As some may be aware, I use this site to talk about geek things that grab my attention throughout the day, to promote different artists and to promote different independent bands/musicians. This site is also a bit of an off-shoot to my Geeky Pleasures radio show on Party 934 where I am the Program Director. I was going to write this on my personal blog instead of my Geek site however I thought it would be best suited here even so it will be a longer post than what is normal for this site.
I am a hardcore AMD fan. I have refused to ever own anything with an Intel chip in it. This has prevented me from getting a MAC much sooner than I have wanted since they are now powered by Intel. My reasons initially for never purchasing Intel were sound. Once upon a time AMD totally outperformed Intel and were much cheaper than Intel. At least AMD outperformed Intel for what my systems are primarily used for (graphics, design, audio editing and gaming). Then the reason became, “I have always built my systems (yes I build my own systems, I have never purchased a boxed computer) with AMD and I like them and they are cheaper and they last a million years and I have never had an issue” even so Intel (to quote a friend) now has “their Israeli design team made up of magical kabballistic genius” and make some excellent processors.
Since I am covering PAX 09 for Party 934 and my Geeky Pleasures show, my Party 934 email address has been put on a mass mailing list and given to all of the different exhibitors who will be at PAX. On a daily basis, I receive a ton of e-mails from different companies with press releases and invitations for interviewing developers and testing games. And this is totally cool. I happily pass on the information, reply to the invitations I am interested in, post it on my site and mention as much of it as I can on the radio show. I get so much information from the different companies, I cannot mention them all so minimally it gets posted on my site, tweeted about and I tell my listeners to check out my site for updates on PAX gaming related news.
Yesterday I saw through twitter and later the PAX forums regarding the button exchange and the Omegathon, that Intel was having contests that related to those two events (read about them here and here). So I waited for the generic press release to arrive in my Party 934 inbox as I am sure to be on their mass PAX media mailing list. This email did not come. What did come was a million times better and it is because of this, why I am reconsidering my anti-Intel stance.
Somehow Intel became aware of this site. They checked it out. They read my contact page. On that page it lists my Party 934 email address. But it also lists other email addresses for specific inquiries. They include an email address for things related to art, music, geek, site issues, the station and a personal one to say hi. The jules@ says “If you have any comment, want to say hi or whatever e-mail me at”. That is the address they chose to email me at. Looking at that page at this moment, I would have thought they would have emailed geek@ but the fact they chose the personal one makes this even more awesome as I hope to make clear soon.
The subject line was a generic press release subject. The content though was not so generic. It started off with stuff they have given away at other cons. And then said, “I’d like to offer you some of the T-shirts we’ll be giving away at the show floor to give to your readers.” These T-shirt are for my readers who may want to attend PAX but cannot for whatever reason or may not want to attend PAX but just want a free shirt. These T-shirts are for me to give away in any manner that I see fit, completely of my own choosing. And to make it even better, I do not have to worry about shipping them. Intel will take care of all of that stuff. I just need to pass on where to send the shirts and they will mail them ASAP. It wasn’t until after they told me they would like to give me stuff to give to my readers that they asked if I wouldn’t mind putting on my site the PAX related contests they are holding. They did not approach me as some faceless media person. They approached me as a geek with a site who loves to geek out with fellow geeks who may like to have some free things to give away to my readers. That is all kinds of awesomesauce right there!
Of course I replied and was completley excited since they approached me as a person. They took that extra step. It is still amazing to me considering the scope of Intel and it is not as if they really need my help to promote anything, let alone just offer to give me stuff to pass on to my readers. Intel is the only company among the tons of emails I have received since placed on the PAX media list that has gone that extra step to get to know who may or may not want to give away/promote their stuff. They were not concerned about the number of readers this may reach (this is an assumption on my part as they did not ask my any questions about me or my site or what I do. They found my site and approached me with the offer). They had stuff to give. I like giving stuff. And of course they wanted me to put up the contest details but the business came after they informed me what they wanted to do for me.
And then it got even better. Stefanie (the wonderful lady who sent me the email) was not all stuffy and completely business like. She answered my questions wonderfully while breaking emailing rules (which I break quite often since I hate stuffiness) and used exclamation marks and emoticons! That is awesome. It makes me want to communicate with the company even more because she was a real person (not someone use to repeating generic information). She asked if I was attending PAX (she did not assume I was) and made sure that I get my Intel button to participate in that contest. She also informed me she will not be at PAX, but who will be at the booth and to make sure to introduce myself.
The above adds +10 across the board to all Intel stats. And because Intel took that extra step and did not make me feel as if I were just another faceless person who they can use to get their message out, I will definitely test out the Core i7 systems at PAX and give Intel good consideration in my next processor purchase. Excellent communication and taking that extra step (even if it is little) will always give you extra points in my books.
As I stated above, Intel certainly does not need my help to promote anything of theirs. They could have very easily pushed me into a mass PAX media mailing list and played the numbers game like all the others do in order to get their free advertising from the media, but they did not. They went the extra mile. KUDOS!
