Promoting Alizee / AAm

[FanDeAliFee]

With terse comments and no body language, it can be hard to discern if a question is sober and non-rhetorical.

It is very rare for me to omit a posting topic line. Please note that the one for the graphic I just posted read: "Bumper sticker - I brake for Corsican fairies - AlizeeRadio.com" It is also easy to use http://translate.google.com/ if you don't know French.

It is simple to reconfigure and resize this design for various uses. How large a printed graphic emerges in physical form, on a license plate frame or in another place, is beyond my control. If I am supplied with a graphic which outlines the shape of the targeted area and would fit exactly over the final physical target when physically fabricated, it is easy for me (or anyone else) to "paint" it with my resized design elements.

If you guys think you can sell, or want to subsidize, real bumper-stickers, you might ask Ben if he would carry them as an SKU in the new <a href="http://www.cafepress.com/alizeeusa">Alizée America online store</a>. I don't know if anyone would raise objection to the commercial use of the design, which includes a face that looks a lot like you-know-who, the person I aspire to help commercially with my art.

[VVVACCPLPNLY]

I have a few ideas for your trip. When you pass through a new city, check out the local music shop. Ask for French. Likely they will not have it. So you ask them to look it up. When they do, reccomend they try listening to her. Also, stop by best buy. They usually have demo ipod touches. If they do, go to youtube and search Alizée. Leave her on the screen when you leave. That is how I do it. I don't seem to have created any fans, but will show there is interest in French music in America.

[wasabi622]

Well, a cheap kinda in home method that I thought of is this:

Who here is familiar with.. chat roulette?
So instead of sporting your member in the video feed, I figured a picture of Alizée or one of her albums would be good idea.

[VVVACCPLPNLY]

That's kinda the same as useng her pic as an avatar on other forums. Which I would do, had I got more responses to my 'other forums' thread. I just haven't been soshified like some.

[FanDeAliFee]

Originally Posted by wasabi622

Well, a cheap kinda in home method that I thought of is this:

Who here is familiar with.. chat roulette?
So instead of sporting your member in the video feed, I figured a picture of Alizée or one of her albums would be good idea.

Early last month I did some research on Chatroulette, collecting review articles. I came DAMN close to writing about it here at AAm, but decided against it. I would have borrowed some statistics about it to start off my own copy, in this manner:<blockquote>"What is 71% men, 15% women and 14% perverts?
No, not Alizée America - but a new Internet pastime called Chatroulette!" </blockquote>Not a few participants are said by one reviewer to look very bored, so maybe a new singer would catch their interest.

I guess that most people using Chatroulette are wealthy enough to buy Alizée products, but many of them would also be sophisticated enough to swipe them, too. Even if you get their attention, how do you convert them into paying customers?

Everyone seems to agree that if you want someone to watch you for a while, it is important to be young, female and good-looking. That leaves out almost everyone at AAmt - except for a few folks including a professional model, who probably wouldn't like to take a "busman's holiday." But maybe you could pay her to produce a video segment with her mouth covered by a mask, so someone could interactively dub her speech without lip-sync problems. A mask would not be out of place if the party was a Halloween reveler, a bandit, a harem girl or a surgeon - her choice. You could play AlizeeRadio.com in the background, while the URL crawled at screen bottom as an overlay. The thing is this, Wasabi - could you sound like a fetching female without putting your AAm "member" in a clamped vise?

Another strategy would simply feed a looped Alizée YouTube playlist with a URL overlay. Then you could walk away from any Webcam and spend your distributing flyers outside the local supermarket.

[MYGOGT]

http://www.alizeebaltimore.com/
Maybe I should stop in there and give them some music to play in their spa, bar, ?? A relaxing massage with Lilly in the headphones/speakers.

[VVVACCPLPNLY]

I was an hour from baltimore just last week! ZUT ALORS ! But yeah, you should definitely stop by there, that is cool as heck. And instead of alizé like the ice cream and wine, it actually is Alizée!

[MYGOGT]

I might have to call them up. If the only way to get Alizée's music in there is to get a massage, well so be it.

[FanDeAliFee]

The supposed bottom-up success of Alizée in Mexico argues that passionate fans CAN make a difference, but I've never read that Alizée's own staff either engendered or accelerated it before it reached the level that it made sense to publish a local album and schedule concerts. It is quite possibly magic they would love to perform, but are clueless about creating.

I did not participate in the drafting or signing of the AAm Open Letter, and in fact only joined AAm at the end of last year. So I hope my critique of the Letter will not bring any undue resentment.

I think it was a fine thing to write Alizée a fan letter expressing AAm's admiration for her and encouraging her to perform in the American market (if possible). There was no harm in saying you were willing to execute the requests of her staff to assist her, but even stipulating your sincerity, it is hardly unlikely that their limited time could be better spent than by directing well-meaning non-professionals.

So why suggest she should go on a popular national talk show in the United States? If you can, get her a booking request. And if you can't, then try to figure out ways in which she might get small opportunities here in America which can foster professional contacts that move her along to better things - assuming she is interested.

That's why I applaud something like Scruffy's efforts to lobby the French TV show in San Francisco. He didn't tell Alizée she should go on the show; instead he worked to get the show to INVITE her to take part.

Alizée has been careful to drop hints about her interests, but modest and cautious enough not to express too many explicit ambitions, which unrequited, might embarrass her reputation.

That said, I think the multimedia enterprise once known as The Factory excites her multifaceted artistry as a Beau Ideal, and not just a plausible subject for a musical album. I think she really would like to be on stage, in film, sing, design and market special goods. The plebeian New York City I knew as a lad makes me somewhat immune to the romantic image of the city, but I must allow it could could be very exciting for a little girl from a rural island, even after international celebrity and a comfortable life at a chic Paris headquarters with talented collaborators.

While I am sure that Alizée would just as much enjoy headlining a concert in Chicago or Los Angeles as in Paris, Moscow or Mexico City, I am far from certain that can happen soon. On the other hand, perhaps we can help foster more intimate US "auditions" which get her the attention of people who CAN help her - like Broadway producers and Madison Avenue advertisers. That's why I like Scruffy's "start small" approach - but want us to concentrate on New York City, especially so because <i>UEdS</i> is set there and may open doors on account of the vanity of all "home town" audiences - even in the biggest of towns.

I will now propose a plan of action. But even if it completely fails in serving the stated ambition, it could still prove helpful to Alizée by helping her make more disk and download sales in the United States.

You are of course aware of social networking sites - such as Alizée's new Facebook entity - which provide a virtual connection between people, even if they remain continents aparts. But are you also aware about the use of such Web sites for coordinating LOCAL, in-person meetings?

I have a membership in such a site complex, called meetup.com Perhaps you do, too. Are you aware that among its various species of sites are language groups? The collection of French language groups are listed on http://french.meetup.com/all/ They come in all sizes, with over 200 of them boasting at least 100 members. Most of the largest ones are based in the United States, but Britain and Canada are represented as well. The very largest group just happens to be in New York City, <i>viz.</i> "original manhattan french language meetup," with over 3600 (locally-based!) members. If the biggest problem with getting enough Americans together to meet with Alizée in person is the language barrier, then leverage of a group like this offers relief!

I would suggest that wherever you live, you explore if there is a French language meetup group near you to join. If you want to start bending the ear of neighbors about how cool Alizée is, they are fine places to start - as well as find candidates for any <a href="http://alizeeamerica.com/forums/showthread.php?t=5369">Alizée parties</a> you might hope to throw. And if you cannot get a quorum up for Alizée, then try to assemble one for French singers in general, within which you can promote your personal favorite. In general, there is no charge to join a group and typically no charge to attend most meetings. You can start to explore a group by checking out its Web site, which generally includes an archive of previous meetings, as well as discussion boards and member biography pages. Wouldn't it be nice if you could make new friends and promote the sale of Alizée stuff, too? Don't forget to mention Alizée's new radio station at AlizeeRadio.com

Now, on to the vain ambition of a long road to glory in New York City.

As we all know, Ben is a television professional living there; how many others in AAm call the city home? Ben, do you belong to any francophone groups in or near the city? Did you ever consider joining "original manhattan french language meetup," - assuming you knew of it? Perhaps there already are some Alizée fans among its 3600-plus registrants who would love to know that Alizée America exists - and maybe would lend a hand on the ground in the city itself. You could even introduce others within its folds to Alizée.

As I <a href="http://alizeeamerica.com/forums/showpost.php?p=156263&postcount=254">outlined</a> previously, a dream is that one day it proves possible to book Alizée to perform at the 400-seat theater of the <i>French Institute Alliance Française</i> in Manhattan. Becoming active in the meetup group could provide the means by which the dream can become a reality and introduce Alizée to professional people in the city who might help her make her way forward there.

As a lay person, I was very impressed how Alizée's people got her so many mass-media interviews in France to promote <i>UEdS</i>! I wonder what is happening in Mexico along these lines.

While I don't want to sell the USA short, when her main publicity push is over and she has recovered, perhaps Alizée would also consent to an interview by Scruffy's San Francisco French TV station. Recall the events to date:

Originally Posted by Deepwaters

I did a Google search for "French American TV San Francisco" and came up with this web site which must be it: http://www.french-american.tv/

The "Aline" who emailed Scruffy is evidently Aline Dinoia. This evening I'll tweet Her Grace with the information. No guarantee she'll see it of course.

Originally Posted by Scruffydog777

Well I got an an e-mail back from this station saying they wanted me to call them. It was from a woman named Aline.
Here's what it said.

yes she is very cute
but I have no way of getting hold of her.
call me at 415 377 0245
thanks
aline
just tryed to call you
it was a voice mail

I called her back and apparently she was on a speaker phone with a poor connection, plus apparently French is her native language and her English isn't that great so it was very difficult communicating with her. I told her I was going to the autograph session on the 29th and she wanted me to film Alizée, but I couldn't figure out if she wanted me to ask her specific questions or what. I guess I'll just send her footage from the autograph session when I get back.

Originally Posted by docdtv

...Great work on the San Fran... station. It would be strange if Aline did not know the #1 French female recording artist of 2001. (Was her name really [outer space] alien? <G>) She may be playing a bit coy to get you to make arrangements which would be lots of work for her and may prove impossible at that. As for physically visiting the Bay Area, who needs to do so? People have done telephone interviews on TV and radio for DECADES, and in the age of Skype <i>et alia</i> one can even get high quality sound and "body French" for free if the service feels like behaving itself. (I've had disappointments over the years.)

Originally Posted by Scruffydog777

For those of you who are familiar with the French tv station in San Francisco that I tried to get a hold of not to long ago before my trip, well I sent them an e-mail of details about my trip, just on the chance it might get aired.

Scruffy, did you hear back from Aline and her compatriots? I hope you made SURE she knows AAm would be only too glad to provide her with good biographical and industry background material to make the production of an interview of Alizée as easy as possible. Did you mention the good ways to contact the Corsican girl which she reported lacking?

One way is to use the Institubes Web site contact page at http://www.institubes.com/contact/ Observe that it includes the following revealing tidbit: <blockquote><i>PLEASE NOTE THAT WE'RE NOT EVEN CHECKING OUR MYSPACE INBOX SO PLEASE CHOOSE ONE OF THE FOLLOWING OPTIONS</i></blockquote>Apparently, professional contact media evolve!

And as we know, a new alternative is the wall of the <i>Melle Alizée Bis</i> account on Facebook. And of course, Facebook also allows one to send private messages between accounts. Whether that would get any more attention is open to question, but at least the privacy of the sender is thereby better protected.

[VVVACCPLPNLY]

Hmm, doc, where so you get your ideas? You claim quite often you are not a financial expert; though, you seem to know a large amount about this kind of thing. I was wondering if you had seen my 'The ULTIMATE Fan Art' thread? I would love to see what you think about that. Anyways, let's keep everything realistic. A small network is doubtful to gain her attention, but it is not impossible. But this meetup site, does it have a French group anywhere in central Virginia? I can't access the site from my phone.