sneak peek

Our new Time Warner ad is finished and will be launched in the Finger Lakes area during the week of June 21. Here is your very own sneak peek...

lights...camera...action!

Those of you who know me well know that I have had a long-time fear of public speaking. I mostly got over it when I had a volunteer job that required me to speak in front of audiences of 250+ women. So I thought when I decided to do a cable TV ad that I would be OK with the speaking part. Today we found out for sure that the public speaking devil is still riding on my shoulder.

In walked Sheri, my producer/director from Time Warner, who set up her equipment this morning, ready to film me, the store, the store's dog, Joolie, and last...but most importantly...the joolz. She rolled in a cart carrying the camera and tripod and then lugged in a huge aluminum case of lights. She was ready to work!

I, on the other hand, was getting more and more nervous by the minute. Sheri decided to do my part first. She fitted me with a lapel mic, turned on her high-intensity light and started the camera rolling. We did take after take, not because I flubbed the lines but because I needed to S.M.I.L.E. more. (It's darn hard to talk and grin at the same time). And I needed to look "right into the camera"... so I imagined George Clooney in there. You know that old adage - make love to the camera!

George and I weren't alone in the room, however. Tom, the Time Warner salesman, had also dropped by for the shoot, and my right-hand gal at the store, Suzanne, was there to keep me loose. Tom even brought me chocolates from Sweet Expressions. Bribes are great and much appreciated!

Folks were peering in through the window, trying to see what all the lights and cameras were for. I was trying hard to make this all look natural and like I made commercials all the time. Sheri was trying hard to keep me from checking myself into the Rochester Psych Center. Suzanne and Tom were trying hard not to laugh.

It was a good morning.

tv time

At the suggestion of another downtown merchant, I had a nice conversation with her cable tv ad guy today. You may remember my first tv ad experience this past holiday season - 5 seconds of me waving in front of the store for some pretty big bucks, considering the time on screen. But it was a good way to dip my toes in the pond, and now that I'm a veteran, I'm going big time...

Big time will be a 30 second ad that we'll shoot after we move into the new store in April. We'll feature the interior of the store and show some of our joolz and I guess I'll be talking this time. It's all about making the connection with the viewers. The ad will run locally on several women-friendly channels - HGTV, Lifetime and Bravo, along with the History Channel for the men. It'll be interesting to see how we do with tv time, both as an advertising medium and with me as an actor. Hope you'll tune in!

our tv debut

This ad is appearing on Time Warner cable throughout the Finger Lakes, our first foray into TV advertising. Daughter #2 thinks I've got the royal wave down pat. What do you think?

learn as you go

This business has been a learn-as-you-go effort for me. While I've been aware of retail my whole life, I've only been a part of it for the last two years. In my past life I was a full-time mom, a community volunteer, an ambulance critical care tech and a registered nurse, whose first degree was in art history. Somehow all that came together to form JOOLZ, but there are many aspects of the business that I have to pick up as I go along.

One of those is viral marketing and advertising, which to my medical mind sounds almost pathologic but is instead a way for friends to tell friends about something through an internet connection. We all know that word of mouth is the best advertising and viral marketing is just another way to do that.

My weekend (no rest for the weary) has been spent trying to get up to speed on Facebook. While Don gave me a very good start, I've spent hours uploading, connecting, creating, etc. Now I've just heard from the advertising team at Facebook that my first JOOLZ ad has been accepted. It's targeted to women within 50 miles of Rochester, Buffalo and Syracuse. If it shows up on your page, send me an email. I'd like to know if it catches your attention, cuz I'm still learning as I go...