’s Daniel Maor
• The segment of internet useres over 30 is again the largest in Canada.

Bottom line: if you are in Canada and targeting  tradional audiences social media marketing should be integral part of your marketing plan.

Boxing Day 2007 at RedFlagDeals.com:

• Derek started while living with his parents in 2000.
• They make money from affiliate links
  
• When he first launched forums it was a failure due to the lack of existing traffic
• He mentioned that without 100,000 existing visitors they couldn’t approach big advertisers
• Boxing week is the most profitable week for them
• Last Boxing week the organic traffic from Google grew by 151%, already during November they ranked the highest for the keywords
• Last Boxing week they brough 8.5 millions in sales to one retailer
• Now there is RFD factor – when they mention the deal on the website the retailer is sold out in a very short time

Bottom Line:The success is based on transparency, user collobartion and constantly improving user experience.

Story2Oh!, Evolving TV Storytelling to Social Network

• for the fake story they got enormous amount of clicks and followers
• one woman in the audience got mad, because she had no idea that characters were fictional and she was actually following really closely the evolving drama
• they plan to run a whole season

Bottom line: I am not sure if the succes of the show was due to the new nature of the storytelling or because some people didn’t pay attention that characters are fictional. It will be interesting to see how they will monetize it when the time comes.

Update: Due to complain from the lady they took down the characters on Facebook

Radiothon Diaries, Harnessing YouTube for the Hospital for Sick Children

• SickKids used YouTube videos with a widget button at the top for the first time
• The Radiothon’s fund raised increased by 40-50%, but it is unknown if all of is attributed to YouTube
• It was a lot more work in terms of editing the videos than they ever expected
• The videos on YouTube were different from their typical TV spots.

Bottom line:no matter what industry you are – you can find a way how to use social media for your benefit. I think for fund raising with their limited funds for publicity it is even more true.


The TD Canada Trust Facebook Story
Sue McVey, VP Marketing Planning, TD Canada Trust

• Social Media was new to TD Canada Trust
• The biggest fear was the loose of control over the message comparably to tradional media
• They did receive some negative comments and left them intact
  
• They exceeded the goal and quickly gathered more than 10,000 fans on their Facebook page
• RBC launched the Facebook page couple of days after TD and that means they are doing something right.

Bottom line: It is hard for tradional businesses to start using social media due to the lack of control over the brand. Naturally there are only few companies whose customer service doesn’t suck. Still it is a needed component for staying competetive in the current marketplace. Develop contingecies on how you are going to deal with negative complaints. Metrics for social media are not as straight forward as for tradional media or PPC advertising, but they still exist and needed to be measured.

Yesterday a visitor left a link to an interview with Kevin Banderk . It is actually an exlcusive interivew so that is why I am reposting the link.

I also received couple of emails from people i Know who told me that I should not put down someone’s else creative work.  I left a lengthy comment to myself in my previous post and now just decided to make the record clean.

I think that the campaign was creative and the execution is great as well. I think the main problem is that it doesn’t align with the core target group of 16-25 years that Koodo was originally planning to target. I just don’t see the connection. 

My opinion (without any data to backup) is that it works the best on 30+ since they can easily identify with 20 minute workout video and still not adopted techonology as much as younger generation.

I made a small test myself which is probably not representative, but 95% of my facebook friends told me that want to have unlimited internet access in their phone.

I guess time will tell…

My readers know that this Friday is my last day at my 9-5 job. After that I am on my own. One thing I learned at my job that is all about networking, knowing right people is imperative to besuccessful in achieving your goals. That is why I am attending CaseCamp.org event in Toronto on April 29th.

I’ve never been to this event before, but from I what I understand it is really casual presentation of case studies by big names and open collaboration of the audience.This is totally Reality 2.0. It is a wiki in a real time. I Googled it and it looks like a lot of bloggers from Toronto will be attending it. I am sure they don’t know anything about me, but I was checking out their blogs for awhile – almost like a stalker.

Anyways if you live in Toronto and even remotely interested in social network marketing I urge you to attend CaseCamp. I am sure it will be inspirational and will allow for the opportunity to meet a lot of people that might help in achieving your business goals.

I think their wiki is down, but Facebook page still works. Check it out.

Here is the list of presenters:

P.S. trying to print my new personal business cards before the event, because I guess my current company’s won’t work:)

I like statistics. While analyzing google’s traffic sent to my site I found out that my Koodo Mobile or Why Develop a Fake Brand post is my best post ever. Apparently a lot of visitors want to know what is the marketing agency behind these annoying Koodo Mobile ads. I know in Toronto you can see these ads everywhere on buses, downtown and TV.

I will save you some time and the short answer is Taxi 2 Advertising Agency. Taxi 2 is pretty big player in the marketing industry and is responsible for some really creative marketing campaigns. I love their WestJet campaign. However, I still think that both marketing and product offering for Koodo Mobile is a bit questionable. Here are my questions:

• Why would 80′s working out theme appeal to 16-30 year olds? We were not born at that time, so it doesn’t appeal to us as an audience.  Seriously I have no idea how does working out hints at buying a cell phone
• Except stating “fat free mobility” there is no real message in the ad campaign that would tell me why should I go out of my way to check out their website
• I do want to watch TV on my phone,
• I do want to browse internet on my phone for one low flat rate fee per month
• I want cool looking modern devices

At the end of the day except eliminating system access fee I see no difference between Koodo Mobile and other mobile companies in Toronto. If you are asking yourself a question is someone cares if you would disappear tomorrow – the answer is no nobody cares.

Check out this blog I am not sure, but I think the owner of the blog works for Taxi agency and they are brainstorming on some new ideas for Telus. Contribute and he might invite you to a party.

Oh Yeah, if you agree with me or disagree please leave a comment.

Update: New post about Koodo advertising campaign after one year

92.5 Jack FM advertising in Toronto or don’t promote your competitor.

If you read any of my posts you probably know that I love Rock and everything that goes with it. Now, in Toronto two my knowledge they are two major rock stations: Q107 Classic Rock and 92.5 Jack Fm. Whenever, I forget my Ipod I do listen to both stations. I listen to them interchangeably depending purely on the song or commercial that is playing at the moment. The difference between two stations is that Q is playing classic rock only, while Jack FM plays modern rock as well.

Now two months ago Jack FM rolled out a new advertising campaign in Toronto. The whole drive behind the campaign was to just bash Q107 and just say that only older generation listens to it. Jack FM even had a recording of listeners who called in and said how much they hate Q107. This is it – the whole marketing is based on putting down the competition.

I have a lot of contacts in advertising agencies in Toronto, but I think this campaign was made from within the company.  I would fire the guy who did it.
This campaign is just so against any of marketing principles:

• it failed to position the product, all it did is talked about competition
• marketing 101 negative publicity is still a publicity
  
• it offended people who listened to both radio stations
• it offended older generation
• it offended the spirit of Rock (what are you saying Green Day is more rock than Led Zeppelin?)

Guess what? The stations is owner by pretty familiar company to my regular readers – Rogers Wireless.

I decided to write this post just now, because I was listening to Jack FM for the first time in two months and figured that they changed their approach. Right now they actually push on the fact that they are the only station where a person can listen to both modern and classic rock. I think it is way better approach.

The lesson is talk about yourself, tell me why you are good! Don’t tell me about why other guys are bad, I might love these people and you will make me feel stupid. These are the principles that even rookie sales reps know.

Related Posts:
Rogers Wireless the hate lives on
Rogers Wirelss Monitors You

I read TechCrunch all the time on monday they posted about a new startup Movies Networks Incrporated. The service provides High Definition movies via internet to users. The post discusses thechical differences from it’s major competitors Brightcove and Maven. I think the general feel of the post and the comments is that High definition on demand is the way of the future.

I totally agree, however here is my problem: what are we going to do in Toronto with hight defenition videos when both Rogers Wireless and Bell put caps of 60gb for internet traffic. I mean 60 gb should be enough for 15 movies – assuming you don’t do anything else online that month online. The same goes for everything else : online applications like Google Docs or online back up services eat your traffic. Really, looks like everything is moving these days online and what do we do here in Toronto? We limit the internet usage.

Is it just me or are we going backwards? Leave a comment if you agree that 60 gb for a new era of internet is just NOT enough.

mosenmori :

Does anyone know of a way to get around rogers’ bandwidth throttling for bittorrent?

2008-04-13 13:55:21

Reply

chris24 :

Earlier in the week I used 56GB for this billing period (ISP bandwidth), now its down to 55.19GB. That’s Rogers for you.

2008-04-11 19:52:29

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mcgraths :

Not happy with the fact that Rogers just warned me that I’ve used 82% of my 95GB bandwidth this month.

2008-04-10 09:39:25

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tylermac :

Well, Rogers wants to limit the usage of my internet and Bell want to control bandwidth usage… Rock meet hard place.

2008-04-09 21:23:05

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RJToronto :

Personally, I have no issue with the $25 surcharge Rogers is putting on those of us who exceed our bandwidth each month.

2008-04-08 19:30:34

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clarkey :

@DougWalker Rogers had been intruding my browser with “You have reached 100% of your 60GB bandwidth limit for the month” so I turned off BT

2008-04-08 19:21:00

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DougWalker :

@clarkey yeah capping the bandwidth sucks, esp when you sign up for “unlimited”. I suspect Shaw will be hot on the heels of Rogers.

2008-04-08 19:19:31

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clarkey :

I was upset that my ISP Rogers was capping bandwidth. I thought it started immediately-turns out they won’t start til June. Bittorrent time!

2008-04-08 19:14:20

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Rajio :

Up early (for some reason). Analyzing the last 24h’s bandwidth trends graph. Noticing suspicious patterns. Up yours Ted Rogers.

2008-04-07 06:27:44

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stephenaevans :

There seems to be evidence that Rogers bandwidth reporting is inaccurate – anyone else seeing this? http://tinyurl.com/6b7rol

2008-04-05 11:32:03

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ashchristopher :

@spaetzel I pay less than I would with Bell or Rogers and I get unlimited bandwidth per month.also have the option of 200G on Peer1.

2008-04-03 09:53:39

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raian :

Wow – Rogers implemented a bandwidth cap! Those fuckers.

2008-04-01 20:57:59

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zvisus :

thinking of trying to resell my bandwidth now that rogers has placed a transfer cap on downloads

2008-04-01 14:33:14

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davidcubed :

More on Rogers – Better than what lower speed people will pay. Allowed Bandwidth on lower accounts range from 2GB to 60GB.

2008-04-01 13:17:08

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davidcubed :

Rogers Reported bandwidth usage: Nov – 127GB, Dec – 160GB, Jan – 132GB. Though they are upgrading my speed to 10mbps. Grr @ Rogers.

2008-04-01 13:14:36

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bfortner :

Rogers: Broadband Fees to Rise with Bandwidth Use. New rates will charge $5 per gig when user goes over quota. http://tinyurl.com/yo7cpq

2008-04-01 12:01:31

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Since I work for one of the offices of the company (for another 1.5 weeks) that released a new resource www.flyerland.ca. I thought I will post about the site and give them some link juice. Why is www.flyerland.ca good?

• Metroland Media Group is already largest distributor of flyers in Ontario, so the flyers on flyerland.ca are from the original source. That is why that is as comprehensive as it gets. Obviously there are other places where you could get flyers online (www.flyermall.com), but usually they just scan the flyers they get at home.
• It is divided by regions, that is why you can find a flyer that actually applies to your area. A lot of big companies really target their flyers that is why it is again superior to a service that just scans a flyer.
• The navigation is pretty good and flyer can be searched by name or category. I was impressed, because usually this is one of the area my company is struggling. However, this time they actually did a great job
• Is always up-to-date
  

I myself personally don’t look on flyers that much (sold them for too long). However, if you are one of the many people that enjoy the flyers and want the convenience of seeing all the flyers in one location I strongly urge you to visit www.flyerland.ca, to register and  to subscribe for the updates.

P.S. if you are retailer and use flyers I would strongly suggest to contact your Metroland representative and inquire about the site. The pricing is really good and with Metroland’s footprint of 3.5 million readers this good be a great add on to your marketing campaign.

About week a or so ago everywhere I looked I saw ads by a “new phone company” Koodo Mobile offering “fat free mobility.”None of the ads that I saw or heard explicitly told what does “fat free mobility” actually means One thing was clear is that they are trying to reach young hip target group.

I decided to investigate a bit myself and went to their website. After a quick scan it was evident that the website is also made in way that is supposed to appeal to younger audience. Nice and clear design with only one problem – neither the phones or the plans are any different from other devices on the market. I Googled the name and realized that Koodo is sub-brand of Telus and pretty much is no different than Telus.

I personally don’t understand why invest so much of your resources in developing a fake brand? In the age of blogs and transparency younger consumers see right through your marketing. They smell fake from far away and once you are labeled as fake it goes all over internet and no marketing will save you. I am confidently saying that Telus’s resources were wasted  (just see related links in the of the post).


Why not devote these resources to actually create a great product that will appeal to the youth. I can’t speak for everyone, but I am and most of the my friends would prefer to have unlimited internet surfing on our Iphones and we do want to watch TV.Why not  spend these resources to create a package that would be comparable in cost to US providers? Don’t create a website that looks like a modern service provider – actually be that provider!

I rest my case

Update:04.21.08 Check my new post about Marteting Agency behind Koodo Mobile’s Ads

Update: New post about Koodo advertising campaign after one year

p.s.

• Koodo Mobile: three things I kinda like and 3 things I hate.
  
• Just read the comments on Mobileincanada.com – bad reception, people don’t get the brand
• “Telus targets youth with Koodo” by Globe and Mail
• “5.4 out 10 Koodo Mobile” by Cellphones Etc. read the comments

	newmania : I am officially sick to my ASS with Koodo advertising! (2008-04-12 14:50:32) Reply
	stephaniehobson : The people in the Koodo ads aren’t the kind of people who inspire me to trust their judgement. (2008-04-11 19:43:31) Reply
	michaelkwan : @buzzbishop because the koodo plans were designed with a lack of SAF in mind I guess. In this way, their $15 plan is really a $8.05 plan. (2008-04-11 11:41:27) Reply
	buzzbishop : so if telus is willing to waive the system access fee for people using Koodo, why arent they waiving it for people using telus? bastards. (2008-04-11 10:48:17) Reply
	laurentlasalle : Is it possible to “convert” your Telus account into a Koodo accound?! (2008-04-10 17:44:57) Reply
	jimmurphy : @stuartma @tonyhung What do you thinkof the Koodo “Tab” concept for time-shifting the cost of new phones? Sure beats a 3 year contract IMO. (2008-04-10 10:30:31) Reply
	stuartma : Huge Koodo ad install @ cnr Bloor/Church. Why? Because Rogers is a block away. Idiots. (2008-04-10 10:19:07) Reply
	stuartma : Hey #koodo your launch ad campaign really sucks (2008-04-10 10:17:23) Reply
	xaxen : Likes the look of Koodo Mobile. Would be better than Bell mobile! (2008-04-09 14:48:20) Reply
	krestivo : New blog post: Koodo Mobile: 3 things I kinda like & 3 things i hate http://tinyurl.com/57yg3x (2008-04-08 22:40:10) Reply
	krestivo : Fiddling with my blog post: Koodo Mobile: 3 things I kinda like (2008-04-08 22:40:10) Reply
	krestivo : Fiddling with my blog post: Koodo Mobile: 3 things I kinda like (2008-04-08 21:59:09) Reply
	msanford : Has anyone heard anything about Koodo Mobile? http://www.koodomobile.com (2008-04-08 20:04:07) Reply
	thetoine : anyone know who is behind Koodo mobile ? koodomobile.com (2008-04-06 19:52:35) Reply
	joedrew : Very, very surprisingly easy phone number port to Koodo. Significantly more difficult setup with iSync, but I finally did it! (2008-04-05 23:52:07) Reply
	davecoleman : I have never seen a marketing push like koodo before … they should have put some of that marketing money into securing better handsets … (2008-04-04 14:29:51) Reply
	duanebrown : Koodo Mobile ads are everywhere… its blowing up! (2008-04-04 13:51:36) Reply
	michaelkwan : koodo mobile is stupid (2008-04-03 19:55:07) Reply
	mdufort : @robroc At lunch time, there was a bunch of guys / girls doing aerobics at the corner of Ste-Cath and McGill College promoting Koodo. (2008-04-03 14:50:17) Reply
	robroc : WTF? Koodo sent me a press package with a full-size Pilates ball. Definitely going in the blog as a silly Goodie Pageant. (2008-04-03 14:48:13) Reply
	xtremesniper : I’m not sure if the people in 80s style tight spandex wandering downtown in groups for Koodo Mobile are scary or funny. (2008-04-03 14:09:40) Reply
	duanebrown : Koodo Mobile – sounds very cool. Anyone else see the ads around town? (2008-04-03 11:57:36) Reply
	smallduck : “Koodo Mobile”, which is advertising like mad in Canada right now, is just Telus (and their CDMA network) rebranded. (2008-04-02 20:11:53) Reply
	pkaler : Koodo Mobile website requires Flash. FAIL! (2008-04-02 18:49:31) Reply
	robroc : About to interview execs of Koodo, Telus’s new discount brand to compete with Solo and Fido. (2008-04-02 09:57:56) Reply