Tom Anthony Personal Blog

‘Twas the Night Before Christmas and some kids need your help. . .

My friend and client Joe Cipriano did a noble thing this Christmas Season… he and 30 other of the nation’s top voice over artists got together to create a unique reading of the traditional Christmas Poem ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas.

Calling the project Prime Time Voices for Children, 100% of the proceeds benefit Chase Child Life Program at Mattel Children’s Hospital UCLA. Joe also got help from Canadian Producer John Masecar, Killer Tracks – the L.A. based Production Music house, and yours truly.

I created en email marketing campaign to reach the US broadcast industry with the aim of offering the cut for airplay and call attention to the availability of the track to the public. Anyone who plunks down the 99 cents on iTunes (or outlets including CDBaby.com and Amazon.com) helps very sick children in need.

Starting with my partners at Constant Contact we sent out around four thousand emails to various broadcasters already in our database from previous campaigns for Joe Cipriano. But even at that number we were only reaching a small number of the nations Radio Programmers and Music Directors.

My challenge was to contact the largest number of broadcasters, and not send a bunch of duplicate emails to the same people we already reached through the previous campaign. I have a master list of opted in broadcasters from a company that specializes in just that market and went to work on cleaning the database.

I whittled down the master from around 100,000 to 17,000 – ran a program to eliminate the existing list and anyone who had opted out along the way. I came out with a final of 11,000 contacts. Next I needed to send the emails out quickly and although the list was legit we could not wait for Contact Contact’s vetting process. So I found software to do this all manually. Even at premium cable speed the email broadcast was scheduled over a three hour period.

It felt good personally to be able to help Prime Time Voices for Children, and it was gratifying professionally to be able to design, launch, and manage a national marketing campaign in just 48 hours. Whew! Happy Holidays! To see a copy of that email click here.

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I had the chance to talk to 3.75 million people last night. Really. My long time client and friend Joe Cipriano is the announcer on Wheel of Fortune this week as part of a working audition to get the permanent position. He was a guest on the Jim Bohannon Show on the Westwood One Radio Network, and that show has an estimated audience of 3.75 million. I assure you that’s not what I was thinking when I called in and was put on the air.

Jim Bohannon and Joe Cipriano

I was nervous. The funny thing is that my background is broadcasting – I have been an announcer, newscaster, talk show host and producer among other jobs – and spent most of my youth on the air. I have talked many, many times to Joe over the years, so it was not a case of being star struck. Back in the late 80’s when I was doing radio production in Central Florida (WQPD – WLKF, Lakeland, FL) I had the occasion to talk to Jim Bohannon while he was doing some custom promos for the station. And even though Jim has been a radio talk icon for over 30 years (he replaced Larry King on the radio) I felt comfortable speaking with him. So it was a little odd that I was nervous – I guess I did not want to sound like that caller from Alabama last night. (Nothing against Alabama – he just asked a silly question)

I had listened to the first several callers focus on themselves instead of Joe and I wanted to bring the attention back on him so I told a true story about how Joe goes out of his way to mentor aspiring voice over artists. Hopefully it went all right. Here is the clip.

Tom Anthony with Joe Cipriano on Jim Bohannon Show [ 2:45 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

The interview was scheduled to last an hour but Bohannon held him over for a full second hour! In between hours Jim interviewed Joe for a segment of his other show – America in the morning.
You can get there from here: click to go to America in the Morning website

or I downloaded the clip – without permission, sorry Westwood One – and re-posted here: Click to listen

Please watch Wheel of Fortune this week and let them know if you like Joe here: http://www.wheeloffortune.com/feedback/

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I just finished a new flash banner for Joe Cipriano’s client site and am reminded of what fun it is to be associated with a guy who is in such good company. I have been doing all of Joe’s Internet marketing for over 10 years and the relationship goes a little beyond client-vendor. I take a lot of pride in having Joe voice my podcast open and close – it’s the same voice that introduces America’s Got Talent and well – listen to a “Web Strategies Podcast” episode when you get a chance and you’ll know what I mean.

Here are Joe’s instructions for the new animation and below is the work I just launched earlier this evening.

Signature Voice of:

Fox, CBS, Hallmark Movie Channel, The Simpsons, Two and a Half Men, Rules of Engagement (CBS), Mike and Molly (CBS), Who Wants to be a Millionaire, Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader, America’s Got Talent.

Radio Imaging: Boom 973 Toronto, Star 941 San Diego, The Fish stations (portland, cleveland, honolulu), Country 105 Calgary, KLLY Bakersfield, ED FM Albuquerque, 102.3 The Wave Vancouver Island, Mix 106 Owen Sound, Magic 93 Charlottetown.

Live Shows: Emmy Awards, Grammy Awards, PGA Awards

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