John Madden logged 80,000 miles annually in his own custom model.

Sarah Palin recently faked a trip cross-country hocking her book in one.

And any country star with a freshly inked recording contract has one with an airbrushed mural down the side.

They’re the 45-foot long, ten-wheeled tour busses and they’re getting a new lease on life.

Entering the market comes a group of entrepreneurs who see opportunity on America’s highways.

The choice of the white line cruisers for travel had shrunk to those who are afraid to fly or those who are forced to endure grimy Greyhounds and sleazy bus depots.

Turns out that bus travel, at least in the Northeast and Midwest, has become a hip, and hiply budget-conscious, mode of transport. Book early enough on some of the sleek new lines, and you can travel from city to city for as little as $1. A dollar won’t get you from 14^th to 42^nd on the A line and in addition, the post Greyhound generation of buses even pick up passengers at convenient curbside locations and offer such amenities as free wi-fi and movies.

“Who wants to drive when you can watch movies and play with your computer?” asks Joe Schwieterman, a DePaul University professor who specializes in urban planning and transportation. He recently published a study on intercity U.S. bus travel that showed a nearly 10% jump from 2008 to ’09. As Amtrak and the airlines have struggled with incorporating wireless, we think that’s a big part of why it’s suddenly cool to jump on the bus, “ he says.

That and the jaw-dropping prices. A bunch of coach lines now compete for fare–surfing customers on BusJunction.com offering a $1 fare to at least the first passenger to book a seat on each bus. BoltBus caps fares at $25 each way. This means a ride from New York to Boston costs about a third as much on a bus as it does on Amtrack or JetBlue.

Last but not least the buses turn out to be surprisingly green, far outshining other vehicles in eco-efficiency. When you combine passenger occupancy with mileage per gallon, bus travel is four times as energy efficient as car or air travel.

It shouldn’t be surprising that bus travel for the cognoscenti would be enjoying a bit of a revival.

The image of a solitary bus, air brakes hissing to a stop on an empty stretch of highway, a quintessential American type disembarking for home or new horizons, occupies an enduring place in our collective conscience. It’s a mode of travel made for America and during a time when lots of people need to watch every penny totally relevant.

My father-in-law (an endearing 83 year-old chainsaw using corporate titan) made that comment driving his family home from a nice dinner out in Wayzata, Minnesota the day after Thanksgiving. We were talking gadgets, gear, and Best Buy. I forget all that proceeded his casual “…while I was watching the Twitter” comment — he might as well have said “while I was watching McNeal-Lehrer”.  We, the very web-connected 40-something children, were stunned to silence as that generational milepost just sailed by. Thank you, Brad Smith.

Mr. Smith is the director of interactive marketing and emerging media for Best Buy (a company based in Minneapolis). An article in the New York Times yesterday describes Best Buy’s Twelpforce – “a Twitter-inspired play on “help force” — of some 2,500 employees that answer consumers’ questions in real time. ‘It’s 24-hour access to our employees.’ The Twelpforce had fielded about 25,000 questions even before gearing up for Thanksgiving weekend.”

My father-in-law: a very smart guy, loves cool gear, but is no geek. Yet while he’s off watching the twitter feed on BestBuy.com, many of the rest of us who are generations closer (or at least his passengers that night) can still wonder at the appeal of people tweeting and reading 140 characters of someone’s minutiae. What Brad Smith, Best Buy, my father-In-law, and thousands of customers like him understand is that one man’s minutiae is another’s needle in a haystack, the missing link about how something works, or a source of real savings – all in 140 character bursts.

140 characters. No room for hype: just the facts (or the deals). From the people who branded and brought us Geek Squad, Best Buy nails it again – quick efficient customer support in the form of Twelpforce. No doubt it’s handy for efficient Customer Support, but Twelpforce has the makings of an important new dimension in channel marketing. In addition to customer support, I can see also see Twelpforce suggesting a web page for new product information or insider-savings. Smart.

Henry Fisker:

Builds plug-in car in shadow of Tesla (elite/pricey) and Volt (electric muscle).

Buys old-GM plant in Delaware for ($18 million…cheap, no?)

Uses part of $528 million low-cost loan from US Gov’t to do it.

Gets crazy press.

Inspires UAW president opine on a VC-funded start-up.

And now the factory-to-be is on the edge of going Union.

What’s behind this? Seems like a company already positioning itself for a “Buy American” play to a market sensitive to authenticity. Remember how radical it was when the Japanese and German carmakers starting building plants in Tennessee and North Carolina? Maybe this is Fisker planting the seeds of electric for the rest of us. I can see the campaign already…..

It may be a cheap shot to kick Maclaren strollers when they’re down, but the amputated finger storm that made it all the way to the Financial Times this week is a textbook example of why an active ongoing social media program is an essential facet of any good PR/marketing strategy.

By participating in the online conversation — having a company blog that is informative on issues important to parents (say, safely transporting children), or by contributing to customer sites, blogs and forums tangentially related to Maclaren products – the company would have been a bit less tone deaf and flat-footed in the face of such sensational news.

The FT does a good job today in “How Not To Take Care of a Brand” by John Gapper of detailing the missteps: ranging from delayed and insufficient reaction to complaints in the US (but not in other markets) to twittering and posting crisis/recall-specific pages that turned out to be dead links.

Know thy customer: “Anything relative to child safety tends to be off-the-charts viral,” says Pete Blackshaw, a brand consultant for Nielsen Online. According to Blackshaw’s data, new mothers are three times more likely than others to use social media and start blogs. “Given the higher order of sensitivity, parents are much more diligent,” says Blackshaw. “They want to talk to friends, family and even strangers about their decisions. They’ll go the extra distance.” Yahoo News

A pervasive product being used by such a connected and impassioned customer-base is usually the Holy Grail for a brand — and a strategic ongoing social media program is certainly essential for getting there. Maclaren shows us one other reason to be engaged and in-touch online: it can also help a brand withstand the riptide popular discontent.

During his recent concert tour, John Mellencamp has recently incorporated an original form of social marketing that literally doubles the size of his audience during the course of a song.
During the last song—Jack and Diane—he stops for a moment while the band plays softly in the background and asks everyone to take out their cell phones and call a friend. Once the friends are on the line he then asks the audience to join him in singing the most memorable lines John Mellencamp ever put to song. “two American kids doin’ the best they can…”
Needless to say, this becomes the highpoint of the show transforming the audience from passive observers into active recruiters at an emotionally charged moment.

The cool thing here is, Mellencamp gets a few thousand paying customers to endorse his product / brand with a call –to-action and by word of mouth share the brand experience, all with no additional marketing expendature.
Talk about efficiency.

To build momentum for the launch of the Brammo Electric Motorcycle, lead designer Brian Wismann and lead engineer Aaron Bland, decided to retrace the route of the auto CEOs who made that infamous trip to Washington DC to beg the government for money–But instead of flying in corporate jets they are riding electric motorcycles, and instead of asking for aid they intend to give one of the cycles to President Obama. This seems like a pretty cool way to dramatize a better way to get from Point A to Point B and get some P.R. for a new product introduction.
The guys put out a call to arms requesting assistance from those interested in aiding their cause. They needed places along the way to plug in their steeds for the night as well as a stable for themselves. Last but not least, they need the help of someone who knows Obama, or someone who knows someone who knows Obama to let him know they’re coming and answer the door when they arrived. Brammo launched a mini site so folks can follow the progress of Brian and Craig across country. By Posting videos and Tweets product attributes are made in entertaining episodes demonstrating things like how much mileage the bikes get, how reliable they are and letting the world get to know that these modern “Easy Riders “ are no-one’s eco- weenies. And even though they didn’t ultimately succeed in presenting a bike to the president personally they did capture a good deal of notice and good will.
We at CreativeFeed like the attitude Brammo have adapted to launch a pretty revolutionary vehicle. Even though the ideas are big, a cross country trip on electric motorcycles culminating in a presentation to President Obama for goodness sake, the tone is effortless and without the self righteousness that characterizes of so much of the green movement. They’ve built a community that knows and cares not just about the company and it’s products but about a couple of guys who’s passion and soul are embodied in that company.
We suspect that’s the makings for powerful loyalty to a brand.

Shocking Barack

Last night, I wandered into my neighborhood bar to watch Monday Night Football with The Wife. My downstairs neighbor, David, was there too and we got into a conversation that I thought was worth sharing.

David is a successful documentary filmmaker. He lives in Tribeca with his wife (a journalist) and kids. As far as I know, he makes movies about interesting aspects of American culture. Essentially, a successful, creative, intellectual, family guy.

As the game played on, David mentions that he’s obsessed with the NFL. A Running Back for the Eagles was hurt in the 1st quarter; David already knew who would replace him. That is some in-depth, on-demand knowledge about two teams that are arguably not on the forefront of many minds outside of DC or Philadelphia. That led to Fantasy Football.

I like pro football. With few exceptions, I’ve tuned in every season since I was a kid in Indiana. I’ve certainly heard of Fantasy Football, but didn’t know anything about it. David enlightened me. Fantasy Football has become an incredibly popular phenomenon. Just prior to the 2009 NFL season, Colin Cowherd of ESPN said “more than 27 million players play fantasy football. They spend an average of nine hours a week (during football season… playing fantasy football).” And per David, in addition to ‘drafting’ players and competing in your ‘league’ based on real player stats, it is a singularly fascinating way for all these guys in diverse social, geographic and racial groups to connect with one another (trading players, anguishing over defeats, boasting victories, etc.).

The wife and I ordered a bite to eat. David declined; he had just eaten at home – NutriSystem. I’d say his enthusiasm for NutriSystem and Fantasy Football were about even. It just works, he said. We were suspicious about the food; he said it was fine. He likes spicy food, so he often adds hot sauce – said the portions are small but he eats them throughout the day so he never feels hungry (“lots of pasta and chocolate”). David has dropped 20 lbs in 6 weeks via NutriSystem. ”. Apparently it does just work. David discovered NutriSystem a few years ago after being on the set of a sports show with Dan Marino; thought Marino looked great and made the connection. I’ve always imagined that a diet program would mean dreary food tinged with endless hunger pangs. Certainly not so in reality it seems. In fact, he was counting his scotch as a “snack” permitted within the program.

Interesting that Weight Watchers, with its pink & white packaging and location in supermarket freezers, is so clearly aimed at women. Jenny Craig: the name alone excludes men, while NutriSystem seems to be more inclusive – for anyone with an interest in dropping a few pounds.

Sitting in a bar watching the game, learning about the apparently pervasive Fantasy Football League and how easily it connects 27 million “owners” across socio-economic barriers (most of the other guys in David’s league are on Wall Street), and talking about the wonders of NutriSystem: unrelated except that I hadn’t appreciated the importance of online community around sports and self-improvement for men.