I'm a convert

It's true. I have taken the oath and have left the order of "Blogger.com" and joined the Wordpress.com minions. I've even made it easier than pie to find me. Just go to www.brammofan.com.

See? That was easy.

Moved posts to Wordpress

Trying out Wordpress for awhile. Go to http://brammofan.wordpress.com/

Brammo in the Wall Street Journal

From an article about Brammo's winning bid in the Crispin Porter + Bogusky slave intern auction, in the Wall Street Journal:

Bidding $17,655 On eBay, Brammo Wins An Ad Campaign

Nearly every issue of VentureWire mentions a start-up raising venture capital and using a portion of that funding for sales and marketing. Getting the word out about a new product is an important part of a young company’s success.

But it ain’t cheap. And in times when it’s increasingly important for a start-up to run lean, marketing budgets are likely to take a hit.

Brammo Inc. is one of those companies that needs to generate some buzz. In July, Ashland, Ore.-based Brammo will launch the Enertia, an all-electric, modern take on a cafe racer-style motorcycle. The bike will first go through a trial sales test in West Coast area Best Buy stores, as the company counts the retailer’s venture arm Best Buy Capital as a shareholder.

“We’ve got some ideas about how to go after our marketing and we want to be cost effective and creative,” Chief Executive Craig Bramscher said. “Best Buy obviously has a lot of people coming through their doors, but we want them to really understand electric vehicles.”

So where can a young company find a great deal on an advertising campaign? Auction site eBay, of course.

Last month, advertising agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky, which has been behind popular campaigns for Burger King, Microsoft and Volkswagen in recent years, allowed their 40 summer interns to auction their services on eBay as a way to earn some extra cash beyond minimum wage. By the time the auction ended on Wednesday, the interns received 44 bids, with Brammo the winner for $17,655.

“I bid once and forgot about it,” Bramscher said. “Then I got an email reminder. I had forgotten that the auction was expiring. I placed a bid with about 30 seconds left and we were fortunate to win.”

Bramscher said he held his first meeting with Crispin Porter + Bogusky on Monday. He’s looking for a disruptive campaign, heavy on social media. Brammo’s internal marketing efforts have already been Web 2.0 savvy. The home page features a feed of Brammo blog mentions, Google News mentions and a Twitter stream, while its contact page includes a Google Map and the bios of executive team members are all Diggable.

“As a start-up we’re trying to find ways to be creative,” Bramscher said. “Getting to mind-share 40 people well connected in social media will be great.”

Bramscher thinks a summer working on Brammo ads is also a great opportunity for the interns. “They can say ‘What did I do this summer? I built a global brand.’ That’s pretty cool.”

Bramscher said he’s confident that Crispin Porter + Bogusky has selected interns that will produce agency quality ideas. And, for that, he said the price was right.

“We did some simple math and we’re paying less than a buck an hour,” Bramscher said. “It’s quite a bit cheaper.”

Copyright 2008 Dow Jones & Company, Inc

No Guts, No Glory. Know TTR Guts? Know TTR Glory

Posted by Bogusky, the ad-man whose company placed its interns on a kind of slave auction for the new millenium, for which, by the way, Brammo got the winning bid, has posted an interesting picture of a slightly disassemmbled TTR.
We see many cables, a laptop, a mysterious black box, and ... what is that on the shelf behind the bike? Could those be trays of dilithium crystals?

Another Brammo post from the TTXGP Blog

Imperial TTXGP

Brammo, the US manufacturer of the Enertia Electric motorcycle, based in Ashland, Oregon, was one of the first commercial teams from America to enter the TTXGP.

A modified version of its Enertia motorcycle, which is designed for inner city commutes, has been developed for entry into the TTXGP. The Enertia is already commercially available in the US and there are plans in place to make the Enertia road legal and commercially available in the UK.
The Team:

* Team Leader: Brian Wismann
* Roy Richardson: Best Buy Geek Squad Technical Support
* Mark Buckley: Best Buy Geek Squad Technical Support

From TTXGP Blog

Friday, May 29, 2009

Race Minus 14 days - First Team arrives on Isle of Man to challenge for the TTXGP

Brammo are now on the island. So we wish them warm welcome as they enjoy the pubs of Sulby.

More teams arriving over the coming week.

For more, see the TTXGP Blog.

Recap of TTR pictures from this week.

Here's a gallery of the latest TTR Enertia pictures from this week:

Heckuva week to miss posting...

While I was out: Brammo revealed both race bikes, there was an article about Best Buy sponsoring the race team on Wired.com, and it's one week closer to the TTXGP. More coming, tomorrow.

Green, like an olive in a martini

This guy stays pretty busy for a holiday weekend.

Now, in green. I had to look twice. Apparently he had to blur out some of the background due to secret stuff, but it kind of makes it look like it's about 4" tall.

Still, a nice green bike, for a greener world.

Fushia Shock

I know I'm partial (hey, my name is Brammofan), but is there any color that this bike doesn't look good in?

"Overvolved" - what?

Companies (and their PR and Advertising firms) coin new words all the time. Sometimes, they combine two or more words to make a new one (crispalicious), sometimes they create a new, fanciful term (iPod), and sometimes they invent a new meaning for an existing term ("I'm gelling" "You are so NOT gellin'. ") Sometimes those words are accepted into the common vocabulary, and sometimes not.

The latest attempt at coining a word comes from Brammo with the advent of the term: Overvolved.

From the spec sheet:

The Enertia TTR started as the production Enertia with its extruded aluminum frame rails, distinctive flowing bodywork, and unique battery mounting system as the basis. Key components were then “overvolved” where necessary for the demands of racing and super-high performance. “Overvolved” is a way of thinking at Brammo that will be applied for future product offerings.

In context, overvolved, then, seems to be a synonym of "beefing up." So why not just say that key components were beefed up, or reinforced, or strengthened? Maybe it means something more.

Brammofan's Theory of Overlution

In order to understand the meaning of overvolved, we have to remember that Brammo CEO, Craig Bramscher, grew up in the great state of Kansas, home of Fred Phelps (no, I will not link to his page... this is a family-oriented blog and you can google it yourself) and a "spirited" debate on evolution.

Brammofan is also a son of Kansas (but if you call me that, you'd better be smiling) so he is in a great position to get inside the mind of Bramscher and divine the answer to the question: Overvolved--what were you thinking??!!

Bramscher, who now calls Ashland, Oregon, his home, must be thinking something similar to what goes through my head when people ask me, "where did you grow up?" My answer: "Kansas, but not Topeka, or the Flint Hills or Liberal (I know, irony!). I'm from the Greater Kansas City area. It's practically Missouri." This usually brings its own level of suspicion and amusement, but the point is -- many of the Greater Kansas City folks from the Kansas side of the line look at the rest of the state as it debates whether Darwin was the devil, as a bit of an embarrassment. Like your crazy Uncle Jack. Or like Jimmy Carter's brother Billy. Or Jeb's brother George.

So my theory of where this new word comes from is: repudiation. Bramscher may hail from Kansas. He may have been raised with all those wholesome, midwestern values. He may have been ingrained with that Protestant work ethic. Heck, he may even have won the game for the Shawnee Mission South Raiders during that crucial game back in 1978. But I can't imagine him using "overvolved" without seeing him wink.

Overvolved is about survival of the fittest. It's about adaptation. It's about mutation. Okay, maybe not about mutation but the drift is: this species is going to survive because it's already dominant in its role as the cool commuter. Now, just watch it adapt to new and more challenging environments.

Overvolved. It's like evolution. Except it's not debateable.

Brammo Expands TTXP Race Effort | Road Racer X

Brammo Expands TTXP Race Effort | Road Racer X

Posted using ShareThis
Latest press release from Brammo confirms the "Two bike" rumors of yesterday and announces another way to follow Brammo on twitter, specifically, following the TTXGP Team: @BrammoSays, although no posts have been made there, yet.

Enertia TTR Specs!

Just released from brammo.com:

(click for bigger pic)

White Enertia Pic posted by Geek Squad Advertising Agency

@bogusky posted a pic to his twitter account today of a white Enertia:


@bogusky is the "B" in CP+B, also known as Crispin Porter + Bogusky, an Advertising/PR firm. They count among their clients the Geek Squad, that love 'em or hate 'em group of techs who do Best Buy's bidding. Let's hope that they can change the way some vocal critics think about the Squad.

There can be only one? Nope. Think again.

It sounds like Brammo CEO Craig Bramscher has a trick up his sleeve. From twitter, he posted this update, at 2:05 am, today:

okay bike # 1 is ready for the crate - and #2?

Thanks for the teaser, @brammocraig.

UPDATE - 3pm Central:

Adrian Stewart, the Director of Channel Development at Brammo, just tweeted:

TTR bike #1 is crated up and heads off for the Isle of Man. TTXGP

Further evidence that there are TWO.

Follow @adriangstewart on twitter.

Latest video - The Go Show rides the Enertia TTR

Aaron Gobert, superbike and supersport class racer, recently took a ride on the TTR Enertia prototype and had some interesting comments:

Road Racer X article "Road to Ashland"

A decent article by RRX's Mark Gardiner chronicles the story of how Craig Bramscher, CEO of Brammo, came to Ashland, Oregon to build a supercar, and ended up with a vision about an entirely different kind of vehicle.

This article appeared on May 14, 2009, and it included a photo of Bramscher sitting calmly at his desk.

Some of the more obsessive readers of this article found that they could zoom in on the monitor on Bramscher's desk and examine a picture of the Enertia TTR "with warpaint" which is currently being prepared for the TTXGP race. By May 17, 2009, the story of the picture appeared in Autobloggreen, a blog covering alternative fuel vehicles.

According to the countdown clock on Brammo's and TTXGP's sites, about 22 days remain before this modified commuter cycle faces stiff competition in the 37 mile race on this small island between England and Ireland. Let's

So much happening in the Brammosphere!

Where to begin? This is an exciting time to be following the EV industry.

Perhaps the most exciting product right now is the Brammo Enertia Plug-in Electric Motorcycle.

This electric motorcycle will soon be making its appearance at select Best Buy stores on the West Coast.
As Brammo prepares for this release, it is also preparing a racing prototype of the Enertia which will appear in the TTXGP, The Worlds First Zero Carbon, Clean Emission Grand Prix, which will be held next month on the Isle of Man.

The purpose of this blog is to follow the news of this bike as it continues to make history.