"i.am.FIRST -- Science is Rock and Roll" airs August 14th

[Travis Hoffman]

Originally Posted by Joe Ross

I'm not sure that what Steven Tyler was describing is science...

I'm sure it involved expanding minds, at least.

[Jetweb]

http://piersmorgan.blogs.cnn.com/201...in/?hpt=pm_mid

This is part of an interview of Dean and Will.i.am that was on CNN tonight, they talked for almost 20 min. about FIRST and the show. They also played some neat clips from the championship so hopefully the special will have some cool robot footage.

[gblake]

Originally Posted by Libby K

... (I'm interning at FIRST Marketing, so promoting this is obviously a big part of my job) ...

Libby - What can you tell us about FIRST's marketing team's plans to measure the results of this campaign? - Is there a metric folks out "in the field" should keep an eye on? - Blake

[AcesJames]

I know a lot of people were a bit peeved by the whole field/concert stage setup at Championships, but I really think that what Will.I.Am is doing for FIRST is awesome.

He talked at kickoff, and most of us laughed at his "it's dope" comment and rolled our eyes, thinking this would be a 1 shot deal endorsement from a celebrity that would flop after kickoff. A few weeks later we get a shoutout from him and the BEP at the SuperBowl. But then, we received word we'd be seeing him again at the Championship, for a live concert, just for us. And then again over the summer we find out he's invested his own time and money, bought air time from ABC, enlisted the help of close to a dozen other A-list celebrities, and produced a 1 hour special promoting FIRST. Plus, to make sure he spreads the message as far and wide as he can, he talks to quite a few major news sources to spread the special.

Google Will.I.Am right now, and look at the news about him. It's all about his special with Dean and FIRST. That's pure awesome.

Love him or hate him, he's doing a really, really awesome thing for all of us. Something that FIRST as a whole has been striving to do for a long time. Will.I.Am didn't HAVE to do any of this for us.

I think the CD community should try to get into contact with FIRST directly, so that maybe we can send Will a "Thank you" of some kind?

[OZ_341]

In an effort to get our local community to watch, we contacted our online newspaper Ambler Patch. I am not sure what the circulation is because they are new. Here is a link to the article.

http://ambler.patch.com/articles/whs...special-sunday

Despite its imperfections, this type of national media exposure should create at least some curiosity about FIRST. Prompting America to ask questions about the program can only be a good thing.

Hopefully everyone is getting the word out.

[DSM33]

Originally Posted by AcesJames

Love him or hate him, he's doing a really, really awesome thing for all of us. Something that FIRST as a whole has been striving to do for a long time. Will.I.Am didn't HAVE to do any of this for us.

I think the CD community should try to get into contact with FIRST directly, so that maybe we can send Will a "Thank you" of some kind?

What if we got everyone who has a twitter thats on a FIRST team to tweet @ him "thank you!" or something along those lines? I'm sure theres a ton of CD people that have a twitter and can take 30 seconds out of their day to thank will.i.am for this awesome thing he did

[plnyyanks]

Originally Posted by DSM33

What if we got everyone who has a twitter thats on a FIRST team to tweet @ him "thank you!" or something along those lines? I'm sure theres a ton of CD people that have a twitter and can take 30 seconds out of their day to thank will.i.am for this awesome thing he did

Sounds like a great idea. I'd do it. Think we should organize a hashtag? (FYI, will.i.am's twitter is @iamwill)

[Karibou]

Originally Posted by plnyyanks

Sounds like a great idea. I'd do it. Think we should organize a hashtag? (FYI, will.i.am's twitter is @iamwill)

The hashtag that seems to be used to promote this is the same one that we've been using throughout the season for everything else FIRST: #omgrobots.

[DSM33]

I'm with #omgrobots on the hashtag. i think if we just flooded twitter with this at around 6 tomorrow thatd be great!

Sample Tweet:
@iamwill Thank you for everything you did for FIRST this year! Looking forward to the special! #omgrobots

maybe we could get a post on CD to organize this for tomorrow

[Molten]

I'm no twitter expert, but how many tweets would it take to catch his attention? I'm sure a guy like him gets a ton of them. Can we generate those numbers on such short notice?

Jason

[miketwalker]

I've posted a graphic (hopefully it will appear in CD photos soon) that we can use to change our profile pictures with on social media sites (i.e. Facebook, etc) for the day to help promote the special. I made it mostly for my own personal use but wanted to pass it on for any who may wish to do the same.

http://www.michaeltwalker.com/iamfirst.jpg

[ebarker]

A little divergence....

We have this Irish American girl on the team that is our webmistress. She has the really interesting purse that a lot of people say "hey, I really like your purse".
I've never seen one like it before. It is made of a ton of beverage can pull tab rings.

So we are watching the FRC kickoff last January and will.i.am comes out wearing this purse, and our webmistress goes "hey, that is my purse, well just like my purse".

Just a random comment for your entertainment.......
.

[Andrew Schreiber]

Originally Posted by Molten

I'm no twitter expert, but how many tweets would it take to catch his attention? I'm sure a guy like him gets a ton of them. Can we generate those numbers on such short notice?

Jason

Well, #frckickoff was trending during kickoff (I think it hit #5 in the US). So, in some cases we can make a pretty big stink. However, TT is not based solely on raw numbers.

[Red2486]

Originally Posted by AcesJames

He talked at kickoff, and most of us laughed at his "it's dope" comment and rolled our eyes, thinking this would be a 1 shot deal endorsement from a celebrity that would flop after kickoff. A few weeks later we get a shoutout from him and the BEP at the SuperBowl. But then, we received word we'd be seeing him again at the Championship, for a live concert, just for us. And then again over the summer we find out he's invested his own time and money, bought air time from ABC, enlisted the help of close to a dozen other A-list celebrities, and produced a 1 hour special promoting FIRST. Plus, to make sure he spreads the message as far and wide as he can, he talks to quite a few major news sources to spread the special.

I have to admit, I was very sceptical of Will.i.am for a pretty long time. At kick-off I thought that he was just going to be promoting himself and the BEP to the FIRST community, but now, I am so thankful for everything he has been doing for FIRST (which is alot). Having someone as popular and as well known as him is giant for us. Every time he posts about i.am.FIRST on the BEP facebook page, thousands of people are seeing it.

And I was definitly one of those people who complained about the stage taking up too much room, but looking back on it, I think that losing some space is a very, very small thing for us to put up with after all that he has done for us. And the show wasn't too bad either.

[Molten]

Originally Posted by Andrew Schreiber

Well, #frckickoff was trending during kickoff (I think it hit #5 in the US). So, in some cases we can make a pretty big stink. However, TT is not based solely on raw numbers.

Lets remember that was during kickoff. We don't have near the surge power during the off-season that we do at kickoff. If we can actually grab his attention, that is great. Just wanted to see what the odds are.

Jason